I'm so, so sorry to hear about your situation, and I hope you get better, because you rock dude.

as for the game, i honestly believe that this piece of shit single-handedly destroyed the already shaky reception of visual novel games in the west. Generalizing a "parody" of the genre to tropey, generic dating sims instead of paying homage to the all time greats like Higurashi or literally anything made by TYPE MOON or KEY already makes it feel like it has a twisted view of what people enjoy about the genre. It's poor misuse of touchy topics is just the icing on the cake, I honestly can't believe this shit took off when it's so insulting to people with mental health issues by reducing it to cheap jumpscares. There are actually good free VNs that are available on steam like Higurashi chapter 1 or Narcissu 1&2, and those are far worth your (or anyone else's) time.

I've sat here trying to determine what exactly to say for a bit.

Just know you aren't alone in this specific form of grief, and that it will get easier. It never seems like it will, but it does. I promise.

@Archagent thank you! it has been a few months now, i'm just still working through a lot of it. ironically enough, my friend actually liked DDLC!

i want to add some more clarification because i was red hot when i wrote this:

everything until the end of act 1 is very chillingly realistic, and the act of finding sayori is true to life in a very sad way. the messaging about being unable to rewind time and change things is also a sad truth of the matter. the idea that the game was going to examine how it is fruitless to blame yourself and replay events over and over hoping to change them would have been very poignant, focusing more on how it's important to be there for the people affected and learn to find joy in a life that was. the MC's description of these things tricks you into thinking DDLC has a message, which it doesn't.

instead, it becomes a self-aware NPC story. such a STUPID pivot that it feels like the game is intentionally letting air out of its own balloon for no reason. so the message is, "what if the game was a tsundere?" give me a break. i am going to take the bad faith read that dan savalto is just a bad writer, because this shit pisses me off.

The ending of resetting the game and bringing Sayori back is the final nail for me. it is where i just feel like Dan didn't understand what kind of game this is. Act I is such a sad reality of what depression and suicide look like, and bringing her back feels like an insult to the deathly serious tone it had set. My friend is NEVER coming back, i am NEVER going to get to talk to them again, there is no closure or release, it genuinely makes me fucking angry how bad this game clumsily plays with themes it has no intentions of resolving.

this is the hardest half star i will ever give a game. also reddish is right, this is an insult to VNs. higurashi clears this piece of crap.

I thought i read somewhere that the dev for this game was inspired by people he met at school in real life, who seemed like completely regular individuals but had their own problems and all that stuff. Like you said, the second half of the game comes off as an insult if you have any experience with this kind of thing at all. There is nothing more horrific than having to go through something like that, or having to watch someone else go through it, so now that you mention it im not even sure why he felt the need to make the back half like that. Sayori is one thing but the other girls too were just comepletely tactless. Like you said there really is no message, just a shock factor. Especially that one girl who cut herself cause it made her horny, or something?? People who made high school anime vns can barely grasp rudimentary concepts so i wasnt really surprised wity how heavy handed this game treats abuse and mental illness. i apologize that this game had to trudge up emotions like that for you. i hope you feel a bit better now.

@moschidae it really feels like there should have been a serious discussion in how to proceed with development, as aside from my own personal feelings to the matter, it really feels like 2 disparate halves. the weirdo shit in the second half could have made for its own bizarre thing if it wasn't connected at the hip with a VERY unsettling first half. savalto really should have made a decision on what the tone of his game was instead of trying to fit two very different parts together.

I never gave ddlc any thought really but you're exactly right. You're very smart for being able to point these things out... actually, I was thinking about it today because of your review, but despite there being so many games devoted to mental illness and other traumatic events ive never actually played a game that captures what it feels like to be a part of it. Which is fine, games are games and if i wanted that id read a book or something but its very surprising how many games attempt to talk about the subject and just fall on their faces. Like, every indie game nowadays has to have a segment where someone talks about their manageable anxiety and depression or its like ddlc and they just do whatever it takes to shock you. i struggle with an awful case of contamination ocd and i was definitely a good candidate for hurting myself and its such an intense feeling every day, but ive never really seen a struggle like that replicated. In horror i feel like they barely scratch the surface of whats actually scary to live through. I dont really know where im going with this but i just think its weird how theres so many games that try to discuss it- ill intentioned or not- but it usually just ends up being like a joke. I think people just dont get it.

Sorry that was off subject, but if it helps now i feel pissed off with you lol

@moschidae ironically, DDLC actually DOES capture the feeling so well, of being witness to someone's downward spiral and not having the tools to do anything about it, that i think they should have dialed it back if the "haunted game" angle was the one they had to go with. i think a more enigmatic and skilled writer could have made the two worlds fit in a really novel way, but i just don't think salvato had the juice. honestly if it were just shock i probably would have been more charitable, but the fact that it toes the line so much with reality is what really sends me over the edge on it. the closer it got to getting the finer details right the more inappropriate and out of place they seemed.

Yeah, he should of leaned into one thing or the other. Both of them in conjunction doesnt really work with his writing, which sucks because i kind of like the general idea of ddlc if it was done well. But making the player read a poem about how one of the girls dad beats her and doesnt feed her then immediately moving onto monika with her whole crAazy 4th wall breaking shit is just really offputting no matter what way you look at it. I wish i remembered more of the game so i had something else to add but i appreciated the discussion [: You need to play a better horror vn now as a palate cleanser, some higurashi for the soul.

@moschidae i never fimished higurashi due to its length, but i LOVED it. if you have any other horror vns i would love to hear them. i would personally like ones that are as gas on the pedal as DDLC but a bit more intelligently written lol.

Unfortunately my expertise lies with really bad horror vns, and i cant really think of any off the top of my head that touch on sensitive subjects like ddlc does, but the first Death Mark has cool art and is really niche. I remember there being some stupid shit in it so dont be surprised if its weird. Theres also a vn-like game called Who's Lila that is definitley good, really like that one.

Theres also a normal horror game in the Yomawari series called Midnight Shadows that i really appreciated (for the most part) how they depicted the death of a loved one and mental illness, gotta replay that at some point. Sorry, that wasnt a lot but i hope there was something you havent heard of in there ^_^

@gruel

Even from a conceptual standpoint the Gravity Falls episode that accidentally predicted this and FNAF did more with the concept.

@sunlitsonata idk, i enjoyed this more than fnaf tbh tho you're right about the gravity falls episode

@gruel yeah the length of higurashi can be pretty scary but I think the way it's split into the 8 arcs makes it far more approachable than most lengthy VNs. They were def written with the intent to take a break in between each major chapter rather than to be played back to back (i take a breather in between them and use that time to gather my thoughts), so it may be worth giving it another spin in the future

i will say i liked the self aware bits but like. yeah the first act having That and then immediately turning into like OMG GLITCH HORROR THERES HYPERREALISTIC BLOOD AND PNGS AND SHIT is like, so fucking tone-deaf i couldn't stop laughing