Sucker For Love: Date To Die For Review: "A Fun Way For Any Horror Fan To Spend An Afternoon"

Summary Sucker for Love: Date to Die For is an engaging visual novel horror with Lovecraftian romance and detailed environments.

Gameplay revolves around incantations, puzzles, and tense house navigation.

A short but unique experience with fully voiced characters that mixes humor and scares.

Sucker for Love: Date to Die For is an engaging visual horror novel experience that interweaves supernatural romance and existential crisis. Developed by Akabaka and published by DreadXP, it's the sequel to 2022's Sucker for Love: First Date, and it certainly expands and improves upon the ideas of the first. While the actual dating simulation mechanics and the main character's personality are sometimes found wanting, the game's Lovecraftian love interest and cleverly crafted environments make it easy to be sucked in regardless.

Players assume the role of Stardust, who's returned to her hometown Sacramen-cho months after fleeing it in the wake of mysterious disappearances. The title is split into four main chapters, each of which is unlocked after reaching the true ending of the previous one; it's a game where choices matter - though not to a huge extent - and players can pop around an in-game timeline to discover other paths. Excellent use of ambient sounds paired with a stellar soundtrack and hand-drawn horror visuals make for a uniquely fun world, even if gameplay is on the simpler side.

Sucker for Love: Date to Die For 7 / 10 Sucker for Love: Date to Die For is a fun visual novel. Pros Fully voice acted

Aesthetics are captivating and fun

Short run-time still allows for plenty of humor and introspection Cons A little too light on the dating aspects

Main character can feel bland compared to other cast members

Sucker For Love's Story & Characters

Charming Eldritch Horrors & Angry Cultists

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Once Stardust arrives in town, it becomes clear nothing is as it seems - the letter from her parents asking her to return has suddenly transformed into a receipt, and cultists afflicted with glowing eyes dubbed the "Sacramen-cho stare" are immediately jarring. Worshipers of the Eldritch goat goddess Rhok'zan, Stardust hopes to find a way to save the city from them by summoning her. Once she does, two things become clear: firstly, Rhok'zan agrees things have gotten out of hand, and wishes to be banished by a series of rituals, and secondly, they're immensely attracted to one another.

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Without delving too much into the minutiae of the game's lore, what follows is a sort of Groundhog Day-esque scenario in which Stardust repeatedly finds herself back at the house facing different cultists, burning it all down, and returning once more. Each time, there will be new followers to meet, face off with, and potentially save from brainwashing. Their backstories are interesting, but the standout by far is the aforementioned flirty caprine fertility goddess, who manages to be both sultry and sympathetic despite causing a slew of death and destruction.

Sucker For Love's Gameplay

Sneaking Around, Spellcasting, & Staying Alive

Most of Sucker for Love's gameplay revolves around reciting incantations for banishment, the directions for all of which are stored in a book that keeps winding up in Stardust's possession. These require different conditions and ingredients, like having a casting partner or a certain amount of blood, and necessitate frequent trips around Stardust's family home. It's filled with doors players open manually, and the chances of something on the other side are never zero - often times the house must be navigated like a puzzle or hurriedly rushed through, keeping tension high.

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The way the game mixes up its scares and tension between chapters does a good job of keeping things fresh. The appearance of the house changes a bit each time, as does the sort of danger players will be facing - sometimes the place is overrun with multiple enemies, while others put more into the dread of knowing a single character is hunting you down. A nice touch for those who enjoy creepy atmospheres but not necessarily outright jumpscares is an optional setting that warns before each one - a perfect way for more story-oriented players to still experience the game.

Though billed partially as a monster dating sim, of the game's characters only Rhok'zan is romanceable, and even that is somewhat simplistic. Players will see their relationship blossom through dialogue, but have very little agency in their own actions throughout each one. It's easy enough to root for the two anyway, thanks to the eccentric sweetness of the storyline, but giving players more to do within conversations or more than one candidate to choose from would've been a nice way to flesh out the mechanic.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

3.5/5

Despite its romance mechanic shortcomings and the fact the main character can sometimes feel a bit bland, the game still does a great job at being an engaging visual novel. The first Sucker for Love was more like a looser exploration of a silly idea, but Date to Die For has really taken those concepts and run with them to make something much more defined and worthwhile. Though largely leaning into raunchy humor and horror, the title still manages to raise a few poignant questions about just what love and death mean in its roughly five-hour runtime.

The game is fully voice acted, which, alongside its hand-drawn, retro art style, helps create a world that feels fully fleshed out despite its small space. It's a short experience that will never require players to think too much about their actions, but in a world filled where cultists want you dead and an ancient Eldritch horror wants to love you, there's enough to think about. Sucker for Love: Date to Die For is a truly unique narrative told through great acting and environmental storytelling, and is a fun way for any horror fan to spend an afternoon.