sitting at the top of a hill littered with 2010s western independent charmers with hamfisted attempts at satire, post-modernism, genre critique, societal reflection and subversive storytelling is this crown jewel; the crème de la crème example of the self-serving haughty pretentiousness of an entire generation of would-be internet geniuses scrolling through tv tropes page by page in hopes to form contrarian opinions on popular media based on the talking points and consensuses of other people. if you're of a certain age demographic, you know this person - the one who parrots the opinions of your nostalgic critics and mr. enters as if the information they siphoned by lazing about youtube in search of a personality might be enough to make someone go, 'geez, this guy KNOWS his stuff' without having to go through the effort of formulating their own thoughts, or even worse, having to experience the media they're responding to the response of firsthand.

doki doki literature club stands as an indulgence of saturated moe-era anime tropes under the guise of a critique of the wikipedia plot summaries of KEY, ryukishi07 and type-moon games without having the slightest bit of humility or self-awareness in its execution. it, its creator, and its audience herald itself as some massive deconstruction of the visual novel form, when in actuality it's about in line with the actuality of what it's criticizing as yiik is with jrpgs. there is no metatextual subversion to be had. doki doki is a children's birthday magician - a couple of flashy tricks capable of fooling someone who doesn't know how ren'py works, but beyond its cheap parlor tricks which might give the astute horror mastery of, say, happy tree friends a run for its money, the title lacks substance, it lacks any form of personality, and it lacks the competence to warrant these mistakes in the face of a greater picture or experience.

i won't even dip into the implications the creator has made about how this game is apparently a very real and serious approach to topics such as self-harm and abuse - as a survivor of both i find these claims bordering on insanity - but i will offer the benefit of a doubt and suggest that maybe this is a product of genuine, ineffable incompetence and misjudgment... rather than one of deep-rooted pretention and narcissism. you could get the exact same experience intersplicing five nights at freddy's jumpscare reaction videos, one of the upteenth saw sequels, and nyan neko sugar girls as one would have playing doki doki literature club, but at the least, the former is shocking, entertaining and funny when it intends to be. do your wallet a favor and pass on this one - and yes, i know it's free.

Reviewed on Jul 06, 2022


22 Comments


1 year ago

Brilliant. Adore this piece.

1 year ago

thanks homie :)

1 year ago

amazing piece. i found doki doki insulting and vapid in its content, also insulting to the VN genre as a whole, and an insult by people who don't seem that interested in VNs to begin with.

1 year ago

thanks for the kind words gruel! yeah the more i reflect on this game after five years it's pretty astounding this garnered the traction it did. glad people are reflecting the way they are on it. dropped you a follow and def gonna check your music out. love the gergerigegege quote. <3

1 year ago

@zenogias thank you that's so kind!! i turned on the game as soon as it turned into sonic.exe, it just felt so nasty and mean-spirited. i wish i could individually recommend every doki doki fan read something meaningful like when they cry instead.

1 year ago

it makes me sad the amount of teenagers that probably found this game and clicked with it in a way that might’ve been harmful to them. i doubt any of that was intent, again, i’d like to believe this is all out of incompetence, but still.

1 year ago

I connected with some of the characters until it became a creepypasta, then I just hated it. It feels like the creator just hates people like me who related to anything about the game genuinely.

1 year ago

i’m not going to try and comment on dan’s intent or feelings because i don’t know the guy and i don’t want to dip into reactionary response but what i will say is that in execution ddlc feels largely inauthentic and facetious in a way that isolates and alienated goodwill and sympathy.

1 year ago

Real well said. Man, I legit felt trolled back when I first played up till the twist not long after it first came out. But nope, people weren't trolling me, they just like trash. And not even the fun kind of trash.

1 year ago

appreciate the kind words!

1 year ago

dang you are a literary genius

1 year ago

nah man i just care about vn's LOL

1 year ago

Great review

1 year ago

ty sir, catch this follow

1 year ago

Great piece here and you really echoed my same sentiments. Shame too cuz the VN industry is one that has a lot of potential criticism to be pointed out but DDLC instead opted into appealing to the CrAzY Youtube letsplay jumpscare audience.

1 year ago

appreciate the kind words homie!

1 year ago

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1 year ago

I'm inclined to say that this is an excellently worded review. I'm not going to blame you for the shift in my taste for reviews and analytical content, but regardless, good shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

(Reposted this comment so it sounds less rude)

1 year ago

i'm... not really sure what you meant by this to be honest, but i appreciate your time reading this!

1 year ago

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1 year ago

This comment was deleted
might be my favorite review here, well done

1 year ago

thank you!

1 year ago

I know I'm necroing this, but do you have any sources about Dan Salvato's claims about DDLC? I dont really think you should have brought him up, whatever he said on twitter or discord or what not doesn't change what DDLC is or isn't