"But if you tell me you like some other romance game better, I might get a little jealous~"
-Monika (Doki Doki Literature Club!)
I know Doki Doki Literature Club! is a great game with unexpected horror story, but I didn't think it would make it this... huge. About two weeks ago the game reached 1 million downloads, which is a great accomplishment. And now it won IGN 2017 People's Choice in several nominations, which is also unexpectedly great. Those are the two accomplishments that I'm talking about.
Doki Doki Literature Club! was nominated for Best PC Game, Best Adventure Game, Best Story, and Most Innovative *Applause hastily*. Not that I underestimate Doki Doki Literature Club!, but I think there are plenty of other games that seems to hold bigger potential to win those nominations instead of a 4 hours long visual novel.
I thought "a fine game and a great visual novel" and "Overwhelmingly Positive" on Steam rating is the farthest this game can go. Turns out I was so wrong, and I'm so glad that I was wrong. When I think about it again, Doki Doki Literature Club! deserve such nominations, in my opinion.
Reading Dan Salvato's statement in Team Salvato's blog post, once again it proved that I was wrong, but again, I agree with him. Being a visual novel, which means its biggest focus is on the storyline, Doki Doki Literature Club! can be enjoyed by those who don't even play the game. And by that I (he) mean by watching playthroughs, thanks to YouTubers and Twitch streamers that play this game, people that don't even download the game could come to likes Doki Doki Literature Club! as well.
I have a friend among these people, she only watched someone's playthrough and now she's liking the game as much as I do. I myself never been so amazed by a visual novel before, plus visual novel is totally not my kind of thing. But again, I have another friend who feel the same. I see that as an accomplishment too, being so damn likeable and gain a lot of fans, and all it take is only a 4 hours storytelling.
The fact is that all of you took a risk putting DDLC in the spotlight – it’s not often that visual novels and/or romance games are given the treatment that you gave it. It runs the risk of dividing your viewership or not having enough people interested to have justified your time investment.
Although that statement probably meant for the YouTubers he mentioned in the blog post, but I feel like I also one of those people who put DDLC in the spotlight by writing about it about a week ago. And I do know the risk Mr. Salvato's talking about here, but I still write about it. I don't care if people calling me a weeb or something, I like this game for the story and how it tells it.
I can't imagine how great it feels for the creator, Team Salvato, to think that their first game won not only one, but four awards. Team Salvato deserve it. This game deserve it. If you haven't play the game or watched a playthrough, it's a recommended from me. Congrats to Team Salvato, and I'm looking forward for the next game that this game prepared us for.
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All credits goes to Team Salvato
If you haven't read this yet, give it a read through. There's so much more under the surface from what you just see and that's what I've come to love about it. Someone more informed than myself turned me onto this and it's awesome to think about - a 4 hour VN with 2 years of work? Seems excessive. With all these Easter eggs setting us up, I can only hope that this was a 4 hour prequel for something bigger, better, and darker to come.
Thanks, but I already know about the hidden stuff in the files. I found some of them by myself and some by reading on the internet. And if I remember correctly, the most interesting theory is that the long story from Yuri.chr file is the backstory of a character in the next game, the woman pic from Natsuki.chr is the character of that story, and I forgot about the rest.
Although it's unclear whether it's true, this is not your ordinary visual novel indeed..
I'm also surprised at how huge this game is right now. I played it out of interest for the said horror elements and I'm not a fan of visual novels at all - in fact, the excessive amount of text bored me during the initial playthrough.
However, it definitely crept in my mind and stayed there for some time, due to the clever design. I'm hoping for a sequel or spin-off, but a more developed one with more choices and surprises.
Here is my review on it:
https://steemit.com/gaming/@gamingstation/doki-doki-literature-club-a-free-visual-novel-of-horror-and-fourth-wall-shattering
Same here, I got so bored in Act 1 and almost stopped playing. But somehow this game kept me going and oh I'm glad I didn't stop. The horror turns out to be messed up as it is cleverly designed, which is unexpectedly better than I anticipated.