This is the famous visual novel that outwardly resembles one of those popular dating simulators but is actually a horror game. That’s hardly a spoiler as you need to wade through some pretty serious content warning messages before you can start playing and the game is so well-known. People reference it so often that I thought I should just get around to completing it myself. It’s free anyway and very short.

Like so many other games in this style, you, the unseen male protagonist, gets to befriend a bevy of cute high school girls. You’re childhood friends with your neighbor Sayori who pressures you into joining her afterschool club. The club, the eponymous Doki-Doki Literature Club, turns out to have only three other girls as members, Monika, Yuri and Natsuki. Sayori is the energetic, social one who wants everyone to be friends. Monika is the president and the popular, beautiful leader. Yuri is shy and antisocial. Natsuki is abrasive and direct. Naturally all of them strive to get close to the player character. Yuri and Natsuki are a locus of conflict as the former likes long, epic novels while the later likes manga. At the club, the members read, chat and most importantly exchange each other’s poetry. As you get to know the girls however, you eventually realize that all of the girls suffer from some terrible, hidden malady.

I’ll stop with the spoilers at this point, adding only that fourth wall breaking is involved and the horror is very real. Since this is a visual novel, the story is fairly linear and there are very few meaningful decisions to make. The primary gameplay mechanic is a mini-game where you select words to use in composing your own poems. Each girl likes different sets of words so this decision determines how much they like your poetry. This unlocks unique scenes with that girl in question. There are no other characters to interact with. I played the newer version of the game however which actually launches a kind of virtual desktop in which the game proper then runs on. This does have gameplay implications but I won’t spoil them here.

The shock of this actually being a horror game despite its cutesy presentation certainly grabs attention, but I’d argue that it’s the quality of the writing that gives it such staying power. Putting aside objectionable stuff like this being a harem in which the girls are always inclined to fall in love with you just because it’s working under the constraints of the genre, it’s remarkable how much depth there is in the writing. The characters aren’t just painted in broad strokes, there are so many levels of nuance in their specific emotions and their relationships with each other. They’re self-aware of their own failings and how they are perceived by others. Interestingly, the mental conditions aren’t presented as conditions that can be cured. Instead, it encourages you to find ways to cope and live with them, perhaps with the help of friends and loved ones. That’s a very mature and modern take on psychological conditions. By contrast, the meta and fourth wall breaking stuff are less interesting to me. They’re needed to emphasize the horror experience but I wouldn’t say it’s the game’s strong point.

This version includes side stories that sort of recount the backstories of each of the girls and how they join the club. They’re fine but without the horror aspects, they don’t always feel consistent with the established canon and they’re limited in how much they can cover without spilling over into what is already in the main story. So a nice plus, but not essential to the experience. The base game is good enough. The art, music, character designs, writing and even the content of the poetry the girls produce are all wonderful. It’s amusing that the game appropriates Japanese styles and aesthetics but I don’t believe its creation involved any Japanese person in any major way. Certainly its moral values and writing style aren’t Japanese and to me, that’s a good thing as it proves how much artistic value can be derived from mixing cultures. This rates as a strong recommendation for me. Just be careful to take the content warnings seriously.