Google has removed popular psychological horror game Doki Doki Literature Club! from the Play Store.

Google has removed popular psychological horror game Doki Doki Literature Club! from the Play Store. According to Dan Salvato, who led its development team, and publisher Serenity Forge, Google told them the visual novel was removed because it violated its Terms of Service in its depiction of sensitive themes. The game is “widely celebrated for portraying mental health in a way that meaningfully connects deeply with players around the world,” they said in their announcement. Its free version, which came out first, has been downloaded at least 30 million times, while the paid “Plus” version has had at least one million downloads. The visual novel has repeatedly made Engadget’s lists of favorite games over the years.

**alternative download link you can download it from https://com-serenityforge-dokidokiliteratureclub.en.uptodown.com/android/download

Don’t know if it is trustworthy though.

You play download the PC version officially from steam, only android was removed: https://store.steampowered.com/app/698780/Doki_Doki_Literature_Club/

**

  • Dremor@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    3·
    2 hours ago

    If you aren’t sure of a binary source trustworthiness, better not post it. Stick to what the devs officially publishes.

    • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      5 hours ago

      oh i wish they were at least using that as a honeypot, but i’m not that naive anymore. almost that naive, but not quite.

      • Ok_imagination@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        4 hours ago

        I’m really hoping you’re all referring to Facebook, Instagram or X. I’m scared you’re referring to something else but have some hope for humanity.

        • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
          8·
          4 hours ago

          i’m referring to grok. i think i’m referring to grok, if there’s another one i don’t want to know about it.

  • e8d79@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    69·
    9 hours ago

    Enjoy your curated experience brought to you by Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mastercard, and Visa. Rest assured that nothing will challenge you with uncomfortable topics or viewpoints.

  • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    291·
    10 hours ago

    To be absolutely fair, the point of the game is to mislead you, though it does signpost it very well (I imagine because someone told them they had to — it doesn’t make sense if the signposts were part of the original design).

    I downloaded it, started it up, and got rid of all the signposts, then sat my wife down and had her play through the whole thing. (Yes, we’re still married.) I wish I’d filmed it… what a ride. To this day she hates the Monika wallpaper I have. If you’ve finished the game, you probably know exactly what scene I mean. Maybe you have one too.

    Anyway, it’s probably best played on Steam on a computer (Mac and Linux should be as fine as Windows) rather than a phone or a game console, for reasons I feel should be obvious to people who have finished the game. I know it exists on consoles, and I can’t imagine that part being plausible on consoles.

    If anyone who has NO intention of playing the game wants to know what I mean, I’ll elaborate under a spoiler tag:

    spoiler

    At one point, the Monika character becomes self-aware of herself as a video game character, and takes her beef with you outside of the game, addressing you by your real name (as it’s registered to Steam — games weren’t supposed to get access to this, but nothing stopped them from doing so, so the game was able to call you by your real name, which shocked a lot of people at the time). The way you “beat” her is by going into the system files and deleting the MONIKA file. This isn’t something your average computer user would know or think to do, I think it’s vaguely signposted, but in any case, it would be a lot harder on a phone (especially an iPhone) and impossible on a console (or an iPhone, actually). So I imagine there’s some other mechanism to let you do a similar thing… but it wouldn’t feel as authentic.

    • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      5 hours ago
      spoiler i haven't played nor bought but i have a spoilerific thought

      huh. what happens if you delete monika before running the game?

    • TrousersMcPants@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      7 hours ago

      Actually she isn’t getting your real name through Steam, it was pulling the name you had for your user profile on your OS afaik. There’s several other games that have done something similar, it’s not very hard at all for a program to pull that information.

    • wirelesswire@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      5 hours ago

      I haven’t played it myself, but when DDLC+ was released for consoles, I read they had to redo the end part.

    • LiveLM@lemmy.zipEnglish
      12·
      9 hours ago

      I’m trying to decide if you’re a good person for allowing your wife to experience the game with no signposting or an evil person for allowing your wife to experience the game with no signposting

    • Hadriscus@jlai.luEnglish
      7·
      9 hours ago

      wow what a concept ! breaking the… not sure what, but it’s breaking it

        • Mwa@thelemmy.clubEnglish
          2·
          8 hours ago

          oh cool i never heard of JoiPlay but sounds useful.
          and Plus! uses Unity Right?

          • Auster@thebrainbin.org
            2·
            7 hours ago

            Iirc, yeah, Plus! is Unity-based.

            Also I’ve seen a few engine interpreters over the years. None as overarching as ScummVM and JoiPlay, in this order, but pretty useful stuff. I should check some time if I still have a list of such tools.

            • Mwa@thelemmy.clubEnglish
              1·
              6 hours ago

              Iirc, yeah, Plus! is Unity-based.

              Ofc

              Also I’ve seen a few engine interpreters over the years. None as overarching as ScummVM and JoiPlay, in this order, but pretty useful stuff. I should check some time if I still have a list of such tools.

              oh i see, cool stuff like i said, i cant wait for a list if it releases.