History YMMV / DokiDokiLiteratureClub

* MagnificentBitch: [[Characters/DokiDokiLiteratureClubMonika Monika]] is the president of the Literature Club who gains MediumAwareness through her position of power. Unsatisfied with being the one girl whom the player is unable to romance, she takes matters into her own hands, manipulating the game's files to bring out the worst traits in the other girls to make them less appealing. When this doesn't work and the player reaches the end without spending time with her, she restarts the game with fewer girls, [[RealityWarper reworking the game mechanics]] so the player has no choice but to choose her. When she finally gets the player all to herself, she shows herself to be a perfectly decent being who's just desperate for real attention and genuinely wants to befriend the player. When her powers end up being used against her, she immediately restores her clubmates, having kept their files' backups, and swoops in to rescue the player if her successor attempts to abuse their power as club president as she did.

* MagnificentBastard: [[Characters/DokiDokiLiteratureClubMonika Monika]] is the president of the Literature Club who gains MediumAwareness through her position of power. Unsatisfied with being the one girl whom the player is unable to romance, she takes matters into her own hands, manipulating the game's files to bring out the worst traits in the other girls to make them less appealing. When this doesn't work and the player reaches the end without spending time with her, she restarts the game with fewer girls, [[RealityWarper reworking the game mechanics]] so the player has no choice but to choose her. When she finally gets the player all to herself, she shows herself to be a perfectly decent being who's just desperate for real attention and genuinely wants to befriend the player. When her powers end up being used against her, she immediately restores her clubmates, having kept their files' backups, and swoops in to rescue the player if her successor attempts to abuse their power as club president as she did.

* CompleteMonster: In ''Plus!'': [[GreaterScopeVillain Paula Miner]], a worker in Metaverse Enterprise Solutions, is the project manager of the [=VM1=] simulator, and the [[JerkassGods creator]] of [[Characters/DokiDokiLiteratureClubMonika Monika]] and the Literature Club World. Creating the simulator, Paula gave Monika elevated awareness and studied her mental spiral, showing an acute LackOfEmpathy as Monika and the other sapient characters are placed in horrific torture, with Monika losing her sanity as she begins creating and destroying worlds while driving the other girls to mania and suicide in order to gain the player's love as well as lobotomizing MC to an empty shell. When questioned about the morality, Paula simply bristles, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman not seeing Monika and the others as human despite their sapience]] and compares them to bacteria and animals as she encourages her team to find a way to convince the higher ups that it is beneficial to the company, and decides to move on with "Project Libitina" after dozens of resets to the universe.

* MagnificentBitch: [[Characters/DokiDokiLiteratureClubMonika Monika]] is the president of the Literature Club who gains MediumAwareness through her position of power. Unsatisfied with being the one girl whom the player is unable to romance, she takes matters into her own hands, manipulating the game's files to bring out the worst traits in the other girls to make them less appealing. When this doesn't work and the player reaches the end without spending time with her, she restarts the game with fewer girls, [[RealityWarper reworking the game mechanics]] so the player has no choice but to choose her. When she finally gets the player all to herself, she shows herself to be a perfectly decent being who's just desperate for real attention and genuinely wants to befriend the player. When her powers end up being used against her, she immediately restores her clubmates, having kept their files' backups, and swoops in to rescue the player if her successor attempts to abuse their power as club president as she did.

** Some players felt that it would have been better for the story to continue in the direction it was heading before the first-act-ending twist -- rather than delving into metafictional horror, it could have been a more standard VisualNovel that explored the characters and their respective mental and emotional issues with more depth and sensitivity. Think ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' with mental illness instead of physical disability.

* ItWasHisSled: If you never played this game, but later familiarized it's actually a psychological horror game, you probably will know about those scenes of the game, in most cases due to memes: Sayori commits suicide. Yuri is a {{Yandere}} with knives. Monika is the villain and literally deletes her rivals. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Natsuki snaps her neck]].

** Ironically, The player character has languished in this territory since the game first released due to initially being seen as unlikable by much of the fandom, constantly being left out of official art and Dan Salvato stating that he doesn't even see him as an actual character. And despite finally giving a canon design that he lacked before, ''Plus'' only worsened things for him as he was rendered a complete non-factor in the Side Stories outside one passing mention by Sayori in "Trust". He was made to be unhappy and never have anything good happen to him. However, like Sayori, he has garnered sympathy over the years because of his role in the game and the constant sidelining made him more of a pitiful soul. Nowadays people see him as a victim of circumstances beyond his understanding and control who's worst crime is being a stuffy teeanger

** The green eyes, "glitch" aesthetic and psychopathic personality is essentially a much more mellow version of LetsPlay/JackSepticEye's evil persona Antisepticeye. Goes full circle when Jack does play the game and ''brings in Anti'' when the twist happens.

** The player character has languished in this territory since the game first released due to initially being seen as unlikable by much of the fandom, constantly being left out of official art and Dan Salvato stating that he doesn't even see him as an actual character. And despite finally giving a canon design that he lacked before, ''Plus'' only worsened things for him as he was rendered a complete non-factor in the Side Stories outside one passing mention by Sayori in "Trust". He was made to be unhappy and never have anything good happen to him. However, like Sayori, he has garnered sympathy over the years because of his role in the game and the constant sidelining made him more of a pitiful soul.

* CompleteMonster: In ''Plus!'': [[GreaterScopeVillain Paula Miner]], a worker in Metaverse Enterprise Solutions, is the project manager of the [=VM1=] simulator, and the [[JerkassGods creator]] of [[Characters/DokiDokiLiteratureClubMonika Monika]] and the Literature Club World. Creating the simulator, Paula gave Monika elevated awareness and studied her mental spiral, showing an acute LackOfEmpathy as Monika and the other sapient characters are placed in horrific torture, with Monika losing her sanity as she begins creating and destroying worlds while driving the other girls to mania and suicide in order to gain the player's love. When questioned about the morality, Paula simply bristles, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman not seeing Monika and the others as human despite their sapience]] and compares them to bacteria and animals as she encourages her team to find a way to convince the higher ups that it is beneficial to the company, and decides to move on with "Project Libitina" after dozens of resets to the universe.

** The player character has languished in this territory since the game first released due to initially being seen as unlikable by much of the fandom, constantly being left out of official art and Dan Salvato stating that he doesn't even see him as an actual character. And despite finally giving a canon design that he lacked before, ''Plus'' only worsened things for him as he was rendered a complete non-factor in the Side Stories outside one passing mention by Sayori in "Trust".

* {{Narm}}: While Yuri's suicide is overall disturbing and shocking, the face she makes as she stabs herself is unintentionally goofy looking, especially when her eyes roll over as she dies.

** In the Finale, Monika addresses you by your actual name, rather than the Player Character's. This is a genuinely chilling moment of TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou... ''if'' your Steam account name is your actual name, or close to it. If it ''isn't'' then the moment might at best fall flat and at worst become ''jarringly hilarious''

* EvilIsSexy: Monika is incredibly attractive, less because she's outwardly sexy, but more because she has such a [[CoolBigSis pleasant personality]] and genuinely loves the player for [[OneTrueLove who they are as a person]]. And all of this is despite her tampering with the game's code, driving Sayori and Yuri [[DrivenToSuicide to suicide]], and [[{{Unperson}} erasing Natsuki]] from existence [[LoveMakesYouEvil in the name of her love]].

* RonTheDeathEater: On the other hand of the spectrum, while many give Monika [[DracoInLeatherPants leather pants]], there are also some who exaggerate her into a stock {{yandere}} and disregard all of her sympathetic qualities. [[YMMV/MadameMacabre One version of Monika]] even managed to approve for a CompleteMonster!

** [[WebVideo/GameTheory MatPat]] claims that Monika is a WellIntentionedExtremist who wants to win the player's affections specifically so [[MagnificentBitch she could get the player to save Sayori, Yuri and Natsuki from a horror game called "Project: Libitina"]], a currently unreleased {{Defictionalization}} of "The Portrait Of Markov", a book Yuri talks about in her route. Interestingly enough, the ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiABrandNewDay'' mod has the Portrait of Markov book act as an ArtifactOfDoom; maybe [[https://www.reddit.com/user/Phathom Phathom]] (the mod's creator) is a fan of the theory?

--->'''[[WebVideo/GameGrumps Dan]]:''' I wish I didn't give this character such a dumb voice before she started, like, pouring her heart out.

** [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] expressed the following sentiment regarding Sayori's depression and subsequent suicide:
--->'''Yahtzee:''' It happens regardless of what choices you pick, which, in itself, might be an effective premise for a game about depression: [[GroundhogDayLoop constantly reliving the same few days]] trying to save her [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption and failing every time]] because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome her problems are too deep-seated to be fixed just because you accidentally felt her up on day 3]].

* CompleteMonster: Includes ''Plus!'': [[GreaterScopeVillain Paula Miner]], a worker in Metaverse Enterprise Solutions, is the project manager of the [=VM1=] simulator, and the [[JerkassGods creator]] of [[Characters/DokiDokiLiteratureClubMonika Monika]] and the Literature Club World. Creating the simulator, Paula gave Monika elevated awareness and studied her mental spiral, showing an acute LackOfEmpathy as Monika and the other sapient characters are placed in horrific torture, with Monika losing her sanity as she begins creating and destroying worlds while driving the other girls to mania and suicide in order to gain the player's love. When questioned about the morality, Paula simply bristles, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman not seeing Monika and the others as human despite their sapience]] and compares them to bacteria and animals as she encourages her team to find a way to convince the higher ups that it is beneficial to the company, and decides to move on with "Project Libitina" after dozens of resets to the universe.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: The game's themes of the nature of reality and metafiction, and the nature of the characters as virtual doesn't seem to have stopped the huge portion of the fanbase that have reported how deeply they got attached to the characters and felt a connection to them as though they were real people, even wanting to create fanworks to give them a happier ending.
** It got even better when ''Plus'' was released, as the side-stories, while taking place before the events of the main game (albeit in a separate universe not connected to the OG one), end on a GoldenEnding feeling, as all four girls manage to make true friends with one another- and it's implied that '''none''' of the disturbing events that follow Act 1's end of the main game make its way into the side-story timeline.

* CompleteMonster: Includes ''Plus!'': [[GreaterScopeVillain Paula Miner]], a worker in Metaverse Enterprise Solutions, is the project manager of the [=VM1=] simulator, and the [[JerkassGods creator]] of [[Characters/DokiDokiLiteratureClubMonika Monika]] and the Literature Club World. Creating the simulator, Paula gave Monika elevated awareness and studied her mental spiral, showing an acute LackOfEmpathy as Monika and the other sapient characters are placed in horrific torture, with Monika losing her sanity as she begins creating and destroying worlds while driving the other girls to mania and suicide in order to gain the player's love. When questioned about the morality, Paula simply bristles, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman not seeing Monika and the others as human despite their sapience]] and compares them to bacteria and animals as she encourages her team to find a way to convince the higher ups that it is beneficial to the company, and decides to move on with "Project Libitina" after dozens of resets to the universe.

* EvilIsCool: Monika may be one of the most [[NightmareFuel nightmarish]] video game villains, she is also loved for being a well-written, stylish and innovatively unique character.

** This has started to develop around MC. Despite the fact he was intended to be unlikable, he has gathered fans that sympathize him for being a socially awkward teen who witnesses the aftermath of his lifelong best friend's suicide. His detractors argue he was more an insensitive jerk then anything else and question how much he cared about Sayori (or at least how good of a friend he was).

* BetterAsALetsPlay: The game is most popular for its DisguisedHorrorStory plot twist, but most people who know anything about the game know about the twist, taking some of the impact away (though the psychological horror element still remains and there are many horrifying scenes that have not been as spoiled). Most fun comes from asking Let's Players or friends unfamiliar with the game to play it under the assumption it's just a silly dating sim, and then wait for them to reach the infamous WhamShot and freak out. Those who find the [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou interactions with the player]] too [[ParanoiaFuel unsettling]] also find more security in watching others play the game. The ParanoiaFuel has gotten so bad, that players that do get the game either play up to the end of Act 1 (or before finding Sayori's body) or just get mods where the game is kept as dating sim visual novel.

** Yuri stabbing herself with a butcher knife after the player character give his reply to her love confession. Repeatedly. This is followed by the player character watching her decaying corpse. You might expect the game to promptly go into a bad end, [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle only for Natsuki to see her corpse and vomit shortly afterwards]].

** In the Finale, Monika addresses you by your actual name, rather then the Player Characters. This is a genuinely chilling moment of TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou... ''if'' your Steam account name is your actual name, or close to it. If it ''isn't'' then the moment might at best fall flat and at worst become ''jarringly hilarious''

** It got even better when ''Plus'' was released, as the side-stories, while taking place before the events of the main game (albeit in a separate universe not connected to the OG one), end on a GoldenEnding feeling, as all four girls manage to make true friends with one another- and its implied that '''none''' of the disturbing events that follow Act 1's end of the main game make its way into the side-story timeline.

** Yuri has symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder: obsessiveness (both towards the player character and her interests), Self-Harm, bizarre sexual behavior, anxiety episodes, and mania-like symptoms. Monika's tampering pushes her into insanity, but she shows milder signs in the Act 1.