SPOILERS FOR DOKI DOKI LITERATURE CLUB! FOLLOW.

Doki Doki Literature Club! opens on a warning. Not only does the game express that the experience is not suitable for children, but it also stresses caution for those suffering from anxiety and depression. The game asks you if you are old enough to play and consent to disturbing imagery; upon agreeing to this, you are brought to Doki Doki Literature Club!’s title screen. Four animesque girls stare at you as joyful music plays in the background.

On the surface Doki Doki Literature Club! comes across as a typical, anime-like romance visual novel. You play as a young schoolboy who is pushed by his friend Sayori to join their school’s literature club. Sayori, introduces you to Natsuki, Yuri, and Monika. The game has you reading numerous lines of text, including the thoughts of your character and how he interacts with the girls. Among small instances where you choose a dialogue option or the order of who you speak to, the player will also construct poems. In these segments, a variety of words will be laid out to pick from; each word you choose pleases a different girl, and depending on your choices, will open up additional scenes in the game.

The girls themselves come off like cookie cutter anime stereotypes; Natsuki is pushy and obnoxious, while Monika is the charming club president, and Yuri is the quiet one. The overall tone of Doki Doki is also very reminiscent of a cutesy anime; the animation style is buoyant, and the music caters to pleasant and uplifting vibes.

All of this, however, is meant to mislead the player, for in all actuality, Doki Doki is a fourth wall breaking nightmare.

After some time Sayori reveals to your character that she suffers from depression; the conversation makes for a sad moment, while also providing additional depth to the narrative. Later on, she also confesses her love to you; this is a very intimate moment with a plethora of emotions, given that you’ve learned of what Sayori is struggling with and how your character strives to be there for her.

The next day when you go to her house, you enter her bedroom to see that she has hung herself.

Nothing prepares you for the imagery of Sayori’s lifeless body and empty eyes as she hangs from her ceiling. The game then proceeds to “end,” sending you back to the title screen. Everything appears normal except where Sayori once stood; her character image is now scrambled.

At the beginning of the game Sayori was the first character introduced to you; when you “restart” the game, the beginning plays out in a similar manner, but with a big difference. This time, as our character talks about Sayori, her name and dialogue appear in abstract text characters. Things get weirder when she appears as a black box that rapidly shifts between images of the other girls, all before the screen blacks out and our character states it is just an ordinary school day.

The oddities don’t stop there, for Doki Doki continues to sporadically “glitch.” You may be talking with one of the girls when all of a sudden their text appears as random characters, or maybe their eyes have turned to blackened squares or their face has completely disappeared. There are conversations where Monika will begin to fade over the text as you’re talking to one of the other girls, blocking you from being able to read.

The experience of reading this story becomes more bizarre as Doki Doki juggles its dual tones; even after Sayori’s suicide and the moments of odd glitches, the game continues to play out to upbeat music, playful imagery, and carry on with the conversations of the literature club. You may spend a good amount of time with the game’s perky nature, to all of a sudden have a haunting image pop up before you (to then have things return to “normal”). Because of this back and forth, Doki Doki keeps the player in a constant state of anxiety.

After more time has passed the game finally reveals its major twist. Upon Yuri committing suicide, Monika “deletes” her and Natsuki’s files and the setting shifts; after an odd transition, you find yourself sitting across from Monika in the classroom, except this time the room has an amber hue to it, the windows looking out to an infinite cosmic space. Monika begins to share how she is self-aware of her existence in the game and how she wants to be with “you,” the player. From there she speaks to you about a variety of existential ideas concerning the game and other aspects of life.

Doki Doki then enters a unique fourth wall segment where you are just “sitting with Monika,” making for a bizarre interaction that stretches from the digital to the physical space. Sitting and listening to Monika presents this existential anxiety where the game is not only aware of you, but making an effort to be close to you.

If you attempt to quit the game, Monika will speak up, asking you not to leave, keeping you in the room with her. Eventually she does allow you to quit, giving you the opportunity to proceed towards the ending. The only way to end Monika’s many existential musings is to exit out and locate the game’s files; once you find Monika’s character file, you then have to delete it. Upon deleting the file, you see that she is beginning to disappear, the scene returning back to you with the other girls in the regular classroom setting. Sayori approaches you, and as the screen’s visuals start to glitch, she states she knows everything that Monika did, and she’s happy to have you all to herself forever. Monika intervenes, however, and as the credits begin rolling, she deletes the files of the game, sending you one last chilling goodbye before vanishing.

The inspiration behind Doki Doki Literature Club! for its writer and lead developer Dan Salvato came from his love/hate relationship with anime; in particular, he has felt at odds with the trope of how “cute girls do cute things,” and how this impacts the narrative for so many anime. And within Doki Doki Literature Club!, even before the big reveal with Monika, each girl is likable for these reasons; using cute tropes engages players with their understandings of these kinds of stories, all while preparing to subvert their expectations.

All of these elements are what allows the game to be an excellent work of deception. Doki Doki Literature Club! has the feeling of walking down a hallway cloaked in shadows and threatening danger, all while dressed in rainbows and flowing to delightful tunes. Under the facade of bright and whimsical characters lies a reality of despair and heartache; through the disturbing nature of the story, interacting with each character is as intimate as it is unsettling. Doki Doki Literature Club! is psychological horror that messes with players, forcing them to question the reality of its narrative and their role in it.