Growing Up And Realizing A Game You Were Obsessed With For Years Is Kind Of Mid Is Somehow Both Tragic

flashing smile.txt this is about doki doki...... i love the game dearly but i think dan rushed hard through act 1 like he laid out the basic structure of an anime romance visual novel but he was so eager to get to the crazy shit that he kind of skipped over giving any of the characters significant screentime. like i really think the perfect route is the optimal way to play bc like if you dont commit to anyones routes you will get a very cursory at best view of their personality and motives if you commit to yuris route you will get basically nothing from natsuki and if you do EITHER sayori or natsukis routes then yuri basically refuses to talk to you n like yeah ok its a dating sim youre gonna focus more on A character but the issue is dd lc isnt built to be replayed like a normal dating sim. you get sucker punched with end of act 1 and then go through the scary funhouse mirror act 2 but learning yuri self harms or natsuki's dad is abusive or sayori is depressed doesnt hit that hard if you have barely ever interacted with these people also dont get me started on the normal ending with sayori going insta evil that shit is just bad i think doki doki could have been a lot more impactful if dan was more willing to embrace the fact he was writing a hammy anime game with tropey characters. EYE care about the tragic twists in this game bc ive played so many times that i used to have nearly the entire game script memorized. but ddlc's big twist is a one time event and i dont think that shock value alone constitutes good psych horror. the characters are quite good but they needed some more time to cook.... especially natsuki you forgot to put her in the oven anyways dont let me talk about this game ever again here or else i'll engage in a tier 17 autism event. sleeper hyperfixation no. 1 forever