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As I've played more then just Romance visual novels, DDLC seeming off was something I could honestly see coming a mile a way, to be frank.
edited 20th Jan '18 9:13:28 AM by Demongodofchaos2
Watch SymphogearYeah, that's obviously a bit of a tipoff, though I think that even if it weren't for that, when words like "massacre" start showing up in the poetry game it's a good clue that something isn't right.
I do kinda wish that the final act was a bit longer, though. I think Sayori starting to go down the same route as Monika would've had a bit more impact it tried more to convince you that things are "normal" again.
Reaction Image RepositoryWhy?
If she went through the trouble of bringing everyone back then what difference would it make for the normal ending to exist?
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.Yeah I was like "So why is Sayori suddenly acting like this?" IDK why she'd have the same reaction to gaining godlike powers as Monika.
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.![]()
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The warnings can be understood in many ways. I watched a LP where the streamer (who often suffers some minor trolling by his audience) took them as meaning that the game portrayed bizarre fetishes (and by bizarre, I mean "2 Girls 1 Cup" style). However, eventually he did see the game along the lines of "Katawa Shoujo for mental illness", as you said, to the point the game focusing around depression didn't catch him off-guard, and his reaction to the Sayori moment wasn't a surprised "WTF is this" most players seem to have, but an angered "Monika, this is all your fault, I'll make you pay for this".
True, but if you go to the link that the game provides, it's really clear about what specific issues are addressed.
As for the ending, I don't think it's necessarily bad that Sayori ended up in a similar position, I just think that it felt kinda rushed and could've used some more buildup. Especially since at first it appears that Sayori is actually doing better (waking up on time and such, implying that her depression is, if nothing else, not quite as bad as it was with Monika's influence).
edited 20th Jan '18 12:31:41 PM by JapaneseTeeth
Reaction Image RepositoryThe game pretty clearly explains why Sayori started acting like the way she did. She becomes obsessive over you, much like Monika, because she has the realization that you're the only real thing and the realization that everything is fake all at once. Compounded with the knowledge she gained from Acts 1 and 2 (that the only way to be happy is to be with you, and only one person can have that happiness) it's no wonder she immediately goes insane.
It's only in the Good Ending (where you go out of your way to make everyone happy) that Sayori realizes that there is happiness to be found in the literature club because she has the knowledge that everyone can be happy. Hence why she doesn't go off the deep end and Monika never has to stop anyone else from gaining that knowledge.
...alright maybe it wasnt very clearly explained, but it is entirely fitting.
edited 20th Jan '18 12:40:14 PM by EpicBleye
"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-MaeThe thing is that assumes everyone thinks the same way Monika does. If I, for example had compelling evidence that the world isn't real... I'd probably keep living my life as normal, because it's still the only thing real TO ME. Monika chasing after the player is effectively pointless because she can't actually interact with them because they're not really there. The interface of the game doesn't allow for a real relationship.
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.You're not a character from a dating based VN...
The mentality is already screwed up due to that...
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.True. But before that point Sayori had been focused on making everyone else happy, as well as dating the player. There's also the fact that if she had "seen everything" she should know that the "hijack the game so I'm the only person in it" strategy wouldn't work.
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.That seems a little alternate character interpretation going on. It feels like she gets the short end of the stick, because now she's stuck with Monika's awareness on top of remembering her death and what she did. Then Monika gets to sing a cheery song.
The ambiguity in that scene feels unnecessary. It makes the player question Sayori's motives, which is then followed up by a reassurance from Monika, making you mistrust the former and sympathize with the latter. We're clearly meant to have at least a moment of sympathy for her, which does a lot to undo her conflicted feelings.
The abusive one gets a sweet moment while her tortured victim doesn't. While I don't think the game sensationalizes mental issues and it comes from a good heart, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
My gripe is mainly that Sayori ends up going nuts in pretty much the same way Monika did. It would've been more effective (or at least more in-character) for her to either try to fight it more, or maybe just delete the game outright herself because she believes that there's no chance for it to turn out well. It's the sudden possessiveness that doesn't quite fit.
Reaction Image RepositoryHonestly I feel like they might all crack a bit, but in different ways. I'll skip over Monika since we know how she reacts:
- Sayori: Tries to rewrite the game in a way that gives everyone a happy ending, but breaks the game in the process and freaks out, eventually just deleting the whole thing on the basis that everyone would be better off that way than having her constantly screwing with them.
- Natsuki: Largely leaves things alone, but occasionally tries to tweak things in her favor, but without hurting the other girls. Unfortunately it backfires and her edits end up causing problems regardless.
- Yuri: I could kinda see her changing the other girls to make their issues more prominent, but she'd be motivated not by making them look bad, but by trying to make them more similar to herself so that they would understand her better. However, she'd feel incredibly guilty about doing so, and would try to undo it, with varying levels of success.
Of course, there's also the fact that apparently whoever the self-aware girl is subjected to some really nasty crap whenever the game is turned off; I'm not sure exactly how that would factor in. I could see that causing Sayori to just wipe the game as a result of just not wanting to have to exist like that.
I'm also curious about exactly how much information about the previous playthroughs that Sayori inherits when she becomes president. That definitely seems to factor into her breakdown at the end as well.
edited 20th Jan '18 2:21:30 PM by JapaneseTeeth
Reaction Image RepositoryFun Fact: If you delete Sayori first, the same thing will happen without the freakout.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.Well, she does seem to be the biggest thorn in Monika's side. Without her, the club goes to hell in a hurry. It's very likely Monika made the protagonist more of a jerk to make her hit the Despair Event Horizon faster. She seemed to have accelerated a bad ending to happen before it naturally should, the confession goes off fine but when the suicide happens the game starts to glitch.
From a narrative perspective, the festival is the point of no return where the protagonist would start picking a girl.
My guess is that in the "normal" version of the game (that is, one that Monika hasn't tampered with) Sayori can still kill herself, but probably only in the bad endings. Monika ramps up her depression and the protagonists treatment of her in order to guarantee that it happens.
Reaction Image RepositoryOkay, maybe "façade of an ordinary romance visual novel" is taking it a bit far. Rather, I feel that it's quite easy over the course of the long first act to start to forget some of those specific warnings, to be lulled into a sense of security. Or otherwise, to notice the various issues that the girls have and start to think that maybe it's just those that the warning covered, that this is simply a visual novel touching on some heavy psychological subjects with unusual depth.
In short, that the long first act helps to make the swerve into outright horror that bit more shocking—for some, at least.
Regarding Sayori in the "bad ending"... honestly, I'm likewise not sure that it fits her character.
Okay, I suspect that the game enforces the girls falling for the protagonist. (And Sayori would then already be in love with the protagonist at the start—presuming that she isn't even without the game's influence.) Thus I can see her focus on the protagonist becoming transferred to the player once she discovers the nature of her world, and the presence of the player.
But I don't think that she's as driven as I think that Monika is. Thus I suspect that she's less likely to go to the lengths that Monika did. She also seems to be more of a "people-person", and more given to making others happy. So perhaps instead of attempting to push the player away from Yuri and Natsuki, she might push them together instead, leaving her as the only girl actually available.
As to Yuri or Natsuki gaining the insight of the president, I suspect that Yuri might somewhat psychologically implode. I imagine her obsessing over the nature of her universe, or perhaps the effects of any changes that she makes, until she either cracks, or... does something similar to her second-act ending.
Natsuki... I suspect that she'd make some edits to improve her life, especially her home-life. I also imagine everyone in the school proudly proclaiming manga as "True Literature". ;)
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And, as Not-So-Grump Dan notes in, I think, part 23 after they come back from a break, most of the Foreshadowing is only recognizable in hindsight.
There's entire compilations of Dan, who went in to the game blind, saying things that are almost prophetic. My favorite, often overlooked, is the first episode's end bumper, where giving Monika Robo-Speak was his idea.
edited 20th Jan '18 8:00:06 AM by sgamer82