Just Monika

 I'm proud to inform everyone that I have earned the secret ending of Doki Doki Literature Club!

Sayori, Yuri, Monika, and Natsuki.

DDLC is one of the more interesting experiments in video game metafiction. The game basically works on three distinct levels:

1. A dating sim where the player chooses the female member of the Literature Club with which their character will spend time.
2. A psychological horror game that works by subverting the conventions of the dating sim with a character who is determined to claim the title of Best Girl for herself by any means necessary.
3. A meta-game with characters who realize that they exist only within a computer program and interact with the player as an entity distinct from the player character.

As you progress through the game, it becomes obvious that the character Monika (the president of the titular Literature Club) is manipulating the other characters in an attempt to make them less likeable and to monopolize the player's attention. Eventually, she abandons all attempts at subtlety, reveals that she is a fully self-aware AI as opposed to the scripted characters of her (would-be) rivals, and simply deletes all of the other girls. Additionally, she drops the pretense that the player character is at all meaningful and starts addressing you, the person on the other side of the screen. Of course, being an AI is as much a weakness as a strength, and the player regains control by the interesting method of exiting the game, navigating to the installation folder (helpfully pointed out by Monika) and deleting Monika as she deleted the other girls.

#relatable

Upon restarting the game, one of two endings will play out. Sayori has taken Monika's place as president, and in the normal ending, she goes mad with power in exactly the same way that Monika did. A vestige of the remorseful Monika, horrified by the president's powers, deletes the entire game to prevent the cycle of madness from continuing indefinitely.

I will vote for whichever candidate promises to tweet this image after inauguration.

However, a patient player can access an alternate ending. By stopping near the end of the first "dating sim" cycle through the game and restarting several times, you can romance Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki before the horror begins. (As the president, Monika doesn't have a romance arc, which incites her rebellion against her game's constraints.) If you do this, you will have fulfilled Sayori's dream of seeing all of her friends happy, and she won't turn evil. Instead, she'll tell you how happy you've made her, lament that the game is now over, and invite you to come back sometime.

Romeo's tragic flaw was that he didn't save scum through all possible permutations of his play's ending.

After the credits roll, you'll be treated to a handwritten note from the developer congratulating you and explaining some of his development philosophy. Interestingly, he makes it clear that although DDLC isn't a straight dating sim, it's also not a deconstruction of the dating sim either. Gamers have a social hierarchy like any other subculture, and dating sim players are normally shoved in the very bottom stratum. Dan Salvato is having none of it:

People who enjoy dating sims may have a heightened empathy for fictional characters, or they might be experiencing feelings that life has not been kind enough to offer them. If they are enjoying themselves, then that's all that matters.

I don't play dating sims much myself, but's it's still refreshing to read something on the topic that wasn't written with an audible sneer. Indeed, the relaxed experience and clear objectives of the dating sim make it an excellent platform from which to launch this sort of multilayered self-aware interactive experience. (Whether dating sims and other visual novels are "games" is a debate for another time.)

Thanks, Dan!