Yoshistar_123
1773 reviews liked by Yoshistar_123
This review contains spoilers
My background knowledge before getting into playing this game myself is a bit unusual. I was no stranger to seeing it all over the web back in 2017 but I only saw the "clickable" parts so to speak. What I mean is I would see all the compilations of the scares and the Let's Players freak out to it, and I was also aware of its fourth-wall breaking elements. What I was not aware of was its overarching story. I mean yeah, I knew about the characters and their general traits and even their darker secrets from a surface level, but that was about it.
The only hint I ever got at DDLC's writing beforehand was Sayori's death and just how...somber and real it was. The haunting piano and singing ringing out in my mind as I imagine feeling grief overflow me upon seeing the death of my best friend. The writing here also excels at highlighting that grief, by sending the MC into a state of shock and denial, before turning to blaming himself and letting Sayori's death sink in. "Screw the Literature Club. Screw the festival. I just...lost my best friend" was able to get me choked up even before I was able to get back in touch with my emotions. I knew I wanted more of this aspect of writing. But I didn't think it was in there as my impressions were that it was only going to be a spooky meta game.
That's why, straight off the bat, I had no qualms playing the Plus version of this game instead of the original version when I played it with my girlfriend. As I've mentioned in my OneShot review, fourth wall break mechanics tend to be ruined for me upon learning that they exist, as to me their whole shtick is that they're meant to surprise the player with something completely out of left field. Therefore, there was no advantage to me playing the original, and more to gain from playing Plus due to its side stories and additional bonus treats.
I'm really glad I went for it.
It's extremely hard to put into words what exactly I like about the characters in DDLC other than the formulaic. It's simply one of those times where I throw any articulate thoughts out of the window and go THEY'RE JUST LIKE ME FRRRRRR FUCK. Sayori is a literal mirror to how I feel I am with my friends. I just want my friends to be happy without them having to worry about me, except in my heart I really do want someone to care about me but I don't like myself so like why should they. It's funny that my gf literally nicknamed me that before I even played the darn game.
Knowing how relatable she is to me makes her death all the worse. I've...made people worry about me. Realizing now that if people can get attached to what is essentially PNGs running on C++ (Python if you're playing the original) and cry when something bad happens to them, then I can start believing that enough friends care about me for who I am.
Based on her favorite words from the poem minigame and the song Sayonara, I was able to get a grasp as to how she might have written. I know, it's cringey, but you're way past the event horizon for "professional Backloggd review." Poetry lines that pop into my head when I think about the both of them combined go like "Why, oh why, oh why, oh why, is this dull pain still mine?" "How can I dry all my tears when there's no sun to shine?" Basic, but emotionally charged. I think that sums up Sayori pretty well.
And duh, of course the other girls were relatable to me. I related to Yuri's anxiety about saying the wrong thing, Natsuki's hatred of being looked down upon, and Monika's false show of confidence. When I was going through the later side stories I went genuinely silent as I realized how much the literature club mirrored my own special interest group.
I'd like to bring attention towards Yuri and Natsuki's dynamic (though I'm sure everyone else in the fandom has brought theirs already). Natsuki feeling looked down on for her own interests, even if Yuri isn't looking down at her directly as a person, is something I never really thought would be explored in a piece of media. Yuri's not wrong for having her own opinions on manga, and neither is Natsuki for being disinterested in fantasy. But yet they still feel hurt and I'm glad I don't feel alone in that line of thinking. We as humans have interests that make up core parts of our identity, and by someone being so brash about not liking it, it feels like an attack on one's self. Genuinely, I do wish I didn't care at all about what people think about my tastes (see: the ever-growing criticisms of OMORI) but it's hard and I'm not that type of person. I guess I can accept that. I just wish I didn't try so hard to please people so different from me and put so much value into their words.
There's one more section I'd like to note that's truly remarkable and that's the "Just Monika" sequence. I now know that within the context of the story, Monika isn't just some control freak gone mad with power. She's a "real" entity wishing to seek a real connection in a world of pre-scripted dialogue trees. Her just staring and coming up with surprisingly deep takes about the world and everything she can think of helped sell that narrative. It feels like Dan Salvato just wrote down whatever was on his mind and we're talking to him instead. And damn, what an iconic image of Monika looking at you while the classroom floats by in an endless space. No wonder people post it so much.
So yeah, DDLC+. What an experience. It's hard for me to criticize anything about it right now as I'm still riding the high off it, but even if I were to find more wrong with it I could never forget what it's done for me, and especially my girlfriend. Dear God, the woman just came up outside of her after she played that game and her speech just went all cutesy. I love her so much. It's the same with OMORI in that I'm well aware of the game's flaws but I'm still treasuring my time with it no matter what.
The only hint I ever got at DDLC's writing beforehand was Sayori's death and just how...somber and real it was. The haunting piano and singing ringing out in my mind as I imagine feeling grief overflow me upon seeing the death of my best friend. The writing here also excels at highlighting that grief, by sending the MC into a state of shock and denial, before turning to blaming himself and letting Sayori's death sink in. "Screw the Literature Club. Screw the festival. I just...lost my best friend" was able to get me choked up even before I was able to get back in touch with my emotions. I knew I wanted more of this aspect of writing. But I didn't think it was in there as my impressions were that it was only going to be a spooky meta game.
That's why, straight off the bat, I had no qualms playing the Plus version of this game instead of the original version when I played it with my girlfriend. As I've mentioned in my OneShot review, fourth wall break mechanics tend to be ruined for me upon learning that they exist, as to me their whole shtick is that they're meant to surprise the player with something completely out of left field. Therefore, there was no advantage to me playing the original, and more to gain from playing Plus due to its side stories and additional bonus treats.
I'm really glad I went for it.
It's extremely hard to put into words what exactly I like about the characters in DDLC other than the formulaic. It's simply one of those times where I throw any articulate thoughts out of the window and go THEY'RE JUST LIKE ME FRRRRRR FUCK. Sayori is a literal mirror to how I feel I am with my friends. I just want my friends to be happy without them having to worry about me, except in my heart I really do want someone to care about me but I don't like myself so like why should they. It's funny that my gf literally nicknamed me that before I even played the darn game.
Knowing how relatable she is to me makes her death all the worse. I've...made people worry about me. Realizing now that if people can get attached to what is essentially PNGs running on C++ (Python if you're playing the original) and cry when something bad happens to them, then I can start believing that enough friends care about me for who I am.
Based on her favorite words from the poem minigame and the song Sayonara, I was able to get a grasp as to how she might have written. I know, it's cringey, but you're way past the event horizon for "professional Backloggd review." Poetry lines that pop into my head when I think about the both of them combined go like "Why, oh why, oh why, oh why, is this dull pain still mine?" "How can I dry all my tears when there's no sun to shine?" Basic, but emotionally charged. I think that sums up Sayori pretty well.
And duh, of course the other girls were relatable to me. I related to Yuri's anxiety about saying the wrong thing, Natsuki's hatred of being looked down upon, and Monika's false show of confidence. When I was going through the later side stories I went genuinely silent as I realized how much the literature club mirrored my own special interest group.
I'd like to bring attention towards Yuri and Natsuki's dynamic (though I'm sure everyone else in the fandom has brought theirs already). Natsuki feeling looked down on for her own interests, even if Yuri isn't looking down at her directly as a person, is something I never really thought would be explored in a piece of media. Yuri's not wrong for having her own opinions on manga, and neither is Natsuki for being disinterested in fantasy. But yet they still feel hurt and I'm glad I don't feel alone in that line of thinking. We as humans have interests that make up core parts of our identity, and by someone being so brash about not liking it, it feels like an attack on one's self. Genuinely, I do wish I didn't care at all about what people think about my tastes (see: the ever-growing criticisms of OMORI) but it's hard and I'm not that type of person. I guess I can accept that. I just wish I didn't try so hard to please people so different from me and put so much value into their words.
There's one more section I'd like to note that's truly remarkable and that's the "Just Monika" sequence. I now know that within the context of the story, Monika isn't just some control freak gone mad with power. She's a "real" entity wishing to seek a real connection in a world of pre-scripted dialogue trees. Her just staring and coming up with surprisingly deep takes about the world and everything she can think of helped sell that narrative. It feels like Dan Salvato just wrote down whatever was on his mind and we're talking to him instead. And damn, what an iconic image of Monika looking at you while the classroom floats by in an endless space. No wonder people post it so much.
So yeah, DDLC+. What an experience. It's hard for me to criticize anything about it right now as I'm still riding the high off it, but even if I were to find more wrong with it I could never forget what it's done for me, and especially my girlfriend. Dear God, the woman just came up outside of her after she played that game and her speech just went all cutesy. I love her so much. It's the same with OMORI in that I'm well aware of the game's flaws but I'm still treasuring my time with it no matter what.
I feel that fight Club and Doki Doki Literature Club share a similarity more than just sharing the word 'club'. The first rule of Doki Doki Literature Club should be not to talk about it.
Now I don't mean that in the general sense, after all that's how I heard about the game in the first place but I refer to the details of what this game is. I went into it blind knowing nothing about it (despite it being out 5 years) other than it was a freeware visual novel initially on PC before getting a console release and it gained a lot of traction. That was the best way as it both was and yet wasn't what I expected. I didn't like the game at all at first but by the end was impressed by the angle it was going for and some of the very clever things it was doing. I gather the PC version is even more effective in that regard.
It's hard to talk about anything else in Doki Doki Literature Club. I can talk about the cute character art, the surprisingly good music, the rough length it takes to finish but honestly I feel this is a title that you just need to try for yourself to understand why it became popular.
Recommended
Now I don't mean that in the general sense, after all that's how I heard about the game in the first place but I refer to the details of what this game is. I went into it blind knowing nothing about it (despite it being out 5 years) other than it was a freeware visual novel initially on PC before getting a console release and it gained a lot of traction. That was the best way as it both was and yet wasn't what I expected. I didn't like the game at all at first but by the end was impressed by the angle it was going for and some of the very clever things it was doing. I gather the PC version is even more effective in that regard.
It's hard to talk about anything else in Doki Doki Literature Club. I can talk about the cute character art, the surprisingly good music, the rough length it takes to finish but honestly I feel this is a title that you just need to try for yourself to understand why it became popular.
Recommended
Back in September of 2017, I stumbled upon a little game on itch.io: a freeware dating sim called Doki Doki Literature Club! At the time, I was broke, dumb-as-rocks teenage weeaboo who really didn't wanna do their Algebra II homework, so I decided to spend the afternoon checking it out. It looked cute enough, and it was free, so what was the harm (besides the damage to my GPA)?
Well, if Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! now being billed as a psychological horror game didn't already tip you off, you can probably guess how that afternoon went.
So why bring this up? It's because despite my best efforts to re-evaluate Plus with a new frame of mind, that one September afternoon is too deeply interwoven with my opinion with the game. Before it became yet another contentious western Visual Novel, before it became the subject of hundreds of Let's Plays and Game Theory videos, before it became a line of marketable merchandise you could pick up at your local retail fashion store, it was just a subversive freeware horror game I was absolutely enamored with. The absence of discussion around DDLC at the time I played it meant that the glitch horror and surprise metafiction angle caught me completely off-guard, and all of it's Creepypasta-tier parlor tricks and 4th-wall-breaking meta-puzzles worked wonders on me, since I had yet to have been exposed to that kind of storytelling in my games. It was the most mind-blowing thing in the world when I figured out how to finish Act 3. I didn't even really think that games could do shit like that!
But at the time of writing this, that was 4 years ago, and a lot has happened since then: My interests have changed. I'm a different person now. I've expanded my palette and I've dipped my toes into so many other genres and experiences. But even barring that, DDLC, which was dated at the time by the likes of Eversion, Irusu Syndrome and You & Me & Her: A Love Story, is even more old-hat as glitch and meta-horror have become their own saturated brand of storytelling on the internet. The air of both success and contention afforded by the conversation around it and its legacy hangs heavy in the air now. Revisiting this after so long, a small part of me was worried that coming back to this with a fresh pair of eyes would retroactively ruin it somehow, like finally beating your dad in a game of basketball: He was never that good at it, you were just younger and more inexperienced.
And I guess in a way, it was ruined. The scares that caught me off guard years ago fell flat, both because I was now expecting them, and because the overt jump scares and glitch effects were so juvenile and cliché. The cynicism in the text is more apparent looking at it now, it's sly jabs at "anime and dating-sim tropes" taking on a more overtly cynical tone when taking into account the game's origins: It was born out of Salvato's love-hate relationship with slice-of-life anime, and the fact that the parody aspect of the game generalizes all visual novels as dating sims shows a level of both ignorance and contempt for it's own medium and the history behind it. It's a trend we've seen before with other developers holding a certain level of contempt for their own medium and it's inspirations (see: Necrobarista, YiiK, etc.), but what's most ironic is that in DDLC's case, its strengths shine much brighter when it's indulging in the tropes it's trying to poke fun at.
Despite the supposed horror elements being at the forefront of both the marketing and the cultural legacy of the game, it's when DDLC is trying to be a pastiche Visual Novel that it succeeds the most. Even if the main girls fall into the generic pitfall of "cute broken girl for generic MC to fix via high school romance," the main cast and their struggles are relatable and the grounded depiction of depression with Sayori is something that hit very close to home for me and many others (even if something like Yuri's self-harm is treated a little more exploitatively in the narrative.) With Plus' new side-stories removing the horror elements and focusing on a more realistic and slice-of-life story about communication and mental illness that's treated with tact, it becomes a lot more engaging and heartwarming in a way that, ironically, becomes what it once sought to decry with the base storyline.
Separating me from the equation for a second however, I don't think I would ever recommend DDLC+. It's horror is weak and old hat nowadays, and since that's the angle the game is marketed with and most well-known for, it's impossible to really get much enjoyment out of it approaching it from that mindset. It's confused with what it wants to be, and even if it's strengths lie in everything else it does, hardcore VN enthusiasts are not going to be impressed with what both DDLC and Plus contains. It's a game I honestly think you just had to be there for to fully enjoy. But even if I wouldn't recommend it, I don't think I can bring myself to call it bad with the vitriol everyone else seems to have for it now. It was important for me, as a gateway to VNs and a game in general. It reminds me of a time in my life that, even if it wasn't wholly positive for me, was important nonetheless.
Well, if Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! now being billed as a psychological horror game didn't already tip you off, you can probably guess how that afternoon went.
So why bring this up? It's because despite my best efforts to re-evaluate Plus with a new frame of mind, that one September afternoon is too deeply interwoven with my opinion with the game. Before it became yet another contentious western Visual Novel, before it became the subject of hundreds of Let's Plays and Game Theory videos, before it became a line of marketable merchandise you could pick up at your local retail fashion store, it was just a subversive freeware horror game I was absolutely enamored with. The absence of discussion around DDLC at the time I played it meant that the glitch horror and surprise metafiction angle caught me completely off-guard, and all of it's Creepypasta-tier parlor tricks and 4th-wall-breaking meta-puzzles worked wonders on me, since I had yet to have been exposed to that kind of storytelling in my games. It was the most mind-blowing thing in the world when I figured out how to finish Act 3. I didn't even really think that games could do shit like that!
But at the time of writing this, that was 4 years ago, and a lot has happened since then: My interests have changed. I'm a different person now. I've expanded my palette and I've dipped my toes into so many other genres and experiences. But even barring that, DDLC, which was dated at the time by the likes of Eversion, Irusu Syndrome and You & Me & Her: A Love Story, is even more old-hat as glitch and meta-horror have become their own saturated brand of storytelling on the internet. The air of both success and contention afforded by the conversation around it and its legacy hangs heavy in the air now. Revisiting this after so long, a small part of me was worried that coming back to this with a fresh pair of eyes would retroactively ruin it somehow, like finally beating your dad in a game of basketball: He was never that good at it, you were just younger and more inexperienced.
And I guess in a way, it was ruined. The scares that caught me off guard years ago fell flat, both because I was now expecting them, and because the overt jump scares and glitch effects were so juvenile and cliché. The cynicism in the text is more apparent looking at it now, it's sly jabs at "anime and dating-sim tropes" taking on a more overtly cynical tone when taking into account the game's origins: It was born out of Salvato's love-hate relationship with slice-of-life anime, and the fact that the parody aspect of the game generalizes all visual novels as dating sims shows a level of both ignorance and contempt for it's own medium and the history behind it. It's a trend we've seen before with other developers holding a certain level of contempt for their own medium and it's inspirations (see: Necrobarista, YiiK, etc.), but what's most ironic is that in DDLC's case, its strengths shine much brighter when it's indulging in the tropes it's trying to poke fun at.
Despite the supposed horror elements being at the forefront of both the marketing and the cultural legacy of the game, it's when DDLC is trying to be a pastiche Visual Novel that it succeeds the most. Even if the main girls fall into the generic pitfall of "cute broken girl for generic MC to fix via high school romance," the main cast and their struggles are relatable and the grounded depiction of depression with Sayori is something that hit very close to home for me and many others (even if something like Yuri's self-harm is treated a little more exploitatively in the narrative.) With Plus' new side-stories removing the horror elements and focusing on a more realistic and slice-of-life story about communication and mental illness that's treated with tact, it becomes a lot more engaging and heartwarming in a way that, ironically, becomes what it once sought to decry with the base storyline.
Separating me from the equation for a second however, I don't think I would ever recommend DDLC+. It's horror is weak and old hat nowadays, and since that's the angle the game is marketed with and most well-known for, it's impossible to really get much enjoyment out of it approaching it from that mindset. It's confused with what it wants to be, and even if it's strengths lie in everything else it does, hardcore VN enthusiasts are not going to be impressed with what both DDLC and Plus contains. It's a game I honestly think you just had to be there for to fully enjoy. But even if I wouldn't recommend it, I don't think I can bring myself to call it bad with the vitriol everyone else seems to have for it now. It was important for me, as a gateway to VNs and a game in general. It reminds me of a time in my life that, even if it wasn't wholly positive for me, was important nonetheless.
just monika
unfortunately i have to admit that this game is fun
Gameplay wise this should have been an Evolution from Storm 4, but it feels like Storm 2. Less combo variety. Ranked Online is locked to 30fps, which is ridiculous.
The funniest part of this game is i was forced to play it because i lost a bet, but i ended up really bonding with this game
The side stories actually made me cry, it tackles many issues that i deal with personally
The side stories actually made me cry, it tackles many issues that i deal with personally
Persona 4 Golden
2012
a beautifully paced murder mystery, unravelling into a web of philosophical themes backed by a stellar cast, fantastic pacing and a wonderful soundtrack. masterpiece.
Disgaea 5 was my first entry into the series. What I expected to be mostly humorous and fun RPG turned into a still fun and often humorous game with wonderful story and development for its characters.
disgaea 5 is my favourite disgaea game of the ones i have played, it clearly is the highest effort game they have made by a large margin with more characters, units, sprites, and animations then any other game, and most characters and units have unique rage mode abilities, and all allies have many team attacks. the story and setting are cool and the game is more fun then ever. disgaea 4, 6, and 7 are all good as well, but 5 is by far my favourite
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