The infamous visual novel that captured fans’ hearts with its twists is back, now with all-new side content as you return to the world of Doki Doki Literature Club.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!
Developer: Team Salvato
Price: $15
Platforms: PC (reviewed), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch
MonsterVine was provided with a PC code for review.
When Doki Doki Literature Club first came out in 2017, I was one of the many people who played it and thoroughly enjoyed its twists and unexpected themes. Now it’s back as Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, a multiplatform remaster with additional content. If you’re completely unfamiliar with Doki Doki Literature Club, be aware that it’s impossible to properly review it without alluding to its twist, so you might want to scroll to the end if you want to go into it without any knowledge of what to expect.
Anyway, the core of this remaster is the visual novel itself, Doki Doki Literature Club. You play a self-insert protagonist who is talked into joining his school’s Literature Club by his childhood friend Sayori. Once he joins the club, he meets the other three members: the introverted Yuri, the tsundere manga-lover Natsuki, and the club president, Monika. From here, it progresses as a sweet romance story in which you interact with the girls at the club and grow closer to them by writing poems each night in a small mini-game where you select words that mimic the tastes of either Sayori, Yuri, or Natsuki. The characters are interesting, and as you get to know them, you learn more about them beyond the surface appearance.
However, partway through the visual novel, things take a dark turn. The facade of a romance story is replaced by growing psychological horror, with some clever scares and truly unsettling moments. The story goes in a pretty interesting direction and raises some unexpected questions and themes. All of that is still effective today, even if you go into it knowing it will shift into horror at some point. If you’re familiar with the original, you probably asked yourself how certain parts of the experience could be translated to a multiplatform game, and that brings us to one of the notable changes for this remaster.
For Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, the game now includes a simulated desktop that loads whenever you close out of the main visual novel. From this screen, you can access many extras, including special files, unlockable art, and music. While this approach admittedly takes away some of the magic of the original experience, it also opens the door for the developers to do some creative things only possible in this sort of format to further expand the scope of the game. I spent a fair amount of time scouring this section of the game for secrets, and I’m certain there are still things that I missed. The biggest edition to the remaster, however, are the new side stories, also accessed from the virtual desktop.
As you play through the visual novel and focus on each major character, you’ll unlock new side stories that serve as a prequel to the main story. They show the four members of the Literature Club as they form the club and get to know each other, overcoming conflicts and differences along the way. The side stories flesh out the characters in a way the main story’s format doesn’t allow for, which leads to some truly sweet and heartwarming moments. All together, they provide a surprising amount of additional content and are well worth reading, especially if you were one of the people who wanted to see more of the “normal” side of Doki Doki Literature Club.
The Final Word
At its core, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is still the great visual novel it was in 2017. While it loses some of its impact due to the new format, the remaster makes up for it with new secrets to discover and wonderful side stories to read. Whether you’re an old fan of Doki Doki Literature Club or someone checking it out for the first time, this new release has something for everyone to enjoy.
-MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
