STOP READING!!! Have you played Doki-Doki Literature Club? If not, then do not read this article. DDLC is a very spoiler-able game and so reading this article without playing through the game first will most definitely ruin it for you. So go play DDLC and then come back. This game is a masterpiece in writing and subverting expectations and you do not want this game spoiled for you. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!

Every once in a while, I find myself coming across a game that changes my perspective on interactive media; Undertale defied genre tropes and even conventional game making techniques in order to share its story, A Hat in Time brought back a once assumed dead genre with (in my opinion) one of the best of its kind, and games like Pony Island used fourth wall breaks and contrasting themes in order to give their audience a lasting impression. Not only did Doki-Doki literature club change my perception of interactive media, but it changed my perception of narrative as a whole.

From first glance, DDLC may look like your run-of-the-mill cutesy anime visual novel, and for the first 2 hours or so, you would be correct in this assumption; DDLC fully commits to its facade from the moment you start-up the game. What follows this, however, is a brilliant meta narrative, a great satirical look at dating sims and visual novels and one of the most legitimately eerie gaming experiences that I have had in a long time.

The main mechanic in this game is the poetry writing, at the end of each meeting, the player must choose several words that relate to the girl that they would like to impress. When you have written the poem, you can choose who to show it to, that person will then show you theirs. The poems in this game are what I feel really elevate the writing above any other game of recent memory, they really showcase the skills that Dan Salvato has. Each poem is meticulously written to have deep underlying themes, clever symbolism and even hidden meanings. Every poem in this game is just begging to be interpreted and I would like to share some of my interpretations with you.

Raccoon

One of my favourite examples is Yuri’s poem ‘Raccoon’ in which she feeds a Raccoon a slice of bread, the Raccoon then keeps coming back to her house for more.

Yuri refers to feeding this Raccoon as ‘The first time I noticed my strange tendencies as an unordinary human’, the reader may find this odd as Yuri refers to herself as an ‘Unordinary human’ with ‘Strange tendencies’ for simply feeding a wild animal. Having not found out anything particularly odd about Yuri by the time this poem makes an appearance, you might just pass it off as strange, but when you pay attention to lines such as ‘The bread, my hungry curiosity, The Raccoon, an urge’, we start to piece together what sort of person Yuri is.

This is the second poem Yuri gives you, she claims that this one is more out there than the last one as she has gotten more comfortable, and it certainly is more out there. I strongly believe ‘Raccoon’ to be Yuri’s metaphorical confession that she cuts herself, this theory is only strengthened when we learn later that this is actually true.

Dear Sunshine

I think the most harrowing of all are Sayori’s poems; ‘Dear Sunshine’ is Sayori’s first poem, it is played off as just a meaningless poem that Sayori made in a rush that morning before school as it ends with the line ‘I want breakfast’. The player actually comments on this and Sayori makes it easier to believe as she replies with how it’s important to not skip breakfast and that she had Egg on toast. However, I believe that the ‘Sunshine’ referred to in the poem, is not actually the Sun at all, regardless of lines like ‘Making me rub the sleepy from my eyes’. I believe that Dear sunshine is actually a letter to you, the player. The sunshine in the poem refers to you, which makes the line ‘Without you, I could sleep forever’ infinitely more bleak. This poem alludes to Sayori’s fondness of bittersweet poems as well as cryptically foreshadowing events to come.

Bottles

Another one of Sayori’s poems, ‘Bottles’ tells of how she keeps happy memories in bottles for all of her friends, she passes out these bottles to her friends to make them happy but as time goes by, her friends demand more and more and she simply cannot find enough bottles to make them all happy.

I think Bottles is a bit more blatant than any of the other poems, but it still gives you a very good look inside Sayori’s head. Bottles is a metaphor for Sayori slowly running out of happiness, she is tired of always being expected to be the happy one and she can no longer find any happiness to give out. Sayori uses harsh imagery in this poem such as Digging and Scraping in order to find more happiness, these words highlight Sayori’s inner struggles and really drive the point home that, no, Sayori is not alright.

Amy Likes Spiders

Amy Likes Spiders is, what Natsuki calls, a poem about not judging people for their habits, no matter how strange. However, I believe that Amy Likes Spiders goes a bit further than that, I believe that ‘Amy’ in this poem is actually Yuri. This would make a lot of sense as Natsuki and Yuri seem to have a bit of a rivalry throughout the game, in this case, the spiders in the poem could be a few things;

Knives; As we find out later on, Yuri collects knives because she appreciates the craftsmanship as well as the sense of danger they bring, Natsuki may find this strange. However, I do not think this is the case as Natsuki is extremely self-conscious about her habit for collecting Manga and this poem is supposedly even about that. If this were the case, it would make Natsuki a bit of a hypocrite…although that may also fit into her character. Natsuki may even know about what Yuri does with these knives and be voicing some sort of very subtle concern for her, though again, I doubt this is the case as Natsuki’s attitude after giving you the poem is only one of self concern. Further to this, the spiders could be Yuri’s habit of cutting herself, though I feel the use of language doesn’t make sense if this was the case. Books; All throughout the game, Natsuki is never actually seen reading a book. She looks down on Yuri for being so lost in her books while Natsuki only seems to read Manga. Perhaps the poem is a metaphor for Natsuki’s dismissal of books in favor of Manga? She refers to the ‘Spiders’ as being ‘gross’, though the word gross in this context could just mean she disagrees with it, potentially reversing the opinion that people label Manga with and instead implying that if you read regular books, you are ‘gross’. This actually seems realistic to me as Natsuki even has to be coerced into reading an actual book at the end of the game, in exchange for Yuri reading a Manga. The game even testifies that Manga is one of those things where you can’t really admit you’re really into it until you figure out where the other person stands and so this poem may be implying that Natsuki wants to rid Manga of that stigma and perhaps even transfer it onto books.

My other interpretation of it is a bit more…out there.

The ‘Jorogumo’ (or “Prostitute Spider”) is a spider from Japanese mythology that is said to be able to transform into a seductive woman who then attempts to seduce passing Samurai. Could the Poem actually be a reference to Monika? Could Natsuki be warning the player (being ‘Amy’ in this scenario) to stay away from Monika? Could it be jealousy? Or could Yuri be this ‘Jorogumo’, after all she does get extremely obsessive and is unrelenting in her pursuits to have you…though she is made to be so obsessive by Monika. Monika reveals herself over the course of the game as she feels she has to when things go wrong, her reveal could be a very subtle nod to such stories.

Well this would be a long shot, but hiding references to Japanese mythology deep within poems that are made to look like they were written SIMPLY would just be on a whole other level when it comes to writing symbolism into video games.

Hole in Wall (Part 1 and 2)

One of Monika’s poems shows up in two parts, in my mind, Hole in Wall also shows two sides of Monika, part 1 is when she realizes she is self-aware but is still confused at what she learns and part 2 is when she finally faces her fears and gets to know her powers within the game world. By this point, she sees her friends as ‘Simple poems on flat sheets of paper’ which, to me, means that she knows that Yuri and Natsuki are only programmed to write poems to please you; their poems are all that they are. When Monika finds out what is behind the hole, she finds her own space uninhabitable, almost as if she NEEDS to be with the player. In the last line, she realizes she must use her pen to write her way into the players heart; much like the other two, in a way, she must pretend to be part of the game to gain your affection. I believe these poems show a more sympathetic side of Monika, and I believe that they add layers to Monika’s character and perhaps paint her as more misunderstood than we would originally think.

DDLC is filled with many other poems that are just waiting to be interpreted, some are pretty blatant while others are much harder to decipher, I have yet to fully interpret the meanings behind poems like The Lady Who Knew Everything or Ghost Under the Light part 1 and 2, though I have an inkling of their base meanings. Other poems like ‘Eagles Can Fly’, ‘I’ll Be Your Beach’ or ‘Because You’ (Which all happen to be Natsuki’s poems) are all very obvious, so I don’t feel the need to go into them.

Satire

In DDLC, each character is given JUST ENOUGH depth to make them stand out from your average dating sim character. The game starts with the girls seemingly not caring what your intentions are for joining the literature club, they just exist while waiting for you to write a poem for them. Dan Salvato made these characters 3 dimensional enough to relate to and even sympathize with, yet still 2 dimensional enough to poke fun at common visual novel/dating sim tropes. For instance, Natsuki only asks you to spend more time with her when being manipulated by Monika, and Monika only uses this as a tool to scare the player away from Natsuki. The same applies for Yuri, in a way, Monika almost makes them both 3 dimensional characters by blowing up their personality traits and making them unlikable.

I find it both funny and extremely clever that Dan Salvato went out of his way to create a dating sim SPECIFICALLY about manipulation, whether emotional or even physical. From emotionally manipulating the girls by simply clicking words that appeal to them and not even needing the right skills to craft a poem, to being manipulated into spending eternity in a room with Monika, and everything in between such as Monika’s manipulation of the other girls’ personalities and even the players eventual manipulation of the games’ files themselves in order to progress. While dating sims usually involve some sort of emotional manipulation to get one of the characters to become interested in you, DDLC takes it much further and by doing so, successfully pokes fun at the entire genre.

DDLC really is Dan Salvato’s love letter to visual novels. As Dan once said, ‘People are complaining about a weeb game getting popular without even realizing it got popular in part for making fun of weeb games’. Dan has mentioned how he wanted to lure people into the genre to show them it can be more than they expect…and boy, was he right!

Let’s talk about Monika’s sentience and the Meta-narrative

With the reveal of Monika being sentient, DDLC’s meta-narrative becomes apparent and the game is truly turned on its head as Monika forces the player to spend eternity with her. DDLC is not just the story of a literature club, DDLC is the story of Monika and the protagonist partaking in a story ABOUT the literature club in order for Monika to make the protagonist see that she loves him.

The length of time that Monika has been sentient is unknown (though someone will probably figure it out, this game is FULL of the tiniest details just waiting to be uncovered), all we can know for sure is that her sentience is at least present right at the start of the game. This tells me that Monika COULD have been sentient for a very, very long time. After all that hypothetical time, Monika has found out that all of her friends are just cardboard cut-outs of people and that they have no feelings beyond what the game has programmed for them, this leads Monika to realize that there is no loss in deleting them or even getting them to kill themselves. Monika’s apathy towards her friends being literal robots coupled with how long she could have spent knowing about this and the endless cycle of days she would have been through seeing the person she loves constantly choose everyone except for her would have been maddening, this certainly justifies Monika’s actions, at least in her eyes. Sayori and Yuri’s death are both pretty startling, yet for Monika, she has nothing but indifference towards these things that she once thought were her friends. I don’t know about anyone else who played DDLC, but I definitely felt for Monika after being given just enough information to see that she was really just a victim in all of this.

I may just be a bit of a Monika sympathizer, but DDLC pretty much writes Monika in such a way that you cannot help but feel for her. Monika doesn’t want to be the antagonist but people see her that way, not in the writing but in the presentation of her character, plus in the fact that there is really no one else left to accuse of being the game’s antagonist…or is there?

You

Not much is ever said about the Protagonist of DDLC, what is there to say? He is the unwilling puppet of the person sitting behind the keyboard…You! In a world where one of the characters has somehow gained sentience and the other characters at least have some sort of emotion or personality, the protagonist is nothing, YOU choose all of his emotions, YOU choose all of his actions, YOU manipulate the entire game to go in the protagonists favor.

Let me make a proposition. Is DDLC calling you out for being the ACTUAL antagonist of its own game? After all, regardless of Monika’s involvement you ARE still the reason behind both Sayori’s and Yuri’s suicides and you DO only join the club to ‘Get closer to one of the girls’ which in turn leads to either Monika destroying what is virtually the entire universe, or, if you REALLY manipulate the game, the best ending where you make everyone happy. Your existence within the club, and by extension the world, knowingly puts these girls in danger, the world you are entering is one that will have each girl pine over you until they either can’t stand not having you and KILLING THEMSELVES, or breaking free from their programming and forcing you to love them.

Your Reality

I would also love to talk about the song that plays over the credits of DDLC titled ‘Your Reality’. In the same vein as either of the Portal games (Which i think Dan even cited as a source of inspiration), DDLC ends with a song that completely sums up the entire game, ‘Your Reality’ is actually the song that has been playing in the background for the majority of the game, though without lyrics. This really took me by surprise as I didn’t imagine this one piece of music having lyrics at all.

Just before the credits roll, the lyrics to the first part of the song are written on the screen as Monika sings them to us; the lyrics are soft and cute yet have a very bleak and bittersweet undertone to them, it perfectly reflects on the tone of the game. Monika yearns to be in YOUR reality, she doesn’t want to continue living in her world even if she can bend it to her will, no matter how many things she changes, no matter how many friends she loses, Monika just cannot gain your affection.

‘Your Reality’ really solidifies my commitment to sympathizing with Monika, every lyric just drips with emotion and we can truly understand Monika’s motivation; love is what drives Monika and through this games many messages, we have been taught that love doesn’t really have a reason behind it; we can fall in love simply with how someone looks or just from spending time with them. DDLC even has examples of both of these things occurring; in the player’s chosen love interest (which is more than likely through aesthetics alone) and the fact that both Monika and Sayori have fallen in love with you after spending so much time with you. So, when I hear people say that Monika’s motivations are not clear enough, I can’t help but disagree.

This final song is Monika’s last goodbye to you, she finally got to show you that song she was working on after having you barely notice it for the majority of the game, the reason this song is so sad is because we are finally starting to feel for Monika (If you haven’t already, which I feel for some reason the majority of players didn’t). As the credits continue to roll you will be shown images that appear when you pursue each girl (the images of the path you didn’t take are grayed out) and, depending on which ending you get, each image will be deleted by Monika as it scrolls up. The images being deleted could very well allude to Monika’s continued jealousy (because if you have obtained a certain picture, it means you have actively pursued that girl) but it more likely corresponds with Monika destroying the literature club (As the pictures are not deleted in the best ending, where the literature club ISN’T destroyed)

In conclusion, Doki-Doki Literature Club is probably one of the most well written games I have ever played and it is DEFINITELY the only game I have had this much fun interpreting and writing about. Never have I played a game that seems so cut and dry and yet has such rich themes, such strong messages, such well-written-yet-seemingly-not-well-written characters and such a disturbing yet bittersweet approach to narrative as Doki-Doki Literature Club.

Thank you, Dan Salvato for creating such a beautifully written, gorgeous, twisted, eerie, bittersweet, massacre, afterimage, boop, sugar, suicide, depression, climax, JUST MONIKA game.