Analysis of the psychological problems of the main characters in DDLC¶
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Introduction¶
Doki Doki Literature Club, developed by Team Salvato, is a psychological horror game disguised as a dating simulator game. Dan Salvato is the founder of the development studio behind the games, Team Salvato. Dan Salvato was inspired to create a visual novel by his "love-hate relationship" with anime. He saw "cute girls doing cute things” in Japanese anime as both an asset and a detriment to the viewer's enjoyment.
DDLC was first released on September 22, 2017, on Itch.io, and was later also released on Steam, which is totally free. But players can contribute at least 10$ to get Fan Pack, which contains soundtrack, wallpapers and concept art booklet. DDLC Plus! was released digitally on June 30, 2021, on Steam, Epic Games, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series. Physical editions were announced to be released on July 30, 2021, but was pushed back to later October, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
After the release of the DDLC, it quickly received widespread critical acclaim and a "generally positive" score of 78/100 on Metacritic. In the first three months of its release, it hit over 1 million downloads and surpassed 2 million about a month later. GQ's Tom Philip commented that DDLC is “one of the scariest games I have ever played”. and praised the game's writing as the most evil and creative narrative technique he's ever seen. And in the 2017 IGN Best Game Awards, DDLC was nominated for "Best PC Game", "Best Adventure Game", "Best Story", and "Most Innovative". IGN also included DDLC on their list of "18 Best Horror Games of 2017".
In this game, players play as a high school student who joins the school Literature Club at the urging of your childhood friend, Sayori. Then you will meet with other three girls: Natsuki, Yuri and club president Monika.
They all share their poems with the protagonist and discover each other's literary talent in the process of communication, thus developing a relationship. Everything goes smoothly until Sayori suicided in her bedroom when everyone starts preparing for the school festival, and the game will "End".
After returning to the main menu, the game starts the second loop, and Sayori’s image and the start button in the menu are replaced by garbled code, and all traces of Sayori in the game are erased. During the game, garbled codes and weird pictures appeared from time to time. At the end of the second loop, Yuri also committed suicide, and then the game starts the third loop. Monica reveals the truth to the protagonist: as the president, she has long known that this is just a game. But she deeply loved the male protagonist and suffer the restrictions of the game cannot pursue the protagonist, the protagonist to pursue. So, she modified the game file, planted the suicide message into Sayori’s brain, and then deleted Sayori’s character information, and dramatically magnified the other two people's unsavory personality. but to her surprise, she made them pursue the protagonist aggressively. Thus, Monika simply deleted the file information of the two, and created a "Just Monika" space, so that the player can only watch her forever. In order to move the plot forward, the player needs to delete Monika's character file, after which Monika then restored the other three's files. Then the game enters the fourth loop.
At the start of the fourth loop, Sayori becomes the president and gains access to the files but ends up trying to repeat the same mistake and brings the player into her exclusive space, but Monica stops Sayori in the code and deletes her, and the game really ends with the normal ending. Monica will leave you a letter which tells player that Monica has disbanded the literature club because "no happiness can be found" in it. If player collects all the CG before Sayori dies, the game will lead to the true ending. In the true ending, Sayori will thank you and hope that the protagonist will come back to visit often, but the game will delete the archive. The player is presented with a message from the game's developer, Dan Salvato, describing his intentions behind creating the game and his opinions on video games as a whole.
Methodology¶
During the game, aside from some scary scenes, we also get various information from the dialogue, revealing the unknown pasts of different characters and hinting at their outcomes. For example, the keywords we need to choose when writing poems for them imply their tendency towards certain emotions or things, which also indirectly reflects the outcome they will eventually face. "From their dialogue, we can also learn about what kind of experiences they have gone through in the past, such as Natsuki being abused by her father, malnourished, and becoming overprotective, and so on, which led to her insecurity.
From the perspective of other games, Monika's status is somewhat similar to that of a backstage mastermind, a completely different "villain" character and perpetrator from the other three. Because she has the ability to modify the game, she also repeatedly deletes the files of other characters to monopolize the protagonist in the game. In order to highlight her uniqueness, the creator Dan Salvato also deliberately distinguished her name and hair color from those of other characters. The names of the other three characters are Japanese names, but only her name is an English name, and only her hair color is a naturally existing hair color in reality. But if we flatten these four characters and consider Monika as a character with the same status as the other characters, we will notice that the four of them have different types of psychological problems and typical behaviors. Although the consequences of their actions are different, from the perspective of psychology, the psychological problems they suffer are equally important. Apart from the classic Galgame(A game type mainly simulating love with female characters, often visual novels) plot setting, their psychological problems and the horror scenarios they show to players are the main driving force of the plot of this visual novel. Therefore, it is feasible to combine psychological analysis and plot discussion to analyze this game. Further, the three elements of a novel are 'characters, plot, and environment.' Since the development of the plot is inseparable from the characters, this is especially true for novels that start from the characters and develop events based on the characters, like DDLC. It is like drawing a line from one point to another, and the point is the character, and the line is the event. If we can analyze the characters using psychology, it will be twice as effective in understanding the motivations of the characters, the direction of the event development, and analyzing the story. The following analysis focuses on the characters and plot.
Analysis¶
Sayori & Depression¶
Before analyzing Sayori, I want to introduce a concept that Freud proposed in the introduction to psychoanalysis: the superego, the ego, and the id. The id is the me that is driven by the original instincts of a person, and the superego is the me that has learned moral concepts and the like in the process of education, and the ego is the current me that is shown under the joint action of the id and the superego. When we want to do something, the superego that has been formed will constrain the id, and the superego will use the laws we have learned to restrict us from even beating others when we are particularly angry, and let the teachings of our parents when we were young to prevent us from doing harm to others. Of course, in the process of our growth, some experiences will also become part of the superego. We touched the hot water and got scalded, so we will be careful when boiling water next time, we did something bad and were punished, so we will avoid doing this thing in the future to avoid punishment. And when we want to do something normal but are criticized by others, we will also remember this lesson, and maybe when we do this thing next time, we will have a timid mood and try to escape, this is the superego.
Now back to Sayori. As we develop a relationship with Sayori in the game, she reveals to us that she is struggling with depression, which is not easy. This is represented in the game by Sayori gradually drifting away from her friends until the protagonist's confession pushes her into the depths of suicidal despair, with the protagonist discovering her hanging in her bedroom and falling into deep guilt. In fact, Sayori constantly supports the protagonist at the beginning of the game, even though the protagonist doesn't perform well when he first joins the literature club. As players, we inevitably want to help Sayori when we find out that she is facing the problem of depression, thinking that the emotional support we provide for her can help her get out of the pain of depression. However, Sayori does not expect players or others to help her. On the contrary, her gradually drifting away from her friends also indicates her avoidance of intimacy. This may be due to her past experience that led to her depression, her superego constantly reminding her that she is a worthless person, and all the efforts made on her are in vain. She can't stand her friends wasting time on her, but providing help to others makes her feel good. However, when others try to help her, it leads to anxiety and conflict in her heart, and finally, under the strong emotions of the protagonist, she can't deal with such a great pressure and chooses to commit suicide. All of this is the beginning of the horror plot of DDLC, which makes players fall into a "I am the murderer" pain, and then continue to accept those terrifying "punishments", which is also why many people think this game is so scary.
However, this kind of plot arrangement is not considered a good practice. When DDLC uses depression and the character's suicide as a major plot twist, depression is romanticized to some extent. It is bundled with the character's characteristics, attractive qualities and role as a plot device, ignoring the motivations and feelings of the patient, and focusing on the scenes when the character is the center of attention and the impact on the player. But on the positive side, DDLC conveys to players that depression is not a disease that can be cured by your unconditional support. We cannot regard "confession" and other behaviors as opportunities to become her savior, because depression is not just " Negativity and escape".
Yuri & Obsession¶
According to Dan Salvato, the name Yuri means tranquil and elegant. In the game, Yuri is indeed the most tranquil and elegant character. She likes to sit quietly in the literature club, sipping tea and reading books. Her poems are written in a deep and metaphorical style, similar to her personality, and she is not good at expressing herself. When it comes to topics she likes, she becomes talkative, unstoppable, and ignores other people's feelings. She will also show more or less of her dark side in the game to create a melancholic aesthetic for the player, but this has become more and more extreme, and what was once hidden is now more clearly exposed. Players will gradually learn Yuri's dark side from the dialogue and narration, and see the evidence of self-harm and blood stains, and know the truth that Yuri will self-harm, and even see Yuri's confession to the player after she cannot control her strong desires and emotions and self-harm to death, but the game does not give players any options, only watching Yuri's corpse lying on the ground for several days.
Yuri's self-harm behavior is a manifestation of her obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD). She appears to be very reserved on the surface, but is concerned with appearing mature in front of others. In the early stages of the game, her OCD is not particularly prominent, but she does mention being unable to resist sharing her interests with others, and collecting fine knives for mild self-harm, which she uses to release her emotions. These are portrayed as part of her charm, as a refined but crazy character, which is a common archetype in many Galgames. However, DDLC amplifies the darker side of this character to show the specific ways in which OCD manifests in people. OCD is a psychological condition in which a person experiences strong, painful conflicts when they try to resist or get rid of normal physiological or psychological phenomena, leading to a vicious cycle of obsessional thinking. This is reflected in Yuri's personality defects, as she constantly tries to show that she is superior to other members of the literature club, and thinks that her poems are better than others', but her focus on ornate language often detracts from the meaning of her poems. She even sometimes engages in verbal abuse towards other club members, such as refusing to exchange poems with the protagonist when they first join the club, and saying cruel things to Natsuki. Her OCD also causes her to be trapped in her own world, causing her to crave emotional intimacy. When Monika amplifies Yuri's darker side, Yuri becomes increasingly paranoid and crazy as she gains a close relationship with the protagonist. She becomes more prone to self-harm as a way to release her emotions during moments of high agitation. When the player learns of Yuri's self-harm tendencies, they may try to avoid a bad ending by choosing certain options. However, no matter what choices are made, it is impossible for Yuri to avoid her ultimate fate. She is already trapped in the cycle of her OCD, and even if the player behaves coldly towards her or does not confess their feelings in the end, Yuri will inevitably become desperate for a close relationship and ultimately die. This creates a sense of helplessness and despair in the player.
Natsuki & Insecurity¶
Natsuki is a character who is relatively "relaxing" because there is no description of a similar extreme suicide scene for her in the game, like Sayori and Yuri, but instead hides her tragic past and the psychological trauma she has suffered in places that are easy to ignore in everyday life. In the game, Natsuki is portrayed as a typical "Tsundere" character, specifically manifested in her ability to deny her cute behavior and pretend not to accept others' kindness, but clearly showing happiness and friendliness to others. However, because this Kind character is quite typical in Galgame, it will cause some players to ignore her hidden dark side. Her petite body always makes people think she is a low-grade student, but in fact she has a problem with malnutrition. In addition, she keeps her manga books in the literature department because she always feels unsafe. These problems are actually caused by her father's abuse. Apart from the physical factor of malnutrition, her habit of locking up manga books in the literature department is a protective mechanism for unfinished events. In daily life, she is also unwilling to talk about her love for manga and does not want to hear others praise her for being cute, because she is afraid of being ridiculed for this. This seems to be due to her father's abuse and neglect. The persecution of her family is an unfinished event for her. She has no way to make up for the trauma caused by past events, and locking up manga books in a hidden place and not wanting to hear others' cute compliments is a protective mechanism for the trauma, which also leads to her habit of observing people and pleasing others. On the first day the protagonist arrives at the literature department, she makes paper cupcakes for everyone, and she observes others and keenly notices Monika's strangeness, and reminds the protagonist to be careful of Monika. She does not feel safe at home and is anxious in daily life. Her father belittles her interests and hobbies and ridicules and ignores her, making her crave to be taken seriously. Although Natsuki has disguised her love of cute things to a certain extent, her poems are full of cute things she loves, although some negative words also imply that her hobbies are not recognized. Perhaps this is the reason why there is no description of violent bloody scenes in the game, because she is balancing the trauma she has suffered instead of suppressing and escaping. However, there are still horror scenes in the game, although they are sudden and short-lived, and players will only be scared and not produce strong negative emotions such as guilt or despair. Therefore, players may not have a deep impression of Natsuki-compared to other characters, her performance is not outstanding, but this also leads to players ignoring the abuse and psychological trauma she has suffered.
Monika & Loneliness¶
When analyzing Monika, we should first strip her away from the image that the game gives us-a conscious being living in the game. She can modify the game code and despise the NPCs in the game, because she is trapped in the game and yearns for the companionship of a self-thinking person like her. But Monika is still a game character created by the creator, not real, although it is cruel to say so to Monika, because this is exactly the psychological problem she suffers. As described in the game background, Monika is a famous top student and very friendly and cheerful. Her classmates have a high evaluation of her. She was the captain of the debate club before, and because she was disgusted by the original club's intrigue, she quit and founded the literature department. Her poems she wrote show that she has philosophical thinking and unique views on many things. In fact, the game background portrays Monika as a perfect student, and her consciousness is also higher than other classmates. In fact, such a person is more likely to fall into social loneliness. Although Monika is happy to help other friends, there is no equal relationship with her. Moreover, the game itself originally did not allow the protagonist to have a romantic relationship with Monika, because "the protagonist" thought he was not good enough for Monika, which is also evidence that Monika is trapped in social loneliness.
In fact, just as Monika magnified the dark side of the other characters in the game's plot, we can also see DDLC as magnifying Monika's dark side. Monika herself was trapped in loneliness, but in DDLC she gained self-awareness and instead magnified her loneliness, elevating her loneliness from a social dimension to a high-dimensional level, stripping her entire person from the game and becoming the only game character with self-awareness. This also led to her facing a kind of loneliness that most people can't imagine. Maybe this kind of loneliness is not something that we can experience in our everyday lives, but the psychological trauma it brings to Monika is something we players can experience. She becomes paranoid and narcissistic. The specific manifestation is lack of empathy, radicalism, self-centeredness, etc., and the performance in the game is that Monika causes the miserable fate of the other three characters in order to get the company of the player. In fact, she thinks that these characters are just some code and files (although they are indeed), so she makes the other three characters strange by modifying the code, causing them to lose their attraction to the protagonist, so that the protagonist pays attention to herself, just like maliciously slandering competitors to achieve her own goals. In fact, Monika can modify the code, and of course she can also get the player's attention through adding options, adding events, etc. However, after deleting all the characters except herself, she also closes the player in the space created by Monika, forcing the player to stay with her and make the choice of Just Monika. Until the player deletes the Monika character file, Monika realizes that she is no different from others, and is also composed of code files, and after the game is restarted and Sayori also gains consciousness, she stops Sayori from trapping the protagonist in Sayori space and deletes the game to protect the protagonist.
These behaviors can be understood as Monika realizing the root of her psychological problems - loneliness - after gaining the protagonist's attention and understanding that she is not much different from the other characters. At the same time, she also solves her narcissistic personality caused by loneliness, no longer restricts the protagonist's behavior, and even decisively deletes the game to protect the protagonist when the protagonist is about to be imprisoned by Sayori who has gained consciousness. This can be understood as a manifestation of her psychological problems being solved, no longer showing radical behavior, and regaining her empathy. At the same time, in the letter she left to the protagonist, she also mentioned that the literature club is not a happy place, and she will close the literature club because she does not want her friends to realize the terrible truth of the game like she did. But in the end, she admits that she and the other characters in the literature club have become friends and thanks the protagonist for it.
Summary¶
Monika is the most impressive character throughout the game. Although she does not show her unique abilities and thoughts in the first round of the game, if you look back after completing the game, Monika has been observing the protagonist from the start of the game. Therefore, Monika is the most impressive character in this game, whether it is the experience of being trapped in the Monika space, the player's determination to delete her character file, and finally Monika protecting the player and resolutely deleting the game, not giving the player the opportunity to recall. This also makes many players love this game and are willing to continue to explore the truth behind the game and the motivations of the characters. More importantly, perhaps this game can also make players aware of psychological problems in real life and their effects on people while bringing a horror experience to players. Some classic character images we see in other Galgame are a kind of pathological. After playing, players continue to reflect and summarize, and people desire a beautiful and sincere relationship and a good wish for people suffering from psychological problems. Because Monika brings a sense of realism to players, people can feel that these psychological problems exist in the player's side, Sayori's depression, Yuri's obsession , Natsuki's insecurity, Monika's loneliness, and the harm the psychological problems bring to them, are real in our real life.
Resources¶
Doki Doki Literature Club Wiki https://doki-doki-literature-club.fandom.com/wiki/Dan_Salvato#References
Team Salvato https://teamsalvato.com/about-us/
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https://kotaku.com/doki-doki-literature-clubs-horror-was-born-from-a-love-1819724999
Brian, Barnett. ‘Doki Doki Literature Club Hits 1 Million Downloads’. IGN, 11 December 2017.
https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/12/11/doki-doki-literature-club-hits-1-million-downloads - IGN
‘Doki Doki Literature Club! for PC Reviews’. Metacritic, 15 February 2018.
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/doki-doki-literature-club!
‘Best of 2017 Awards: Best PC Game’. IGN, 20 December 2017.
http://www.ign.com/wikis/best-of-2017-awards/Best_PC_Game
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https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/04/26/sxsw-gaming-awards-2018-winners-revealed
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https://www.fandom.com/articles/when-horror-games-break-the-fourth-wall
Rose, Victoria. ‘Doki Doki Literature Club is an uncontrollably horrific visual novel’.Polygon, 23 October 2017.
https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/22/16512204/doki-doki-literature-club-pc-explained
Kara Dennison. ‘The Four Faces of Doki Doki Literature Club’, Fanbyte, 5 March 2020.
https://www.fanbyte.com/games/features/doki-doki-literature-club/?tdsourcetag=s_pctim_aiomsg
Gamer_152. ‘Just Monika: An Analysis of Doki Doki Literature Club’, GiantBomb. 3 March 2018.
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