While playing Doki Doki Literature Club, I was constantly caught off guard by the twists and turns the game threw at me. One thing that I thought Doki Doki did especially well was balance the line between anticipation or expectation and surprise. Given that the game initially follows many dating sim tropes, the player likely has a general idea of what they think will happen. Even without having played a dating sim before, knowing a bit about the genre, in conjunction with the information we were given in class, I was able to form pretty accurate expectations as to what was coming up next. Right from the start I could tell that the girls of the literature club were going to fall in love with the character I was playing as, given the genre of the game they basically had to. Given the poems and interaction with Sayori, I knew, before my character did, that she was going to commit suicide. However, as these events unfold in the game, their execution and presentation is still able to shock the reader. While I knew the girls would want to date me, I was thoroughly shocked when they went to such great lengths such as cutting themselves and eventually destroying the game to do so. This still aligned somewhat with my expectations though. For example, this wasn't a dating sim where none of the girls wanted to date me. And although I expected Sayori's death, the sudden turn the game took and its presentation left me, like my character, wondering if I could have done anything to prevent it. This narrative is clever in that it doesn't totally veer from your expectations, it just tweaks them slightly. I think that this creates an even eerier experience than if the game had deviated too far from the players expectations. It now presents as a sort of corruption of the dating sim genre. This storyline approach mirrors the actual graphics in the game, in both things are just a little off. In the graphics of the second play-through, you start to get small glitches amidst the normal gameplay paralleling the twists on your expected storyline.
Of course, there were parts of the game that were totally unexpected, particularly Monika's ending. However, even though one might not expect this from start, the game does drop hints throughout. One of the first things that I found strange about the game was that there was no Monika figure during the poem writing section. I remember wondering what her role was. Like the other girls, she seemed interested in growing closer to you but there was no clear way to return the feeling. She was the only girl to not explain her writing style in a way that you could mirror in order to get to know her better. On top of that, during one of the poetry sharing sessions, instead of feedback, she gives you gameplay advice. While I viewed this more as an interesting way to share a helpful tip, I think it could be seen as a sign that Monika is aware of the world of the game. I think that these details come together to foreshadow that something is 'off' with Monika. While they don't really indicate what is to come, they add to the growing sense of unease in the game. They also break expectations in a more obvious way. Not being able to choose one of the interested girls in a dating sim is something that I imagine is unusual, as is the characters speaking outside of the narrative.
I think that these two approaches to subverting expectations, both partially and outright, come together to create an engaging experience for the player. Drawing on a well known genre, the game is able to use player's knowledge of that genre to change the mood of gameplay from something fun and light to something more frightening and uncanny. Combined with the jarring graphics later in the game, Doki Doki is able to take expectations and use them to further its own message and player experience.
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