Sucker for Love: Date to Die For took me by surprise. I had no clue that it was a follow-up to another title. My expectations were based solely on the game description. The idea of a dateable Eldritch horror is frankly hilarious. I was expecting a light visual novel romp, with some horror, jokes, in-story choices, and pretty art. The game met some of these expectations and set my ideas of what a visual novel could be on its head.
Developed by Akabaka, Sucker for Love: Date to die for has us following Stardust as she returns home to Sacramen-cho to investigate a letter from her missing parents. Stardust is determined to discover what is happening in Sacramen-cho, and stop it. It brings her into conflict with the Cult of The Thousand and their Goddess, The Black Goat of the Woods – Rhok’zan. However, you quickly realize that everything is not as it seems. Rhok’zan is as much a prisoner of the cult as all the innocent townfolk caught in her magic. As Stardust, we enter a time loop orchestrated by the cult leader and keep unlocking the rituals needed to free Rhok’zan and end the magic causing death and destruction.
Initial Impressions
Sucker for Love’s world is incredibly believable because it’s packed full of detail. Even though you just explore a few scenes and can only walk around one house, it is all brought to life in a beautifully detailed, old-school anime style. Each room of Stardust’s house reflects the dire state of Sacramen-cho. Sucker for Love, however, comes alive with the lore and detail that create the foundation of the world.
The developers have thought through the magic system and the rules of the world to create the basis for a really cool and unique, if convoluted, story. It is fun to see an Eldritch horror god who doesn’t want destruction but wants to be banished and is looking for peace and love—even if it takes a blood sacrifice to get there. Thanks to the depth within the world, much of the overarching plot wasn’t predictable, making it a fun exploration.
More Reviews: Content Warning Review: Brilliant Multiplayer Experience
What makes the narrative really fun is the cast of main characters, their story arcs, and their impressive voice actors. Each chapter features a key character from the Thousand that we get to potentially save. Even if their involvement is short, they have individual goals and desires, leaving a unique impact on that time loop. Depending on your choices and actions, you can find the True End, where they can be saved, too.
The highlight though, as expected is Rhok’zan. Watching her learn to trust humans again through her interaction with Stardust is great fun. As she opens up to us, she teases, soothes, encourages, and shamelessly flirts, even when you spray her down with the plant mister when she gets suggestive.
Beyond The First Layer
The devs have made a lot of interesting choices for the story. From the lore to the story structure. Even Stardust is unique – a seemingly asexual character who finds romantic love with a goddess of fertility. They do it all with some truly impressive writing chops. Dialogues often feature interesting phrasing and excellent vocabulary. They move seamlessly between being funny, wry, and smart. What starts as a seemingly simple story of foiling a cult while flirting with a god soon turns strangely philosophical. Through the chapters, Sucker for Love explores themes of loneliness, self-identity, motivation, and even the essence of love and companionship, against ideas of ennui and freedom.
Each chapter requires us to finish the rituals to free Rhok’zan. So, the majority of the game is about looking at the ritual book to understand the ritual’s needs, collecting the ingredients from around the house, setting up the spell, and then completing it.
More Reviews: Turbo Kid Review: Nostalgic, Gory, Joyful, Hard
Admittedly, this feels repetitive and annoying at times because you have to slowly click through every room and even open each door. The team has balanced this by changing enemy behavior in each chapter. As a result, for the most part, exploration within each chapter becomes a puzzle. You have to figure out the enemy’s behavior based on story cues and how you react when you need to use stealth and when you must race through the house. It changes the game’s mood, and what initially feels like expected jump scares become taut sequences. Once, I even found myself physically tilting my head to try and sneak a peek behind a sliding door.
Into The Fog
Sucker for Love is vibrant with nuance. In comparison, the main character is just blah. If it wasn’t for the fact that you were playing as her, she would be forgettable. Unlike every other character, Stardust isn’t voice-acted. The devs likely decided to allow any player to step into her shoes. The key story device is that Stardust is caught in a time loop and doesn’t remember all the details from prior loops. In fact, as we face the Thousand in lore, we live and fight for over a thousand loops, often failing. However, we don’t actually play those. We simply meet the characters who have those memories. They grow off-screen, but our character doesn’t have the time to develop.
This leads to some strange narrative jumps. It leads to a villain falling apart, and we don’t know why except for a throwaway line. It leads to a love interest that is much more flirty than she was in the previous chapter. We don’t end up seeing a lot of our own development, so, at least from the player’s perspective, we don’t see Stardust develop the relationship. We are just told that it is. Now, we want to be around Rhok’zan; we care for her and are drawn to her.
More reviews: Minishoot’ Adventures Review: A Cute Bullet Hell Shooter
One of the major ways in which this is disappointing is that the game description sets you up to think that a decent portion of the gameplay will be dating sim elements. That we will work towards building a relationship with Rhok’zan. However, there is none of that. This game is a linear love story where most relationship development is hidden. Granted, the result is still fun. The flirty writing is very well done. What is better is the game mechanic, where you can occasionally use a plant mister to disrupt a character. The fact that I can disrupt a thirsty Rhok’zan is hilarious. I am actually bummed that the opportunity to use the mister was so rare, and I request that this is fixed in any sequels.
A Sucker For Fun
I never really thought I would enjoy a half-goat flirting with me until I played this game. Even when the story got convoluted, or Stardust got too bland, Sucker for Love’s gameplay forward method of moving the story along was a wonderful surprise. It creates a new experience with a lot of texture and indisputably fun.
GamesHorizon recieved a review copy of Sucker for Love: Date to Die For for Steam.
Sucker for Love: Date to Die For is a Visual novel with a surprising amount of depth in its lore, story, and gameplay. Its a great pick for horror and romance fans of the medium.
The Good
- Beautiful world with an old-school Anime vibe
- Well crafted cast of characters that you want to engage with
- Even though the gameplay is simple, since the game at its heart is a visual novel, there is a surprising amount of depth in each chapter which forces you to change up how you explore the world
- Unique story with enough choices and situations that make you think about how you want to proceed
- Great writing that is fun to engage with
- Excellent Voice Acting
The Bad
- Can be slightly repetitive at times since the entire game is constrained to one space
- Makes some random leaps in the story and chracter development
- Playable character isn't voice acted or as fleshed out at the supporting cast
- The game description and setup make it feel like it will have dating sim elements but there are none.
