Doki Doki Literature Club presents itself as a free dating simulator about a high school poetry club, complete with pastel sprites and a cheerful soundtrack. The content warning on the front page is not decorative, and everything after this sentence assumes you know that.

Dan Salvato built the game specifically to weaponise the conventions of the genre. You write poems by choosing words, the characters respond to your choices, and the game uses that trust to do something the medium doesn't usually allow - breaking out of its own files and interfering with itself.

What elevates it above a gimmick is that the horror is thematically coherent. Every unsettling thing in the game is an extension of what dating sims already ask you to do: treat people as options to be optimised.

Monika is one of the most discussed characters in indie gaming, and the reasons why are worth discovering firsthand rather than reading about.

This collection covers all four club members. Go in unspoiled if you can.