Game Theory: Meet The NEW Monika! (Doki Doki Literature Club Plus)

*Fun Fact* : _Ive Laster_ is a sneaky way of spelling “I’ve Lost Her”, aka an Easter egg hinting that Monika has escaped.

After all this, I can only imagine some people of Team Salvato being like "hey our next game will be so epic, with so much to connect back to DDLC, and so much hidden lor- wait, how people already know almost everything?"

I think its interesting to note that if Monika is a nurse and not a patient or experiment, and the other 3 are it also loops back to the statement of physical appearances being different than normal humans. Monika has brown hair and green eyes, while the other three have unnatural hair and eye colors possibly caused by them being experiments and Monika being a nurse.

It's amazing the lengths the Project Libitina characters are going to to ascend to a higher plane, meanwhile Monika did it without even trying.

Did you notice how every single character in the game has their hair covering their foreheads where a third eye would be? I'm guessing the twist is they've all had three literal eyes the entire time.

Everyone's Fanfics and how they expect Monika to be in real life
How she actually is: A middle aged man

You know the third eye granting violent tendencies sound like it's a metaphor for the experiments being conducted by the team rathen than a literal interpretation. They grant awareness of higher knowledge and that causes the character (in this case Monika) to have an existential crisis and become violent toward her fellow classmates. Metaphorically speaking as she never harms them directly but also is willing to sabotage and destroy their files because she sees them as expendable.

I had a thought, remember the poem Yuri wrote in the 2nd playthrough? The one titled "Wheel"? It might be a stretch but I think there might have been elements in it hinting at this truth;
"A rotating wheel" = Machine?
"A portal to another world" = The bridge between the Virtual Machines or the VMs and our world
"Expanding universe", "Time controlled by slipping cogwheels" = The VMs being simulations
"Existence of God", "A prayer written in blood" = Religious imagery
"A thread connecting all human eyes" = Third eyes!
"God disproving the existence of God" = the research team trying to prove that they themselves live in a simulated reality
Just a random thought xD

I honestly, never would've thought that DDLC and FNAF would have lores this deep, if it weren't for MatPat

The worst part about Project Libitina is that despite all the horrible things they’re doing. Despite the horrible atrocities they’ve committed. They’re right. They’re 100% correct in what they’re doing, and their methods are working.

A theory based purely off observation: I believe Yuri is at least loosely aware of all of this in the second act of base game. Think of how aware she is that she’s acting differently than normal, whereas Sayori, who’s feelings were also altered by monika, didn’t seem to note her depression had gotten worse than normal. Before Yuri confesses her love and subsequently stabs herself, Yuri says something like “I don’t even care if monika’s watching!” which can easily be dismissed as Yuri showing she doesn’t care about monika’s jealousy, but also very possibly signify her awareness of the situation (we know how much DDLC subtly foreshadows). When you mention she reminds you of the character in Portrait of Markov, she isn’t distressed or put off( because she isn’t aware it’s her), whereas she instantly panics in the second act.
And one of the freakiest parts of the game- when her eyes become human instead of animated, tying in to the “opening of a third eye” theme.

Children: having an average, loving life.
Renier: this is not *o k i e d o k i*

Fun detail: the DDLC+ trailer that was released has the player's name as "Ive".

A funny thing concerning the name "Renier": The verb "renier" in french means "to deny", "to renounce" or "to repudiate" and is often used to talk about abandonning marriage, parenthood or in this case, faith.

12:00 as soon as Matpat said “As soon as Monica said-“ I got an advert that started with someone yelling *”I’M MAKIN’ WAFFLES”*

no joke, this is lowkey the best channel i've ever stopped by in years
literally everything i thought about the game has been flipped around and now this game makes SO much more sense
thanks The Game Theorists

My thought: this new game is going to be a reverse of DDLC thematically. DDLC was something that looked and seemed upbeat and fun, then took a turn for the horrifying. This new game is going to be a horror show that is invaded by DDLC's Monika (either jumping over from her VM or from the outside via Ive as Mat theorizes here), and turns into a story of how she manages to ACTUALLY wrest a happy ending from this nightmare, not by selfishly changing things for her own benefit but by intervening on behave of the alternate versions of her friends.

"Oh wow the trailer are attractive . It must be good game. It say horror but nah i think i can handle it."
Now:

love that literary analysis is so integral in understanding what’s going on

Headcannon: Monika made the portrait of Markov specifically for Yuri as a clue to vm2

The little “editing is my passion” thing floating around in comic sans was funnier than it should’ve been

Anyone else notice that “Ive Laster” is an anagram for “Evil Stare”? Seems like too unusual a name to be a coincidence, especially with the importance of the third eye…

I really hope they will make another game, I feel like it would help a lot with trying to figure out the lore. this game has so much lore to it, and most people don't really go into all of the lore

I think that since Monika escaped VM1 and possessed Ive, she will probably also help the player by implementing hints in the machine on how to help the others and it'll give some lore about how she's doing in Ive's body. I imagine the hints either as dialogue spawning randomly or as marks on the walls a little like the portal "the cake is a lie" messages.

Yuri’s eye jumpscare is terrifying, but without all the effects and just her being close to you with the realistic eyes.. *H o l y f r i c k*

If Monika could communicate with Team Salvato- which are considered to be gods by the cult, that would make her identical to the proposed "perfect being" that the cult is trying to make.
Imagine the shock they would be in to find out that a prototype for their "perfect being" is but a nurse.

Hearing the song in the background at 5:40 made me feel nostalgic... Momento Mori. Wish [Redacted] was still with us. (just wanted to say that but also say that your theories are freaking amazing!)

Fun fact: Libitina was the goddess of funerals, team salvato sure is going nuts over this game.

Game companies when matpat talks about their game:
"write that down, write that down"

I feel like the way each girl died will relate to the kind of torture they endured in Project Libitina. Strangulation for Sayori, starvation for Natsuki, and stabbing for Yuri.

Ive Laster also sounds like "I've Lost Her", maybe indicating Monika fleeing the game through his body and him not seeing her anymore in the game.

i can't believe how much thought went into DDLC & DDLC Plus, it's incredible the backstory. Everything makes so much more sense, so thank you for making these videos!

There’s no way they’ve just been spending the last 4 years on some redone art. This extensive added lore makes me think a new game is coming. And coming soon.

It's a little late, but there is a line where you say to Yuri that the main character of the book reminds you of her, and she gets all flustered and goes what I don't think I am anything like her. But her reaction seems to hint in that direction that she is the girl in the book.

I think i've found an explanation for the story of "Portrait of Markov"
Metaverse made VM2 as a simulation in which unlike VM1 where Monika knows she is in a simulation and can manipulate it, In VM2 they only suspect that they live in a simulation or know but cant manipulate it, so in order to find out if they do live in a simulation or breakthrough it, they start experiments on humans physically and psychologically to somehow create a way to either breakthrough the simulation or manipulate it. PROJECT Libitina is a simulation of what humans would do if they become aware of living in a simulation.Kinda scary when you think about it like that.

Fun fact! Ive Laster is an anagram of versatile, which is hinting at Monika being able to move freely between VM1 and VM2
just a fun little fact :)

MatPat: *Theorizing*
Team Salvato: thnx for the lore idea, will use it.

Makes sense as to why Natsuki says she is beaten by her father, why Sayori (even though being a joy of life) has a deep depression, and why Yuri is obsessed with self harm and blood.

Diving into this game and hearing matpat go into detail feels great. Makes your brain work, come up with new theories and what ifs. I hope there's even more to find out and hopefully, find an amazing ending.

While there's this definition of the name Libitina which gives us a possible answer for the "Name implies death" line at 12:44 "Libitina, also Libentina or Lubentina, is an ancient Roman goddess of funerals and burial. Her name was used as a metonymy for death, and undertakers were known as libitinarii. Libitina was associated with Venus, and the name appears in some authors as an epithet of Venus." and rewinding back to the 2017 theories Matpat concluded that Libitina is none other than Yuri based on that doctor's report ending with Renier being questioned if he has as much faith in his employees as he does with his god. Additionally Libitina could be the main subject of the game since not only is she a character, the whole project is named after her, and it would explain the "She will lead the path to ascension, and we will follow" line at 7:08. My Prediction (My Generic Brand Diet prediction!), is that Libitina (VM2's Yuri varient) will be our last and most dire rescue, since she cannot repress her third eye, which means we'll have to be VERY, VERY, VERY Careful, or else she might end up being the final piece to completing the angel in mortal skin, and oh boy do I want to knock Renier and the Academy's lights out and watch as their arrogance turns to pure, unadulterated fear as everything they worked for turns to dust.

Jokes aside, MatPat is probably the most qualified person to determine if we're in a fake reality hands down

Maybe the third eye is the higher level permissions that Monika has, since having a 3rd eye usually means some higher level of intelligence or fortune telling. In order to get a 3rd eye, you might need to have a variant in another simulation, like Monika does. This would make Yuri, Sayori, and Natsuki all test subjects with high 3rd eye potential. Just a small thought I had.

Plot twist: Project Libitina is just a fighting game and the "Third Eye" is the name of the comeback mechanic

Damn this genuinely made my skin crawl and my spine go cold more times than in a horror movie

Fun fact: "Libitina" is also an old latin term for "Death", which has been used in the works of classical Roman poets, such as Ovidius.

And the whole time Dan Salvato is just nodding along to this as Matpat basically invents the video game lore version of Rap God.

I feel like theories like this are the exact purpose of the channel, these are part of the theories that I will remember and refer to and that change my entire understanding of a game (or film or food) most theories are fun for entertainment purposes but usually dig into stuff not really meant to be looked too much further into but it feels like this game was just waiting for you in particular to dig in and make this video, sure a bunch of people gathered clues too but you just put them all together to make the real story known and that’s pretty awesome

I played though both ddlc and ddlc+ and looked through what I could get my hands on and every conclusion that I made before watching this video matches

DDLC is so interesting. The bulk of the story isn’t even known by the general player. Even tho most people don’t even dive deep into the story or lore, it’s still an enjoyable game. You don’t need a reason for why monika is self aware, it’s still interesting enough to continue the game without all the information. That’s why this game is so damn good

When you don’t even play DDLC but Matt’s theories are so entertaining that you still watch

“Monika pulled a William Afton” is my new favorite MatPat line

This lore is something else. Although this stuff is horribly disturbing, I honestly wanna know more.

I cannot believe how deep this lore goes, thank you MattPat for opening my eyes (or should I say, third eye?) to all of this! I am truly blown away by how much attention to detail you need get all this information.

I think that the girls' (Sayori, Yuri and Natsuki) more negative sides of their personalities stem from their experiences within VM 2, or Project Libitina. I wonder if this new game would show how Sayori's depression, Yuri's obsession and self harm. and Natsuki's abusive guardian and neglect (him not feeding her) became such large parts of their personalities.

Oooh damn, using that Turncoat.... Still gives me chills, makes my heart beat faster. Gdi Mat.
I would have never gotten any of this out of this game, if it wasn't for you guys btw. So, thank you so much :)

The game will come out this year guys I swear

If this project libitina game ever comes out, I can only imagine how depressing its gonna be considering all the human experiments jeez...

When the dr says the patients have “different features than normal,” is he saying that those different features are what Yuri’s eyes look when they become hyper realistic?

I think it’s interesting too because in the new game Yuri talks about finally finishing the book she’s reading and being done with it as if in their “controlled” world the book is just a book and doesn’t have the power to bring her or the girls in, they just move on and she doesn’t overthink it too much or stop herself like the original game. In the plus version she just calls it fantasy with multiple time lines and is hard to follow- she doesn’t see it beyond fantasy but she may have unintentionally see where it all aligns and even gave notes on how to sayouri- it’s like they’re incapable of understanding the actual meaning

Man I’m really looking forwards to project Libitina, and any future projects made by team Salvato

I wonder if the Girls sad backstorys are based on how they are on the outside going through the excitements. Yuri could cut herself or has started liking and pain and can’t socialize. Natsuki has a older adult who physically abuses her alot and her form of torture is being starved. Sayori could be suicidal from all the expirements.

please give the editors a raise for “graphic design is my passion”

Everytime i watch matpat my heart rate just went up so high his edits are insane goodjob edditors

In the website for project libitina there's an addendum that says "Introducing bias during testing as a result of personal attachment to the subject will henceforth be punished by death." So if Monika is a nurse, helping the girls, this personal bias when found out by the academy could spell trouble for her. Or maybe it already has and her consequence is death (salvation from the simulation) and she roams between the two games like some sort of ghost.

Maybe the “genius” with no third eye who’s advancing Libitina’s work isn’t Renier and is in fact Ive Laster? That’s if Monika definitely has changed places with him. It would make sense for him to have no third eye and to be considered a genius as he’ll have insight that no one else in VM2 could possibly have. Just a mini theory!

Just imagine if it’s all a set-up and the upcoming game is just DDLC, but as a normal dating simulator.

I feel like the editors put their BEST work in the ddlc episodes

13:53 Seeing as this mystery researcher has some form of elevated knowledge about what is being researched, yet doesn't have a "third eye"; It could be argued that the "guardian" my be Ive Laster. It could make sense...
While Ive was trapped in VM1, it could be that with his elevated knowledge of the VM's (as a designer/developer of them), he found a way to transfer himself across to VM2, where he could put his knowledge to use in finding a way to the outside world, so that he can escape.
this would explain why he doesn't have the "third eye" trait that the other researcher have, as he (or his character) comes from another VM entirely, where the "third eye" doesn't technically exist.
On top of this, the fact that this "guardians" ascent through the ranks has come at a surprise, would indicate that they seemingly came out of nowhere, at least to the perception of the other researchers.
In Fact, the name "guardian" could be a hint towards Ive being this new researcher, as being the person who probably cared most about the girls in VM1 (to the point where he got seemingly "sucked into it" so to say), and being the one whom Monika is "convincing" (or forcing) to help with her cause; makes him almost a "guardian" of sorts to the goals of Monika in the first game.
but that's just a theory, a probably incorrect and overthunked theory. thx for taking the time to actually read this if you did

I remember that over two years ago, on a Bendy and the Ink Machine theory, I made a joke comment that Matt hearted and pinned about Monika being a human soul trapped inside a computer character.
Well, I guess Monika herself wasn't a human soul trapped inside a computer, but she instead trapped someone else's soul in there instead. I'm a partial prophet!

The lyrics of the credits screen song "Your Reality" also kind of indicate the fact that Monika wants us to help her and grant her a good ending, a good future. "Every day, I imagine a future where I can be with you"

I just realized something I don't think was mentioned anywhere, considering that the new update has a desktop home screen as part of the gameplay, wouldn't it imply that that same home screen gives us clues to who we are playing as? Since we can find emails from the Salavato development team, my guess is we are playing as one of the developers mentioned. Maybe even as Ive when he isn't under Monika's control, or maybe...we are Monika????? Controlling Ive??? Too far? Probably but us being one of the developers makes sense I think

Now I only have one burning question:
Is Team Salvato doing this genuinely, or did they just come up with all this as a staging ignoring the fact that they’ll be drew as psychopaths?

"New monika!"
*The more monika's the better.*

THEORY: With the breaking apart and stitching together of body parts would leave scars and seams
What if Yuri's cutting is a metaphor of how she might of been a successful test of stitching together of body parts. With her being an amalgamation of people with a strong affinity towards "opening" the third eye, but her knowing she wasnt born, but created causes mental insecurities and makes it difficult for her to suppress her third eye.
Just like the project libitina text file states.

i cant wait if theres ever going to be a new game, the whole desktop thing for ddlc plus was already super clean and cool. if theres a second game thats eventually released, i’d love to see what new development is made

This might’ve already been said but: Monika might have been the doctor who speaks of Renier and tries to make a clinical examination of Elyssa on the message within the first game. Hence why she says “if they remembered me in the other worlds”

This actually makes a lot of sense, I’m really excited to see where Dan Salvato and Co. take this franchise. It has the popularity and the lore to really create some intriguing stories, hopefully it won’t be years away 😅

I think when Monika "untied the knot" to the "screaming writhing misery" inside the other girls she actually leaked data from vm2's version of the girls making them change horribly bad.

I mean about the yuri being libitina we literally tell her the mc reminds us of her when we read with her in the main game

how is Matpat not a detective like he would be perfect for the job

imagine the game devs just watching these videos and being like: nah it's more complicated than that

Games: it’s so hard to come up with lore!
Matpat: anyway, here’s every little detail about what the lore could possibly be

I feel like you could've tied this more tightly to the "Yuri is Libitina" theory. idk I'm curious why they chose to make Yuri is the main character of PL but Monika the main character (or the one with awareness) of DDLC.

I am probably won't be sleeping tonight after watching this. This is honestly way too disturbing 😳. I love your dedication to your deep analysis and drawing conclusions skills btw.

Kinda feels like they were talking about the amputees as a sort of "cattle". The limbs are amputated to stop the subjects from resisting in any way, and to more easily selectively breed the subjects. Doubt they amputate JUST for the limbs.

Oh no.
Thinking about this makes me so sad-- what if "The Portrait of Markov" was Monika's attempt to tell her friends in DDLC about the horrors of VM2? Was she trying to warn them? Was she seeing if they had the same access and could help?

He has so much patient to get all of this info, Respect👁👄👁👏

man your series of DDLC theories is EPIC

I have a feeling that when they make Project Libitina into a game, the start of it would be how Yuri described Portrait Of Markov in Act 1. (You move in with your long-lost younger sister and then things happen. I mean, why else would Dan put that into DDLC if it didn't mean something?) The way she describes it in Act 2, would be the dark twist (Religious camp, human experiments, etc) that you would find out as you prolong through the game. (Or you, the player, finds out about, but the character you play as doesn't, and you have to make choices in order for that dark thing not to happen.)
By the way Yuri describes it in Act 1 makes it seem like all your choices matter greatly on how the story plays out. I feel like you'd have to think deeply before you make a decision, and once you make that decision, towards the end, that's when your decision plays a strong role. (Pretty much all your decisions are much more important and should be picked very wisely with a lot of thought.)

Remember when this game was just a dating sim. Now we have more complicated lore and Monika is still best girl.

"may god be with you ..and you" is in reference to the player as well as the player character. The third eye is a metaphor for the game camera or the eyes of the player who is watching the screen.

Hey matpad I have a theory for you, in ddlc's secret ending when you delete Monika at the start, sayori says something really weird. What if she actually had the privileges now and was seeing the libitina project?

I am not sure if this has any bearing on the theory, but if you look at Monica’s attempts to block out the characters in the first game, the portions of the characters removed are pixelated body parts. Could these glitched out body parts have something to do with the body being created in Project Libitina?

“Libitina, in Roman religion, goddess of funerals. At her sanctuary in a sacred grove (perhaps on the Esquiline Hill), a piece of money was deposited whenever a death occurred. There the undertakers (libitinarii) had their offices, and there all deaths were registered for statistical purposes. The word Libitina thus came to be used for the business of an undertaker, funeral requisites, and, by poets, for death itself.”
For one thing, if this is Roman religion, then there are multiple Gods. So if this is JUST Project Libitina, then are there more projects?
For another, it mentions poets. Sound familiar? (Hint-literature)
Also I copy pasted that from a website-

This is very interesting, so if you think about it the other VM's are parallel universes and that means there is a simulated multiverse. What's even more interesting people have made mods for ddlc showing Monikas from parallel universes interacting with each other. Some mods even use Monikas that became aware that they were simulations interacting with Monikas that are not aware of themselves being simulations. But what I'm wondering is why did VM2 become such a horrible simulation, was it VM1's influence, was it the programmers that made it that way, or was it an isolated event that VM2 created on its own. If it's the the second I can imagine Monika will not be happy to hear that, and if it's the last it would mean that possibly there could have been other VMs. This is because if my assumption of the VMs being parallel universes in a larger multiverse is correct then VM2 would be a very drastic change in the universe, right next the first. The multiverse theory explains that there are multiple universes that are slightly different from one another, but say you skip a few universes over instead of going in order. That universe is going to be significant more different, know skip a 1000 universes from your own and it's going to be drastically different. What I'm saying is what if there were thousands of other failed VMs that were either unsuccessful in meeting the dev teams results and were canned, or to create a simulated universe were the beings were self aware of their existence it would have skip hundreds of thousands of possible universes it created the drastically different world of VM2. If it is the last then one could say the existence of VM2 helped Monika in VM1 to become self aware.

God I can't wait for more potential lore/another game. Love it, can't get enough. ^-^

Wasn’t there an entity in the control group given elevated access without the entity discovering it? Could it be possible that this entity isn’t Monika but Yuri? Since she is reading the book that tells her about VM2 but she’s just not aware of it actually telling about another world. She has the access to the knowledge but isn’t aware of it.

This is also an idea from a story telling perspective, but I think it could have some merit.
Monika could have been Elyssa. Elyssa being one of the original patients makes me believe that she could've had some influence over the formation of The Academy itself and not just her being a believer. Imagine if Monika, the VM2 version being unaware of the repercussions of her actions, tries to get everyone to understand they're in a simulation. Once she's able to prove it, they begin to form a cult dedicated to figuring out how to ascend. They have no issue with harming their (or other's) 'physical' bodies because they're NOT physical. They're not real.
Eventually Monika begins to realize that she went too deep, that even though it's a simulation it's still real to them. She begins to see the consequences of her actions and makes an effort to stop The Academy, leading to her (Elyssa) being terminated. I wouldn't say it's a stretch to imagine 'ghosts' being possible in this game, due to them saying how data wasn't being zeroed out between the servers. Monika from DDLC might be able to control Elyssa's 'ghost' and use her to speak to Marla, who becomes aware of the atrocities. It then becomes her goal to save the DDLC girls because of the emphasis Elyssa puts on them.
I don't know, but I like this idea and where it could lead. Thoughts?

it’s funny how the original main character doesn’t even matter anymore. He’s just kinda been through hell and that’s his piece of the pie over

I want doki doki to make a come back fr