History VisualNovel / DokiDokiLiteratureClub

* RealityWarper: Monika gradually gains increasingly intense shades of this, given her ability to create interface screws and mess with the game files. Note that ''she'' isn't affected by any of them, just the rest of the cast, even ones that should logically affect her (such as the above DutchAngle moment).

On June 30, 2021, an UpdatedRerelease titled ''Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!'' was released for PC and consoles, adding side stories and bonus content along with HD graphics, and [[UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} Unity]]-based.

** Deleting Monika during act 3 for this first time also nets you the "Kill Everyone" achievement, which clearly shows that Monika [[NeverMyFault is trying to pin the blame on you]].

* OminousVisualGlitch: The game is free of glitches until Sayori commits suicide. Suddenly the music distorts in tandem with the screen bugging out. The game then seemingly resets and all hell breaks loose as Sayori in the main menu is replaced by a glitched amalgamation of the other three girls, the "New Game" button is gibberish and upon starting, Sayori's name is unreadable. Then the game resets ''again'', this time with Sayori completely missing. Suddenly Monika glitch-teleports onto the screen, taking Sayori's role in inviting the protagonist to the club...and it only ''gets worse'' from there.

** Finally, there is the "Bad" ending, done by deleting Monika's or Sayori's character file ''before'' starting a new game. Like with the GoldenEnding, Sayori inherits Monika's powers and awareness in her place...only this time she ''flips the hell out'', deletes everyone and crashes the game. Restarting the game shows it in a broken state, showing only Sayori's hanging corpse in monochrome. Waiting 10 minutes here reveals text saying that maybe the girls can finally be happy in oblivion. Once again the game isn't playable without a reinstall, but frankly after pulling a stunt like ''that'', maybe it's just better to let them rest.

-->'''Monika:''' By the way, there's something that's been bothering me... You know how this takes place in Japan? Well...I assume you knew that, right? Or at least decided it probably does? I don't think you're actually told at any point where this takes place... [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Is this even really Japan?]] I mean, [[CreatorProvincialism aren't the classrooms and stuff kind of weird for a Japanese school?]] Not to mention [[TranslationConvention everything is in English]]... It feels like everything is just there because it needs to be, and the actual setting is an afterthought. It's kind of giving me an identity crisis.

...yes, it's one of ''[[DisguisedHorrorStory those]]'' games.

* DaylightHorror: Being a DatingSim, everything happens during the day, and almost all of the horrifying things in the game happen in bright, well-lit places while the game maintains its cheery facade.

* '''Natsuki''': [[{{Tsundere}} A cute girl with a strong sour side to her]]. Like you, she enjoys reading manga and picks up any genre of it in a snap.

On June 11, 2021, an UpdatedRerelease titled ''Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!'' was announced for PC and consoles, adding side stories and bonus content along with HD graphics, and [[UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} Unity]]-based. It was released on June 30, 2021.

On January 2, 2020, [[https://twitter.com/dansalvato/status/1212758463169880065 Dan Salvato announced that there would be new added content for the game]]. On June 11, 2021, an UpdatedRerelease titled ''Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!'' was announced for PC and consoles, adding side stories and bonus content along with HD graphics, and [[UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} Unity]]-based. It was released on June 30, 2021.

-->'''Yuri:''' I'll even touch myself while reading it over and over.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: "Doki Doki" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a loud heartbeat. Given how the game originally presents itself as a love story, it makes sense in that context, but it also still fits following the GenreShift into horror, considering how fear can also cause an elevated heart rate.

** Monika: '''Existential crisis'''. Monika is fully aware that she is a side character in a DatingSim, and as much as she loves the Literature Club, she has trouble seeing other characters as human because [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman she knows they're just computer files]]. She desperately clings to the player character because they're the closest thing to "real" in her life, an unhealthy mindset made worse when the game's {{Railroading}} keeps pushing her ''away'' from the player character.

%% THE LACONIC PAGE AND THE TOP OF THE DRINKING GAME PAGE ARE THE SOLE EXCEPTIONS.

!!Due to the SpoileredRotten nature of the game, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff all spoilers are unmarked]]. For a summary of what it's like without any plot details (itself the ONLY marked spoiler allowed for the work page group for this game), see the [[Laconic/DokiDokiLiteratureClub Laconic page]].

On January 2, 2020, [[https://twitter.com/dansalvato/status/1212758463169880065 Dan Salvato announced that there would be new added content for the game]]. On June 11, 2021, an UpdatedRerelease titled ''Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!'' was announced for PC and consoles, adding side stories and bonus content along with HD graphics, and [[UsefulNotes/{{Unity}} Unity]]-based. It was released on June 30.

* AbusiveParents: Downplayed with Natsuki's father, at least in Act 1 where he just appears to be a somewhat absent, but still stern figure who seemingly disapproves of his daughter's "immature" manga-collecting hobby and apparently worries about her eating habits (something which might be well-intended but obviously just serves to make Natsuki's psychological issues worse). It is then played straight in Act 2, where he turns outright neglectful and psychologically abusive, which is implied to be a result of Monika tampering with him.

!!Due to the nature of the game, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff all spoilers are unmarked]]. [[SpoileredRotten It is practically impossible to discuss this game without spoiling the whole thing]]. The original game is free to play and shorter than many other visual novels, so it is strongly recommended that you download it [[http://ddlc.moe/ HERE]] and play it before continuing further. For a summary of what it's like without any plot details (itself the ONLY marked spoiler allowed for the work page group for this game), see the [[Laconic/DokiDokiLiteratureClub Laconic page]].

* RefugeeFromTVLand: Revealed to be Monika's ultimate goal. Having [[NoticingTheFourthWall Noticed the Fourth Wall]] and become [[{Yandere}} obsessed]] with the player, she wants to escape from the game and enter our world.

** Midway through Act 1, Sayori begins acting quiet and avoiding the main character. When you ask Monika about it, she not so coyly suggests that it has something to do with you specifically. GenreSavvy players are probably expecting that Sayori is falling in love with the main character and/or is jealous if they've been spending a lot of time with the other girls. Sayori herself even seems to lampshade this when asked about it, as she replies -- seemingly embarrassed -- that she has to say it out loud, with everything seemingly leading up to a love confession. However, while she is in love with the main character, that's not the reason she's acting strangely: in an abrupt (and brutal) subversion of dating sim story structure, it turns out she has crippling depression and struggles to even get out of bed in the morning...and someone just happened to tamper her files to amp up its scale.

** Though she pretends not to for the majority of the game, Monika can remember Act 1 of the game even once it's essentially retconned, and can clearly remember characters and events who've been deleted.
** After Monika deletes herself, Sayori gets this retroactively, gaining knowledge of everything that happened and what the player did up to that point. The requirements for the GoldenEnding rely on this since she knows if you [[SaveScumming went out of your way to help all of the girls]].
* RuleOfEmpathy: After you delete Monika's character file, she remarks how much you must have hated her to drive you to that point; as such, she has a HeelRealization and restores the character files so you can play without her. This makes Sayori the club president, and if you got the best ending, this prevents her from [[GoMadFromTheRevelation going mad too]].
* RuleOfScary: While the increasingly demented events make sense by the time the plot is revealed, you can hardly say that about all the details. Okay, so the game interface is glitching because Monika is messing with it, and the same goes for the other characters' minds, but their [[EyeScream eyes]] doing it too? That's got to be there solely for the reason that it will freak you out.

* RunningGag: Monika being a MomentKiller, constantly walking in and interrupting intimate moments between you and whoever you're romancing.

* SanitySlippage: Following Sayori's death, ''the game itself'' experiences a form of this, replaying its original scenes with Sayori's absence, though its integrity begins to fray as music distorts, visuals glitch out, and poems turn ever darker. Yuri also undergoes it as her obsessive personality gets cranked over the top by Monika and she turns into a psychotic {{Yandere}}.

* ExcitedShowTitle: The title has an exclamation point, referencing this trope's prevalence in Japanese media and tying in with the game's nature as a DisguisedHorrorStory.

** A single heartwarming speech by the player character at the end of Act 1 is not enough to get rid of Sayori's depression or to keep her from committing suicide. Although "reality" might be a bit of a stretch when it comes to the suicide considering it was essentially a PsychicAssistedSuicide, the point still stands: these thoughts and ideas aren't something a person can get rid of easily without extensive external help.

** The protagonist reaction to Sayori revealing her depression is mainly being confused and dumbfounded. While it may be easy to get mad at him over it, he's only an anti-social high schooler who's never spent a day studying clinical psychology because he never expected his childhood friend to go through such turmoil.

* LateArrivalSpoiler: The description for DDLC+ casually reveals the game's true nature.

** The marketing for the ''Plus'' edition outright admits that the game is psychological horror (in an almost ironic fashion, contrasting cutesy art and music with it), as it is a paid purchase and Salvato wouldn't want to mislead people into spending money on a game they thought was a cutesy dating sim. It doesn't exactly spoil what the horror elements ''are'', but it also primarily features Monika on the website, and the physical edition's box art features, well, just Monika.

* WalkingSpoiler: The game itself is an example of this trope, since it's nigh-on impossible to discuss in detail without revealing its true nature, and thus is best enjoyed either going in blind, or watching another play the game blind.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Mentioned and played for horror in Act 2. As Yuri undergoes SanitySlippage and her dialogue becomes more frantic and distorted, she reveals some uncomfortable details about what she has been doing with a pen dropped by the player character. Even before this, she tells the player character that she will take his poem to her room and masturbate repeatedly while reading it.

* Totally18: All the characters in the game are 18, as claimed by Dan Salvato in [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/389567762143379458/400781271883841547/1508196969537.png a Discord post]]. However, according to the DDLC Fan Pack, the original concept of the game had Natsuki as a first-year student and Yuri as a third-year, with MC, Sayori and Monika in second year. Some minor inconsistencies regarding the characters' ages carried over from this concept into the final game.[[note]]Near the start of the game, the protagonist mentions he rarely visits the third-year classrooms near the Literature Club. He also says Natsuki looks like a first-year student, therefore pointing to him, Sayori and Monika not being in third year. Also, a few throwaway lines by Sayori and Monika make it sound like graduation are college are still far away for them. And, in Monika's story about how Yuri brought wine to school, she says she doesn't condone ''underage'' drinking.[[/note]]
** DDLC Plus cements that all characters are 18 by adding a disclaimer, and changes a couple of the lines mentioned in the note above above. Regardless, the only sexual content in the game is [[SkirtsAndLadders the protagonist accidentally seeing up Natsuki's skirt when she's climbing]][[note]]nothing explicit is shown[[/note]] and Yuri mentioning [[ADateWithRosiePalms touching herself]].

* NoPronunciationGuide: Monika's name. You'd assume it was "MO-nee-ka," but the squid joke Natsuki makes at one point suggests that the "N" is its own syllable, "MO-n-ee-ka," which is awkward and doesn't make much sense. Of course, Monika says that's not how it's pronounced right away.

* LostInTranslation: There's a pun on Monika's name and the Japanese word for squid, "ika", which Monika then notes doesn't make sense in translation. This is ironic as the game was originally written in English.

* PlotHole: If Natsuki does so much baking, how is her dad supposed to be starving her? Of course, this plot hole is actually justified by it being one of Monika's clumsy rewrites, purely done to make Natsuki look bad and herself look good to the player when she kindly offers her a cereal bar.

* TotallyEighteen: All the characters in the game are 18, as claimed by Dan Salvato in [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/389567762143379458/400781271883841547/1508196969537.png a Discord post]]. However, according to the DDLC Fan Pack, the original concept of the game had Natsuki as a first-year student and Yuri as a third-year, with MC, Sayori and Monika in second year. Some minor inconsistencies regarding the characters' ages carried over from this concept into the final game.[[note]]Near the start of the game, the protagonist mentions he rarely visits the third-year classrooms near the Literature Club. He also says Natsuki looks like a first-year student, therefore pointing to him, Sayori and Monika not being in third year. Also, a few throwaway lines by Sayori and Monika make it sound like graduation are college are still far away for them. And, in Monika's story about how Yuri brought wine to school, she says she doesn't condone ''underage'' drinking.[[/note]]

[[caption-width-right:350: "Will I really be happy spending every day after school in a literature club? Perhaps I'll have the chance to grow closer to one of these girls…"[[note]]Left to right: [[CuteClumsyGirl Sayori]], [[ShrinkingViolet Yuri]], [[CoolBigSis Monika]], and [[TheNapoleon Natsuki]] [[/note]] ]]

-->'''Sayori:''' ''(to Natsuki)'' I always judge people so hard!\\

-->'''Protagonist:''' (wakes up to see Sayori close to his face) Uwaa--! (gets startled, nearly falls off his chair)\\