Review: SUCKER FOR LOVE: DATE TO DIE FOR is another phenomenal dream from Akabaka

DreadXP launched this week Windy for love: appointment to die From solo developer Akabaka. This is the second game in Sucker for love franchise and I was excited because I loved the first game so much. Unfortunately, unlike the first game, Date to die for it’s currently only available on PC, though I’m hoping that maybe that will change in the future. The team was kind enough to provide me with a copy of the game for this review, but all thoughts below are my own. You can purchase it yourself from Steam for $12.99.

Sucker For Love: Date to Die For is the sequel to the wildly popular cult-favorite Lovecraftian dating sim, Sucker for Love: First Date, and introduces a new protagonist, abominable new love interests, new occult rituals, and plenty of angst. . The game lets you explore the 360-degree hand-drawn environment in a first-person adventure game navigation style and is a love letter to Lovecraftian horror that focuses on the often overlooked aspect of the stories of genre: madmen and enslaved monsters. of the gods, rather than the mysterious gods themselves.

Sucker for Love: Date to Die For subverts typical visual novel dating clichés by putting the spotlight on Stardust, an asexual woman who finds herself being stalked in a story of dangerous escape. After investigating mysterious disappearances in her hometown of Sacramen-Cho, she ends up kidnapped and trapped deep in the eerie labyrinthine woods, equipped only with a copy of the cultist’s spellbook. She notices the instructions to summon the Black Goat of the Woods, Rhok’zan, whose casting sets in motion the events of a different kind of dating novel.

I will keep this first part of the review spoiler-free and short. First of all the things I didn’t like Date to die for. At first there was a section of the game where I couldn’t figure out how to progress, but since launch I haven’t had this problem anymore, so maybe it was a bug fixed on day one or maybe I was just stupid. Another aspect that I found a little annoying was the lack of cloud saving. I’m not sure why this game doesn’t support cloud saves, but it doesn’t. This means that if I want to switch between my Steam Deck and PC, I can’t share a save file between them, which is a shame.

Speaking of the Steam Deck, I think it’s important to highlight this Date to die for it is not rated “Playable” or “Verified” and I would run into an issue where after playing for an extended period of time the game would start to become unstable and eventually crash my deck forcing me to do a force restart. This was frustrating and unfortunately I’m not sure why there were any issues as the game isn’t very intense and works great until you start to hit that point of lower performance. The controls work well on the Deck too, but you may need some time to get used to it.

Now we get to the good stuff. The positives. All up Sucker for Love: Date to die for it’s phenomenal. I love the aesthetic of 90s anime. The writing is top notch and creates a story that draws you in and gives you characters to love. Each named character has a personality that comes through with incredible voice acting. The whole game I laughed, I said “aww” and I was terrified. It’s a great blend of romance and horror, although in my opinion it leans more towards the horror aspect than that Sucker for love: first date. It’s also worth noting that the game is short (under 5 hours), which is something I really appreciate in today’s world where 50+ hour games are commonplace. Being short, the checkpoints are quite close together, making it less frustrating when you have to reload.

Before I give my score, I wanted to share a tip that really helped me once I figured it out. Open doors slowly. Also, if you don’t like jump scares, go into the Options menu and there’s a checkbox that will pop up a nice warning before a jump scare occurs.

I highly recommend Date to die for. It’s an incredible second voice in the Sucker for love series and I really hope that Akabaka gives us a third game in the future. I wish the game had cloud saves and could last longer play sessions on Steam Deck, but that seems very finicky. I would definitely recommend playing First date Before Date to die for, but that game was great too, so it’s not a problem in my opinion. Plus, it costs less than $15!

Now it’s time for more spoiler content. Rhok’zan is so much fun. At first I was a little disappointed that this time we only had one Outer God to woo, but after finishing it, I’m so happy it was written this way. I felt like I got to know Rhok’zan better than most of the characters in First date (Ln’eta is still my #1 though). The game has a bit of a time loop as each chapter is another loop where you go to the same place and help Rhok’zan, but the villain of each chapter is different because you save him each time.

Another fun aspect was the change of protagonists. In First date, Darling is a horny boy who just wants a kiss from a nice outside God. In Date to die for, Stardust is a woman who is just trying to understand the mystery of Sacramen-Cho’s disappearances and survive his escape. This leads to a very different approach to the romance as Stardust is asexual and therefore the relationship happens more slowly and most of the advances come more from Rhok’zan but are not necessarily unwanted. It’s also fun because at certain moments you can splash water on her (or other characters) for slightly different reactions/dialogue (never important dialogue).

Like I said before, I feel like Date to die for feels a little more horror than First date. This has to do with most of the gameplay being based around you running around the house collecting items while avoiding evil cultists. Except in specific cases, you have no defenses and therefore if you are captured you have to start from a checkpoint.

One thing I really want to mention is that, due to some moments at the end of the game, I’m led to believe that Date to die for it is not a sequel to First date, but rather a prequel. We see children’s versions of Ln’eta and Ester who are adorable. Just wanted to mention it. No notes.