My instinct is usually not to spoil the surprises of Doki Doki, though the description of the Plus version gives itself away a bit more than the original. Team Salvato refer to it as a “critically-acclaimed psychological horror story,” which it is, but I’ll not let on what’s so horrifying about what appears to be a standard dating sim visual novel. “Your childhood friend invites you to join the school literature club,” explains Mexi Gremillion in RPS’s list of best visual novels. “You reluctantly agree to join and meet the other members of the club, all of whom are girls, and each day you make decisions about who to spend time with. This is a typical dating game set-up… until it isn’t. To say anything more would be a spoiler, but Doki Doki spins off in interesting directions, both in terms of its story and the ways in which you’re able to interact with it.” That all remains intact in DDLC+, though there are unlockable images, additional music tracks, and the double resolution artwork. It does also have six new side stories, though the developers at Serenity Forge explain that their intention was to make them neat side content that doesn’t alter the experience of the original game too drastically. “The Side Stories take place outside the timeline of the original game, and they instead focus on how all of the club members went from first meeting each other to becoming close friends,” the creators explain. “So in the Side Stories, you really get to watch the club members grow together, as people. I think that will be really meaningful to those of you who relate to the characters, or maybe even find yourselves in similar situations.” Outside all those vague hints, Doki Doki is usually best experienced for yourself. You’ll now have the option to snag that upgrade DDLC+ version or the original free version which remains avaiable. You can find Doki Doki Literature Club Plus over on Steam and the Epic Games Store. It happens to be 10% discounted on Steam until July 7th for £10.25/$13.49.
