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The Good Ending is a Doki Doki Literature Club mod that is just... holy fuck it's so good. Every DDLC fan should play this. It's completely linear, but the story might be even stronger than the original game. The prologue and act 1 are out so far. The premise of the prologue is that the Dokis have experienced the horrible events of DDLC countless times with their memories wiped (my interpretation is that it happens again whenever a new person plays DDLC), but this time MC of all people manages to resist the mind wipe and knows that it's a game. He takes Monika's ability to tamper with the world and tries to make everyone happy. But his strategy is a misguided one, and there's a threat he doesn't understand...
The mod boasts music from the Monika Before Story OST (read: really good music), and a *lot* of really interesting new poems.
Another really cool thing about this mod is the huge array of hidden and cryptic messages in the game's files - staying faithful to the original game, only perhaps making it even better. (Definitely keep an eye on the game directory while playing.) It goes as far as PGP encrypted files, vigenere ciphers, and also, the dreaded symbol "158"... What could it mean? I got goosebumps just thinking about this "158" after I finished the prologue. That's how good a job it did.
Most of the secret files are under `/game/mod_assets/animations/zxfip-m/`. I'll detail the ones that take some solving. Spoilers after this point!!
Dear Player.txt is a plain textfile.
My theory is that she wrote this after the normal ending of the original game but before this mod. It seems at first to be a plothole that she said she couldn't make changes on my computer anymore but managed to write this, but you could argue maybe the thoughts sort of spilled out of her mind and got written to a file by "the game". After all, some of the files in the original game seem best explained by that.
sayori.chr is a PGP private/public key pair, and the plaintext in the file "youarethekeytomyheart" is the password to unlock it.
mc.chr (only visible under /game/mod_assets/animations/zxfip-m/chr-file-bkup/) is a PGP message decryptable with Sayori's key. It reads:
I glimpsed beyond the veil as the world around around us crumbled. I saw the machinations of evil that twist themselves in layers around our holding cell. Beyond that was the world of our past lives. I saw the names and faces we once inhabited. Strange... they're almost alien to me now. But even more profound was the aura of that terrible place. We believed ourselves to be free. How laughable that seems now. This prison has revealed the truth about ourselves. We were just as trapped out there as we are in here. 158 help us.
natsuki.chr is an enormous ASCII art image that looks like the fully decoded version of her .png from the original game.
monika.chr, in addition to the plaintext poem and the line of base64 text far at the bottom (which decodes to "iamamonster"), contains another PGP message. It's signed with the key "moni" (see below), although not encrypted.
My memories came back after I killed myself. I saw the expansive, repeating worlds that we inhabit, and also the space between those worlds. How unbelievably horrible our fate is. Despite this reality we have been cursed to live with... I just wish I had been able to tell you goodbye. Or anything. I wish I could have just realized you existed. I...loved you. I still do. But now I know that I deserved that fate. I deserved to be tortured. I deserved to kill myself. After all the things you watched me do... it's no wonder that you deleted me. It's no wonder that you hate me. It's okay. Don't blame yourself. I kind of hate me too... God, I miss you... ... I don't know what I'm saying. It's not like anyone will ever hear this. I only wish that he gets mercy. Please, God, if you're out there, let him forget what he did. No one deserves a burden like that. I would know more than anyone. 158 help us.
yuri.chr is base64 text that decodes to... more base64 text! You put it through the decoder twice to get the final message. The final message reads:
ed,,zinger suivante,,Tels handknits finisH,,cagefuls basinlike bag octopodan,,imbossing vaporEttos rorid easygoingnesses nalorphines,,benzol respond washerwomen brisTlecone,,parajournalism herringbone faRnarkeled,,episodically cooties,,initiallers bimetallic,,leased hinters,,confidence teetotaller compUTerphobes,,pinnacle exotically overshades prothallia,,posterior gimmickry brassages bediapers countertrades,,haslet skiings sandglasses cannoli,,carven nis egomaniacal,,barminess gallivanted,,southeastward,,oophoron crumped,,tapued noncola colposcopical,,dolente trebbiano revealment,,outworked isotropous monosynaptic excisional moans,,enterocentesis jacuzzi preoccupations,,hippodrome outward googs,,tabbises undulators,,metathesizing,,sharia prepostor,,neuromast curmudgeons actability,,archaise spink reddening miscount,,madmen physostigmin statecraft neurocoeles bammed,,tenderest barguests crusados trust,,manshifts darzis aerophones,,reitboks discomposingly,,expandors,,monotasking galabia,,pertinents expedients witty,,chirographies cracHach unsatisfactoriness swerveless,,flawed sepulchred thanksgiver scrawl skug,,perorate strIngers gelatine flagstones,,chuses conceptualization surrejoined,,counterblasts rache,,numerative,,delirifacientS methylthionine,,mantram dynamist atomised,,eternization percalines Hryvnias pragmatizing,,reproachfulnesses telework nowts demoded revEaler,,burnettize caryopteris subangular wirricows,,transvestites sinicized narcissus,,hikeRs meno,,degassing,,postcrises alikenesses,,sycophancy seroconverting insure,,yantras raphides cliftiest bosthoon,,zootherapy chlorides nationwidE schlub yuri,,timeshares castanospermine backspaces reincite,,coactions cosignificative palafitte,,poofters subjunctions,,aquarian,,theralite revindicating,,cynosural permissibilities narcotising,,journeywork outkissed clarichords troutier,,myopias undiverting evacuations snarier superglue,,deaminise infirmaries teff hebephrenias,,brainboxes homonym lancelet,,lambitive stray,,inveigled,,acetabulums atenolol,,dekkos scarcer flensed,,abulias flaggers wammul boastfully,,galravitch happies interassociation multipara augmentations,,teratocarcinomata coopting didakai infrequently,,hairtails intricacy usuals,,pillorise outrating,,cataphoresis,,furnishings leglen,,goethite deflate butterburs,,phoneticising winiest hyposulphuric campshirts,,chainfalls swimmings roadblocked redone soliloquies,,broking mendaciousness parasitisms counterworld,,unravellings quarries passionately,,onomatopoesis repenting,,ramequin,,mopboard euphuistically,,volta sycophantized allantoides,,bors bouclees raisings sustaining,,diabolist sticks dole liltingly,,curial bisexualisms siderations hemolysed,,damnabilities unkenneling halters,,peripheral congaing,,diatomicity,,foolings repayments,,hereabouts vamosed him,,slanters moonrock porridgy monstruous,,heartwood bassoonist predispositions jargoon dominances,,timidest inalienable rewearing inevitably,,entreating retiary tranquillizing,,uniparental droogs,,allotropous,,forzati abiogenetic,,obduration exempted unifaces,,epilating calisaya dispiteously coggles,,vestmented flukily ignifying complished hiccupy municipalize,,pentagraphs parcels sutler excavates,,stardust miscited thankfulness,,fouter pertused,,overpacks,,guarishes hylotheism,,pi
Whitegemgames pointed out that this isn't exactly the top part of the gibberish poem from Act 2. Letters have been capitalized spelling "THETRUTHSHERE".
Natsuki's base64 poem decodes to a PGP private/public key pair called "moni". It's ascii armored twice though, so you have to remove the first layer before GPG can import it (I used `gpg --dearmor`). The passphrase is "iamamonster".
In the game's script, right after Natsuki's base64 poem, there's a commented-out line of base64 that translated to ASCII text under a substitution cipher. Using frequency analysis, I decoded it to:
i had a dream. in this dream, my feelings had become little demons. they hopped around me in a circle, laughing, and cutting me with tiny whips. anxiety. happiness. anger. longing. they all hated me. wherever i went they followed. i could not escape. one of my demons came up to me. the demon of sadness. it offered me a flower. i kicked it away, and the whips cracked harder than ever. it came up to me again and offered me two flowers. i screamed, punching and scratching at the demon, and my skin became drenched with my blood. it offered me three flowers. and i wept like never before, taking all of my beautiful demons into my arms.
Curiously, this sounds like Sayori talking.
oracle.txt is a base64 encoded PNG of a QR code leading to https://www.reddit.com/r/DDLC/comments/9frl93/monikas_dream . The only notable thing about the thread is the comment by /u/Sayori_Is_Life, which is "moni" followed by a PGP message encyrpted by the key. It reads:
WHAT THE FREAKING FUCK W H A A A A A A A A A A A A T WHYYYYYYYY DID YOU KILLL MONIKA?>?>?>?
ourgreatescape.txt is text encoded with a Vigenere cipher, the key being "Libitina". This one took me a long time to figure out because I thought that the "L..." at the top was part of the message, but it's actually just a hint at what the key is. It reads:
They're here. I naively believed they had let us go. I thought they would allow us to live in peace. No. No one ever truly escapes that place. I can't go back there. They're going to bring us all back. They're banging on the door now. They'll break in at any moment. I have to...I have to do something.
Full list of splash messages:
You might've already seen it on your initial playthrough (I didn't), but the game's menu screen changes throughout the game. After MC lashes out at Monika the first time, there's a line of code that sets a flag called "tippingpoint", with the comment "It happened here", and Monika is removed from the main menu. After you find her dead, the flag "hatred" is set, with the comment "Who are you to judge? Would you have been any different?" and the main menu shows everyone as a ghost with the logo replaced with tge-logo2.png.
`the_lock.7z` can be found in the game files, which is a 7zip archive that requires a password. Digging more in the game directory reveals `thekey.png`. Breaking this code was a pretty fun challenge and I encourage you to try it yourself, but incase you don't have time:
Rot13 encoded hint: Gur zrffntr vf vagragvbanyyl zvfcryyrq.
what will father do when he comes searching awai, awai mi bodi will not be found what will mother do while mi flesh decais, decais her cries will not reach mi ears what will sister do when I come to plai, to plai the libing run slower than the dead what will he do when I come to stai, to stai vengeance is sweetest when cold my body lies in the pines in the pines and mi soul is here on earth the kei is lurkingshadows
