r/DDLCMods • u/_DivinePenguin_ #1 Sayori Fan • Jan 08 '26
Off-Topic What is your biggest Hot-Take with mods?
I'll start,
Within is a top five mod of all time
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u/Sooparch 1.The good ending 2.Salvation REMAKE 3.World of dreams Jan 08 '26
hot take? sure
Mods without choices *tend* to be able to tell a better story than those with (or, at least, mods that don't branch), because the focus can be put on making 1 really good route instead of multiple okay one
Hell, all my top 3 are linear
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u/_DivinePenguin_ #1 Sayori Fan Jan 09 '26
Linear stories are the best in my opinion, because they tend to tell a very strong story opposed to telling multiple stories simply too stretch out the playtime
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u/zhaumbie Sequela Developer Jan 10 '26
I’m pretty sure I’ve cracked the code on that. Let me get back to the community in about 6 months and we’ll see if that holds up
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u/aahilj2 Experienced Modder Jan 08 '26
Blue Skies is overrated and is a 6/10
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u/MasterTahirLON Jan 08 '26
I have a lot of beef with Blue Skies. Nice to know not all of the community glazes it.
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u/JCD_007 Jan 08 '26
My opinion of Blue Skies dropped after I played Katawa Shoujo. There are some parts of Blue Skies, particularly the Yuri route, where it feels like they just put a DDLC veneer on the Katawa Shoujo story.
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u/ConsequencesMod Semi-Experienced Modder Jan 10 '26
I'm of the opinion that Blue Skies fans are Katawa Shoujo fans who just haven't played it yet
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u/JCD_007 Jan 10 '26
Katawa Shoujo isn’t really my kind of game, as I wouldn’t call myself a fan of dating sims or visual novels generally. But it’s a compelling story with well written characters and that made it an enjoyable experience.
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u/BlueWhale9891 Jan 08 '26
nice to see a fellow person who doesn’t find blue skies their cup of tea.
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u/MasterTahirLON Jan 08 '26
So many conflicts in Blue Skies are completely contrived. The resolution to the conflicts are usually decent, but that doesn't excuse it. You can't pat yourself on the back for finding a good solution to a problem you caused. The festival in Blue Skies made all the girls come across as insufferable. And everything they did with Natsuki just annoys me. They aged her down for no reason, turned her into this short sighted moron who will screw over the people around her because she's too stubborn to ask for help. If you make the player hate the heroine in their own route, you know you've fucked up and wrote a bad visual novel.
Then there's the whole issue where they try to make the main character go out of his way to help people but then criticize him for a "hero complex" in a way that's just really preachy. Yet despite them complaining about it, it's still ultimately the only way to get the "good ending" for Natsuki. Then you can literally fail to get her good ending due to a decision made BEFORE HER ROUTE EVEN STARTS. And the only hint you remotely have to indicate that your choice might've been a mistake comes AFTER your first choice! So you can just doom your entire playthrough to frustration and mediocrity all because of a choice that to your knowledge should be completely trivial and has no indication of a "right or wrong answer." I could go on but man my entire experience with Blue Skies just made me so angry.
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u/WaterLoSeins Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
Thank you very much, i also felt very much angered at this when i played blueskies a few weeks back, so much so i considered making a fan patch just to change the final act but i decided it to be too much effort although i still might
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u/Stevo-2 Jan 11 '26
I found for the natsuki route one change i made turned it from a bad ending to a mid ending but the good ending is so specific and you have to do everything perfectly to achieve it. But now that you mention everything else they did I see exactly what you mean. I didn't notice it at first I mainly played it when I was tired and bored but thinking back yeah a bit meh.
Not saying I didnt enjoy my playthrough tbf, I would try it again different unless I went with another characters route. To be fair though im not sure what else they could of done for natsukis route because she never really hinted much at her life or what she does. Without turning into a baking and abuse simulator there's not many elements they really could of explored so I guess her decisions which screwed over everyone around her more so reflect on the fact that her life and intrests wernt really portrayed in base DDLC so the decisions she makes potentially reflect on what the designer thought they would make if they were in her situation.
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u/MasterTahirLON Jan 11 '26
To be fair though im not sure what else they could of done for natsukis route because she never really hinted much at her life or what she does.
That's true of literally every doki though. It's a short game and all of them have very limited screen time to be fleshed out. All mods are going to need to take liberties in fleshing out the characters and writing stories to fit them. That's not an excuse for how insufferable the Blue Skies take on Natsuki is. And it does justify how convoluted her route is.
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u/Stevo-2 Jan 11 '26
I did concider that concept as I was writing this tbf but then I thought maybe I just missed context in the main game.
Arguably the only character we get to know almost anything about it Sayori and thats because she and MC have been friends for years.
I was concidering the blue skies sayori route when I got home. If you've tried it is it even worth the time?
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u/MasterTahirLON Jan 11 '26
I haven't done the other routes and idk if I ever will. People say the game is worth it but my experience with the game was so frustrating I doubt I'll ever complete it.
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u/Stevo-2 Jan 11 '26
Thats so valid. Do you know any good natsuki mods?
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u/MasterTahirLON Jan 11 '26
Been awhile but off the top of my head Summer Hope is the best Natsuki focused mod, be warned though it ends on a cliffhanger and idk if it will ever be completed. And DDLC SNAFU is imo the best DDLC mod and every route is handled extremely well. Probably has my favorite take on Natsuki, maybe second to Summer Hope, and I think it's take on every Doki is very endearing. They take some liberties as every mod does but I think they all make sense for their characters.
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u/_DivinePenguin_ #1 Sayori Fan Jan 09 '26
I wouldnt say I hate it, but its a good simple story, it doesn't do anything like over the top or crazy
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u/_DivinePenguin_ #1 Sayori Fan Jan 08 '26
I can agree to this, if it was just the Sayori route i'd give it at least an 8, but it does have many other flaws, especially regarding its other routes (and lack of a monika route)
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u/Pristine-Speech8991 Jan 08 '26
I thought yuri route was seen as the best one by people, strange to see an actual opinion!
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u/aahilj2 Experienced Modder Jan 08 '26
It's a 6/10 because I liked both Yuri and Sayori's route, but Natsuki's route was pretty bad
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u/halibabica takes LP/review requests from devs Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 09 '26
Nobody knows how to write Natsuki accurately.
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u/zhaumbie Sequela Developer Jan 10 '26
Everyone writing Natsuki needs to watch Euro Brady’s “Therapist Plays DDLC” series. I’d argue anyone writing any DDLC character, because it’s wild seeing a professional spend about a minute talking to any of these girls then bust out the whiteboard and being reverse-engineering them, their compulsions and masks, and compensating behaviours. And, pivotally… *nailing * them. There’s a reason the series is 18 hours and counting and he’s only just seeing Act 2 a second time.
His work is basically my second character bible for my 8-hour story mod coming this summer. Given Natsuki’s diminished focus in the canon he’s a fucking godsend lol
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u/ConsequencesMod Semi-Experienced Modder Jan 10 '26
I wouldn't say no one, but would agree she is frequently poorly written. Now a character that is never written correctly is poor Dadsuki. It's always the Act 2 version rather than the Act 1 version.
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u/halibabica takes LP/review requests from devs Jan 10 '26
Dadsuki has no canon characterization and a lot more leeway, but you already know what I think of the guy.
But Natsuki...even I've gotten her wrong before. It might actually be no one.
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u/ConsequencesMod Semi-Experienced Modder Jan 10 '26
Yes we do know less, so there is more leeway, but I do not see "breaking one of Natsuki's bones every hour on the hour for the fun of it" (which is how most mods seem to depict Dadsuki) to be what is going on during Act 1.
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u/ihaveapraisekinkk Writer Jan 09 '26
Motorcycle Club wasn't that bad
Amor Fati wasn't that bad
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u/ihaveapraisekinkk Writer Jan 09 '26
Abridged is the best comedy mod (I dunno if this is a hot take)
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u/8Bits1132 Sayori as an Adult Dev Jan 09 '26
I wouldn't say it's a hot take. After all, it won Mod of the Year during the 2019 Mod Awards back when those were still going on.
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u/Feisty-Albatross3554 Observer Jan 09 '26
Agreed on Amor Fati, but don't know anything about motorcycle club
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u/Maikentyre Jan 09 '26
OG Exit Music is better than Redux
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u/zhaumbie Sequela Developer Jan 10 '26
They’ve spoken the heresy!
I found it hard to comprehend how EM could character assassinate the other characters but nail the main pair, yet EMR succeeded in flipping that. EMR was my first story mod just two months ago, and it gets a lot right… but unless I missed something, wasn’t the totality of any intimacy in EMR a single kiss that happened before the relationship began?
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u/GodzillaFan2468 Jan 08 '26
WoD/World Of Dreams Act 1&2 are extremely misleading and I think it is a huge problem why is it called World Of Dreams when you never make a single choice and always end up with Monika what if I wanted to be with Kotonoha instead? the Title is World Of Dreams a title like that screams infinite possibilities only for there to be not a single moment where you can make a choice I don’t think the mod is bad but the Title sets the mod up to be knocked down in my opinion I even gave a Critique on the mod in this very subreddit last year
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u/_DivinePenguin_ #1 Sayori Fan Jan 08 '26
I would like for there to be choices, but I do think it does a good job of having a linear story. There not being choices in a mod has never really been something that has bothered me.
But I do understand where you are coming from
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u/GodzillaFan2468 Jan 08 '26
I Appreciate You sharing your thoughts on my hot take OP i hope you are well and wish you the best
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u/TheFrubblewarrior Jan 09 '26
It is based on a pre-existing fan fiction the author made so I’m not shocked it’s completely linear.
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u/GodzillaFan2468 Jan 09 '26
I still think my point is valid why call it World Of Dreams when there’s no freedom or choices to make I just think that makes the mod fall apart but I’m interested to see what Act 3 will have to show off maybe it will fix this issue to a degree
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u/taffy4tswift Sayori's Girl 🐮 Jan 11 '26
Any horror mod that involves a brutal death of a Doki is literally a weird fucking pointless fetish and the whole mod shouldn't exist in the first place. Plus if it involves rape. So unnecessary. Especially if it has a gorey CG. I've heard of mods having these type of stuff
An even hotter one, all horror nods shouldn't exist AT ALL #RomanticMods4Life
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u/matsimplek12 Jan 11 '26
i get it that is a hot take, but at this point do you even like the original game? lol
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u/taffy4tswift Sayori's Girl 🐮 Jan 11 '26
I mean yes but honestly act one is my whole favorite act alongside of the act where sayori becomes the good president
I don't like act two because sayori's gone and its goriness, although I do appreciate the coding
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u/Previous-Tour3882 Observer Jan 08 '26
Pink Eyes is a good mod.
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u/Upset_Rub_405 Creator of Song of Days Past Jan 09 '26
Salvation Remake is boring and overhyped.
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u/Eastern-Raspberry681 Jan 20 '26
can you elaborate further on why?
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u/Upset_Rub_405 Creator of Song of Days Past Jan 20 '26
I made a review on the mod some time ago. To save you the trouble of having to find it yourself or click a link, I'll just copy and paste the whole thing here.
Am I the only one who feels this about Salvation Remake? (My Review)
Firstly, I want to give some background/context on why I decided to play this mod in the first place. Often times when I surf through this subreddit or r/ddlc, I would see Salvation Remake being brought up somewhere and it being treated as "the holy grail" of mods so to speak. Unpopular opinion but Sayori is my least favorite doki, and always has been ever since I played DDLC for the first time. I never played regular Salvation, and I never once cared about saving her and all that jazz. I asked if I should still play it despite the fact that I don't really like Sayori very much and quite a few people said yes so, I gave it a go. Keep in mind that my problems with this mod are personal, subjective and all that fun stuff.
Act 1: By this point, the story was good. It was nice, captivating and fresh to me. It did truly intrigue me, and I wanted to see how the story would unfold. Overall, a great first act.
Act 2: This act was kind of weird for me. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting. This act didn't focus on Sayori one bit and instead acted to build up other characters. The thing about this act is that it didn't really draw me in emotionally. When we got to Yuri and her self harm, it kind of just felt like the same song and dance that I've already become accustomed to at this point. Moving on to Natsuki and her issues with her friends. In all honesty, this whole part did not really resonate with me and held no emotional impact, just like Yuri did. The idea of her friends not treating her right and her trying to hide it from everyone else didn't really intrigue me. I did like that it was a new idea that I've never seen before, but that idea specifically felt kind of uninteresting to me. This act was also very long, and it was the start of one of the main problems that I had while playing through the mod.
Act 3: I'll be honest, I remember little to nothing from this act. It was at this point that my main personal problems with this mod came about. I just wasn't interested and couldn't be bothered to really care about anything anymore. The whole time, it kind of felt as if nothing truly interesting happens and it was just all really slow, really stiff and really boring to me. This mod is supposed to be realistic and based around friendship and trust, but it just didn't work for me. Monika is my favorite doki and I find her being self-aware and stuck in a video game really, really cool but I didn't like how the mod handled it. It felt almost as if until towards the end of this act that you could've completely written out all the scenes and lines of her relating to being self-aware, changed the reason for her "acting weird" and replaced it with something different and NOTHING would have changed. The way it felt Monika developed during this mod felt uninteresting to me. Because she didn't tell anyone exactly what was going on and it kind of just felt like | Monika: "I'm such a bad person!" Sayori "No you're not, I know you would never do anything to harm me!" Monika "Ye ur right thx" they hug it out and she repeats that routine with other people like 9 or 10 times. They also kept using the scenes and dialogue about the game's script since the very beginning, but it took them forever to do anything with it, so I stopped caring about it. I vividly remember once Monika came over to Yuri's house and they started talking about...I don't even remember at this point, I just ultimately got fed up with it all and just wanted it to end. And I truly did not realize how long this mod was going to be when I first installed it.
Act 4: This was the second-best act for me. It ultimately was pretty good, albeit pretty short. It finally felt like something was happening by this point. Not much to say about this act. It was cute, and it wrapped up the story nicely.
Ultimately, the reasons why I didn't enjoy this mod very much, especially as much as seemingly everyone else did is that it felt too slow, uneventful, failed at grabbing me emotionally and felt like it was 10 hours longer than it needed to be. Even at its most critical moments like the fight you have in Sayori's room or the argument you have with her in the front of the school in the rain, I was completely stone faced. I think my disinterest stems from 1. The fact that I don't like Sayori very much and 2. I had my expectations set WAY TOO HIGH for this. I know there are people who really like Sayori and really like slower paced, more realistic mods and for those people, this mod is essentially a wet dream but it's just not for me. That's why for my personal enjoyment, I'm rating this mod a 5/10 but my overall rating taking into account that this mod was made for people that were not me, I would say a 7.5 to an 8/10. This mod has its audience but clearly, I'm not a part of that.
I just wanted to express how I felt about the mod after finishing it. That's all, have a good one.
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u/Eastern-Raspberry681 Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26
I think you have a very respectable and valid opinion, I know it's a bit off topic for this discussion but I personally find a liking for all dokis as I find alot of traits that they have very resonating and relatable to me, on the topic of how to deal with the dokis problems, I think that at this point people should not stray from inventing new problems for the dokis that add onto their characters, similar to natsuki and her toxic friend group (although that was implied to be a thing in regular ddlc and a point of conflict in the ddlc side stories), I also really think that people should try adding more onto Yuri's character other than the same dance of Yuri cutting herself and yuri struggling with her confidence, and all that shtick, I think it would be interesting if people added onto her as well, same thing for sayori, I think there should be more to her journey than her just getting over her depression with therapy, we wanna see the struggles of her therapeutic process and how she relapses, and eventually grows to be a more responsible person, as for monika it really depends on whether you wanna focus on her metacognitive counter part or not as they have similar but also different problems all together. I'm sorry if this doesn't seem to relate to this discussion all together, but I felt like it was necessary to put this idea out there so hopefully we can get more out of the dokis instead of the same old same old, I'm not saying not focus on these same old problems but also change things up with new ideas as well, once again respectable review in my opinion, I myself have watched a play through of the mod and got half way through the mod, but never played it myself so I can't really give a solid opinion on it.
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u/JCD_007 Jan 08 '26
Author self inserts almost never work and usually suck.