Somehow in all my many years of loving visual novels, friend recommendations, every YouTuber playing this, it took me until now to finally dip my toes into the internet phenomenon that is. Doki Doki Literature Club. However this is a re release that includes extra prequal like content.
Right off the back, I really enjoyed this game a lot. I did know ahead of time it had fucked up content in it but had no idea what actually went down to make it so.
Honestly, the first act alone had me by the heart. I should say that Yuri and Sayori are my two favourite characters and basically were right from the beginning.
Yuri was who I dedicated my heart to, so when act 1 fucks you in the heart with a knife on confession to Sayori or being friends, in the first time in gaming for a long time, I actually was physically stumped. I didn't want to press any button.
And that as an emotion to give it to me as a consumer, is powerful and the game has my heart for that.
I think it was so well excuted for how I played it. That I still can't get over it. Even knowing that Sayori suffers either way. That initial playthrough HURT like hell.
Act 2 is where the game becomes it's main hook. I do genuinely love this act as well. Again, my heart was for Yuri throughout. So her demise in the end of the chapter, broke me. I wasn't expecting it and watching her body decay over a weekend was horrific and so well exceuted. It was censored on the PS5 version which is stupid. Sony has some of the dumbest censorship rules I've ever seen. Not a fault of the game however.
Act 3 is where Monika has her big reveal and I enjoy it quite a lot but it took me multiple playthroughs to truly appreciate and love what her character actually is.
On the first run, I was more "Aha! So that's the thing" and that's all it was for me.
However, once you realise that all the character's ignore Monika or make you ignore her, I should say. Where the game is written as so she is truly not an option.
It's actually really freakin cool how it's affect is even more driven after running through the game multiple times. To see how truly in the background she is deliberately written for the purposes of her act.
The extra content included in Plus is really cute as well. Especially the second last chapter that's there. I don't think as a whole the new content adds TOO much to the base game but I think how Yuri and Natsuki get to interact is worth every single part of those new scenarios because they wrote them freakin wonderfully.
I'm just glad they came back TO write more of this game because I think it deserves as much love as it has gotten.
Overall, my only true downside was Natsuki not getting an ending like the other character's and Monika not being as impactful at the end on the first run.
But I think the fact the base game offers Monika as a heavier impact as you keep playing and realising as well as how damn good Natsuki is written in her side story with Yuri.
This game sits high up there for me