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hopeymchope · 4 years ago

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Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! final thoughts

I’ve been wanting to talk about my feelings on “Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!” for a while now, but for whatever reason, I’ve been struggling to put them into words. Given my training as a writer, this is pretty embarrassing. So I’m just going to ramble at you.

There are basically three stories in DDLC+: The main narrative/”campaign,” the side stories (which add up to one continuous story when viewed in sequence), and the meta-narrative of Metaverse Enterprise Solutions. (It’s funny how this release hit in the same year when companies like Facebook and Epic Games started pushing their own definition of the word “metaverse,” but there is no relation between their metaverse and this fictional company.) The Side Stories are unlocked by playing through the main campaign, and progressing through the Side Stories helps you unlock the bulk of the MES story that is provided via email text.

The main campaign is the game that the Internet fell in love with back in 2017. Because of my personal choices in the game, they successfully tricked me into thinking there was more variation to the story than there really is. In reality, although you can certainly unlock some different blocks of text and different reactions along the way (and in fact, you have to do some save-scumming to unlock all of the CGs and achieve the best ending), it’s mostly a linear narrative. By 2021, a lot of the tricks in this game feel less amazing than they did in 2017, but it’s still a very clever story, and it’s impressive how well-written it is. Even before it takes a hard left turn into existential horror, it manages to establish an endearing main cast.

Mmmm nah, I think you’re always a mess, honey.

Everybody is likable here, from our surprisingly snarky MC down to the initially prickly Natsuki. What really grabbed me was how they manage to make it clear that the lead girls are more than just jokey visual novel tropes; they are all, as I’ve previously observed, struggling mentally. That’s true of them from the very start, and it becomes readily apparent by the third and fourth “days” of the game. That depth keeps things emotionally engaging on through to the end, and it pays off even more in the “Side Stories.”

By now, most of the Internet knows who the “secret” main character of the game is. But without stating who that is, I want to say that I never found them creepy? Even when they felt misguided, they were sincerely based in their actions. I never stopped being sympathetic to their plight. Perhaps the hardest part of the game for me was doing what I needed to do to progress into the fourth and final act.

If I have one complaint about the primary campaign, it’s the way in which the MC is filtered out of it over time. This is never really explained or resolved; he’s just irrelevant and stops being discussed or sharing his thoughts at a certain point without any justification for that fact. You — that is, the player at home — are just left to notice that he’s suddenly not offering any first-person commentary or thoughts any longer... even when other characters seem to still talk to him like normal. He becomes functionally absent without us ever understanding what changed or why, and that doesn’t make sense.

I hear that. Think I know anybody else IRL who could read or tolerate a visual novel? The struggle is real.

And as I already referenced, you can unlock a “best ending,” but I’m not sure if it’s really worth it. It barely diverts from the default ending. Oh, and the credits sequence? Dynamite, deeply loved it, super sweet and cool and affecting.

Okay, so: SIDE STORIES. These were the main selling point of the “Plus!” edition. Players familiar with the original 2017 game now get an entire new narrative that starts out like a prequel but eventually feels more like a parallel universe. And yes, when I say “narrative,” I mean that the Side Stories are — despite their label as plural “stories” — actually a single linear tale that you just happen to view in parts. Furthermore, when taken as a whole, the “Side Stories” are about as long as the main game is. Their presence effectively doubles the game’s length. They even get a unique soundtrack and their own separate credits.

This time, the MC is kept off-screen (although he gets referenced in dialogue) because the focus is on how the girls first met and formed the club. Thanks to the struggles of these girls that were established in the main campaign, I found the experience of watching them open up to one another and face their inner demons together to be emotional and affecting. That moment in the first couple of chapters when Sayori writes those five words on a sheet of paper for Monika to read? Holy shit. I related to that. I felt that. When Natsuki ultimately determines how to deal with her longtime friends? Brutal, but again, totally relatable. It got me feeling that tight, sour sensation in my chest. Writer Dan Salvato proves in these things that he’s completely capable of creating excellent material without relying on the gimmicks that the campaign focused on. This is a story where the only “horrors” are real life, our personal demons, and the ongoing struggle to connect with other people in meaningful ways. Seeing how these characters connected makes the events of the main campaign much more tragic. In short: I love it.

Heartfelt, heartwarming shit.

If I can step back and remark on both the main game and the “Side Stories” mode for a second... It’s legitimately impressive how both the main campaign’s third act and the overall Side Stories both contain a lot of really good, accurate advice for how to treat people with various mental struggles/illnesses. I can only assume that Dan Salvato did his homework or knew a lot about this stuff firsthand. There is no single solution for how to best help someone in your life cope with a given mental problem, but the suggestions put forth in this game are genuinely very, very constructive. Major respect and kudos for that.

Okay, let’s get back to the matter at hand. The only thing left for me to discuss is the meta-narrative, the whole thing with Metaverse Enterprise Solutions. By design, this is the shortest story of the trio — it adds up to total nothing more than a few pages of plain text on a white background. It also takes time to unlock each piece of this puzzle, and ultimately, it doesn’t really work IMO. See, this meta-narrative purports to offer insight into the (fictional) developer of the very game you are playing, but it’s too disjointed and out-of-step with the content in the other modes. The emails and logs that make up the meta-narrative are totally disconnected from one another, with each one feeling like a tiny window into a five-way conversation that you’re only seeing a single side of. It doesn’t even work as a meta-narrative for the bigger game because whoever wrote this aspect couldn’t keep their shit right. For example: One of the emails you unlock talks about how/why the MC doesn’t exist within the Side Stories — which is patently untrue! The dialogue makes it clear that he DOES exist! So yeah, although there are some cute details in this part of the thing, they never fall into place to construct a story or even some compelling side notes. They’re just curiosities.

I’m sure many people will never bother to read the unlocked files and notes, etc. Which is no big loss.

In the end, I think it’s clear that I loved this package as a whole. Particularly in regard to how much I adored these characters and their inner struggles. I only wanted to spend even more time with them.

Guess who made the cover of Famitsu’s October 2021 issue?

It’s interesting to note that just last month, in October of 2021, DDLC finally got its first official Japanese release (the translated version of “Plus!”). I think it’s curious that this game that is so deeply inspired by Japanese visual novels took so long to get over there. If the Famitsu coverage and review are anything to go by, it seems that Japan may love the crap out of this Western-made deconstruction of their homegrown dating sims. And that’s pretty cool.

WARNING: The comments on this post contain spoilers. Just a heads-up.

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