3/5 ★ – blackade2000's review of Doki Doki Literature Club!.

SPOILER WARNING JUST IN CASE . . . . . . . . . . It's kinda weird to describe what I think about this game and I guess the best way is, I have mixed feelings. Straight up, after the painfully slow start (which I recognize is useful in setting up the faux innocence of the story), I start to get into the routine. Pick the words, meet the club mates, go back home. I really, really enjoyed picking carefully the words (so much so that I actually noted my picks down and might write stuff out myself) and interacting with these well-written characters and listening to their thought process over poetry. Had this been the actual full game, it'd be a 5/5 stars imo. Now, the game adds the dating sim facade. Which isn't bad by any means, I could have even enjoyed it. In fact I was enjoying the Sayory route. My problem is that the dating aspect, aside from being purely fake obviously, was mostly meant to be sexuelle. Nothing wrong by itself, but it mostly based itself on awkward ahah-what-if-we-kissed-unless dynamics. Some drawings were clearly meant to show off SOME aspect of the girls. Not my cup of tea. An important aspect is how Sayori's depression is portrayed and treated. I'd say it's mostly realistic and it wasn't spectacularized as I feared, plus the writing doesn't act ignorant about it through the characters' behaviour. I enjoyed a ton the "programming aspect" of it, like how the game actively fucks with its own code. Absolutely loved the idea that 1, the player is REQUIRED to fuck with the game files and 2, at the very very end the game just straight up deletes itself and leaves behind one last letter. Incredibly creative. The aspect that didn't attract me was the psychological horror I guess. I don't dislike it, and given the absurd (good) plot, it was required. The creepiness fits and it obviously grabs you from the moment it occurs. I guess, very simply, that it wasn't my cup of tea. Like again, I recognize the creepiness works for the plot and DDLC is a great game of its genre, but it took me out of my focus. When shit started happening I was mostly going "oh ahah this is happening" and that's it. Again, not my thing I guess. So, is DDLC good? Yes, clearly. Is it worth playing? Sure. Replaying? Not for me.