Doki Doki Literature Club fans will be able to access a significant amount of new content in Doki Doki Literature Club Plus, according to a tweet from the game's creator. The highly anticipated re-release will be launching with six all-new Side Stories that apparently offer content totaling more than 50% of the base game, giving players hours of new material.
The original Doki Doki Literature Club launched back in 2017 and delivered a transgressive, shocking, and disturbing narrative that disguised itself as a typical anime-themed dating simulator. Players going into Doki Doki Literature Club looking for a tame tale of innocent high school romance will get mostly that for the first few hours before the game abruptly turns into a heartbreaking, fourth-wall-defying, unsettling story about suicide, mental illness, and obsession. The way Doki Doki Literature Club was able to subvert and terrify landed the independent developer Team Salvato heaps of praise, eventually leading to the announcement of Doki Doki Literature Club Plus, a re-release for PC and consoles. This new version of the game will be launching with never-before-seen content, including new music and unlockables.
The most significant addition, however, comes in the form of six new mini-narratives known as Side Stories that will provide several hours of new content, according to a statement made by developer Dan Salvato on Twitter. Salvato, in response to an inquiry from a fan, claims that the script for the Side Stories is just over 50% of the length of the original game's script. He also mentions that that includes all of the multiple dialogue options and alternate scenarios present in the Side Stories. The Tweet does not specify how long each individual story is or if they will all be approximately the same length.
The original Doki Doki Literature Club takes most players five or six hours to complete, so the addition of these Side Stories will make Doki Doki Literature Club Plus closer to many AAA titles in terms of length, which is sure to excite fans who have been itching for more content. That being said, there are concerns over how the ending will translate to consoles. Side Stories will hopefully bring more than just an increase in playtime, as they provide an opportunity for the game's writers to focus on the original's characters without being shackled to the original game's meta, experimental narrative.
Doki Doki Literature Club told a beautiful and horrifying story that still rivals those found in many big-budget releases today. While many fans were disappointed to hear that there will never be a proper sequel, the heft of this additional side content should soften the blow a bit. Ideally, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus will serve as a well-earned and well-received victory lap for one of 2017's best indie games.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus will land on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Windows, and macOS on June 30, 2021
Source: Dan Salvato/Twitter