The Use of Malfunction in Doki Doki Literature Club!
A glitch is an issue or malfunction, typically temporary, in a system or machine. The term glitch has evolved from that to do with machinery to aspects of life itself. I’m typically drawn to the saying ‘glitch in the matrix’, referencing déjà vu, ‘the effect of overlapping an altered reality, observed by people trapped inside.’[1] Through several forms of media, artists use glitches or malfunction as a way of combining the digital world, some sort of dreamscape, with reality. The involvement of glitches in media works evokes emotion in a viewer, a strangeness, surrealism, striking fear or curiosity, ‘a wonderful and frightening interruption that shifts a technology away from its ordinary form and discourse.’[2]
‘Doki Doki Literature Club!’ a popular psychological horror visual novel developed by Dan Salvato, originally starts as a cute, dating simulator game where the player attempts to romance ‘cookie-cutter anime girl stereotypes.’[3] But, it takes a twisted turn once the game breaks through the fourth wall, ‘intentionally damaging, modifying, corrupting sets of data in order to reveal the…obscured processes of computers.’[4] The game reveals themes of obsession and mental illness, ‘existential dread through meta-narrative twists and unsettling glitches’[5] revolving around main character, antagonist, ‘Monika’ who becomes ‘self-aware.’[6]
In the beginning, the player experiences small bugs that cause text boxes to distort or flicker, words start corrupting showing different characters instead of letters, and characters appearances change. These moments resemble corrupted image files or rendering errors commonly associated with a system software malfunction. The game exposes the material conditions of digitality, ‘exposing processes that are considered counter to heir rational and efficient nature,’[7] reminding the player that what appears to be an innocent dating sim is actually a fragile assemblage of assets and code. As these interface elements continue to behave unpredictably, ‘Monika’ makes it known to the player that she has taken over the game. Monika ‘manipulates the connection’[8] of player between character ‘to be even more personal.’[9] She instructs the player on how to ‘ fix’ the game after the three other main characters' files are deleted. If instructions are followed, the player will realise that the files are nowhere to be found on their desktop, the only character file remaining will be ‘monika.chr.’ The player has no opportunity to prevent this from happening, this sudden deceit ‘strengthens Salvato’s commentary on digital space, considering that a lack of control over the digital space, a world that is not ultimately material, provides shock and discomfort’.[10] Her character continues to explain that she has access to the game files, dialogue and characters behaviour and can manipulate them at will. Although already unusual, she tells you to delete the ‘monika.chr’ file, deleting her eixtsence. Once the programme is relaunched, ‘Monika’ appears before you, reacting emotionally to what the player has done, her character slowly disappears. This play of events breaks the boundary between playing and interacting with the game as a software, subsequently, breaking the fourth wall.
Monikas file deletion is certainly the most significant glitch, or collection of glitches in the game. When the character decides she was ‘no longer content to simply exist within the game, and start to rebel against her programming’[11]. It completely collapses the boundary between the fictional game world and the players operating system, reframing file corruption and deletion as narrative mechanics. By forcing the player to interact with the material structure to progress, Doki Doki Literature Club makes the materiality of digital media explicit, the game will not allow the player to remain within the illusion of this self-contained fictional world. The glitch in the system here is not meant to be accidental, it’s the game's basis, its strategically placed for the player to find. It is directly challenging the ideals of technological perfection by dismantling how easily digital coherence can be dismantled. Doki Doki Literature Club exemplifies how glitch practices can reveal the material conditions of digitality while challenging this myth of technological perfection. In doing this, the game aligns closely with glitch art practices, showing failure is not merely an aspect to be corrected, but a powerful means of engagement – from player or viewer, with digital media.
[1] Sobotka, Petr, ‘Real Glitch in the Matrix’, 2024, https://petr-sobotka.medium.com/real-glitch-in-the-matrix-69c5664cbdc6
[2] Menkman, Rosa, ‘Glitch Studies Manifesto’, Masters of Media, New Media & Digital Culture M.A., University of Amsterdam, pg.43, 2010, https://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/2010/02/glitch-studies-manifesto
[3] Pementel, Michael, The Craft of Fourth Wall Breaking Anxiety in ‘Doki Doki Literature Club!’, 2019, https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3559587/craft-fourth-wall-breaking-anxiety-doki-doki-literature-club/
[4] Doherty, Shauna Jean, ‘SYS.TE/M FAIL.U+RE: Revelations of the interface’, OCAD University, 2014, https://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/362/1/Doherty_Shauna_2014_MFA_CRCP_THESIS.pdf
[5] Cole, Gene, Doki Doki Literature Club: Scariest Moments of the Game, Ranked, 2021, https://www.thegamer.com/doki-doki-literature-club-scariest-moments-ranked/
[6] Cole, Gene, Doki Doki Literature Club: Scariest Moments of the Game, Ranked, 2021, https://www.thegamer.com/doki-doki-literature-club-scariest-moments-ranked/
[7] Doherty, Shauna Jean, ‘SYS.TE/M FAIL.U+RE: Revelations of the interface’, OCAD University, 2014, https://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/362/1/Doherty_Shauna_2014_MFA_CRCP_THESIS.pdf
[8] RycluseAdmin, Fourth Wall Breaks in Games, 2020, https://rycluse.net/2021/02/fourth-wall-breaks-in-games/#:~:text=The%20true%20power%20of%20fourth,was%20real%20and%20had%20feelings.
[9] RycluseAdmin, Fourth Wall Breaks in Games, 2020, https://rycluse.net/2021/02/fourth-wall-breaks-in-games/#:~:text=The%20true%20power%20of%20fourth,was%20real%20and%20had%20feelings.
[10] JMoore, ‘Just Monika: The Removal of Player Agency in Doki Doki Literature Club, 2025, https://metamultiverse.wordpress.com/author/jmoore468/
[11] Arun, Gaurav, ‘The Awakening: When NPCs Became Self-Aware in a Virtual World’, 2022, https://vocal.media/gamers/the-awakening-when-np-cs-became-self-aware-in-a-virtual-world
