Team SalvatoĮventually, true to the game’s advertised content warnings (which you should take seriously, by the way), Doki Doki Literature Club leads you down a dark path, leading to the shocking and emotional death of one character. The game encourages you to pick a girl to write a poem for, and depending on your choices, you may draw closer to the club’s charming, sweet members.Ī typical scene from early on in Doki Doki Literature Club. Of course, your protagonist is hoping to forge new bonds with some of them along the way.

It’s a slow burn that begins with you and group of cute girls who must prove that their literature club is worth becoming an official school organization. Since its release, the game has earned a reputation as an innovative scare. (Some light spoilers follow below here’s your spoiler warning.)Īlthough it looks like a dating sim, Doki Doki Literature Club is a free-to-play, psychological horror game, produced by indie studio Team Salvato. It exploited my confidence in the visual novel genre and turned that into a twisted game of its own. Like I do with haunted houses and horror films, I always know that none of the scares are real.īut a romantic visual novel, of all things, petrified me recently - just by completely subverting my expectations. I've already seen my fair share of Resident Evil 7 Let's Plays without feeling much in my gut.

Gore doesn’t irk me, and monsters are so yesterday. I often feel the same sense of ease when playing horror video games.

I can round a corner and, well, gosh! It’s … a dude in a costume and usually some pretty cool makeup. As for haunted houses, with the exception of a few “intensified” experiences, ghouls can’t touch me, and the scares are predictable. I know that movies will progress without my input even if I’m shrinking back a bit in my seat, it’ll keep moving, and I can live out the full experience. I’m immune to haunted houses and horror movies, because neither one force me out of my comfort zone. During the fall season, I spend a lot of time searching for fresh scares.

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