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(Copy/pasted with minor edits from a Facebook post I made [way too] late last night.)
So... I started a replay of Doki Doki Literature Club earlier tonight, a few hours ago. And, trust me, I will have a whole lot more to say about it, while trying to spoil as little as I can (outside of any deliberate spoiler space that I will use at that time), later, once I complete it again. This time I'm going for the... golden path... such as it is, which will require multiple playthroughs of... let's call it Act One, before moving on with the rest of the game.
However, there is one thing I'll say now (and, just to be clear, this is an entirely separate issue from all the mindfuck that the game is famous for, which is not really so much of a spoiler because the game blatantly warns you with its pre-game disclaimers that mindfuck is coming).
So here's the thing: I actually noticed this the first time I played the game, but I'm super feeling it this second time through. I... really, really fucking hate the player character, even from the get go, but more and more as the game progresses. To say that I don't identify with him at all is kind of an understatement.
I mean, yeah, sure, the very top-surface level thing of being all "Hey cool I'm the only guy in a club full of hot girls" is, as a fellow cishet male, somewhat relatable (well, theoretically speaking, mind you, as I've never been in that situation myself, obviously, and never will), but... that's about it. That's where any connection between me and the MC ends. Just the way he goes about the situation, the way he handles it, the way he thinks about it, I don't like. And hell, even as I am doing the thing ("the thing" being to deliberately pick words to make the poems go a certain way [I'm doing Natsuki's "route" on this, my "first" playthrough of Act One]), the player character himself is simultaneously putting a lampshade on it, saying that he, himself, is also deliberately doing that same thing, as well, in universe (i.e. he's writing poems for the expressly stated purpose of trying to impress one of the girls). And, in universe, it just feels creepy and manipulative to me. I mean, it's one thing for me, as the player, to do it, because that's just what you do in this kind of game, you pick whatever choices make the game go a certain way, and then you maybe start over and try again later and pick different choices to make the game go a different way (and if you want the golden path in DDLC, that's pretty much what you have to do, before the... point-of-no-return is reached).
But for the player character himself to all but explicitly admit that this is also what he is doing, within the game world itself, is more than a little skeevy, in a bit of a pick-up-artist sort of way. To put it as plainly as I can, the MC is kind of a real douchebag. And the worst part of it is that he doesn't even really realize it, even as he is it. As I said, I sort of felt this way the first time I played the game last year or whenever, but I was also rather distracted by waiting for the mindfuckery shoe to drop, for the pre-game disclaimer shit to kick in, to pay as much attention to the MC's douchebaggery, but this time... yeah... he's a real creeper, in his own way. He doesn't even really try to be. It just kind of seems to come naturally to him.
But now, even worse, I just now reached... vague spoilers... the scene in the street where you're talking to Sayori after (in this particular case) Natsuki leaves, and the main character is talking about how he "knows what's best" and...
Well, I'll just give his exact words, without context of anything that came before (unless you've already played the game and know the context):
MC (who in this playthrough I have named "Chara" for... reasons):
"Do you remember how I said I always know what's best for you?
Do you still believe me?
Even if you don't understand your own feelings...
I know what you need the most right now.
Sayori...
You will always be my dearest friend."
(An aside, yes, I went "that route" here instead of the "other route," but little of note changes in this particular scene regardless of which way you go. To continue, back to MC's exact words...)
"What you need most is for things to be like they've always been.
Monika told me the truth."
(Ooooh, there's so much I want to say here, about Monika, but that is so far beyond the point I'm trying to make right now that the light of the Sun has not yet reached it, so I'll leave that for later. Back to MC's exact words...)
"She told me how much happier you seemed after I joined the club.
I know you're struggling with some really difficult feelings right now.
But...
Please trust me that I know what's best...and what will make you happy in the end."
Doesn't that just sound like a really manipulative bastard kind of thing to say to another person, no matter the context?
But especially IN context... that's not how this works, MC. That's not how any of this works, you stupid fuck. The worst part of it is that he thought he was doing good, that he was saying the right thing, that he was helping. I'm actually somewhat legitimately infuriated here, sort of, in a way, which is rather silly because it's (at this point in the game still) just an anime visual novel, but still... I kind of want to reach into the game with a steel-toed boot and kick the MC in the teeth right now. I had to save and quit at that point (and not just because it's way past when I should have gone to bed).
I'm not even sure if this was authorial intent, for the MC to be so hateable, or if I personally am just reading way, way too much into all this. Apparently, Dan Salvato, the creator of the game, had this to say regarding the main character of DDLC: "I don't imagine him as a character in the same way as the other characters. He's just a blank slate that says whatever is convenient." And... fucking hell if that doesn't kind of just make the whole thing even worse, at least to me.
I love this game. It's great. I highly, highly recommend it. And like I said, I'll be making another, probably even longer (series of?) post(s?) about it later, in a day or three... But... no, I do not like the MC at all. He's an asshole, and he doesn't even really comprehend the fact that he's an asshole. Nobody else in the game thinks of him as an asshole or treats him like an asshole. Quite the contrary in fact, which is all the more frustrating. Because a lot of his asshole nature is based on his inner thoughts, which the other characters don't ever get to see (except maybe for *spoiler*), and... it makes me kind of glad that *spoiler* *spoiler* *spoiler* later in the game, because I fucking hate him. I haven't gotten even remotely close to that point in this playthrough, though, and won't be doing so for a while yet, so I'll have to endure the MC being kind of an asshole for the rest of this playthrough and at least two more playthroughs of Act One, and then Act Two, before I can get that far.
More generally speaking, here's the thing about the second playthrough. With the first playthrough, if you go in mostly blind (and I would really, truly recommend doing so, if you intend to play it at all), after the pre-game disclaimers and after everyone, like me, who has already played it none-too-subtly hinting that, yes, the pre-game disclaimers are absolutely there for a very good reason, as you play, you'll probably be feeling rather uneasy, waiting for something weird and disturbing to happen. And then that weird and disturbing something most assuredly happens. And you'll be like wow... yep, that was a really weird and disturbing something that happened.
But, at least for me, on this second playthrough, when I've gone in knowing exactly what is going to go down and how and when, it's almost like a completely different game, in a very real way. I've been looking for foreshadowing, and whooo boy... is there a metric assload of foreshadowing, if you know what to look for. An imperial royal shit-ton of very effective foreshadowing, almost to the point of being blatant, in retrospect. Jesus fuck.
And I'm very seriously considering also doing a fourth, extra, above-and-beyond, not-required-for-golden-path playthrough of Act One, after I finish the three girl-specific routes, in which I would kind of balance it out and not pursue any one particular girl, because I'm actually really interested to see how that would play out, instead of the rather one-sided route that a specific-girl-route tends to be. I would consider this to be the "Monika route," for lack of anything better to call it.
So yeah, Doki Doki Literature Club is amazing.
So... I started a replay of Doki Doki Literature Club earlier tonight, a few hours ago. And, trust me, I will have a whole lot more to say about it, while trying to spoil as little as I can (outside of any deliberate spoiler space that I will use at that time), later, once I complete it again. This time I'm going for the... golden path... such as it is, which will require multiple playthroughs of... let's call it Act One, before moving on with the rest of the game.
However, there is one thing I'll say now (and, just to be clear, this is an entirely separate issue from all the mindfuck that the game is famous for, which is not really so much of a spoiler because the game blatantly warns you with its pre-game disclaimers that mindfuck is coming).
So here's the thing: I actually noticed this the first time I played the game, but I'm super feeling it this second time through. I... really, really fucking hate the player character, even from the get go, but more and more as the game progresses. To say that I don't identify with him at all is kind of an understatement.
I mean, yeah, sure, the very top-surface level thing of being all "Hey cool I'm the only guy in a club full of hot girls" is, as a fellow cishet male, somewhat relatable (well, theoretically speaking, mind you, as I've never been in that situation myself, obviously, and never will), but... that's about it. That's where any connection between me and the MC ends. Just the way he goes about the situation, the way he handles it, the way he thinks about it, I don't like. And hell, even as I am doing the thing ("the thing" being to deliberately pick words to make the poems go a certain way [I'm doing Natsuki's "route" on this, my "first" playthrough of Act One]), the player character himself is simultaneously putting a lampshade on it, saying that he, himself, is also deliberately doing that same thing, as well, in universe (i.e. he's writing poems for the expressly stated purpose of trying to impress one of the girls). And, in universe, it just feels creepy and manipulative to me. I mean, it's one thing for me, as the player, to do it, because that's just what you do in this kind of game, you pick whatever choices make the game go a certain way, and then you maybe start over and try again later and pick different choices to make the game go a different way (and if you want the golden path in DDLC, that's pretty much what you have to do, before the... point-of-no-return is reached).
But for the player character himself to all but explicitly admit that this is also what he is doing, within the game world itself, is more than a little skeevy, in a bit of a pick-up-artist sort of way. To put it as plainly as I can, the MC is kind of a real douchebag. And the worst part of it is that he doesn't even really realize it, even as he is it. As I said, I sort of felt this way the first time I played the game last year or whenever, but I was also rather distracted by waiting for the mindfuckery shoe to drop, for the pre-game disclaimer shit to kick in, to pay as much attention to the MC's douchebaggery, but this time... yeah... he's a real creeper, in his own way. He doesn't even really try to be. It just kind of seems to come naturally to him.
But now, even worse, I just now reached... vague spoilers... the scene in the street where you're talking to Sayori after (in this particular case) Natsuki leaves, and the main character is talking about how he "knows what's best" and...
Well, I'll just give his exact words, without context of anything that came before (unless you've already played the game and know the context):
MC (who in this playthrough I have named "Chara" for... reasons):
"Do you remember how I said I always know what's best for you?
Do you still believe me?
Even if you don't understand your own feelings...
I know what you need the most right now.
Sayori...
You will always be my dearest friend."
(An aside, yes, I went "that route" here instead of the "other route," but little of note changes in this particular scene regardless of which way you go. To continue, back to MC's exact words...)
"What you need most is for things to be like they've always been.
Monika told me the truth."
(Ooooh, there's so much I want to say here, about Monika, but that is so far beyond the point I'm trying to make right now that the light of the Sun has not yet reached it, so I'll leave that for later. Back to MC's exact words...)
"She told me how much happier you seemed after I joined the club.
I know you're struggling with some really difficult feelings right now.
But...
Please trust me that I know what's best...and what will make you happy in the end."
Doesn't that just sound like a really manipulative bastard kind of thing to say to another person, no matter the context?
But especially IN context... that's not how this works, MC. That's not how any of this works, you stupid fuck. The worst part of it is that he thought he was doing good, that he was saying the right thing, that he was helping. I'm actually somewhat legitimately infuriated here, sort of, in a way, which is rather silly because it's (at this point in the game still) just an anime visual novel, but still... I kind of want to reach into the game with a steel-toed boot and kick the MC in the teeth right now. I had to save and quit at that point (and not just because it's way past when I should have gone to bed).
I'm not even sure if this was authorial intent, for the MC to be so hateable, or if I personally am just reading way, way too much into all this. Apparently, Dan Salvato, the creator of the game, had this to say regarding the main character of DDLC: "I don't imagine him as a character in the same way as the other characters. He's just a blank slate that says whatever is convenient." And... fucking hell if that doesn't kind of just make the whole thing even worse, at least to me.
I love this game. It's great. I highly, highly recommend it. And like I said, I'll be making another, probably even longer (series of?) post(s?) about it later, in a day or three... But... no, I do not like the MC at all. He's an asshole, and he doesn't even really comprehend the fact that he's an asshole. Nobody else in the game thinks of him as an asshole or treats him like an asshole. Quite the contrary in fact, which is all the more frustrating. Because a lot of his asshole nature is based on his inner thoughts, which the other characters don't ever get to see (except maybe for *spoiler*), and... it makes me kind of glad that *spoiler* *spoiler* *spoiler* later in the game, because I fucking hate him. I haven't gotten even remotely close to that point in this playthrough, though, and won't be doing so for a while yet, so I'll have to endure the MC being kind of an asshole for the rest of this playthrough and at least two more playthroughs of Act One, and then Act Two, before I can get that far.
More generally speaking, here's the thing about the second playthrough. With the first playthrough, if you go in mostly blind (and I would really, truly recommend doing so, if you intend to play it at all), after the pre-game disclaimers and after everyone, like me, who has already played it none-too-subtly hinting that, yes, the pre-game disclaimers are absolutely there for a very good reason, as you play, you'll probably be feeling rather uneasy, waiting for something weird and disturbing to happen. And then that weird and disturbing something most assuredly happens. And you'll be like wow... yep, that was a really weird and disturbing something that happened.
But, at least for me, on this second playthrough, when I've gone in knowing exactly what is going to go down and how and when, it's almost like a completely different game, in a very real way. I've been looking for foreshadowing, and whooo boy... is there a metric assload of foreshadowing, if you know what to look for. An imperial royal shit-ton of very effective foreshadowing, almost to the point of being blatant, in retrospect. Jesus fuck.
And I'm very seriously considering also doing a fourth, extra, above-and-beyond, not-required-for-golden-path playthrough of Act One, after I finish the three girl-specific routes, in which I would kind of balance it out and not pursue any one particular girl, because I'm actually really interested to see how that would play out, instead of the rather one-sided route that a specific-girl-route tends to be. I would consider this to be the "Monika route," for lack of anything better to call it.
So yeah, Doki Doki Literature Club is amazing.
