doki doki dollmaker is a complete fluff-fest of yaoi goodness. and that’s all fine and dandy, because i LOVE yaoi fluff, but unfortunately, this one just doesn’t hit the mark for me :/

i like all of the characters designs, at least! there’s a pretty consistent style here, and the game as a whole looks fantastic. the backgrounds are quite nice, and there’s some pretty well-done CGs in here as well. it’s nice!

the characters are generally fun as well; desifer, kahvel and torin were probably my favorites, they had unique attitudes and by far the most fun dialogue options. rook was a little too childish, and the option to romance him made me feel a little… uncomfortable, to say the least. and ellery was just flat boring lmao

it’s just that this game tries to delve into a semi-serious plot, and that plot just creates more questions than answers. how do these dolls know english, yet have no knowledge of anything else? how do they have personalities?

it feels like the writers thought half-way through that they just had to explain what was going on, when in all honesty, they totally didn’t. if this game never tried to explain what was happening, i’d never have asked.

i’d definitely still call this game good, especially because most of the game nails the vibe, but it’s not a smash out of the park or anything like that