For this week’s Critical Play, I played Doki Doki Literature Club, a 2017 freeware visual novel developed by American independent game studio Team Salvato for Linux, macOS, and Windows. The target audience of this game is for adults given the psychological horror element of the game. I played this game on Windows.
The game touches on and parodies different elements of traditional dating simulators. The game’s cute and eye-catching visuals, marketing, and soundtrack, while generic, hide the game’s core elements as a psychological horror game. Initially, the characters of the game all embody common tropes found in dating simulators and anime: Sayori is the cheerful childhood friend, Yuri is shy and intellectual, Natsuki is the cute and tsundere girl, and Monika is the confident and popular leader. However, as the game progresses, each character reveals deeper, darker aspects of their personalities and struggles, particularly with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and obsessive behaviors. The depth of these characters and their divergence from the superficial stereotypes they initially represent highlight elements of feminism. However, with Monika’s self-awareness and elimination of all the other female characters in the game, we don’t get to interact with the fully fleshed out versions of these characters.
Monika’s self-awareness and the actions that she takes to gain the affection of the player reinforce the trope of women being pitted against each other for male attention. While Monika’s self-awareness and “fourth wall” abilities can be seen as a form of empowerment, it ultimately leads to the elimination of the other female characters just because of Monika’s fixation on gaining the player’s attention. Rather than reinforce this trope, the dynamic between Monika and the other female characters could have been reconstructed to offer a critique to this trope.
The popularity of the game is not the effect of feminist perspectives included in the game. The game’s novel premise, horror elements, breakage of the fourth wall, and parody-like elements have caused the game to explode in popularity. This is evident in the way that the characters are portrayed. The depiction of Sayori’s depression and suicide can be seen as a shock tactic/horror element instead of an exploration of mental health. In the feminist perspective, the struggles of the female characters should be more sensitive and realistic, focusing on understanding and support rather than for horror and plot devices.
In conclusion, Doki Doki Literature Club is a game focused on psychological horror, breaking the fourth wall, and presenting novel and parodied ideas based from traditional dating simulators. The game was not designed for the feminist to play, and could be improved if some feminist perspectives were included. Most notably, portraying the struggles of mental health issues in a different way would allow players to develop deeper understanding and empathy towards the characters. Instead of reinforcing the trope of women being pitted against each other for male attention, the game could have explored solidarity and mutual support between the female characters.
