Doki Doki Literature Club Plus adds new stories this month
Come get your spooks in HD
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is a HD remaster of the cute anime visual novel (which is also a psychological horror game) coming out on June 30th. Unlike the old game, this one won't be free, but it's adding a bunch of new stuff that I'm sure will have plenty of spooks for us. It's bringing six new side stories, loads of new music, and a visual upgrade with higher-resolution artwork.
There's not much to say about Doki Doki without spoiling it, so just know that it's a delightful game where you'll join a literature club, write poetry and hang out with cute girls. It's also incredibly important to know that it's a horror game, but to explain beyond that would ruin the fun.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! adds six new side stories "about friendship and literature", over a hundred unlockable images including concept art and wallpapers, 13 new songs, and a built-in music player. Developers Team Salvato are also adding optional content warnings, so the game can tell you in advance if you're coming to a scene with sensitive stuff.
If you want to know more about Doki Doki, Darragh Nolan wrote about how the game frames you, and discusses some of its narrative tricks - there's a spoiler in the first sentence, however. For something a little less spoilerific, you could check out Amy Josuweit's piece on how Doki Doki Literature Club! is a hidden horror game for the internet age.
"Doki Doki Literature Club! needs the viral nature of the internet to exist," she wrote. "It needs the player to be intimate with gaming tropes, especially those of Japanese romance games. It needs the player to be aware that this is a horror game with a clever mask."
I personally recommend playing it if you haven't yet, or at least watch a playthrough on YouTube to see someone else's reaction to it. It's brilliant and incredibly unnerving, plus the regular version is free on Steam.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! is coming to Steam on June 30th, and it'll cost you $15. It's also heading to Nintendo Switch and the PlayStations.
E3 2021 may be over but our memories live on - see everything on our E3 hub. Many more big game showcases and streams are still to come this summer, leading up to Gamescom, so see our summer games stream schedule to stay up to date.