I rate this game 9/10

Now that you have seen the red thumb down and my rating, I hope you re going to read through all my crap, even though I'm not big into books.

After seeing many MEMES of this game it got my interest. Seeing it with a whopping 97% recommendation rate made me indeed curious. So I wanted to see if that game is really that good, if this game blows my mind completely away as I would expect from a such highly rated game.
I was just mildly blown away.
Perhaps I was expecting much too much. I probably was
but I am definitely not going to blame Dan Salvato for this, he did a great job with this game!

Unfortunately this game has few minor flaws that pissed me off.
I don't know how to phrase it different, it's not actually flaws and I wasn't really pissed, but there is stuff that didn't appeal me, mostly because I m kinda dull, dulled by other games. In an emotional sense. But not visual. I will list them all in my pros and cons.

I will spoiler anything that could tell you too much about the main plot with black bars, so you don't have to worry. Everything clearly obvious, even if it seems like a spoiler and pretty much the beginning (4 Girls and Poems) won't have any black bars.
Consider reading all non spoilered text to determine if this game suits you

Pros:
- Game has nice artstyle and visuals
Sounds weird but after playing Monstergirlquest I can definitely consider saying "Those girls look cute" as a pro-argument.

- The whole story is rather interesting
Dan Salvato is known for his writings. Quick Googeling could reveal what he writes. So him making a game about literature in his way is quite well done. I would rate it 8/10. Why not 10/10 is elobrated in the cons

- The kind of game it is is nice
If you played the game you knew it wasn't really a VN. It's basically a creepypaste in VN format. An .exe game like Sonic.exe perhaps, which isn't everyones favorit type of game, but it is a rather well made one. You don't loose the track at all what it is about and yet get many stuff that really make you question what is going on, like wtf moments, little surprises that take you off-guard. The Way how you get them is really nice, BUT What you get isn't particullary. I will discuss them in the cons.

- Some nice music
The music fits quite good and I am simply speaking of Dans Piano skills. So Team Salvuto which basically consists of only Dan Salvuto with a bit help here and there was able to make some nice Pianos music for the game. He was probably so keen of his piano skills that he let one of the girls also be a pianist and tell you and the others that she got newly into it. So is Dan probably. Nice touche, I like it!

- Hidden Messages
We all love hidden messages, sometimes its a special dialogue you get, sometimes its a little picture you find in the background, sometimes the gamefiles have some hidden messages and sometimes you get very satanistic stuff if you play music backwards, but hey, its a little secret YOU found, so be happy!

Neutral stuff
- Inconsistent FPS
I know this sounds hyperly retarded but I noticed I sometimes got 80fps, then 60, then over 100, and then 5fps. Yeah, 5fps.
Don't know if its an issue with the game or if Nvidia and its sh*tty drivers are f*cked like always, but it bothered me.
It didnt have ANY impact on the game but... I just wanted to say it.

- Just 4 girls, NOBODY else
Come ooon, you sell this game as a VN and it has only 4 Girls? I know what you're thinking "xy is best girls, I can't believe you pleb want more!", but this game ONLY consists of: -You and -The Literature club.
No other NPCs, no more girls, no janitor or teacher, not even a pet cat or something, just you and 4 girls.
And to be honest, it didn't really need more, but it would have made the game mooore... realistic? I dunno, just a thought.

Cons
- "This person is your friend. Have empathy for her!"
Okay this is something that pissed me off rather much and oh, here the butthurt begins.
I will elobrate what I mean by comparing to another game: Deus Ex Human Revolution
In Deus Ex Human Revolution you start the game in a lab base, there is a nice cutscene and as the game begins, you are in a room with your girlfriend. You are able to move inside the room with WASD and look at some pictures, logs, newspaper, and your girlfriend comments on them a bit. As you decide to leave the room you're "stuck" in an autoscroller and Sh*t Hits the Fan and you get raided, evil people raid the lab and kill most scientists, you loose track of your gf.
Afterwards you wake up augmented and don't really know what happened to your gf, probably died like all the other scientists and Adam Jensen, the protagonists, gets depressed and ♥♥♥♥.
I don't have much empathy for that. And I don't get it.
Why starting off the game and being told that someone "is your best friend and is important to you" if you barely know this person? In my eyes it's just an NPC like all the others, barely more important than a random talking in GTA I don't care blowing up with an RPG.

In DDLC you get Sayori as your childhood friend. It is supposed to lead you into the plot but this only makes trouble.
Should I feel guilty/bad if I try to date other girls?
Should I feel responsible if Sayori (as example) cries or gets hurt? Am I supposed to play nurse only because the game told me I am befriended with her?
What if the game told me we actually hate each other? Should I try avoiding her only because the game told me so?

In other words: Instead of "telling me to have empathy", MAKE me have empathy. At the beginning she isn't a friend for me, she is just a picture of a 2D girl with some text. How about more backstory, how we met in VN style (like a flashback), why we actually like each other, perhaps some more dialogues with her you can't prevent even if you try hitting on another girl, just to get to know your best friend more.
And after a few in-game days Sayori basically gets to the point where, in my opinion, I have to have empathy because the game told me so, and not because I particullary like her. But what if I was actually into one of the other girls? Should I just pretend I care for her to not feel guilty?
Yes, it's not a VN where you pick your waifu, but be sure it's true when you say I love you
Like I said, I m dull

- What the Warning was about AND you have to be at least JUST 13 to play!
But here I am not dull. I am actually rather sensible
Its a difference if I play Manhunt, smash some peoples head with a hammer with all the crappy blood we had in the 2000s
And psychological assault, where I witness (as example) one person bullying the other one until the other one actually cries.
I think the psychological assault is more severe than some pixel blood in some random video game because you shot someone in the head. Country Strike is for 16 and above.
This game is for 13. Take a seat and and answer me, is it really easier for a 13 year old to play DDLC than Country Strike? Or Call of Duty? Do you think this game is more suitable for a normal 14 year old child than CoD? I don't wanna sounds pissy, heck I played Resident Evil 2 and 3 when I was 6 to 10 years old on my dads PS1, but this was genuinely... more.
Okay I mean, you could more or less expect it (perhaps it was spoilered a gorillion times on random Discord servers) but still, in my opinion it was kinda severe.
Yes, the game IS basically about it.
Yes, that's what the plot basically is.
BUT this game wants to troll you and hit you really hard, which it surely did! Cudos for that! But IMPORTANT PART of this TWIST/TROLL is to make you believe that this game is Visual Novel about 4 girls and dating. If I play a game like that I... dont want that.


Part 1/7 (All other parts are in the comments)

I rate this game 9/10 Now that you have seen the red thumb down and my rating, I hope you re going to read through all my crap, even though I'm not big into books. After seeing many [b]MEMES[/b] of this game it got my interest. Seeing it with a whopping 97% recommendation rate made me indeed curious. So I wanted to see if that game is really that good, if this game blows my mind completely away as I would expect from a such highly rated game. I was just mildly blown away. Perhaps I was expecting much too much. I probably was but I am definitely not going to blame Dan Salvato for this, he did a great job with this game! Unfortunately this game has few minor flaws that pissed me off. I don't know how to phrase it different, it's not actually flaws and I wasn't really pissed, but there is stuff that didn't appeal me, mostly because I m kinda dull, dulled by other games. In an emotional sense. But not visual. I will list them all in my pros and cons. I will spoiler anything that could tell you too much about the main plot with [spoiler]black bars[/spoiler], so you don't have to worry. Everything clearly obvious, even if it seems like a spoiler and pretty much the beginning (4 Girls and Poems) won't have any black bars. [u][i]Consider reading all non spoilered text to determine if this game suits you[/i][/u] Pros: - Game has nice artstyle and visuals Sounds weird but after playing Monstergirlquest I can definitely consider saying "Those girls look cute" as a pro-argument. - The whole story is rather interesting Dan Salvato is known for his writings. Quick Googeling could reveal what he writes. So him making a game about literature [i]in his way[/i] is quite well done. I would rate it 8/10. Why not 10/10 is elobrated in the cons - The kind of game it is is nice If you played the game you knew [spoiler]it wasn't really a VN. It's basically a creepypaste in VN format. An .exe game like Sonic.exe perhaps[/spoiler], which isn't everyones favorit type of game, but it is a rather well made one. You don't loose the track at all what it is about and yet get many stuff that really make you question what is going on, like wtf moments, little surprises that take you off-guard. The [u]Way[/u] how you get them is really nice, BUT [u]What[/u] you get isn't particullary. I will discuss them in the cons. - Some nice music The music fits quite good and I am simply speaking of Dans Piano skills. So Team Salvuto which basically consists of only Dan Salvuto with a bit help here and there was able to make some nice [i]Pianos[/i] music for the game. He was probably so keen of his piano skills that he let one of the girls also be a pianist and tell you and the others that she got newly into it. So is Dan probably. Nice touche, I like it! - Hidden Messages We all love hidden messages, sometimes its a special dialogue you get, sometimes its a little picture you find in the background, sometimes the gamefiles have some hidden messages and sometimes you get very satanistic stuff if you play music backwards, but hey, its a little secret YOU found, so be happy! Neutral stuff - Inconsistent FPS I know this sounds hyperly retarded but I noticed I sometimes got 80fps, then 60, then over 100, and then 5fps. Yeah, 5fps. Don't know if its an issue with the game or if Nvidia and its sh*tty drivers are f*cked like always, but it bothered me. It didnt have ANY impact on the game but... I just wanted to say it. - Just 4 girls, NOBODY else Come ooon, you sell this game as a VN and it has only 4 Girls? I know what you're thinking "xy is best girls, I can't believe you pleb want more!", but this game ONLY consists of: -You and -The Literature club. No other NPCs, no more girls, no janitor or teacher, not even a pet cat or something, just you and 4 girls. And to be honest, it didn't really need more, but it would have made the game mooore... realistic? I dunno, just a thought. Cons - "This person is your friend. Have empathy for her!" Okay this is something that pissed me off rather much and oh, here the butthurt begins. [u]I will elobrate what I mean by comparing to another game: Deus Ex Human Revolution[/u] In Deus Ex Human Revolution you start the game in a lab base, there is a nice cutscene and as the game begins, you are in a room with your girlfriend. You are able to move inside the room with WASD and look at some pictures, logs, newspaper, and your girlfriend comments on them a bit. As you decide to leave the room you're "stuck" in an autoscroller and Sh*t Hits the Fan and you get raided, evil people raid the lab and kill most scientists, you loose track of your gf. Afterwards you wake up augmented and don't really know what happened to your gf, probably died like all the other scientists and Adam Jensen, the protagonists, gets depressed and shit. I don't have much empathy for that. And I don't get it. Why starting off the game and being told that someone "is your best friend and is important to you" if you barely know this person? In my eyes it's just an NPC like all the others, barely more important than a random talking in GTA I don't care blowing up with an RPG. In DDLC you get Sayori as your childhood friend. It is supposed to lead you into the plot but this only makes trouble. Should I feel guilty/bad if I try to date other girls? Should I feel responsible if Sayori (as example) cries or gets hurt? Am I supposed to play nurse only because the game told me I am befriended with her? What if the game told me we actually hate each other? Should I try avoiding her only because the game told me so? In other words: Instead of "telling me to have empathy", MAKE me have empathy. At the beginning she isn't a friend for me, she is just a picture of a 2D girl with some text. How about more backstory, how we met in VN style (like a flashback), why we actually like each other, perhaps some more dialogues with her you can't prevent even if you try hitting on another girl, just to get to know your best friend more. [spoiler]And after a few in-game days Sayori basically gets to the point where, in my opinion, I have to have empathy because the game told me so, and not because I particullary like her. But what if I was actually into one of the other girls? Should I just pretend I care for her to not feel guilty? Yes, it's not a VN where you pick your waifu, but [i]be sure it's true when you say I love you[/i][/spoiler] Like I said, I m dull - What the Warning was about AND you have to be at least JUST 13 to play! But here I am not dull. I am actually rather sensible Its a difference if I play Manhunt, smash some peoples head with a hammer with all the crappy blood we had in the 2000s And psychological assault, where I witness (as example) one person bullying the other one until the other one actually cries. I think the psychological assault is more severe than some pixel blood in some random video game because you shot someone in the head. Country Strike is for 16 and above. This game is for 13. Take a seat and and answer me, is it really easier for a 13 year old to play DDLC than Country Strike? Or Call of Duty? Do you think this game is more suitable for a normal 14 year old child than CoD? I don't wanna sounds pissy, heck I played Resident Evil 2 and 3 when I was 6 to 10 years old on my dads PS1, but this was genuinely... [i]more[/i]. Okay I mean, you could more or less expect it (perhaps it was spoilered a gorillion times on random Discord servers) but still, in my opinion it was kinda severe. Yes, the game IS basically about it. Yes, that's what the plot basically is. BUT [spoiler] this game wants to troll you and hit you really hard, which it surely did! Cudos for that! But IMPORTANT PART of this TWIST/TROLL is to make you believe that[/spoiler] this game is Visual Novel about 4 girls and dating. If I play a game like that I... dont want that. Part 1/7 (All other parts are in the comments)