Well, I wasn’t expecting that.
This is almost completely ripped from my Steam review, but hey, I need content.
I’d only played a few visual novels before this game. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was particularly charming, with clever detective segments and intense court cases. Upon later playing Fate/Stay Night, I realised that Ace Attorney was fairly atypical for a VN. Fate introduced me to a lot of tropes in visual novels, like character archetypes (the tsundere, the reserved and well-spoken one, the childhood friend…) and the frequent presentation of choices. I loved its story. However, the romantic subplots had a tendency to fall into dating sim stereotypes that are often a detriment to the genre. Needless to say, when I received countless recommendations to play DDLC, a game that looks like a stereotypical dating sim, I was apprehensive to say the least. My first run of this game was completely blind, so I allowed Team Salvato’s lovely writing, charming characters and beautiful music to guide me gently through what felt like an enjoyable, albeit slightly typical dating sim with a fun gimmick of writing poems to appeal to particular characters.
It soon turned out that this was all intended to lull me into a false sense of security, building to a phenomenal series of plot twists and psychological horror elements that stuck with me for hours afterward. Without delving into spoiler territory, DDLC makes ingenious use of simple visual effects and some very unnerving self-aware dialogue, expectation subversion through the tropes and stereotypes I mentioned before, as well as other subtle hints designed to keep you on edge throughout the experience. The game even encourages you to mess around with the files in the directory, which I thought was a very daring touch, as it shows reliance on the player being at least a little tech-savvy. Brilliant demographic awareness on the part of Team Salvato.
I can’t recommend this game enthusiastically enough. Aside from the fantastic presentation and execution of the game’s story, it’s not overly time-consuming (at the time of writing this, I have 5.7 hours on record, which includes two full runs – one blind and one aiming to achieve a particular ending, plus some messing around with the game files as the player is encouraged to do). To top all that off, the game costs nothing at all. There’s really no excuse not to pick it up, and if you want to support the team, maybe pick up the Fan Pack on Steam too.
Chris Talks Games 