3/5 ★ – Ben64's review of Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!.

I may have possibly overhyped this one. I came into DDLC+ with very high expectations after seeing amazing review after amazing for the original version. This game hypothetically checks off so many boxes about things I like in video games: visual novel - check; mental health topics - check; described as “psychological horror” - check; looks can be deceiving theme - check; “crazy twist” - check. The art design was nice and captures the happy-go-lucky vibe well. If you only looked at screenshots, you would expect something drastically different from this game, like tentacles or something. I also really enjoyed the sound design and caught myself humming some of the catchy music from the game here and there. As a crisis mental health therapist, I think it was the “twist” that disappointed me. Honestly, I'm not completely sure if this was a disappointment because my expectations were too high or because I am desensitized to the subject matter or because it just didn't make sense to me. Not saying that what happens is unrealistic.. but I wonder if the developers even consulted with any mental health professionals while making this game. Either way, the reasoning for the “twist” was the biggest let down of all for and I don’t even know if I understand what point or message the game was trying to convey. I played up with a friend and they seemed to enjoy the story up to this point. Apparently there is more to the game after the “twist,” but I didn’t know until that I had already moved on to the next one.