YMMV / Doki Doki Takeover!

• Abandon Shipping: While it was already beginning to die down with the release of the mod's Takeover update, the Monika and Senpai Crossover Ship was abandoned entirely after the Side Story song "Wilted" was released.
• Awesome Music: The mod masterfully remixes and mashes up the songs from both games.
  • "Gettin' Doki", the main menu theme, cleverly combines both the theme songs, "Getting Freaky" and "Your Reality" into one.
  • "High School Conflict" nicely introduces the prologue with a cheery beat with different DDLC leitmotifs.
  • "Your Demise" remixes "Thorns" to plunge the week through the dark turn of Monika's attempted takeover.
  • "Poems n' Thorns" is a bouncy, upbeat soundtrack as beautifully dynamic as the duo you sing against.
  • "Dual Demise", in a similar vein, has a relative myriad of vocals and doesn't lose its cohesion throughout.
  • While all four of the Encore songs are amazing in their own right, props have to go to "Our Harmony" for serving as an amazing send-off to the week, with all four of the main girls singing together. The cherry on top is the lyrical solo performed by carimelle herself right at the end of the song.
  • All four variations of "You and Me" are really powerful and amazing in their own right, accompanying the main story's final moments with a big solo from MC before having him duet with whichever Doki you choose at the midway point.
  • "Epiphany" is intense enough to accompany the muck of the mod as Monika desperately tries to sing with you eternally. It even has its own little piano solo!
  • Accompanying the base mod's true final moments is "Libitina", which is fast and frantic as a swansong to Doki Doki Takeover! and everything it had been through to get to this point, rounding everything off with somebody else outside of the DDLC universe entirely and ending everything on a bittersweet note.
  • The Bad Ending songs relentlessly add to the mod's horror in their own unique ways:
    • "Stagnant" starts off concealing the introductory tone of dread with a cheerful tune, before its atmosphere frays away and reveals the monstrosity of Sayori's suicidal depression, as well as her despair in clinging to her "happy thoughts".
    • "Markov" delightfully showcases the pinnacle of Yuri's insanity in song form. It begins in a slow, distorted fashion before plunging into a frantic melody, and climaxes with a hellish-paced beat. While it ends with Yuri's inevitable death, the entire song as a whole is widely considered the best of the three Bad Ending songs.
    • "HOME" is perhaps the most emotional of the three; the first half paints the perfect image of a losing battle with dark-sounding bass and drums, before nose-diving straight into frantic-speedcore hell at the midpoint, coinciding with Girlfriend's death and Boyfriend crashing hard through the Despair Event Horizon in response, before finally ending on a quiet, somber note of finality.
• Broken Base: Whether "Bara no Yume" is better than "Dreams Of Roses" or not, though both sides understand why Dreams of Roses was replaced. On the other hand, the consensus has been "Poems n' Thorns" has surpassed both of them.
• Crossover Ship: Monika and Senpai. In this mod, they seem to get along more like platonic friends, however some fans interpret their relationship as either siblings or romantic partners. This is gradually broken come the "Wilted" side story, with Monika's trust in Senpai withering after witnessing him undergoing the same epiphany she did.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Each of the three "Monika and Senpai vs. Boyfriend" songs each have a theme they're based around.
    • "Dreams of Roses", the original second song of the Prologue, uses the backing track of Roses often, pinpointing Senpai's arrogant It's All About Me attitude to wanting to get back at Boyfriend for being humiliated last time in the base game.
    • "Bara No Yume", the new second song of the Prologue, has a more worrying tone to it, foreshadowing the consequences that were to come out of Senpai's interruption.
    • "Poems n' Thorns", a Free Play song, is the most light-hearted of the three, demonstrating the silly nature of the fighting between Monika and Senpai to sing with Boyfriend.
  • Natsuki's week is the only one in the mod prior to Monika's intervention that doesn't go into Disguised Horror Story territory compared to Sayori and Yuri. This makes sense, since Natsuki was hardly tampered with in the base game, so her glitches aren't as deadly as the other two, but still unsettling enough, as seen a little later.
  • In the case of Benjamin, his character description mentions that, though he doesn't know how he got into the DDLC world, he hoped that the girls he meets would be nice to him. It makes sense that they most likely would, considering he shares a trait with each one in some form.
    • He and Sayori have the commonality of being The Heart amongst their companions, as well as each going through some form of mental disorder that they each take steps to overcome.
    • He and Natsuki both have rough home lives, and while the nature of Natsuki's dad's abuse is up to theory and speculation, Benjamin's abuse from his parents was played alarmingly straight.
    • He and Yuri are each the shy Shrinking Violet in their homes, usually trying to avoid overwhelming activities, though able to open up to their companions in full.
    • Finally, Benjamin and Monika share the trait of, not only being the poster boy or girl of their place of origin, but also going through their own journeys to overcome the pain of their past. In Benjamin's case, it was overcoming his abuse and exposing the cruel nature of his parents in public, and for Monika, it was moving on from the mistakes of her past and redeeming herself through this mod's events.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With Vs Sonic.exe due to the Common Crossover of making covers of the song "Triple Trouble", with the DDLC crew being the most popular candidates. The relationship grew stronger when a user named Cycoxius03, who had already made a cover of "Triple Trouble" with custom sprites, eventually created a full reskin mod replacing the Sonic characters with versions of Monika, Sayori, Natsuki and Yuri that resemble their respective characters.
  • Thanks to the appearance of Jill Stingray in this mod, it encouraged players to be introduced to and to check out VA-11 HALL-A for themselves, which really made DusterBuster happy.
• Funny Moments:
  • It's hilarious watching Monika and Senpai fight over the microphone just like two siblings fighting over who gets the TV remote.
  • The way the Background Freaks are angry once more, but not at Senpai this time. Rather, they're highly jealous of Monika for being able to get within touching range of Senpai, even if she didn't intend on it. This jealousy even carries on after the Prologue's conclusion.
  • Senpai's glorious reaction to Monika leaving Hating Simulator to return to her own game.
    Senpai: ...and just like that, the only one to ever truly intrigue me has left in a flash. Ah, woe is me!
    (Beat)
    Senpai: (now angry) ...what am I saying? This shit sucks.
  • Because of her Tsundere nature, it can be seen as funny by some to Natsuki's reactions to getting called cute by some characters during her week.
  • By the conclusion of the "Love n' Funkin'" side story, Girlfriend has made a complete love song for Boyfriend with help from the Dokis. When she shows them the song, however... Well, let's just say this is why Friday Night Funkin' isn't a kids game. Yikes!
    Monika: ...I wasn't expecting you to write something so... explicit.
    Natsuki: Eugh, eww!!! Why did you write that?! I don't need to know what you and your boyfriend do at night!
    Yuri: I'm... curious as to what inspired you to write down several verses about 'The blood of your enemies'.
    Sayori: Eheheh... Ehhhhh... Maybe next time, try to keep things more school-appropriate.
  • Sayori revealing to have made an Odd Friendship with Zipper, a savage creature. Considering she's seen to be hugging Bob, who's considered very powerful in his mod, who knows who else she could befriend without problems? Natsuki is pretty quick to Freak Out seeing Zipper.
    Natsuki: PUT THAT THING BACK WHERE IT CAME FROM OR SO HELP ME-!
  • During "Catfight", Sayori tries to get a say in the song during the last minute from the speakers, but is quickly interrupted by Natsuki and Yuri at the same time, sighing and opting to instead let the two cool off on their own while she watches the rest of the fight.
  • As horrifying as the Datastream sub-mod is to go through, one of the randomly-picked window header messages can cause some accidental Mood Whiplash. The message in question? "o r l a n d o f l o r i d a".
• Harsher in Hindsight: According to Word of God, BF and GF love each other so much, that they would die if they can't be together. Come Girlfriend dying in "Home", and we can see that Boyfriend really can't live without her.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Two days after the mod's release on June 9th, 2021, it was confirmed that Doki Doki Literature Club! will be ported to PC and consoles with new content.
  • On April 30th, Blantados, a Youtuber famous for his Friday Night Funkin' song covers and remixes, made a cover of "Your Reality" in the form of Monika and Senpai singing it FNF-style, with the video itself titled "Monika and Senpai Sing One Last Song Together". Come the full release of this mod, and the song gets put in as a bonus song.
  • Due to being The Unfought throughout the mod, MC has had several fans give him his own chromatic scale based on his voice actor and even had him star in a few covers. Come the final trailer for DDTO+, and it is revealed that MC is going to be getting his own songs, including one for during the Festival week.
  • In Hotline 024, one secret song involved Monika and Yuri going up against Nikku, based on both songs that Saruky composed for Doki Doki Takeover!. Once the Plus update came out, this came full-circle with a menu animation in the same vein as the song, and an unlockable costume based on Rude#1 for the Protagonist.
  • In HoloFunk, the mod's old (and now-disowned) story featured an alternate Pico who was a blatant Deconstructed Character Archetype/Corrupted Character Copy of Soft Pico who hated Aloe and Boyfriend's idolization of her for being a demon, and his presence was meant to be a constant source of drama in the background. The Plus update's guest cast features both HoloFunk and Soft to the point of allowing Mano Aloe and Soft Pico to be in the same room through costumes — a rather amusing sight when the former mod's old story would have had at least one of them trying to rip the other's head off in the same situation.
• Nightmare Retardant: The Bad Ending becomes a lot less scary after failing, as the standard blueballs Mic Drop game over is left unchanged despite the complete change in tone, leading to lots of unintentional Mood Whiplash. The final update to Bad Ending manages to fix this by adding unique Game Over sequences that keep with the creepier theme.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Most of the mod is perfectly fine, though in the Plus update, Bara No Yume was updated to be even better in action. It's fitting that its instrumental is used in the update's final trailer as well, setting the scene for a truly climatic story.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: Bad Ending, despite not having as many songs or any instant death notes, definitely is harder than Takeover in all aspects thanks to the far more complex charting and lightning fast scroll speed. The only song that could be potentially harder than the three in Bad Ending in the base mod would be "Epiphany".
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: Doki Doki Takeover, due to being a Lighter and Softer turn after the horrendous and traumatic events of Doki Doki Literature Club!. If you weren't happy with the (at best bittersweet) Downer Ending of the original DDLC, then seeing all the Doki girls and boy in better spirits, along with no longer being restrained by the confines of their Visual Novel world, is certain to raise your spirits, especially with songs like "Our Harmony". It's for this reason why Bad Ending is made into a separate mod disconnected from DDTO — due to veering hard into the other direction.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Senpai getting upset when Monika leaves Hating Simulator can come off as this, as from his perspective, the one girl that fascinated him has suddenly left.
    Senpai: Ah, woe is me! (Beat) What am I saying? This shit sucks.
    • Senpai's attempts to get Monika to return his feelings in "Wilted", only for her to reject him and leave. While Monika had her reasons for doing so, it's hard not to feel bad for Senpai. The piano music at the end doesn't help.
  • In the Bad Ending, Monika is unable to get back into Doki Doki Literature Club. She's clearly on the verge of tears as she tries and fails to find a way back in, only to realize there's nothing she can do.
    "Okay... hold on. Maybe this? [...] No... ...why?! N-Nothing's working! This... This can't be happening... (starts sobbing) It's all my fault..."
  • And sure enough, the Bad Ending delivers on being, well, a bad ending for the story. It literally ends with everyone within the visual novel world dying, and Monika being stuck in a state of nothingness, forever.
  • In the middle of "HOME", Girlfriend suddenly dies, and Boyfriend completely loses it, becoming just as broken as Natsuki with clear tears streaming down his face. The final shot of the mod is Boyfriend tearfully on the speakers holding Girlfriend's body, with Natsuki, Yuri, and Sayori's bodies underneath them.
  • The aftermath of the "Datastream" sub-mod has Monika finally realising that the player isn't helping her situation at all, bitterly shaming them before permanently closing the mod.
    "... So that's it... You aren't going to help me, are you... ... This is all just some game to you, I know. You just get to play this over and over again to your heart's content. You don't get it, do you? ... You're cruel... You're nothing like him... And I still hope that one day... ... Maybe I'll be able to meet him... Escaping this hell I'm always trapped inside. Deleted, brought back, reset, corrupted... Over and over again with no end in sight... ... You could have saved me. You could have done SOMETHING! ... I'll go now. Please don't bring me back."
  • In official lore for the D-Sides variant of Doki Doki Takeover!, in the fighting game the girls originate from, Monika is programmed to be a Final Boss that's Unwinnable by Design, always being able to counter any attack thrown at her flawlessly. Unfortunately, she found herself Lonely at the Top, eventually wishing someone would be able to beat her.
• That One Achievement: Any costume that requires the completion of a song with at least 90% accuracy is this in spades. In order to get such a score, the player is essentially tasked with near-perfecting each song in question, and all of said songs tend to be some of the more note-intensive ones such as the Festival week songs. It can be very frustrating for players to be forced to redo an entire song just for messing up once. There is at least a bit of mercy though: Freeplay allows you to reduce the speed of each song, which can make some songs easier to clear.
• That One Level: While the mod is generally rather easy compared to most, not every song is quite so merciful, even excluding Epiphany.
  • The third song in the game, Your Demise can easily trip up unsuspecting players. It introduces the Markov notes that will instantly kill you no matter how well you've been doing before, and they are EVERYWHERE in fast 2+ minute-long Plus version. Even worse for completionists is that in order to unlock Boyfriend's Blue Skies costumes, finishing this song with 90% accuracy is required to do so as stated above.
  • Despite its silly premise, the Side Story Catfight can be an extremely rough time. Regardless of who you side with the song is extremely fast and note-heavy, and it only amps up more and more the further you go in the song.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: While most understand why the song was replaced, "Bara no Yume" is seen as a downgrade from "Dreams of Roses", due to it being slower and way too serious for a song about Senpai and Monika fighting over a microphone. Its remake does resolve some of these problems, however.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Senpai remains in Hating Simulator while Monika heads back to her game, and disappears from the plot afterward. Taking Senpai with her could have allowed for very interesting dynamics with the rest of the Literature Club, in addition to the possibility of bringing him to the real world alongside the girls... and what that would in turn mean for Spirit. This is explored in the "Wilted" side story, however.
  • The Protagonist was originally a victim to this before the Plus update, as before that update he only appeared as a cameo in the main menu and the cutscenes for the Festival week, and lacked his own song.
  • Strangely, despite a cover of "Crucify" being available and Yuri having Taki's outfit as an option, as well as Benjamin and Soft Pico being available alongside a cover of "It's Complicated", Cesar and Tea make no appearance here whatsoever, not even as alternate skins for Boyfriend and Girlfriend. This could most likely be due to the fact that they are based off of real people, unlike with Benjamin and Soft Pico.
  • Only Boyfriend, Girlfriend and Sayori have Minus counterparts that can be used in-game. Monika's counterpart only makes an appearance in the menu, with Yuri and Natsuki's counterparts being completely absent.
  • Natsuki's the only opponent to appear in the D-Sides spinoff, with Monika, Sayori, and Yuri's D-sides counterparts being completely absent.
• Unexpected Character: Of all people, who expected Jill Stingray of VA-11 HALL-A to make an appearance in this mod?
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Senpai. While he still acted like a jerk to Boyfriend, and Monika did have her reasons for rejecting Senpai's feelings (her trust in him breaking when he undergoes the same epiphany she originally did), the cutscenes after "Your Demise", "My Confession" and "Baka" make it clear that Senpai genuinely had a crush on her, and is utterly heartbroken when she leaves him in "Wilted".
• The Woobie: Every single character involved in the Bad Ending is one, but special mention goes to Monika, with her failing to save her friends from going insane and is thus not only Forced to Watch as her world falls apart, but she becomes trapped in code for all eternity.

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