3.5/5 ★ – PhatBaby's review of Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!.

I think it's super easy to look at Doki Doki in 2024 and be like, hee hee, Monika meme funny, and see it mostly as just a longstanding internet bit. But much like The Blair Witch Project, we've really come to undersell what a smart bit of horror this is. I remember this coming out, and people genuinely just didn't pay it any attention for a few days because it looked like another cheap waifu dating simulator. But the way that it takes that perspective, twists it and then starts slowly fucking with you through the cliches and pitfalls of what you expect it to be makes this whole thing so wholly unique. It's just exceptionally well-written. It plays things down the straight and narrow for so long with only a few hints that something's amiss, and when the pin drops, it doesn't waste a minute looping you out of the kawaii dating bullshit and into this really sinister mystery. And that works because it's entirely using meme culture and the internet's ironic obsession with anime girls to bait you in. You're playing the first act being like, teehee, Natsuki best girl, I'm gonna write my little poem to her, giggling and kicking your little feet. Then suddenly there's this psychotic, sentient entity watching and judging your every move that's like, what the fuck are you doing? This is my world and I'll make you do whatever I want. I mentioned Blair Witch in the opening, and I honestly think it deserves that same credibility. Much like Blair Witch, It's really damn smart because it uses the format of the medium to tell a story that couldn't be told anywhere else. To use the most ridiculous genre that it knows people will play ironically and mentally detach themselves from to shatter the fourth wall and tell a story that does the complete opposite, speaking and interacting directly with you as a player. And all of that is done in a relatively simple visual novel format. So goddamn you Doki Doki Literature Club, I will make damn sure that no one ever sees me playing you on my PlayStation friends list so I don't get roasted by my normie, Fortnite-obsessed mates, but deep down, I know you got that dawg in you.