Doki Doki Literature Club is a must-play visual novel for psychological horror and mystery lovers. This gem includes easter eggs and shocking scenes that bring more questions to mind, making it an incredibly memorable game.
It also features multiple endings and random chances of more horror scenes to show up, which ultimately encourages the player to explore and hunt down every trigger in the game as well as in its game directory. Of all the must-see details and files of Doki Doki Literature Club, here's a few to get started with.
10 Game File: monika.chr
In the game directory of Doki Doki Literature Club, there's a characters folder containing the delicate files of the four main characters. The monika.chr file is especially intriguing with what looks like a code inside a seemingly blazing circle with extended cracks.
Other than looking like a black eye with a red-orange iris containing a squared pupil, it hides a secret message with a base64 encoding. Fans have successfully extracted the message by renaming it to monika.png, cutting the code out, and using a decoder.
It's a plea from Monika, or it could be someone else, to the player that maybe it's possible to go back somewhere and warn the others of what's going to happen so they can avoid their deaths. She mentioned the third eye and that the others should remember what she told them if they remember their times together in the other worlds. And ended the note with an apology and a date—2018.
9 Game Detail: Natsuki's Poem
In Act 2, if the player chooses to write 2 poems that Natsuki will appreciate, she will show a poem with the title: ' T3BlbiBZb3VyIFRoaXJkIEV5zQ==' that doesn't seem to make any sense. But when decoded, it translates to 'Open Your Third Eye'.
Natsuki's poem hides the following disturbing message:
"I can feel the tenderness of her skin through the knife, as if it were an extension of my sense of touch. My body nearly convulses. There's something incredibly faint, deep down, that screams to resist this uncontrollable pleasure. But I can already tell that I'm being pushed over the edge. I can't. . .I can't stop myself."
8 Game File:Â CAN YOU HEAR ME.txt
In Act 2, as the player progress through the game with Sayori gone and only 3 girls remaining, a game file named: CAN YOU HEAR ME.txt will appear after they write their first poem. Inside is a poem with the title: "There's a little devil inside all of us".
The rest of the poem reads:
"Beneath their manufactured perception - their artificial reality - is a writhing, twisted mess of dread. Loathing. Judgment. Elitism. Self-doubt. All thrashing to escape the feeble hold of their host, seeping through every little crevice they can find. Into their willpower, starving them of all motivation and desire. Into their stomach, forcing them to drown their guilt in comfort food. Or into a newly-opened gash in their skin, hidden only by sleeves of a cute new shirt.
Such a deplorable, tangled mess is already present in every single one of them. That's why I choose not to blame myself for their actions.
All I did was untie the knot."
This game file highlights the devil inside the main characters. It talked about Sayori losing her life to depression, Natsuki finding comfort in her snacking, and Yuri hiding her self-destructive behavior with her long sleeves. A poem Monika wrote to justify to herself and the player what she has done to them.
7 Game Detail: Sayori's Poster
In Act 2, when Doki Doki Literature Club takes a dark and horrific turn, some details will randomly and subtly show up, which the player may end up missing with everything glitching. One of which is Sayori's poster at the back of the clubroom.
There's only around 16% chance for Sayori's ending to replace the big poster nearest to the bookshelf. It only lasts for a few moments. It usually appears while something else is going on, so it's understandable if the player misses it because of another distraction.
6 Game File: yuri.chr
Among the files inside the characters folder of the game directory is the yuri.chr. It hides a chilling short story behind Base64 encoding that is revealed to be an excerpt of a short story posted in 2015, which Dan Salvato wrote as an easter egg.
It's about a girl telling her horrifying murder story in a genuine way because maybe it'll land on the hands of someone like her—who have always wondered what it's like to kill someone for no specific reason. She shared that she's taking occupational therapy to make a point that even normal people are curious about doing something so utterly terrible out of pure curiosity.
5 Game Detail: Yuri's Jumpscare
It's among the horror scenes the player can witness in Act 2 if they dedicate all of their 3 poems to Yuri. As they're about to make tea, Yuri asks the player to stay inside the room while she goes to a water fountain nearby to get some water. Well, how could she not want his company?
It turns out that Yuri went out to succumb to her self-destructive behavior. If the player doesn't skip the scene, they'll witness her long-sleeve pulled up and the fresh scars on her skin. But if they do, they're in for a horrific surprise—Yuri's jumpscare.
4 Game File: iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.txt
In Act 2, Yuri will share more about the book with the title: "Portrait of Markov", which she convinced the player to read with her. She intentionally bought 2 copies of it after learning the player has only explored manga. After describing the book, however, a game file — iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.txt — appear in the game directory.
It contains the following message: "I hate this. I CAN'T DO ANYTHING. NOTHING. No matter how many times you play. It's all the same. It would be really, really easy to kill myself right now. But that would mean I don't get to talk to you anymore. All I want is for you to hate them. Why is that so hard?"
It's about the frustrated Monika playing with the game files so there'll be a way for the player to spend more time with her and not with the other girls. But all she can do is amplify their dark side; even so, the player is still able to spend time with them.
3 Game File: hxppy thxughts.png
Among the first of the game files created by Monika. On Sunday, Sayori confesses to the player that she's been dealing with depression since childhood. It's also the reason why she's been oversleeping, getting late for school, and not being able to walk with them to school anymore.
The game file 'hxppy thxughts.png' appears on Monday, the very name mocking the words Sayori used in one of her poems. It foreshadows what Sayori has done to herself alone in her bedroom. With her not showing up in school, the player rushes to her residence and into her bedroom only to see what the game file has depicted — a hanging Sayori.
2 Game File: scripts.rpa
It's found in the game folder of the game directory. It's one of the game files that generates the CAN YOU HEAR ME.txt and iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.txt later in the game. But it also contains a piece of valuable information the players could use to write perfect poems for the girl they like — their winning words (can be found here).
Starting at line 4091 of the game file are Sayori's winning words, from there players can scroll down to see the winning words for the remaining girls. It's the only part of the game file in scripts.rpa that won't be extracted. After all, why would possessive Monika ever want the player to see it?
1 Game Detail: Yuri's Final Poem
In Act 2, Yuri starts to speak more of her mind. However harsh the words coming out of her mind, she's unapologetic about it, unlike in Act 1. She starts losing control of herself and even showing the player a mysterious poem—infused with her scent, which can be easily dismissed as gibberish because of how hard it is to understand.
It's mostly gibberish when decoded, yes. But near the end is a chilling message that details what's going on inside Yuri, or can be someone else's mind, when cutting their own skin. How the compulsion and the images of herself messing with her body doesn't go away but only grows. She feels disgusted by it while at the same feels relief as the tension gets released. It mentioned 'Her Third Eye is drawing me closer'.