Doki Doki Literature Club Censored on PS4 & PS5, Blood Changed to Be Black

Overhyped Western visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club has been censored on PS4 and PS5, specifically forcing the color of the blood in one scene to be changed to black and perhaps finally proving to Sony fanboys who are in denial that the company has a vendetta against anime visuals when something as simple as blood color has to be altered.

A small summary of the game courtesy of Niche Gamer, the developer having self-censored itself on a previous occasion:

For those unfamiliar, the original Doki Doki Literature Club is a parody and subversion of visual novel dating sims. The game proceeds as a dating game normally would (with the player “writing” poetry to appeal to the girl they like the most), until one of the girls hangs themselves. Players discover the girl’s body.

The game then seemingly resets to the first day, with that character missing as though they never existed. Two of the other girls then have their personality quirks exaggerated to extreme levels. One shows signs of extreme jealous and possessiveness, while the other shows signs of self-harm and stalker behavior. The latter also commits suicide by stabbing herself several times near the end of Act 2, which is shown.

It is then revealed a character had learned they were in a video game, and began manipulating the code so that the player- not just the player’s character- would choose one girl in particular. This also features “breaking the fourth wall,” as the game’s coding allows characters to address the player by their “real” name (the computer’s username) and detect if the player is streaming or recording the game.

The character also talks about a wide range of topics when confronted, including depression. That dialogue originally discussed how those expressing suicidal tendencies and depression on social media could be faking it for attention, and those truly suffering would have “given up” seeking help.

While it did mention how to help others with depression (and that the player themselves does have those who would help if they are suffering); after update 1.2 the dialogue removed any discussion of those faking suicidal thoughts and depression on social media. Instead it notes some “have aching hearts and seek attention on social media…”

Developer Team Salvato made a blog post before the console launch discussing concerns of the game being subjected to censorship, explaining “we feel confident in the nuance of DDLC’s content, but we also know that certain platforms might have regulations that we wouldn’t be an exception to”.

The censorship involves a scene in the summary above having its red blood changed to be black on PS4 and PS5 consoles – a ludicrous change usually only carried out in Japan for overly gory titles.

The alteration was made specifically by Dan Salvato: “and I feel confident in them because I don’t consider the psychological effect of the scene to have been diminished in any way; I wouldn’t have accepted that kind of compromise” – additional information:

“Basically, the change is not a big deal–I just wanted to make everyone aware of it in advance, because I know that DDLC fans will notice it as a difference from the original game. I wanted to avoid a scenario where people would spot the difference and think that the game was unfairly tampered with by some other company.”

Such an alteration is particularly absurd when plenty of highly gory games already exist on PlayStation consoles, thus, many see this instance as a final nail in the coffin regarding proof that Sony has bias against titles with anime-style visuals.

People have alleged the title is uncensored on Nintendo Switch and other versions of the game.