What bothers me the most about the situation is not so much the censorship (which, don't get me wrong is entirely awful but avoidable due to this being restricted to a single platform) is the response from Dan on the matter. I know I'm not the only one who realizes how completely and brazenly hypocritical he sounds in his writing. He says he's not going to do thing but then proceeds to mention he will not only be doing thing but thing doesn't really matter that much! Have I really been transported to some clown world where facts and logic really don't matter? There is no reasonable interpretation where the game wasn't unfairly tampered by another company. You can't simply say something that is false and posit it as fact.
I suppose what he's ultimately doing is playing really hard off a technicality; yes, he didn't "remove' the scene, but it was heavily edited. I'm a bit surprised personally that the scene where
Sayori is found hanging in her room was not censored or modified given, in my opinion, it was a much more visceral and realistic depiction of a death than what we've seen here. Why does Sony draw the line at an excess of blood when a multitude of games on their platform, including one of their own beloved cash cows in The Last of Us, features it so prominently? Do they really hate anime-themed or anime-adjacent games
that much? For what reason?
My interpretation with the release of Doki Doki Literature Club Plus, especially given the fact that a strong relationship has been formed between Team Salvato and Serenity Forge, is that funding here and from all the newly developed merchandise is meant to serve as a springboard for future projects. Unfortunately, I simply cannot trust Dan going forward to have any sort of integrity in the face of potential financial loss. It's a damn shame too since I am a huge fan of the game, its concept, and its characters and was looking forward to what else might potentially come in the future. Now, if anything new is released with any sort of mature tone or content, I will always be wondering how much further the team might have gone if they weren't basically bending over backwards and spreading for the likes of Sony.
I'm legitimately sick of this shit.