Doki Doki Literature Club has become something of a phenomenon.
While the game is presented as a typical anime dating simulator with your cute characters and run of the mill love story, the game is anything but ordinary.
Once you’ve experienced it for yourself, I’m sure you’ll know exactly what I mean. And if you’ve played it enough that you want something new, well, let’s get to modding.
Luckily there are tons of mods that expand or even change the story for us, giving plenty of replay value.
Do note though that since Doki Doki is a story-heavy game, it’s quite difficult to explain these mods without spoiling anything – so consider this your spoiler warning.
As soon as you jump into Doki Doki, you’re quickly going to realize that the game is mostly about getting to know each of the four girls in the after-school literature club and hopefully fall in love with at least one of them.
How the story plays out relies heavily on which on the four you favor – so you can imagine how varied opinions are going to be depending on the player of the game.
If you happen to fall in love with Monika, Monika’s After Story is a great mod to try if you’re looking to extend past the game’s ending.
The allows you to spend the rest of your days with Monika, letting you talk for hours with a completely customized dialogue system, and even different games like pong or listen to some music together.
While you’re mostly in control of who among the four girls you end up being with, one of the biggest criticisms that disappointed fans was the lack of a Monika route offered in the base game.
While the Monika After Story mod lets you spend the rest of your days with Monika after all the events of the storyline, Monika Before Story changes the storyline to accommodate more possibilities.
The mod sees you as the president of the club, while Monika takes the place of your childhood best friend instead of Sayori.
The mod opens up a host of new decisions to make that affect how your story will unfold, eventually leading up to one of ten different possible endings.
Of course, Monika isn’t the only character in the game – and I’m sure you have your own favorites.
This next mod focuses instead on Yuri’s story, which mostly appears less interesting than that of the other girls in the club.
Modder Animystix puts it perfectly in his description:
“This is the story of a girl named Yuri. Yuri was a schoolgirl like any other; she would go to classes, have lunch, and meet with her friends in the literature club. While she didn’t deem her life as particularly exciting, it was interesting enough for her. After all, she had plenty of things to do: Expand her knife collection, try new types of tea, and explore the world of poetry. At this point, it didn’t matter what Yuri’s future held for her, or how her past treated her. What matters is that Yuri… was happy.
But then one day, something peculiar happened…”
The mod is also based on The Stanley Parable, which was another surprise hit from back in 2013.
With this next mod, we’re seeing yet another focus shift – this time to your childhood best friend Sayori.
Taking a much more in depth look at Sayori’s life, the mod actually sees Sayori asking you out on a date.
With the mod focusing on your relationship with Sayori, it can’t help but be asked – will you finally be able to make her happy?
As you’re probably familiar with Doki Doki’s storyline by now, the added focus on Sayori might mean a deeper relation to mental health as well. So I wouldn’t expect this to be as easygoing as you might think.
In case you’re looking for a more lighthearted Sayori mod, then this next one is an obvious choice.
Just by the name, you can already tell it does away with Sayori’s suicide completely – making for a much more pleasant storyline with no nightmares.
The mod actually took runner up in three categories for 2019’s Best Mods on Reddit – taking 2nd place for Best Sayori Mod, Best Lighthearted Mod, and Most Innovative/Unique Mod, giving you three more reasons to give this one a go.
If in case you do prefer the darker Sayori ending, you might want to check out the After Sayori mod by EVM02.
Though it shares a similar name, it isn’t exactly like the Monika After Story where you get to spend an unlimited amount of time with Monika after the story ends.
After Sayori still has things turning out for the worst for Sayori, but let’s you play through what might happen after she’s gone.
As the modder himself explains:
“It’s about life after Sayori – how Monika tries to fix what she’s done, how the girls react to this news, and how you can help everyone heal after this.”
Doki Doki Easter Hunter allows you to spend even more time with the girls, with an added event in the form of an Easter egg hunt.
It might not be as long or as deep as the other mods here, but more Doki Doki is always great, right?
The mod also has some plot twists mixed in here, as the modder even warns it’s not great for anyone who finds certain parts of the game a bit… upsetting.
The twists and turns within Doki Doki are exactly what make the game stand out.
What appeared to be a typical anime dating simulator at first glance, quickly turned into an emotional horror-tinged story, setting it apart from other games in the visual novel space.
While that’s all well and good, do you ever wonder what DDLC might be like if it did take a more “normal” route?
Well The Normal VN is exactly that, removing most of the disturbing and less “normal” parts of the story to bring you a regular dating sim experience.
If you’re looking for a traditional dating simulation experience within Doki Doki, Purist is another great mod to consider.
It gives each of the girls much more “normal” routes, where you’ll be able to date each of them and ultimately decide who will become your lifelong partner.
Purist is a great expansion as it adds over 11 hours of playable content, and even includes completely custom artwork and music to match.
For fans of DDLC, the festival is mostly associated with Sayori’s death.
This mod aims to remedy that by taking the story from when things start to go wrong towards the end of Act 1.
What’s great about this mod is that it lets you explore scenarios that you originally wouldn’t have access to. Even being able to spend time at the actual festival with the girls.
The mod adds a whole new week at the literature club, along with routes for each of the girls and 2 different endings to unlock.
There may even be a new character introduced to the story, but you’ll have to play it yourself to find out.
We’ve seen a few mods that focus on Sayori, Yuri, and even Monika in the previous entries – but we haven’t really given Natsuki much love up until this point.
Behind Closed Doors dives much deeper into Natsuki’s life as well, revealing some of the darker secrets that she wished to keep hidden.
It’s a great alternative storyline to play through, especially since there aren’t a lot of options for a plot focused on Natsuki instead of the other girls.
Doki Doki might have made its mark for some of its darker content. But who’s to say that we can’t have some fun with the game?
There are a lot of options when it comes to comedy mods for DDLC, and while they are meant to be funny, you might be surprised at how good some of these actually are.
It’s not all stupid jokes and memes, with Doki Doki Summertime being a great example to start us off.
The mod takes place in the summertime (obviously) where Sayori invites you to join her for a day at the pool.
Doki Doki Summertime comes with new artwork and music, and 17 different endings to unlock.
While Sayori invites MC to a sun-filled pool party in Doki Doki Summertime, Coldest Summer offers yet another alternative storyline for the childhood best friends.
Coldest Summer imagines a universe where Sayori’s parents have died and she ends up being adopted by MC’s family.
As her depression worsens, she chooses to confide in MC.
If you’ve ever had a chance to save Sayori, this just might be the best one.
If you like the psychological horror aspects of DDLC, DDLC Nightmare is probably a mod you’d enjoy as well.
DDLC Nightmare takes a full-on horror approach to the game, as it was actually made as a result of a mod challenge where the author received horror as their assigned theme.
I’d say they did a damn good job.
I don’t know about you, but cute and scary just make things look extra creepy – and that’s exactly what this mod is.
Another major theme touched on by DDLC is the issue of mental health.
Not many games tackle the sensitive issue, and Doki Doki does a pretty decent job at doing so.
Modder Tormuse wanted to focus on that specific aspect and develop it even further, and the result can be seen in his True Literature Club mod.
He felt that suicide and depression were mostly used for shock value in the original game and wanted to create a version where these topics were dealt with more sensitively.
It doesn’t do away with the darker themes completely, but offers a milder experience than that of the original.
With the darker undertones of DDLC, many fans were left wanting to find ways to give each of the characters their own happy endings.
That isn’t quite possible… but perhaps Our Final Heartbeat offers our best shot.
The mod has been tagged as generally the most optimal ‘Save Them All’ add-on for this particular reason.
This is only playable after finishing the base game and getting the good ending, from which you’ll be able to see what happens if no one is left behind.
While the emotional rollercoaster ride that is DDLC is a great tear-jerker of an experience, it might be a good idea to take a break from some of the darker stuff for a bit for some lighthearted fun.
Most of these expansion mods come with their own emotional stories as well, but Doki Doki Meme Club simply aims to be as entertaining as humanly possible.
The mod fills your game with memes, and it’s loads of fun just reading through the jokes and references in the dialogue.
As this covers Internet memes, don’t be surprised to find a more than a few offensive jokes in here. I’m guessing that might be what you’re going for, though.
If you were looking for a way to lighten things up without completely going comedy, A Brand New Day just might be the perfect mod for you.
While it doesn’t exactly change the game completely, it takes a much lighter humorous approach to storytelling – making for an overall lighter feel to every scene.
There are a few twists and turns along the way, but nothing too weird (relative to the original at least), and there’s tons of new artwork to appreciate in this one as well.
As you’ve probably noticed by now, many of the alternative storylines sees the MC being able to save most of the girls from their troubles.
While Doki Doki Exit Music does the same, it isn’t afraid to keep things as emotional as the base game did.
This mod sees you able to stop Sayori’s suicide and take Natsuki away from her abusive father, and from then on you’re given the opportunity to play through a completely new storyline following those events.
With different endings and a soundtrack made around Radiohead’s music, you’re sure to get an equally emotional experience out of this one.
While many of these mods focus around changing the events of a particular character’s storyline, Longer Roads aims to expand the experiences with each of the four girls in DDLC.
As the title suggests, the mod greatly extends the arcs of each of the four characters, allowing for a unique route for each of them.
This gives you the freedom to choose who the story will revolve around.
It offers 10 different endings to discover, and in true DDLC fashion, not all of them are happy ones.
We have yet another one for the Yuri lovers out there, and there can be no better choice other than Outcast by MatterCrafter.
The mod came in 2nd in Reddit’s Best Yuri Mod of 2019, and like Fallen Angel, this offers a more in depth look at who Yuri might have been if not for Monika’s manipulation.
The new storyline adds 3-5 playable hours, along with new scenarios and character choices that will impact how the story plays out.
But don’t worry, as this one takes a completely different approach from the previous two entries.
Instead of going deeper into Yuri’s life, the mod actually places her in the role of the story’s main protagonist – allowing you to experience all of Acts 1 and 2 through her eyes.
The mod is also brought to us by the same team that gave us one of the most popular DDLC mods (covered a bit lower in this list) so I’m pretty sure this won’t disappoint.
The Good Ending offers another completely unique take on an alternative storyline for DDLC, wherein each of the Doki’s repeat the events of Acts 1 and 2 over and over… having their memory wiped each time.
Where it gets interesting is when MC wakes up with all his memories intact.
He now knows what’s about to happen, and hopes to use this self-awareness to save everyone.
Taking the 2nd spot on the list is yet another mod by CykaDev, except this one’s a bit less serious than their other projects.
Meant to be a parodic adaptation of DDLC, Doki Doki Do You Lift Club transforms the girls into Slavyori, Buffsuki, Yuronk, and Monicules – buffed out versions of their cute anime counterparts.
As their tagline goes, will you lift your way into their hearts?
It’s no surprise that CykaDev’s RainClouds is taking the top spot on the list, given that the community widely considers this to be one of the best mods for the game.
Most mods try to steer away from Sayori’s tragedy. But RainClouds takes you right to the center of it.
In a uniquely presented take on DDLC, RainClouds takes you back to the very beginning – except this time, through Sayori’s eyes.
Experience her pain and pressure like never before, and see for yourself if you’ll be able to change her fate in the end.
