Review: Doki Doki Literature Club

Date of Review: 10/01/2018
Score: 9
OpenCritic Link: https://www.opencritic.com/game/5068/doki-doki-literature-club
Link to Store Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/698780/Doki_Doki_Literature_Club/
Price: Free

Doki Doki Literature Club – Review

Play this game, just play it.

I’m trying to not give much away, because it’s less of a game & more an experience.


The premise of the game is as a highschool student, your longtime friend & next-door neighbour guilts you into joining the Literature Club, at which point you realise there’s 4 cute girls for you to get to know & try to impress. You do so by “writing poems” which is a mini-game where you select words to place in the poem. You get 20 words to select on a rotation of choices & the selected words improve how much the different girls approve of your poem. They also share their poetry with you to which give you more insight into their personalities to allow you to better tailor your next poem… at least that’s the premise.


I’m not a fan of the Japanese Visual Novel or Dating Sim style games… but that’s just the facade that this game hides behind. What this game really is, is a mind-fuck of EPIC proportions.


It’s a psychological horror that tweaks the onscreen display during the game so that you stop & go “did I just see that?”. Also the background music is perfectly done, as it starts off all cutesy & chirpy, but as different things happen, you get dissonance & off key notes that aren’t always jarring… just noticeable.


As such the mature warning is to do with the themes that run through this game & the way it makes you deal with them. Definitely not for kids, but not because of what you’d first expect.


The game took me about 5hrs to finish the first full playthrough, but there’s definitely a alternate endings to unlock… which probably are dependent on how many times you play it.

I like games like this, they surprise & entertain. This is well worth the asking price :wink: and I’m likely to throw money towards the developer as a gesture of appreciation.

Not sure if your account is hacked or the game is really good hmm…

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katsuo It’s soooooooooo good. But not as a anime dating sim. I took a chance on this based on a freind’s feedback & some deeper investigation. Just trying to increase the outreach of this game.

It’s like The Stanley Parable meshed with The Ring & one of the multitude of Visual Novels (I don’t play them so I couldn’t give an example).

I finished it last night & I was staring at the screen trying to get my brain back in order.

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katsuo I think his account was hacked.

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I’m sorry because this thread is 25 days old but I just finished Doki Doki literature club. This game was amazing. I’ve been spending the last 4 days trying to convince anyone and everyone to play it. IT’S FREE people so you should definitely give it a shot… Yes you, I’m talking to you.

Seriously though do it. Download it, play it, enjoy it, love it, buy the $10 fan pack dlc like I did.

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teh_g You should really do something about these hacked accs. It’s getting ridiculous.

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katsuo they’re all drinking the koolaid

shiftysatchmo It is your turn, to drink the kool aid… you must join us on the other side, Monkia is waiting… just a little bit more and Monika will be happy.

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I heard this game was really fun.

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teh_g I thought it was great. The less you know about it the better it is. I’ve never been into visual novels before but this game is something special.

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I just finished it!!

I’m in the club!!

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I am giving it a shot, I was enjoying until the text kicked up into overdrive for some reason.