In fact, it’s so successful that I almost feel that to review it in the traditional sense is to do it a great disservice: although I have many feelings about it, this is a visual novel that is best approached knowing as little as possible about it.
The Higurashi When They Cry series supposedly attempted this, but ultimately couldn’t break free of genre conventions, instead burying its grotesque mystery under dozens of hours of high school hijinx - not unlike like the narratives it proposed to overturn.ĭoki Doki Literature Club, the debut from indie developer Team Salvato, is a title that attempts subversion through drama. Hatoful Boyfriend provides a stunning critique through the lens of absurdist comedy and inspired a wave of imitators, yet subversion through drama remains relatively untapped. These stories often have a fantastical hook, whether it be time travel, nuclear catastrophes, or something else entirely, though these core plotlines are often ancillary to narratives that concentrate on the budding relationships between the protagonist and the supporting cast.Īs such, it’s a format ripe for subversion. Major developers such as Key Visual Arts and 5pb trade on their reputation for producing lengthy narratives that posit the reader in a typical “day in the life” of a standard anime protagonist.
Commercial visual novels are a very insular and self-referential medium.