People have commented on the separation between the player and the protagonist. Could we extend this idea to the non-playable characters? Is it possible that the girls similarly have two separate consciouses behind a single character model? Every character, with the exception of Yuri (at least in my play through) seemed to be hard-coded but some also displayed signs of having free will.
Obviously, Monika has free will to the highest degree out of all the characters. It is not clear why this is the case because she is just as “mortal” as all the other characters— in the sense that they all can be deleted. Yet she has had an “epiphany” that none of the girls have had, as we learn from her note at the end of the game. She mentions having had an epiphany at the very beginning of the game. We later learn that the following was her epiphany: Her existence is within a limited game world and that there is a far richer world on the outside that she will never get to experience, except through bits and pieces from the player behind the screen who has access to that world. This partially explains her obsession with the player.
Monika’s heightened sentience allows her to alter the personalities of the other girls in the game to make them less likable to player (or at least that was her goal). For example, Sayori who is the ditsy, happy-go-lucky one suddenly exhibits signs of severe depression and obsession with the main character. After she confesses her feelings for the main character, the player is left with two dialogue options: “You will always be my best friend” or “I love you.” No matter what the player picks, the main character is too close to Sayori for Monika’s taste. Sayori’s depression rapidly worsens, and the main character finds her lifeless hanging body in her room within a couple days. We later find out this was due to Monika messing with her character file.
Now that Sayori has “died” her character has been deleted and the game starts over again with many of the same dialogue options except Sayori does not exist. But she still kind of does. We see hints of her presence throughout the second act. For example, at one point your curser turns into a pixelated portion of Sayori’s head. Although her file has been deleted a part of her still exists within the game. Might this point to the theory that the characters in the game are more than hard-coded character models— that they exist on a deeper level?
In my play through, a similar phenomenon occurred with Yuri, although her demise into deep depression and uncontrollable obsession with the main character was more gradual. During one of the poetry sharing sessions in the second act, Natsuki hands the main character a note instead of a poem. This note expresses her worry for Yuri and her annoyance at Monika for not taking the situation seriously. (Of course, we find out later that Monika caused Yuri’s sudden onset of mental illness.) This note expresses a departure from Natsuki’s typical “cute but feisty” persona— she seems to experience emotions here that are beyond those that were hard-coded into her. Might she experience a conscious or existence outside of the simple dating sim? Giving the player this note comes across as an exercise of free will.
Skipping ahead a lot: During the “Just Monika” ending, we gain a better understanding of her perception of her existence, which certainly goes beyond the hard-coding of her character. She asks the player, “Have you ever wondered what it feels like to die?” She says she knows what it feels like. She explains:
Based on the seemingly endless monologue during the "Just Monika" ending, we also learn that Monika knows about the experiences of anxiety and addiction to social media. She even has an actual twitter account. Monika is obviously a lot more than the “popular preppy girl.” Couldn’t it be possible that the other girls have consciousness beyond their stereotypical character files, as well? Couldn’t they also have the capability of achieving the same level of sentience? Ironically, Monika says that she believes none of her friends have free will. However, the game leads me to believe that they are all capable of gaining self-awareness over time. It was a process for Monika as well. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have called her realization an “epiphany.”
After deleting Monika’s character file, we can no longer see her but she can still speak. She’s still there in some form, just like the other girls that have had their files deleted previously. The game starts again this time with all the characters back to normal, except for Monika. Sayori thanks the player for getting rid of Monika. How does she know? Has she learned about her own existence beyond the hard-coded game? This last act ends with a note from Monika. The Literature Club must end, she says, because no happiness can be found. All the characters are trapped this limited game world that they can only alter so much and can never escape. Monika knows this, and she seems to suspect the others are capable of learning it— because they are not robots whose actions are dictated based on a code— they all have a consciousness and existence beyond their character models, simple character traits, and scripted dialogue. The application quits.
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