I just got friendzoned from London.
Friends, enemies, those who fall in between, I’m here to tell you Doki Doki Ragnarok is A GAME ABOUT A VIKING DATING VILLAGES. It’s also one of the funniest and most beautiful games in a long time.
No, that wasn’t a typo. I didn’t mean “Dates Villagehe“. I think Villages. This is an adorable, deeply funny and downright quirky game, one that will make you laugh.
The term “doki doki” has, one has to say, been somewhat subsumed in the West by Doki Doki Literature Club!, the hugely popular 2017 visual novel about love in a high school club. In Japan, it’s much better known as the ideophone for a heartbeat, and was in the name of games that traced back to the famicon. So it’s clearly perfect for a game about falling in love with small towns.
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Because in order to plunder a village, you need a grilled food per thousand, which avoids emotional spilling. And hey, a little pointillage never hurts. I am sorry. You must listen to the needs, wants and interests of the village. You will have to court.
So there are likely some immediate concerns here. Historically, Viking raiders may not be known for their respectful and amicable approach to invasions. Then there are the implicit problems of all these dating games, where the line between empathy and coercion is always very blurred. In the end, no matter how dressed it is, it’s all about trying to get laid. And as such, I’ve long struggled to see any significant difference between the woke world of “progressive” dating sims and the endless stream of misogynistic hentai fuckathons that are released every day on Steam. However, it is very safe to say GDR does not deserve such concerns.
That definitely helps GDR‘s dialogue makes this distinction somewhat irrelevant. In your drunken attempt to impress the first village in the game, you can choose to roar, puke, roar, or boast about your intellectual pursuits. Select “roar” and the text will be:
Little did you know the sheer volume you’re capable of. break windows! Buildings collapse! Birds explode mid-flight! Because of all these birds, you are gripped with an immense sadness.
But more importantly, this is just incredibly silly. The villages are generally very excited about being looted, and while you’re burning down the buildings and chasing the locals out of town, you’re both engaging in more emotional conversations than… you know. Then there’s the constant threat of goats, a rivalry with the aptly named Bjorn Rivalson, and a never-ending barrage of insults directed at the English no matter what country you’re in. Oh, and after a simply lovely date in Normandy, the town — while having a good time — decided it didn’t want to end up in a mugging after all. And that is respected. Because this game is both crazy and beautiful.
Honestly, I’m blown away by how appalling the game’s geography is. Where the map shows you invading Scotland somewhere near Perth, the game explains your arrival in southern England – specifically Wareham – meaning it’s around 500 miles and a sovereign nation away. Which is nothing compared to setting sail from the south coast to reach… Londinium. But don’t worry because the focus here is on truly excellent writing, and that comes in spades.
The further you advance, the more difficult each encounter with a town becomes, as your chosen dialogue must be based on listening carefully to the thoughts and desires of the place. Subtext is often the key. Will you Yes, really If you’ve mentioned a few times your admiration for the Vikings’ penchant for mead, would you be swayed into embarking on a swift invasion of England? Will complimenting her stonework flatter or patronize? Because in the end, both sides want a few farms to be set on fire, and it’s important that this is done as respectfully as possible.
There are a few typos and odd moments of using the wrong word (“discounting” instead of “tell” was weird), but they don’t matter with so much hilarious writing. I laughed so many times playing this, bursting with so many great gags and puns (“Plunderlust”), all delivered with a warmth and friendliness I wasn’t expecting.
Add to that the absolutely superb music, the excellent Viking grunts that sparingly accompany the lyrics, and some really nice cartoon art, and it’s just such a delight.
This was a risky project given the automatic assumptions someone might make about a game that conflates dating and invasion. Throw all those concerns aside because this is a game where approval comes first, but nonsense is overwhelmingly more important. It’s so funny that this is so beautiful and it’s nice that this is so funny.
This article originally appeared on Buried Treasure. You can Support Patreon here.
