Creator Dan Salvato told Kotaku that he took inspiration from “things that are scary because they make you uncomfortable, not because they shove scary-looking things in your face.” Doki Doki Literature Club! faithfully follows his description as it establishes a norm that it pulls out from under your feet. However, I didn’t know how it was a horror game until I experienced it for myself. I played Doki Doki Literature Club to celebrate Halloween because I knew it was a horror game. What’s less apparent is how it separates itself from other horror games with the way it disrupts your sense of normalcy and breaks your favorite characters like dolls in the process.
In fact, some marketing materials say it right in the description. Doki Doki Literature Club! is a psychological horror game dressed as a cutesy anime dating sim - and it’s also one of the internet’s worst-kept secrets.