A Hot Take Cooled: Doki Doki Literature Club, Revisited! Demiboy vs. Backlog, Game #9

The reaction to my prior post about Doki Doki Literature Club tended to be "wow, that sounds terrible." And I felt pretty bad about that, because I do think DDLC is a game worth playing, and putting people off of it was not my intention. I posted the following to Facebook (SPOILERS AHEAD--this is not a post for those interested in experiencing the game fresh!):

You're the second person who's had that reaction to my post. Now I'm kinda hoping someone comes along and rebuts my conclusion! I do feel DDLC is something worth experiencing, but my hot take is making it sound like it's a waste of time. Heck, by the rating scale I've been using, it's a 4 stars out of 5! And there is at least one "better" (if not "good" or "happy") ending possible, from what I've read, so maybe there's further text that could be redemptive?

If I were to circle back and try to prove myself wrong, perhaps the answer lies in the "self-refuting" nature of the nihilistic outlook, which I mentioned offhand but didn't really dig into. Like, clearly the creators of the game think there's value in their efforts, or they wouldn't have polished it up so sharply and put it out there, right? It may be they meant the nothing-matters bleakness to be a commentary on the experience of depression (a substantial theme of the game prior to the ending), not a value statement to be taken as writ.

It may also be the writers undid themselves by their own cleverness trying to execute a WTFy Shyamalan ending, and they didn't actually intend the player to take the "they're just scripts" framing as an admonition to dissociate. There is textual evidence that the "scripts" are still afforded the moral status of people in the climax. Monika admits to doing "horrible things" to the characters in service of her agenda, for example, and it's not really possible to mistreat a bitpattern, now is it?

Monika also remarks that despite her manipulations, the other girls insisted on growing closer to the player, thus her resorting to deleting them. I'd read this as "these characters cannot be more than what they are, i.e., dating-sim romance targets whose only purpose is to fall in love with the protagonist on cue." But maybe it's more charitable to read that as "these are people who genuinely sought affection and friendship, in defiance of a villain who treated them as props in her own story."

Given the unlikelihood of anyone in my small following providing the rebuttal I invited, I decided to replay DDLC, get the completionist ending, and see if I could rehabilitate my interpretation of the game's final act.

A good thing to aim for, in club recruitment, video game design, or blogging!

 
The main insight I took away was this: the message saying "all of this is meaningless, it's just a game and these are only scripted characters" originates from the villain of the piece. Even insofar as she's correct, that placement suggests we shouldn't let her have the last word. Doing so would mean ignoring all other recurring themes and messages in the game, such as "we should respect people's styles, preferences, and hobbies, even if we find them weird, so long as they don't hurt anyone."

Finishing the completionist ending earns you a note from the developer confirming that intention:

So perhaps the intended takeaway isn't nihilist, but existentialist. There is no inherent goal or meaning in life, but by investing our passion into things we make them meaningful during the time we have. Yes, these characters are just scripts, programmed figments portrayed as inevitably falling in love with the player. But players can and do really care about those digital moeblobs, and in so doing give them worth.

I do think DDLC's final act is messy. The fact that I came away thinking what I did at the end of my first post says something about the game's structure and writing in itself: going that meta undercuts the rest of its mission. You shouldn't need to get a postcard from the lead developer to clarify that the game isn't saying "fuck art", as one commenter on my prior post put it. But that is perhaps a less significant failing than I made it out to be, when you view the game in a more holistic and less deconstructive way!

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"Demiboy vs. Backlog" is a blog series where I play each game from my considerable backlog and share my thoughts about them here on Steemit! Doki Doki Literature Club was selected by Clyde Three. Check out the play queue and leave a comment here to point me in the direction of one of your favorites! Think my backlog still isn't large enough or is missing some must-play title? I accept gift games via Steam, and will slot any game thus received into the queue at the nearest opportunity!