I think there's an interesting paradox surrounding this game.

I played it knowing about the subversive elements, which extremely limited their effectiveness. But if I hadn't known about the horror elements and just thought this was a regular visual novel, there's absolutely no way I would have played through the like 2-ish hours of generic visual novel slop that it takes before interesting things start happening. To be interested in something this basic you'd have to be extremely young and have somehow downloaded this as your first visual novel. But someone unfamiliar with generic visual novel tropes would have the deconstruction angle go over their head.

Basically, I think this premise is self defeating. I don't think there's a single person on this planet who got the experience of unassuming -> subverted that the developers intended when making this game. It's a horror that is defeated by the very knowledge that it IS horror.

A gimmick without much of a plot that has negatively affected the perception of VNs amongst the general audience, with questionable depictions of some serious topics.

It doesn't have some kind of theme or message it wants to convey, or an ambitious central narrative, it's literally all just DDLC patting itself on its own back for "le subversion" or "VNs are... le bad".

To put it in a less reductive way, while it is a fun short little experience in a vacuum (hence why I'm not gonna hop on the hater train and give it 0.5 stars or something, few things are that bad), it makes you wonder who or what this is trying to "subvert". It feels like it "subverts" the stereotype of what a VN (except DDLC, Danganronpa, VA-11 HALL-A and Ace Attorney, of course!) is, rather than what VNs actually are about. It feels like it was basically made to be one of the only popular VNs in the West. It's in its DNA since it kind of feels ashamed of the usual VN tropes.

I know that Dan Salvato has played various visual novels, such as Nasu stuff, Steins;Gate, Umineko, 999, Clannad and G-Senjou no Maou (example source 1, example source 2), but does DDLC resemble any of these? Where in Tsukihime or Umineko does the protagonist literally just go to school and have romantic tension with girls and then nothing happens? Say what you want about Umineko, Tsukihime, or whichever highly rated VNs, but they generally are so focused on themes and characterisation to the point of repeating the same stuff ad nauseum sometimes. And then we look at DDLC it is literally just the trope until more than halfway, and after that point it doesn't suddenly become character focused, it becomes focused on the gimmick that everyone who's played it knows. All of the ones Salvato has been confirmed to actually have read don't resemble the idea of a simple romcom/romdrama "dating sim" that is what people think VNs generally are. It feels like it's "subverting" the stereotype of VNs being "dating sims" (which are kind of different from even romance VNs but whatever). All of these popular acclaimed VNs have complex, usually ambitious plots that try to experiment with the VN medium and aren't just subversion for subversion's sake. I don't really see much depth to DDLC aside from the alleged commentary on the medium and highly questionable depictions of mental health issues.

I don't doubt that Salvato has a passion for VNs. I just wish he attempted to write one that is more plot-centric, to use the lessons he learned from the VNs he's read. Something like Katawa Shoujo. But instead of getting more Katawa Shoujos, Western VNs nowadays have a lot of attempts at trying to capture the same kind of success of "not being like other VNs" (which they haven't read probably, but that's just the cynic in me talking) and having extreme humor or fourth wall breaks or something. As a result, with it already being hard enough to find people who read anything except Nasu, Ryukishi and maybe a one-off like a SCA-DI work or a NITROPLUS or something, or SciAdv stuff, as a regular VN reader, you will now have to have the exact same conversation with the exact same kinds of people who say every VN except DDLC and maybe Danganronpa is garbage. Wonderful.

Is there any other medium that has this many creators trying to separate themselves from it and act like their product is the only unique one? Sure, there's a few that Western-original VNs that don't do this, like Our Life or the Sekimeiya, and the aforementioned Katawa Shoujo, but for every Sekimeiya there are dozens of VNs that take pride in being superior to whatever the perception of VNs is for people who don't read them. Instead of doing this, people could be spreading their love for VNs, like Fate (when they're not busy feeling superior to people who just like the Fate anime just because they read their first VN) and Umineko (when they're not busy feeling superior to other VNs' fanbases for whatever reason. Not that there are any good VN fanbases) fans do.

I won't name anything to not spoil anyone, but the subversion of visual novels as a medium and their tropes, as well as "visual novels are unhealthy, actually" has been done many times in the medium without making vague mockery of the medium without truly understanding it.

I don't really know where I'm going with this anymore. I suppose I'm disappointed that a medium with so many good stories, a medium that experiments and takes risks much more often than the overwhelming majority of videogames, and especially the overwhelming majority of anime, that already had to fight an uphill battle against the stereotypes and stigma, now gets more added to the fire. I suppose I will need to accept that it will be niche outside of some circles in Japan forever. Maybe this was where I wanted to put it into words.

I was familiar about this title but never got the horror aspect until my friend told me it was free to download. It took a bit too long to get to the horror part of the game but when it did, I closed the game and didn't touch it until the next afternoon which was really effective. It was a change of pace for me as I never really played visual novels before but it was surprisingly really good. I can't really criticize it too much because it is a free game after all but it gets really creative near the end of the game, play the game to see for yourself. It is an 8/10, the pacing could be better but it is a great title nonetheless. I don't recommend to anyone under 16 and it really isn't for the faint of heart. You have been warned.