paxbrick.blogg.se

This was a genius idea on Dan Salvato’s part as he is able to drop subliminal messages throughout the game. In a seemingly perfect world even the most gruesome and graphic events can occur. This has a certain appeal to one’s fear of the unknown because they are unable to predict what is about to happen next because of the worldbuilding the game does and the randomness of certain events. Then when characters start to suicide, it is clear that the game is not what it appears to be. The soundtrack actually plays a key role in both instilling calmness followed by fear.

However, when random events start to occur (such as Yuri’s eye drifting off the screen, the mouse being forced to choose a certain option, etc.) and the music gets faster, the player is caught off guard because the perfect world that the player once thought starts to slowly show signs of breaking down. The slow start to the game in conjunction with the endless text is actually a very deceitful tactic, as it lulls the player into thinking the game is nothing out of the ordinary. The game takes an interesting spin on the concept of a horror game and haunted media as a whole. The game ultimately “ends” when the player interacts with the game folder and deletes the Monika character file which is hinted at throughout the game.

Whichever girl the poem favors the most will change the storyline but will most likely lead to the same ending. The main gameplay revolves around selecting 20 words out of 200 to formulate a poem, with each of the words “favoring” one girl the most. The game should be interpreted as a visual novel, which explains the 1% gameplay and 99% reading/clicking through text. What starts off similar to a dating simulator with four girls, Natsuki, Sayori, Monika, and Yuri slowly devolves into a psychological horror game with the entire world and game literally breaking down. The game takes place in a very cliché cutesy anime school setting, very unassuming for a horror game, especially one that has rave reviews. Doki Doki Literature Club (DDLC) is unlike any horror game that I have ever played.