Doki Doki Literature Club Plus Review

“Doki Doki Literature Club Plus” announcement caught everyone off-guard. If anything, I thought that Team Salvato might announce a sneak peek of the game that they teased back in 2017, “Project Libitina.” To my surprise, however, the physical/digital release of “Doki Doki Literature Club Plus” included a lot of new stuff that casts light on Team Salvato’s future. But since this article is supposed to be a review of “Doki Doki Literature Club Plus”, a game that came out on June 30, 2021, let’s start with the usual stuff.

What is Doki Doki Literature Club

“Doki Doki Literature Club” is a visual novel created by Team Salvato. It appealed to players with cute imagery and adorable characters. The biggest thing that let DDLC engrave its name in the community was the fact that the game is completely FREE. That’s right, the first Steam release from 2017 is a free game that turned out to be one of the best psychological horror experiences that Steam has to offer.

Also, you can watch the game’s trailer below:

As you can see, the trailer indicates that it’s not the normal cute dating simulator everyone thought it will be. What the community loved about DDLC the most, was the fact that it had way more easter eggs than you would’ve thought. You had to tamper with the game’s files and spend a lot of time uncovering all of DDLC’s mysteries. By now you probably know what turn the game took and what secrets it had, but in case you don’t, I’ll do my best to not spoil anything in the “Doki Doki Literature Club Plus” review down below.

You can watch the “Doki Doki Literature Club Plus” launch trailer below as well:

The new release of DDLC wasn’t free, which is completely fine. You can get the physical release for $29.99, and the digital one for $14.99, which in my opinion, is a fair price. The biggest thing is that all images in the game are now Full HD instead of 720p, and I have to say, it does make a huge difference. Apart from that, you won’t notice many changes in the main game. The story and scares also remain the same. The game is still fun to replay, as it kept the randomness of the types of ways that the game can scare us in. However, the absolute best thing about the game is the addition of a virtual machine and side stories, but more about that below.

What is New in “Plus”

The first thing you’ll notice after entering DDLC Plus for the second time is the fact you are greeted by a virtual machine with Linux instead of the main game’s title screen. It serves two purposes. It’s supposed to let console players do things that they can’t really do on console and to offer us new easter eggs that the game is known for. Since we couldn’t really tamper with the files in the way we did back in 2017, Team Salvato used different methods to hide secrets about their new game, “Project Libitina.”

The virtual machine “hub” also allows the player to view every single CG they’ve seen throughout the game and set it as the virtual machine’s wallpaper. To top it off, the “hub” also had a jukebox that could play all of the songs that we heard in the main game and side stories.

And finally, the side stories. That was the main thing that led me to buy this game. After clearing the main game, viewing every CG, and writing poems for different love interests, we could unlock 7 side stories in total. Those stories were all connected and set in a different universe, in one that’s more peaceful. The story was simple, it depicted every character’s personal problems and how they overcame their issues with the help of the literature club and their friends. Combined, you could read them in around 3-4 hours, depending on your reading speed.

Obviously, easter eggs are still a big part of the game but since I don’t want to spoil too much I won’t write too much about them. If you are curious you can always find more information on DDLC’s Reddit or just buy the game and play it yourself!

Conclusion

“Doki Doki Literature Club Plus” is a treat for all of the DDLC fans that longed for more information about Team Salvato’s future or just new stories in the DDLC universe. What’s more, all of the additions allow players to spend additional hours with the characters and learn more about them. If you loved DDLC and you don’t mind paying $15 I wholeheartedly recommend DDLC Plus as it’s an amazing way to relive the journey we took back in 2017.