The story follows a student who reluctantly joins his high school's literature club at the insistence of his friend Sayori, and is given the option to romantically pursue her, Yuri, or Natsuki.

As such, its gameplay has a low level of interactivity and consists of scenes with static two-dimensional images of characters in a first person perspective, accompanied by occasional choices by which the player advances the putative plot.

[3][4][5] Choices the protagonist makes affect the development of his relationships with key female characters Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki, but ultimately have little effect on the outcome of the game.

[citation needed] The protagonist (who is named by the player) is invited by his cheerful best friend Sayori to join their high school's literature club as a remedy for his introverted nature.

Eventually, as the club prepares for the school's upcoming cultural festival in which the members intend to share their poems with a wider audience, Sayori reveals to the protagonist that she has depression.

Events proceed similarly to the original playthrough, but some text is rendered illegible, the character sprites undergo sporadic distortions, and what appears to be computer glitches become commonplace.

[10][12] Aside from the game's frequent distortions, it is revealed through dialogue and unlockable "special poems" that Natsuki is malnourished and being abused by her father; meanwhile, Yuri gradually becomes unstable, obsessive, and prone to self-harm.

Monika appears and apologizes to the protagonist for his "boring" weekend before compensating by deleting Yuri's and Natsuki's character files from the game and sending the player back to the main menu.

Distraught that she is not a romantic option but merely a supporting bystander in the game's narrative; she admits to using her ability to amplify the other girls' negative traits in an attempt to make them unlikable and stop them from confessing their love for the protagonist, which failed despite Monika's efforts.

Upon realizing that her efforts to make amends have been fruitless, Monika deletes the entire game as the end credits roll; while playing a song called "Your Reality" that she wrote for the player.

[7] A more positive ending occurs if the player has viewed all of the optional cutscenes and confessed to Sayori prior to witnessing her suicide, (which requires saving and loading several times before that point.

[14] A premature ending occurs if the player preemptively deletes Monika's file from the directory prior to starting a new game, which will cause Sayori to become the default leader of the club.

Collecting this content tells of a group of researchers from the company who were attempting to utilize a virtual machine referred to as "VM1" to create a simulated universe.

Later discussion is given on the creation of a second "control" universe within VM1, in which "A" is not made aware of their elevated permissions, paralleling the events and settings of the side stories.

If the player completes full "data collection", which requires completing all game content and unlocking all secrets, they are granted access to an eighth side story entitled test.vm, which consists only of a screen describing a failed server attempt at accessing VM2, alongside one of several hundred different randomly-selected sentences, which appear to describe the world and activities within VM2's universe.

In creating the game's horror elements, Salvato drew inspiration from Yume Nikki and Eversion, and emphasized to his team that he wanted the market for visual novels to become much more daring and less reliant on the same plot concepts.

[19] The game's characters were based on standard anime archetypes and were given Japanese names to emphasize a pseudo-Japanese atmosphere characteristic of Western-produced visual novels.

[21] Salvato recognized that a product of such quality would not satisfy potential players,[21] so he made a request to his friend, a translator for Sekai Project, for sketches of school uniforms and hairstyles for the characters.

After Kagefumi's departure from the project, Salvato contacted the freelance artist Satchely, who created the final character sprites over the course of a few months.

Paying a certain amount unlocks a bonus "Fan Pack" that includes desktop and mobile wallpapers, the game's official soundtrack, and a digital concept art booklet.

[38][39] The game was ported from the original Ren'Py engine to Unity, which allowed the implementation of additional features, and consistent cross-platform development.

[42] Steven T. Wright of PC Gamer described the game as "a post-modern love letter to the genre it represents", and compared its deconstructive quality to Undertale and Pony Island.

According to Fenner, previous attempts to revise the format, such as Hatoful Boyfriend and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, could not escape the conventions of their genre and fully reveal their dramatic potential.

[11][12] In addition, the characters consist of anime stereotypes whose behavior is sparsely displayed through their sprites,[5] and the game's musical accompaniment is light, bouncy, gentle and playful.

[8][11] Victoria Rose of Polygon stated that this approach was strikingly different from traditional horror games and films, where the viewer remains alienated from what is happening on the screen.

[8] GQ's Tom Philip commented that at times the narrative felt like "a slog, clicking through endless amounts of inane, flirty conversation about poetry.

However, he emphasized that the plot is ultimately a "sharply aware polemic against harem anime/visual novels" in which "the lengths the ladies go to are not wholly because of the protagonist, but rather he can be read as a symptom—an easy outlet."

merchandise include clothing and stationary from Ocean in Space, Spencer's, and OmoCat, plushies and toys from the Sanshee Company, framed in-game artwork from Artovision, pin badges from The Yetee, and watches from SuperGroupies USA.

The characters befriend and love you and give you tasks to do but if you do not do them, they turn nasty.”[81] Ben’s school gave the following statement: "This is a psychological horror game with suicide as a main feature.

Greater Manchester Police added: "We believe this game is a risk to children and young people, especially those that are emotionally vulnerable and anyone with existing mental health concerns."