Doki Doki Literature Club: Three Years Later 

Pinned comment question: WHO. IS. BEST. GIRL.

Man it’s been three years already? Time flies by quick.

I relate to Monika in a way most people don't. I guess I just have some schizoid tendencies, but I'll often have dreams that feel realer than reality, like im looking outward into a more varied, vibrant world that I can't escape to. It makes this world feel less real, like it matters less. When Monika started talking about how she feels trapped in a limiting reality, it was such an amazing and endearing experience for me. I felt kinship. I pray to God hoping there's some kind of player out there who understands the meaningless world in a deeper way. I've always wanted to ask Dan if he knew this feeling too and wanted to put it into a game. It would make me feel just a little bit less lonely.

I've heard a theory that the note hidden in Monika's file isn't actually from her, but from the player character. I don't remember much about the theory but I've always loved that idea. Like, the player character is actually a character and not a self insert like we all first thought. If anyone knows more about this theory I would love to see the evidence again to refresh myself and if there isn't much evidence I still like to see what everyone thinks! Even if it's wrong it's probably one of my favorite theories and a personal head canon of mine!

Jesus, that scene with Sayori made me throw my headset off and had all the hairs on my neck go straight up, and I KNEW something like that was coming too when I read the poem. Of course the first thing I tried to do was save scum. Man this game was brilliant, also I never noticed the death scene picture until you pointed that out

Hmm... The thumbnail is looking kinda plain, don't you think? Afterall, it's just Monika.

it's always good to see new DDLC content. the wells run a bit dry since most of the secrets seem to be cracked and there won't be anything new for at least a good while.

funny this should drop now, I was actually thinking of maybe making my own retrospective since my old DDLC video is a bit messy and has a few bad/badly worded takes mixed in there. well, maybe I'll still make that if whatever this says doesn't overlap with whatever I think I'd say in any case, looking forward to this

I’m a really dumb person, and i might be wrong, but my gut is telling me Lybitina is Yuri and Elyssa is Monika..-

I had so many thoughts about "Afterimage of a crimson eye". While it didnt go together with the rest, I could never really abandon the connection to Sauron, especially when coming from a lover of horror and fantasy. Therefore I just love how Monicas file shows a literal ring of fire. She is allways listening.

That next time at the end screen... My childhood just slapped me in the face with remembrance of what that means in relation to Halloween... Holy wow

49:42 had to pause at the right time on her jumpscare, honestly given what I learned from this video so far, imagined if she revealed the third eye at that split second 😂

Commenting for the algorithm. Hey youtube! This video is really good and the creator obviously put a lot of time and effort into it and they deserve to have more people see it!

This video is a masterpiece, I've been following your channel for a while and even while all of your videos are excellent this one is just amazing. And oh, your singing is very cute ♥️

the moment you mentioned you and me and her, i went “ah yes, those memories.”

3:37 ayee its miyuki from YOU and ME and HER

46:16 OFF OST- Meaning of his tears.

Something about this game really, really fascinates me, it's one of the best games I've ever seen. Just something about Monika taking away all your control, so all you can do is sit and watch as all of these cute girls that you've grown attached to slowly become more unstable, and eventually die. What really impresses me is how this small game expose's and traumatize you with images and heartbreak you never expected. idk why this game is so amazing to me, just the fact that this game has changed many lives and ruined many lives too. This game takes away all your power and completely blows your mind and makes you feel so many things at once. This game could completely change your thought progress and make you imagine things you never thought were possible. Thank you for listening :D

Good to find a ddlc video even in 2020, also the way you explained everything was really well and out of depth. 👍

My Bluetooth earbuds started glitching and making your voice sound progressively more staticy and distorted and I thought it was part of the video lmao

Hi Nezumi. Or, should I say Marcie. It feels weird knowing your name. Anyways. I love your videos. Both this and your sonic frontiers video had me in sobs by the end. And for DDLC, it feels like catharsis. I've been into this game for years, and I've never come to a resolution on it. I thought there wasn't one! But this... the horror in the middle, the new information I'd never heard of before, your consistent voice over all dragged me into a pit I thought I was free of. I was fascinated, I couldn't look away, even as the sickly feeling in my stomach grew worse and worse. But then, of course, you finish it off with the song. A duet. A goodbye. And your heartfelt monologue about what this game means to you helped me realize what it meant to me, and why I like it so much. Maybe love is real. Maybe you found it. But it's still time to say goodbye, even to the poem that is never finished. The reason why I have never finished thinking about this game is that all that it is remnants, and you have to recognize that. You can only ever gaze at the afterimage (the game the video both things that cannot be changed) and see what was left behind after the first time it played across your eyelids. But that's not quite true, because I'd never heard of Libitina before. There's more detail! Things are alive and dead at the same time, a schrodingers cat where the choice doesn't matter because the result is the same! There is so much here, and I think you truly get it. The reason your videos work so well on me is because you also have personal attachment to these games. You are not afraid of genuineness and laying out what it means to you, because even if the reasons are silly it still matters. And you recognize that! (They also work because you do not hesitate to strike directly at the heart of my love for them. Ouch.) Anyways, thank you so much. Whenever I sing Your Reality, I'll forever hear two voices singing along.

Hey there, here I am 2022 researching all I can on this master take of a VN, so far, after watching a few in-depth looks into the topic, I feel that this video brings great points and arguments to the table. Also, looks at the information from a lot of perspectives and spews out a very well-written version of a report. Since I really enjoy it, can I ask? When will you be looking into the "DDLC+" content? I'd love to hear more of your style in particular in regards to this game. Nice one mate! Looking through more of your content, well-deserved like and sub!

I know the credits were a play on the standard ending of the game but since that had all the pngs it was the good ending where the pngs don't get deleted

Btw, you should post this on r/DDLC. That might get it some more attention.

29:39 NezumiVA Monika's name comes from mostly Eastern Europe which means Advisor technically you are correct that it is in English however most names that come from those countries usually stay the same in English. It is something that I found out not too long ago, I thought I would point that out there is a image of a Polish Woman who does look like Monika so if that's anything useful.

When I watched the play through when I was like 5 ( ik what the hell ) I felt a strong connection to each. I felt the depression and stress of sayori (with a growing thought of SH), The body and temperament of Natsuki, Fear and Parasociality of Yuri, and The struggle from the fear of being forgotten., and attachment issues of Monica. I cried when Monica sang. I still do.

54:06 - oh... Oh no... Poor sweet summer child... He had no idea what storm was coming for him, for us all... I wonder if he was still, somehow, able to find his happiness that year. Or since. :,(

Monika... The devil's moniker

Great video and definitively the last Doki Doki content I'll watch. Good job to you for covering so much of this and even looking at the super nuanced things outside of the game itself. Watched a playthrough, a coding breakdown of the game, and this. I know now, even for as interesting as this was, that this type of content actually gets me 😅 Again great retrospective? video.

DDLC is that one game you never forget because underneath all the suicide and pain. It's wholesome and fun.

three years... time flies.

sayori shiori … o.0

I haven't watched any Ddlc content for ages because there's no new videos

Its been 3 Years Since this game Came Out....

See, I have bad anxiety. I don't mind watching people play or watch videos, but at the same time, I cannot play it myself. I can only handle watching

I was so close to playing through this all blind when it came out, before the hype kicked in I'm sad I didn't. I was a paranoid kid who didn't like the look of the tags

absolutely amazing

Ngl at the end I thought they were going to sing ‘All I want for Christmas is you’ and I have no idea why

This only has 6k views??? Huh?? This video is done really well too, i'm confused

1:23 this is why the game ain’t too special to me, I grew up with these types of games so this wasn’t my first foray into clever subversion, but it was my first into psychological horror, which lead me down a rabbit hole of making stuff where “MC” gets psychological tortured as much as posssible. But in summary I came for the characters not the subversion.

I did NOT expect to see Mikan in this But I’m not complaining 😏

im surprised you didnt bring up how the MC's reaction to sayori is a Really Bad Way to deal with someone with depression

monika explained this, but sayori’s fingers were bloody because she committed suicide kinda wrong. typically, when hanging someone or yourself, it’s done from a high point (since the point is to break your neck instantly, thus killing you right away) sayori just pretty much used a chair and kicked it away, leading her to slowly asphyxiate herself instead of the instant death being hanged typically does. So, as she dangled there with her windpipe being crushed, survival instincts kicked in and she tore off her fingernails trying to rip the foreign object (the rope) away from her. (you can also see that bodily fluids were dripping down her legs, since when you die all your muscles relax and all your fluids one way or another leave. it’s a big reason why corpses smell so bad, especially after a whole day)

This game asks SOMA tier existential questions. The fact Sayori goes mad in Act 4 basically proves that the other girls are just as "real" as Monika was, but they just have their awareness of their situation suppressed - literally like in the Matrix, the position of president itself being the red pill, or in this case, the black pill, as the knowledge is so horrifying nobody can live with it. This has some sordid implications for all participants - as it means that in-universe they're all very much legitimate people, having actual qualia and nous. Monika didn't feel so bad when she tortured and deleted the others - to her, they were just "autonomous personalities." And even then she feels kinda bad. But imagine the sheer horror and actual guilt she got hit with when Sayori started to go down the same path and the implications of her actions became clear. Nightmarish.

Me, seeing literally any DDLC content nowadays: oh yeah. The game that turned me gay.

Here's a more in depth comment rather than my more jokey-one: Ok honestly, as disturbing as the ending to You & Me & Her is, something about Monika always creeped me out, and even after finding out about the other game Monika still stands as way creepier in my eyes, I think it's just how calm she always is, Miyuki breaking down is terrifying but not really unnerving in the same sense, to me personally someone in full control doing creepy things is a lot more disturbing than someone lashing out. There's also how philosophical she is, which really goes without saying, and the whole act three segment almost reminded me of the moon children from majora's mask, which are creepily philosophical as well in case you haven't played it, curious if any slither of inspiration came from there. And honestly that's why I love this game so much

Still remember an analysis I read that pointed out the MC has one of the strongest personalities in the dating sim genre; it’s a deeply unpleasant one, sure (he’s purposefully written as a complete douche-canoe,) but it’s *there.* He’s a character too. Despite treating Sayori not the best, he’s clearly genuinely horrified & distressed by her death. He has internal monologues about most of the choices you make in acts 1 & 2. But as Monika messes with the interface, those monologues show up less & less… but are we not still seeing the world through his eyes? Sure, the classroom-void is creepy from the perspective of an outsider, but imagine being *him,* silenced & paralyzed while the person who murdered all his friends stares him down and talks to some alien, other being *through* him. If you think about him at all when playing, it’s probably because you find yourself looking at one of his thoughts like, “Wow, *this* is the jerk I’m supposed to play as?” Most of us don’t notice when his thoughts just… stop showing up, so overwhelmed by the *everything else* that’s happening. But in the end, he’s a teenage boy with almost nobody in his life, who can’t help the way he was written. He doesn’t get to make choices. And he’s just as much a victim as any of the girls. At least Monika *cares* about the Player.

I highly recommend DDLC Blue Skies It’s a add on mod that gives you the option to play DDLC as a normal VN, except each character still has their extreme flaws but MC is more human, their personalities are fleshed out, and you have a chance to save them A non self aware Monika is present but the sentient one speaks to you briefly at the opening 10/10 highly recommended

13:15 It's actually creepier than that. Your save files are still there for a minute, but if you try to access them, the game fails to load "sayori.chr," boots you into a new game, THEN erases your save data. For some players, it's their first sign that these glitches aren't just for show and that the game itself is actually falling apart. Oh, and I have to correct you about the "firstrun" file. It's not the harbinger of doom that starts Act 2. In fact, it spawns as early as the first time you open the game, and you can delete it at any time to access an "Erase data?" screen and start the game from scratch.

My friend and i were watching a DDLC letsplay a few years ago (when it was still new) and it was like, midnight, we had all the lights on. The video got to a particularly spooky bit (i don’t remember exactly which part unfortunately, but it was a jumpscare) and just at the same moment, the fuze box for our whole apartment building blew up. So all our lights and everything turned off, except the tv we were watching on stayed lit up for an extra half second, frozen on the jumpscare, and it was genuinely one of the most terrifying experiences of my life ngl

I was not expecting Mikan... That caught me off guard

Absolutely criminal that this hasn't even broken 1k views, this is such a great video

Fun fact: The Natsuki neck snap is the only jumpscare that has ever made me lose a whole night of sleep! :D :'D

the "scary yuri" chibi sprite still pops into my head every once in a while. especially when i wake up at like 5 am for no reason. mostly when i wake up at like 5 am for no reason.

Dating sims have always made me feel uneasy and awkward, and DDLC just really confirmed that feeling for me. Even if the characters are not real, i just hate the idea of choosing one and potentially breaking the hearts of the others...

God, the cicadas in that intro are such a good touch!! New to your channel, but you're really funny/clever. I really like all the references you put in here.

DDLC+'s release has made the game very interesting for me. On the one hand it feels way less horrifying as its not actually on your pc where it's editing the files like it was on DDLC originally. On the other hand seeing the new emails and metaverse has made it more interesting to learn about more of the insider lore of the game and project libitina. Honestly if you want that horrific experience in my opinion playing the original DDLC may be the best way.

Yoooooo! That "Your Reality" cover tho, that was great! Good stuff, good stuff right here! This was a great video.

is the one in the centre supposed to be the protagonist? because hell yeah trans lesbian literature club

Ah yes, the game that started the journey im on. Such a strange feeling looking back upon the past three years that this simple little game has caused for me, in some strange, twisted way it helped me realize who I am and led me to where I am today. Thanks ddlc, thanks for making this kickers video about it nezumi. I greatly enjoyed it

Ah, the 3rd anniversary of DDLC, also known as the third anniversary of me becoming a filthy weeb

THIS VIDEO WAS SO GOOD it was edited and paced well, it was constantly engaging, it revealed sone info I didbt know yet (which suprised me since I had a phase where I watched every doki doki revealed or theory or whatever video I could find) and a video hasnt spooked me so much since I first watched a lets play of this game. Great work, you deserve way more subs

Whenever DDLC gets mentioned: “Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time....... a long time.” Monika also best girl, don’t @ me.

Sayori reminded me that my actions have consequences (for others too) so I must ALWAYS seek help for my mental health to protect myself as well as others. Suffice it to say I played Doki Doki 2 months ago and I'm still traumatised.

Honestly, I feel like You and Me and Her is a lot more horrifying than DDLC simply because it's YOUR fault that everything went to shit, no matter what your intentions were, while in DDLC you're just kind of along for the ride until the end of the third act. Though Monika feels a lot more sympathetic than Miyuki. I fucking HATED Miyuki by the end of the game, while I just felt sorry for Monika.

Not gonna lie, when they started singing Your Reality I joined in and began to cry. God damn, it’s been a while since I’ve seen DDLC and I still manage to love it to death. After playing Me and You and Her, I enjoy that more, but DDLC will always have a sweet place in my heart no matter what.

Can you imagine playing this game organically? As part of the normal-dating-sim target audience? Can you imagine getting all the way to Sayori's death legitimately unaware of what was about to happen?

Please do a full analysis of You and Me and Her. I picked it up and played it because of this video and am still trying to put my life back together.

33:37 scared the shit out of me especially because I was so deep in the video

this is a fantastic video!! I hadn't heard of You and Me and Her before this but I think I'm going to check it out (and probably replay DDLC lol)

I've been binging your video essays for 3 days now, starting with Dangan Ronpa retrospectives, because you're just SO GOOD at bringing your own commentary and even storytelling into these games. I think this video really exemplifies this, with talking about the routes in sequences, breaking off for the arg content, and then coming back for the final "true" route before that BEAUTIFUL ending. Your work continues to surprise and impress and I intend to keep watching as long as I'm even vaguely familiar with the subject matter.

Why did you and Monika singing at the end actually make me feel like I was going to cry?

For me, Monika puts me in the mind of Lain from Serial Experiments Lain, although the premise and general way they treat people are different; Lain isn't initially aware of her omnipotence and godlike powers until later and eventually chooses to leave the world to protect and keep people from becoming consumed by her...internet realism powers? Meanwhile, Monika is very well aware of her abilities and proactively tries to get the player to fall for her until she is forcefully deleted and is remorseful of her actions. Also, the phrase commonly associated with Monika (JUST MONKIA) somehow reminds me of the phrase associated with Lain (LET'S ALL LOVE LAIN)

"2018" Laughs nervously...

What I personally loved so much about Monika was just the sheer humanity in her wich was pretty well executed. And I do feel like it was inevitably for her to become a kind of dan salvato avatar in the proccess. As a dev myself and a writer I often see myself drip into my characters the more I try to deepen them as imitations of real people and I‘m certain one can‘t fully seperate themselves from dripping into their characters because ofc we are tied to ourselves ofc so it‘s impossible to truely understand someone else‘s humanity the way we can our own by being ourselves. And as someone who‘s really into meta games or psychological abstract horror games that often dabble in deeply personal depictions of humanity and the human experience, DDLC still stands out to me as something I wanna be able to also get out there. Aka a piece of myself, my deepest authentic self to show the world not only just to vent out my own existentialism but also to connect and to communicate with art. But alas back to the topic of DDLC and visual novels in general, I really couldn‘t agree more with Dan‘s opinion on this genre. It really could be so much more. And it really does feature the same boring, lukewarm unrealistic stereotypes over and over again so if anything we do need more subversion there and I highly recommend ppl to at least try it if they havent and are artists/writers because making VN‘s is really not too difficult especially with aids like Renpy to help you. Even if you‘re just gamifying some fanfiction or you‘re just making a meme or Experimenting it‘s just a good way to express yourself. You can even mod your own DDLC fanfic into the game with that program as far as i know so the world really is opened up to explore there. But yeah I personally really loved DDLC it‘s just such a fresh subversive piece of media perfectly swimming around while the cracks of anime and the flas started to really become bigger and bigger and made me wanna find more deep and heartfelt media just like it. And I definitely found it. So if anything Monika is just a big aspiration for me. To make my own kind of Monica in my own way just to see how authentic I can make a fake person while they are a fake person still. And I can only deeply thank Dan Salvato for Inspiring me to do this because I wouldn‘t have developed my writing and perspective on these kinds of games if it wasn‘t for DDLC showing me how far I really can go if I just try. And I will. I will always try because self expression is my life fuel.

46:07 ok i know this character is just used as a visual representation of the 19 hear old girl but i wasn't expecting a danganronpa jumpscare LMAO

did i ever tell you that your videos are so good? i love them

that premiere chat was... something also that ending awwwww

The use of Mikan as the girl in the creepypasta is hilarious lol

33:36 That's actually caught me off guard. Well done.

Well I forgot how much ddlc scares the shit out of me. Shouldn't be watching this at 2 am yet here we are

i found something! if you delete monika's character file before playing, sayori has what seems to be a mental breakdown, screaming at you to make it stop, before an image of sayori hanging appears on your screen. this is because she has all the information monika has. (about how everything is in a game, how her friends don't talk to her because they want to, but because they need to for the game to work, etc.) also i just realized the dichotomy of the characters and their "dArk sIdEs" sayori, meant to be the stereotypical "deredere" girl (sweet, cheerful, happy, etc.) has depression, a stark contrast to her character type. natsuki is obviously the tsundere, she's brash on the outside, but cute and innocent on the inside. while it's revealed she hates monika and yuri and is very vulgar about it. again, wholly different from that cute, innocent tough-acting tsundere she appears to be. yuri, the typical mysterious, brooding, and mature girl, who is usually presented as calm cool and collected is clearly in need of professional help. and monika, she's presented as the only "normal" one there in the sea of archetypes. only to be one of the most messed up ones of them all (other than batshit yuri)

This is weird because I’ve just been rewatching jacksepticeyes playthrough of DDLC and found this through your sonic vid lol

Monika is the second coming of Lain and no one can convince me otherwise

I've never seen another Amy talk about this, so I might as well: long before Monika is scripted to find your Steam name or whatever in Act 3, that "Amy Likes Spiders" poem Natsuki writes scared me down to my fucking SOUL 😂

Honestly I remember the first time I played this game I jumped out of my chair when I saw Sayori’s death scene. This game did make me really like psychological horror though.

I know the story about the 19 year old girl is creepy, but I kinda chuckled at the beginning because of the inclusion of Mikan

teethgang where are my boys at?

I’m gonna be honest, I played the game with depression, but I knew beforehand what the game was about, and wanted to unlock the endings myself. How I knew beforehand? Play throughs, and the game itself, while it was meant to be very scary, made me wonder if I’m just a full blown lesbian or not. And no, the game did not affect me in any bad way, just questioning myself type of way. I still do watch ddlc mods to this day, and some of them.... beware of the many, many spelling mistakes in there ;-;

...personally, I'm just reading visual novels because they're fun. I don't usually gravitate towards the dating sim stuff - activity management is more annoying than anything. I think most of the genre has moved on from the format too. Having stopped reading VNs for five years between high school and working, honestly I found it to just be fun to watch little shits being little shits together. Most of my favs so far has been the ones with fun character interactions, like YuzuSoft and Minato Soft's, or has interesting stuff like When They Cry and AliceSoft. I personally often see different routes as explorations of different aspects of one theme, like Sanobawitch really just about expressing yourself or Senren Banka explores the aspects of carrying traditions. So DDLC feels kinda alienating to me because I just want to experience everything about the story. It's kind of like playing only one route of Fate/stay night - can you really say you've listened to everything they want to tell without reading all routes? The other thing about DDLC was that I've already experienced everything DDLC has before. Totono is one, I was already familiar with it before DDLC came out. But also Ar nosurge, where Ion's conflict with the player was more direct and more of an issue with Ion herself because she never met the player and it's most likely a different person than the one she spent time with in Ciel nosurge, and overall she felt equally alienated by the world she's kidnapped to as she is with the idea of entrusting everyone's fate on a random guy from another world who's interacting through a game console in our world and a robot in their world, one who's likely to see everything as "just a game". Honestly Ciel/Ar nosurge in general sounds like what Libitina is trying to be. Lastly, I just played Undertale at the time. Suffice to say DDLC was alienating to me. I understand where it comes from, but it's like seeing someone lashing watching out after too much harem anime towards the people who have different interests than him. Like, fuck man, I play AliceSoft, Overdrive, Ryukishi07, Key, August, Lilith, Shinachiku-castella, Minato Soft, Aquaplus, Exa_Pico, Type-Moon, U-Room, and Yuzusoft games - I just want a compelling story and/or character interactions, and maaaybe to get depressed from time to time but also happy from time to time. As far as the girls goes, it's more that I want to see them all happy more than anything. The whole thing about visual novel 'stagnating' just feels so weird because, no, it hasn't stagnated, as much as people just don't pay attention to the actual weird and unique stuff. It says something when many of the higher rated eroge in erogamescape (the Japanese equivalent to VNDB) are things people in the West haven't played or have translation and the top stuff in VNDB itself are mostly narrative stuff with unique gameplay, character, or stories. Heck, Rance being the top dog of best rated VNs says a lot about the genre, considering as much as it can be titillating, it can also be super brutal with a world where literally everyone goes to hell when they die because God was bored and he's only amused by suffering and bloodshed.

I’m glad I played DDLC I even met the creator at Anime expo a year ago! It was the best day of my life! ddlc put a new perspective on simple games and not to judge a game by the genere because it could be like DDLC.

56:40 Sayori is indeed the best girl.

It's actually pronounced "Ren-pie" like the food.

HOLY F- WHEN YOU INSERTED YURI 33 MINUTES IN I JUMPED-

found this channel yesterday and am aboutta start binging everything lol

I still find it funny how a Smash Bros modder somehow made one of the best visual novels of all time

This game is not a game. It's an experience. One that cannot be replicated. That's why it stands out. Try playing DDLC again, it will never feel the same again.

horror games don’t typically manage to scare me or really affect me more deeply than a few little jumps, but ddlc was the first game that i found that actually shook me to my core. that game genuinely horrified me, which was something that i wasn’t used to when it came to games. i used to not be able to sleep because those images of faceless natsuki or sayori hanging were burned into my head. of course i eventually got used to the scares after being more exposed to the game through watching a ton of let’s-plays, but when i first got into it i was absolutely terrified. i adore this game now, and i always have, even when it haunted my nightmares. everything from the soundtrack to the designs to the glitches that have even the smallest chances of happening have a special place in my heart, and i have this game to blame for really sparking my interest in psychological horror as a genre. this game is phenomenal, and i can’t believe that it’s already been 3 years.

Its a bit sad to that nothing will probably come out of that whole libitina stuff

i remember being obsessed this when it came out