Loading up the game presents the player with a bright pink loading screen, the game’s title emblazoned in whimsical block text circumscribed by colorful hearts, accompanied by a jaunty flute and piano melody in the background (see figure 1). download printable PDF Excerpt / Megan Panįor all intents and purposes, the 2017 visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club! (DDLC) looks to be like any typical dating simulator video game. Its claim, that “by very nature of its cute demeanor,” the game “manages to subvert the expectations of its supposed genre and ultimately reveal its true colors as a brilliantly executed metafictional psychological horror” in a strong example of the lexicon term thesis. The essay uses this twist as its motivation to examine its theoretical and cultural implications.
In a Tortoiseshell: In her final paper for a class called “’Too Cute!’: Race, Style, and Asiamania,” Megan Pan analyzes a dating simulator video game, Doki Doki Literature Club! The game, accessible by smartphone app, takes a strange and unexpected turn as it is played.
