Board 8 > Doki Doki Literature Club

(+) Yeah! (+)

So is this just a cool gimmick or is this game legitimately worth playing if you're already aware of the direction it takes?

Just watched the Honest Game Trailer for it and I'm intrigued.
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It's okay

If nothing else it's short and free
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I think there are enough awesome individual moments to make it worthwhile but I say this as a pretty big VN fan. It's only about 3 or 4 hours long depending on your reading speed, in any case, so not too much commitment.
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As someone who didn't particularly care for it, I would say it's worth experiencing, if not just for the mild cultural insight.
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part 1 is individually good for what it is

part 2 is individually great for what it is

the two don't... really... work together to form a cohesive theme. it just seems like the author had the idea to do a story that swerves and turns into something else, and so he did both things. the good thing is that the writer was good enough that both parts are individually pretty good at doing what they set out to do.

overall, there's a risk that when you get to the end you might feel like the entire story was pointless and had no message even if it was entertaining to read many of the scenes. I'd still recommend reading it. the end credits are also really cool. similar to Portal I feel like watching the end credits was the best part and improved the entire experience for me.

part 3 is very short and doesn't really add much. I'd say it takes away from part 2 but this goes along with the story not really having a cohesive direction or theme. they just wanted to come up with a way to undo the part 2 ending and I don't think they put much thought into the implications.
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I wasn't impressed. It's not particularly scary, the "issues" that emerge (one girl has depression, another cuts herself, a third has an abusive father) are more suited to a realistic contemporary teen story than a horror game, and none of the characters are likable enough for it to have any emotional heft. Also you have to sit through a lot of insipid club scenes before anything remotely interesting happens.

I can see it being effective to someone who goes in blind, but knowing about the gimmick beforehand, it didn't do anything for me.
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yeah that's the problem with the part 1/2 dissonance, drak. like if they just continued on from part 1 naturally and explored those issues I have confidence the author would have done it really well. and if they just wanted to do the part 2 stuff, then the part 1 stuff fails as an effective set up in any sense other than wanting to pull the rug out from under the reader.
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Janus5k posted...

It's okay

If nothing else it's short and free

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It's only worth playing if you know what direction it takes (unless you've been spoiled a lot, in which case don't bother)

But really only the first act is really good and interesting... the latter parts drag and don't reach their full potential
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That's too bad. It seemed like it could have an Eternal Darkness quality to it.
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I really enjoyed the second half of the game. It kinda is like Eternal Darkness in that all this shit happens and then none of the rest of the game even acknowledges that anything out of the ordinary is happening. It's just a roller coaster of emotion.
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