This is the most opprobious game of the year. Desperate for attention, this visual novel lives and dies by a single evident gimmick, which is to shock the player with anime girls and a dating sim facade to reveal later a profane horror game, like a creepypasta. This shallow premise's effectiveness is destroyed by the game's own writing, since the script attempts to subvert harem anime clichés by adding more anime stereotypes, most prominently the yandere trope and an incessant amount of androcentrism by portraying girls unable to contain their attraction to a guy - this is handled as insultingly as it sounds, since the villain is a girl who mauls her rivals in order to be alone with you forever and be on an eternal date. In addition to that, Doki Doki Literature Club adds fourth-wall breaking such as glitching out the game, messing with the files, expecting the player to clear the game multiple times for the good ending and adding "creepy images and text files" to your disk drive as its pretense to horror, but on an age where meta narrative is a trend among trashy self-referential indie hits (Undertale, Pony Island, Luna Game), the game keeps falling on trends and becoming predictable, turning the experience into merely seeing what is going to be the next trick on the checklist now that the true face of the game is unveiled. How is a game that attempts to surprise going to even achieve this purpose if its own writing and design is completely counterproductive? Bonus points for throwing a warning of disturbing content at the start, defeating the whole purpose of the game.

The game's apologists might argue that it's a parody, but the game's endings suggest that the story is supposed to be taken seriously. Some might argue that it's a portrayal of depression, but its horror elements end up making the issue more insensitive towards it under this perspective. At the end of the day, Doki Doki Literature Club is a game about nothing and without a single original idea. Even peruvian horror B movies have more dignity than this crappypasta.

i'd wager there are many who try to undertake a more fair critical analysis when writing about this game. for the sake of transparency, let's just say i can't. this isn't about a stringent inability to separate art from the artist, this is about my inability to separate art from its era.
- it is emblematic of a dark period in capcoms oeuvre, in which they repeatedly made awful creative and financial decisions in an attempt to both maximize revenue and appeal to western markets
- it is easily one of the most repugnant, misogynistic games ive ever played; it possesses some of the worst writing ive ever seen in a game while still supposedly aspiring to shakespearean greatness. none of its musings on society ever come together nor can it be enjoyed as a charming romp when so little of its characterization is either endearing or palatable
- the calvacade of capital G Gamers who were thoroughly unimpressed by this title inspired a desperate and petty form of tribalism from the likes of varying industry figures that continues to resurface to this day...
- ...which, inadvertently, largely reminds of a kind of rampant xenophobia that existed in the seventh generation of games, a quiet dismissal of anything japanese in the medium and a refusal to engage with their works on sincere grounds (look no further than the original niers critical admonishment). ninja theory felt completely comfortable disparaging and blaspheming the original franchise that they now held the keys to in an era where inescapable indie 'beloveds' like jonathan blow and phil fish rallied to antagonize an entire country's output to the medium
- ninja theory had zero right to patronize or criticize, by the way, given that itsuno had to babysit them to teach them anything at all about proper enemy design, combat design, and so on and so forth. their action game couldn't even be considered average until the release of the special edition
- honestly think the games environments look like dogshit, considering it's the one thing everyone is unanimous in praise of. 2000s movie poster type bullshit

a stark reminder of an awful time to be a participant in the medium and the sole reason i refuse to be accessory to ninja theory in any financial capacity. sacrilege if im being real. hilarious that dmc5 reconciles with this games western sensibilities to often brilliant effect by comparison