doki doki literature club spoilers

Yuki’s Path to Doki Doki Literature Club’s Good Ending – Round 1: Sayori

You know, I truly believe that you can earn your happy ending in life – but only if you work and grind your ass off for it. Video games (with multiple endings) drive this point home hard. If you truly want that happy ending, then you have to go through hell to obtain it. Doki Doki Literature Club is no expectation. In order to get the game’s true/golden ending, we gotta go through hell first. Well, okay we already went through hell once. Let’s do it again.

‘Paradise starts in hell.’
-Tim Grover

To start, I’m going to tackle Sayori’s route first. There’s a CG I have yet to obtain (at the time of this writing) from her route. Plus, her cheerful attitude grown on me. The too pure cinnamon bun thing, ya know? Also, gonna name myself after my PC (“OWNER) to see if Monika detects that lol.

Let me say this: Thank god for the skip text option. Because fuck; I ain’t spending another two hours of my life reading all that bullshit in her route. For some situations, I did read some of her lines and what others have to say about Sayori. It’s strange: when you consume media for the first time, you do not pick up on the subtle clues the creator(s) hid within the art. It’s only when you consume and experience it multiple times is when you start to pick up on the things that were once hidden. Seeing how Sayori wanted to cheer everyone up to hide her depression and pain not only made sense, it was heartbreaking.

Monika mentioned that it was surprising to read Sayori’s poems on the topic of sadness as it was opposite to her normal cheerful personality. Saying the obvious (Sayori conceals her depression from the club) is stupid so I won’t go into those details. It does make you think about the people in your lives who are always happy and want to cheer everyone up.

Are they truly happy, or is their happiness a mask to hide their pain to make people not worry about them?

DDLC 2018-03-22 02-08-20-49.png — “I could sleep forever.” That was the first clue.

Skipping through the dialogue I came across one of the two most important choices I need to make for this route: Would I rather walk back home with Sayori or Yuri. In my original walkthrough, I selected Yuri (personal bias). That was one of the catalyze that worsen Sayori’s depression. In retrospect, I can understand how that fucked with Sayori’s head. I am not a mental health expert or anything, but seeing how Sayori reacted to that, I can only guess that she felt that she was a burden to the MC as well as her feeling worthless. She probably started to overthink the situation and believed MC was pushing her away to hang out with Yuri (or any other club member). Again, I do not know if that how depression works.

If anyone could be kind enough to correct me let me know.

I went with the “I’d still walk with Sayori” option. I think I’m doing well. I hope. The third round of poem writing seems to get harder. The dark and depressing words seem to relate to Yuri more than Sayori, but I still got reactions from Sayori. I’m starting to think the game knows I’m save scumming lol. The day after, the club starts to prep for the festival. Sayori is sitting alone as normal with her head bury in her desk.

At this point, you can sense that her depression is hitting harder as she once again does her façade of trying to make her crew not worry about her. Perhaps it is because I am more in tune with my emotional/creative side of my brain, but I can’t help but feel bad about her and think about my friends who are battling depression. Honestly, that shit breaks my heart and I feel helpless when I can’t help my friends feel better about themselves because of how cruel mental health illnesses are.

Maybe that’s why her character has grown on me on this second playthrough. Ha.

You know you’re dedicated to getting a good end when you panic and freak out thinking you fucked up. When the MC goes to Sayori house to check up on her, I started to think “Oh shit I made a mistake this is the suicide scene!”. Then I remember that scene came a little bit later in the game so I still have time to do my save scum shit. But nah, the first time MC goes over to Sayori’s house, she reveals that she has lifelong depression.

This could be fate or just by chance, but I had my hip-hop instrumental playlist playing in the background. The next song in the cycle was 2pac’s Pain from the movie Above The Rim. Fitting. Sayori dealt with (mental) pain all her life. We’re now seeing her tell her best friend about it. There’s a sample from one of the Star Trek movies that are used in Pain. I think it goes: “‘I couldn’t help but noticed your pain!’” “’My pain?’” “’It runs deep – share it with me!’”

(If I could get away with it, I would make a music mod of DDLC that uses 90s hip-hop music. Pain would be perfect for Sayori revealing her depression to MC).

‘Why do we die at an early age?
‘Why there’s so much pain?’
‘Tired of the strain and the pain’

Yea. Those lines work well with DDLC.

For preparations for the festival, I selected Natsuki to help me out . I have yet to have any interactions with me from my first run through so I thought it would be best to check her shit out. But since this is a Sayori-centric path, I’m gonna save my notes/thoughts on Natsuki for her path. I do like Natsuki’s softer side though and she seems mellower than what she puts out on the surface. Mellow Natsuki best Natsuki.

(I will like to say that the instrumental of Drake’s “Pound Cake” goes well with the baking scene between MC and Natsuki. Yes. Puns were intended.)

Now, finally, I arrived at the single most important point of this path; Telling Sayori if I love her or if I should put her in the friend zone. In a normal run-through (without a guide), either decision led to Sayori’s suicide. In that regard, telling Sayori you love her only to have her kill herself the next day hurts harder than simply telling her that she is your best friend. Pretty fucked honestly. In any case, I manage to unlock two CGs I needed for this path for the golden ending so I’m gonna dip out.

Next: Natsuki.

By Yuki The Snowman Posted on May 15, 2018

Doki Doki Literature Club 0

Yuki’s Doki Literature Club Adventures: Act 4 – Bad Ending (Freewrite)

‘This game will not have a happy ending.’
-Bernkastel, Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Major Spoilers: I lied. Sayori is the final boss.
Warning: You should already know by now I play this game and write about it drunk.

I was warned that DDLC wouldn’t have a happy ending. I shouldn’t sweat it too much; given I’m a fan of Umineko no Naku Koro ni: A 07^th Expansion visual novel that too didn’t end happily. The first half of my favorite Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War, also didn’t end well. And my favorite Persona game, Persona 3, had a depressing ending. (Jesus fuck, maybe I’m secretly sad that’s why I like downer endings) Did I spoil myself on the bad ending for DDLC? Yes. But, I think by spoiling it, it drove me to finish the game (to see how sad and depressing the game ending is). To tell the truth, I love it when consumer media concludes with a downer ending. The happy ending thing is played out. Fuck that happier ever happy shit.

Sometimes, you need a reminder of how brutal and unfair life can be.

The movie been out for almost a month. Don’t bitch about this spoiler.

After killing Monika I restarted the game. It started as normal, expect Monika isn’t on the title screen. Yay! The wicked bitch is dead! The game resume starting with act 1 like nothing happened expect the recently revived Sayori is now the president….Shes’ gonna be self-aware like Monika, isn’t she?

In any case, MC — rather, the player – joins the Literature Club. Given Sayori’s position on the screen, she is the club’s president. Yuri is on her left, so I’m assuming she retains her vice-president role. The BGM is the title screen music. Ya know, with the piano playing the melody. Didn’t Monika play the piano? Hold up…

Sayori gets all happy that the MC has joined her club. You know, it’s kinda depressing: Sayori is happy Everyone is acting normal like they didn’t go through the chaos from Monika. Yet, we the players knew what these girls went through. We know what is to come. And there’s nothing we can do about it.

Sucks, doesn’t it?

As the girls celebrate the formation of the club, I couldn’t help but notice how more friendly Natsuki and Yuri are towards each other. In Act 2 they were at each other throats, belittling one another and judging their hobbies. In Act 4 however, they seem to respect one another, with Yuri wanting to learn more about manga and Natsuki wanting to learn about novel through Yuri. What did I say in my Act 2 Part 2 writings? Natsuki and Yuri could get along and become close friends – best friends even.

(To tell the truth, I’d love to see a mod or a non-h doujin with Natsuki and Yuri as they form a powerful bond. Natsuki could help Yuri overcome her fears, become more confident with herself, and fight her bullies. Yuri could help Natsuki learning about the arts.)

As MC and Sayori speak about how fun the club will become, Sayori thanks me (not MC), for getting rid of Monika. I start to freak out as I’m still drunk from writing my Act 3 shit and the music becomes creepy and distorted. Doesn’t help that I’m wearing earbuds that are programmed to be bass boasted.

I made a terrible mistake, haven’t I?

I’m prepping myself for any jump scares or freaky shit so I may become sober as we get deep into this post. Which probably is a catch 22 because Sayori revealed that she knew Monika did all the horrible things she did to the girls and the player. She talks about how MCI made her the happiest girl in the world…hold up, didn’t Monika said some shit like this as well? Please don’t tell me I gotta deal with another murderous nutjob girl who trying to get with the MC. I already had enough of that bullshit for one play through.

Sigh…do I have to delete another yandere bitch? To quote a 90s Nickelodeon co-star “Awww here it goes!”

I’m sure the game knows I don’t wanna go through this bullshit again because the first choice of this act is “No.” Thank you game, I appreciate you. Sayori’s spelling out “FOREVER” was creeping me the fuck out. Hold up, the game isn’t saving me…it’s Monika.

Even this game was like “Yea no let’s not go through any more bullshit.”

Monika starts to hakai Sayori, the club, and the entire game. After that, she starts to sing the game’s ending theme and the credits roll. Apparently, I’m missing a few CG shots (given I have yet to tackle the Natsuki route and I didn’t fucking save scum). Sigh…fuckin’ bad endings.

Continued in Yuki’s Revenge Against This Fuckin’ Entry Level VN.

By Yuki The Snowman Posted on May 14, 2018

Doki Doki Literature Club 0

Yuki’s Doki Doki Literature Club Adventures Act 3 (Freewrite)

Warning: Major spoilers for the finale of Act 2 and 3. Yuri dies. Natsuki’s dad uses her as a punching bag. Sayori comes back to life. Monika is the final boss. Gory imagery of your dead visual novel waifu decaying below. Adult themes. Written under the influence of alcohol.

To my fellow Yuri fans; we got shitted on. Boy, we got shitted on. Bad enough she got brainwashed by Monika and was driven to “suicide” by her Bad enough we gotta see her bloody body. But did Dan really have to make us watch her body decay for three days (in game)? Real nigga shit, for 5-10 minutes we see Yuri body fuckin’ decay while Monika basically taunts us talkin’ about how happy she is to have friends in her club and shit. I mean, me personally, my fucked up in the head ass would made Yuri body bloated and do the whole rigor mortis super realistically with the CG art, so I can’t really talk shit. But still, I didn’t wanna see that shit.

…okay I actually didn’t see most of the decaying scene. I got bored and decided to roll up a blunt cuz that shit was taking too long.

I do have a few questions though. How the fuck did MC survive 2-3 days without food or water while he was trapped in the classroom with Yuri’s body? How did this nigga not go insane? He watched his homegirl kill herself and rot in front of his eyes. I’m sure anyone would had gone crazy seeing that shit. Also why didn’t he call anyone up and tell them what happened? I understand he was in shock but after a while you would figure he could made a few phone calls.

Eh, it’s video game logic let me not think about it too much.

The weekend came and gone and MC is still trapped in the school with Yuri’s body. I wonder if he started to eat parts of her body to live. I mean, when you need to survive and there’s no other source of food… Okay, that’s fucked up. Natsuki come up to the club room to prep for the festivial with the reminidng living crew. She spots MC and is surprise that he arrived earlier than her. A few days earlier but still early. As Natsuki is about to prep (for the festival) she sees Yuri’s body and starts to freak out. She also starts to vomit because…yeah, rotting dead body.

Now, I ain’t a forensic nigga, but wouldn’t you think Natsuki would had smelt Yuri’s body before she got into the classroom? She goes in the clasrom carefree and doesn’t smell anything until she hits the classroom. I ain’t gonna look that shit up cuz I don’t want Google to think I’m some serial killer or anything but still, science and everything. Natsuki starts to run away and Monika enters the classroom. She wonders why Natsuki was screaming and runnin’, sees Yuri’s body and put two and two together. Instead of freaking out and/or asking questions Monika simply says “Well, that’s a shame.”

Monika is a fuckin’ psychopath. Or sociopath. Whatever. I ain’t a psychologist.

Monika admits that she was screwing around with the game’s script and by doing so, she forgot to let MC escape the room. Thanks. Your jealously and murderous intent caused this man to have irrssevial psychological damage. Good job. As Monika conitutne to brag about her failure she erased Natsuki and the remains of Yuri like she’s a Dragon Ball Super God of Destruction. You know, I wanna see Monika dressed like a God of Destruction. She’ll be a perfect fit for Universe 3 given it’s an universe heavily focoued on the advancement of technology (with her being an AI program).

Monika talks about how it’s the last time she’ll get to fuck around with the script or something and things get weird. The game glitches out. The classroom changes to this sinster shit in outer space or something I don’t know I’m too drunk to describe it. Monika is happy to see me – not the MC – me. I tried to save the game but Monika doesn’t allow it because she ain’t going anywhere. Joy.

Is this consider the end game? Did I beat the game? I was hoping so cuz I had to work in a few hours (at the time I played this act) and I didn’t wanna deal with this jealous murderous chick and her trying to get into my personal life. First, she asked if my name was really “YourName”. In my head, I’m thinking “no you goofy bitch I was trying to see if the game would pick up on me dicking around and naming myself ‘Your Name” when it asked me to enter your name. Then she asked if I go by “Owner”.

Monika, look. I get you’re in love with the player/me. I get that you may have some kinks like any other normal person. But I am not into pet play or that owner shit. If you’re trying to find a someone to entertain your fetishes I ain’t the one cuz that’s some white people shit. I mean it’s cool to like guys older than you. I myself have a thing for older women. Older women who won’t fuckin’ kill people out of jealously, mind you.

Then I remember that my my laptop is named “Owner”. Whelp!

Monika starts to admit that she made the other girls go crazy in an attempt to get in the player’s pants. She brags about making Sayori’s depression worse in order to make the poor girl commit suicide. Monika didn’t mean to, but shit happens. I understand. But real shit that’s fucked up. She also brags aboutt corrupting Yuri’s obbessive personality. Therefore, it lead her to kill herself. The girls starts to bitch about how lonely she is (you’re a murderer I can see why nobody wanna be around you) and how much it sucked that the other girls were programmed to fall in love with me while she just sit and watched.

Okay. Real nigga shit: If you were Monika and you know you were an AI who could control their fate, wouldn’t you just went ahead and make yourself known in the first place? Make yourself the perfect girl for the player. So perfect that he would have to choose you over the other girls.

Oh wait, Monika’s a fuckin’ idiot nevermind.

I almost feel bad for Monika. Almost. She didn’t chose to be born a program. She didn’t choose to live in an artifical world. Then again, she is also manipulative as fuck so I don’t truly feel sorry for her. She show me a poem she wrote about an happy ending which would had been sweet and cute but you know: the whole trapped in the room of inifinty thing. Monika then asks if I know any artists who could draw her in some casual clothes (given she only wear her school clothes).

Well, there are artist out there but they usually draw Monika without any clothes. You can go search for that I ain’t gonna help you out,

After showing me her poem and her talkin’ she ask that she should look into each other eyes since we have nothing better do to in her world. That’s really fuckin’ boring. For real, I ain’t gonna fuckin’ stare at a fuckin’ piece of anime art for horus on end.

Apperently if you wait a while Monika reveals a few things about herself (she loves animals), the girls (such as Yuri sneaking wine into the school through her purse), and the world she lives in. But like I said, I had money to make and I doubt my boss would be happy that I cameo work late over a fuckin’ video game so I had to delete Monika.

So I did. I closed the game, deleted Monika and restarted it. Monika gets all mad and everything like I did something wrong (because erasing her was a worse crime than her murdering three innocent people). She confessed that she loved me and will always love me. To show her love, she brought the other girls back to life. Yay.

Me personally? I don’t love Monika. Fuck Monika.

“She said ‘do you love me?’ I tell her ‘only partly’ I only love my bed and my momma, I’m sorry.”

-Drake, God’s Plan

Continued in Act 4.

AFTERWORD

Me: “Man, fuck Monika!”
Also me:

By Yuki The Snowman Posted on May 14, 2018

Nerd Culture 2

Spoilers Don’t Mean S**t!

(Warning: Major spoilers for Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War and Doki Doki Literature Club. I’m not dealin’ with ya weebaboos and ya hurt feelings.)

I can fondly remember when my homeboy (at the time) “spoiled” the fact that Hotaru was Sailor Saturn (Sailor Moon S) in grade school. I had just finished watching my first episode of Sailor Moon (episode 117: Higher, Stronger! Cheers by Usagi) the previous day and was hooked. I expressed my love for the Hotaru character and her awesomeness. Unlike Usagi and Chibi-Usa (who had to transform in order to gain their powers), Hotaru didn’t need to transform for her powers. My dude smiled and said “You know Hotaru is actually a Sailor Scout, right? She’s Sailor Saturn. That’s why she has powers. In fact, not only is she a Sailor Saturn, she’s being controlled by somebody else.”

“Ahh!” I replied. “No wonder she could do those things like blasting a monster across a track field.” The spoilers about Hotaru’s truth identify didn’t ruin her character for me. In fact, it made me more excited to watch more Sailor Moon S. I wanted to see Hotaru’s journey as a sickly, lonely girl to the Soldier of Destruction (who ironically, would save the world from destruction).

Spoilers don’t mean shit. Being spoiled about an event in the media we consume never ruin the emotional experience. In fact, it makes it better. Some may say “But spoiling something will make you disappointed or change your mind about a character.” Okay, so what? Your views of a character are going to change regardless of you got spoiled on their actions or not. Why try to avoid the inevitable when it’s going to hit you sooner or later?

Let me change your mind about spoilers. I know I can.

final-fantasy-7-aeris-death-scene-930x487 — Spoilers: Don’t click the first search result for “Aeris Dies” at your job.

Spoilers neither ruins nor replace the emotional experience that you’d otherwise witness. Spoilers are just words. They don’t provide the gut hitting visuals of seeing your favorite character die. Spoilers don’t give you the sense of anger of seeing a “trustworthy” ally betraying his best friend on screen. “But Ben! What about twists and surprises!?” Oh well. Once you consumed media for nearly 25 years you tend to get bored with surprises and twists.

Recently, I’ve been playing the popular Western visual novel, Doki Doki Literature Club/DDLC (not to be confused with the obscure PC98 visual novel Doki Doki Vacation). Through my adventures (of playing the game), people were trying (failing) to convince me not to read spoilers. They told me that it’s better to experience the game blind so I could “truly appreciate” the game for what it is.

DDLC Girls(left-to-right): Knife-Chan the Pervert, Princess of Daddy Issues, Tears of a Clown, and Machiavelli.

First off, I had to laugh at those who believed I should play DDLC by their standards. Second, telling me to avoid spoilers won’t work – it’ll just make me read them. Through reading spoilers, I discovered that Monika was the true villain of DDLC. Monika was a manipulative, angry, jealous, and lonely girl who wanted someone to love her and grant her freedom (from her digital prison and self-awareness powers). Did those spoilers impacted and change my views on Monika? Of course, but in turn, it made more interested in her character (given that I enjoy manipulative/Machiavellian-type characters).

Here’s where I still felt the emotional impact of Monika’s cruel deeds despite being “spoiled”.

As Monika brags about killing Natsuki, Yuri, and Sayori, your character is forced to sit across from her in the Literature Club (now the Room of Eternity). The distorted music, dark orange tint filling the room, and Monika staring at your eye gave me a sense of unease. I felt anger as Monika casually – yet coldly – discussed how she murdered her friends. Now, do you see how spoilers don’t replace those emotions? Again, they don’t give you that visual treat.

Reading those spoilers didn’t provide me with those emotions – but playing the game did. The spoilers just enhanced my journey, which brings me to my next point.

Around 2005, I started playing Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War. I “foolishly” spoiled the game’s ultimate plow twist – Arvis murdering the main character, Sigurd. Furthermore, Arvis manipulated the nobles of Grandbell to wage war against a few nations: just so he could have the nobles kill each other. Arvis’s schemes prove successful.

Rather than being mad at myself (for “ruining” the plot), I became curious about Arvis’s “terrible” deeds and did research. I discovered the game development notes of Shouzou Kaga (creator of Fire Emblem); gaining information on Arvis (that changed my mind about him). Arvis was angry at the nobles of Grandbell who abused their power – subjecting their citizens to levels of extreme poverty (while the nobles spent their riches on themselves).

Arvis – in his head – thought himself as a liberating hero for the common man.

The spoilers didn’t ruin the plot for me. In reality, not only did it made me want to play the game, it made me respect Kaga’s complex writing of Arvis’s character. Kaga’s notes help me understood the tragic (anti) villain archetype of media. It was the kick that I needed to see the game all the way to the end – to see how the events unfold through Kaga’s craftsmanship.

See how spoilers can work in your favor?

Spoilers do not mean shit. This was a fact that I discovered back in my childhood with Hotaru/Sailor Saturn, one of my favorite characters of all time. Being spoilers on certain characters might change my views on them. That’s okay: it was going to change either way. Reading spoilers helped me understand why villains such as Arvis and Monika had to do the things they did – and I still got emotional when I reached their villain reveals in their respected games. The spoilers got me in the head of the creator and made me felt what they felt. To me, that’s the ultimate sign of respect for a creator: understanding their works.

Spoilers don’t ruin the story. They enhance it.

SOURCES:

Spoiler Alert: Spoilers Make You Enjoy Stories More by Adny Murdock
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/spoiler-alert-spoilers-make-you-enjoy-stories-more

Spoilers Don’t Spoil Anything by Jonah Lehrer:
https://www.wired.com/2011/08/spoilers-dont-spoil-anything/

Spoiler Alert: Spoilers Don’t Ruin Stories by Melissa Dahl
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/body-odd/spoiler-alert-spoilers-dont-ruin-stories-after-all-flna1C6437232

Shouzou Kaga’s Comments/Designer Notes on Fire Emblem 4
https://serenesforest.net/general/designers-notes/holy-war/shouzou-kagas-comments/
https://serenesforest.net/general/designers-notes/holy-war/fire-emblem-treasure/
https://serenesforest.net/general/designers-notes/holy-war/playing-guide/

(Yuki’s notes: Arvis did nothing wrong as he fought for the greater good of the people. Monika was wrong because she was a selfish simp.)

By Yuki The Snowman Posted on April 3, 2018