It can be difficult to find time to finish a video game, especially if you only have a few hours a week to play. In our new biweekly column Short Play we suggest video games that can be started and finished in a weekend.
“Doki doki' is a Japanese onomatopoeia for a heart beating quickly, usually with anticipation or excitement. Doki Doki Literature Club is a visual novel where anticipation and the different forms it takes. It’s a game that does this by constantly playing with your expectations — even before you start playing.
If you were to take a quick glance at Doki Doki Literature Club’s description, its trailer, or the screenshots on its storefront, you’d see a game that seems like every other cutesy dating sim about a high school boy pursuing multiple attractive girls.
The game seems to promise a lighthearted visual experience, with the notable exception of the warning that seems when you start the game or watch the trailer, is this:
“This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.'
What is that about, how long is doki doki literature club? It’s a question sticks with you as you start playing. Your romantic adventures play out just as you’d usually expect — at first — but you’re left with the sense that at some point, something is going to go wrong.
And it will. But along the way, this lurking dread causes you to read too much into seemingly throwaway lines, looking for hints as to why that warning was there. But when the game finally reveals itself as the horror game it told you it was right up front, it isn’t what you expect or how you expected it.
