Sucker for Love: First Date
Developer: Akabaka
Publisher: Dread XP
Platform: PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $9.99 – Available Here
Overview
The concept of dating a Lovecraftian horror may not be the freshest idea, in fact an entire light novel series and anime adaptation were created around the concept but what if these horrors were played a bit straighter and were placed inside of a dating game instead? That is the concept that Sucker for Love: First Date aims to skewer in its own unique way as the game puts its own quirky twist on horror comedy where, as long as the date ends with a smooch, who cares if the world comes to an end.
Story
Players step into the shoes of something of a fancy man who appears to be popular with the ladies but the only one for him happens to be something he has only heard in his dreams, the name Ln’eta. After collecting tons of cult paraphernalia and getting scammed countless times looking for a Necronomicon to make his dreams a reality, it seems like he has finally struck gold. Almost literally. Rather than obtaining a book bound in human flesh and written in blood a vivid pink book with golden pages appears on his doorstep filled with rituals meant for summoning and surviving a date with one of the elder gods who just so happens to be the Cthulhu-like girl of his dreams.
After managing to succeed in summoning Ln’eta to his room, the player quickly terrifies even an elder god by saying that he has doomed all of humanity for a kiss. Of course, even though she is initially a bit hesitant about the arrangement, as long as players complete the necessary rituals to make themselves a bit more appealing and set the mood, a world ending smooch may just be waiting for them.
Sucker for Love: First Date ends up being a roughly paced pseudo visual novel that finds a fine balance in horror and comedy for its tone while still trying to sprinkle at least a little bit of romance in the middle of things. While we won’t go into too much detail to avoid spoiling how various events play out, it is clear as players progress through the game that the “first date” aspect truly hits home as many of the character interactions that the protagonist has with Ln’eta and the other two eldritch girls that can potentially be smooched only feel like they are scratching the surface. In a few cases this is primarily due to the nature of the game itself and its fairly short nature, but it would have been nice to see some elements of these characters explored just a bit further, especially since there happens to be quite a lot of potential here that is thankfully left open.
As mentioned, the pacing for Sucker for Love is a bit on the rougher side of things as there are three fairly short chapters in the game, with the third needing to be unlocked by completing various easy tasks in previous chapters, but the majority of the actual endings and events take place in the middle chapter. These interactions serve as some of the best parts of the game, especially since players can trigger some fun events depending on how things play out, the order in which some rituals are performed, and their past actions in the game. This does leave the finale to feel a bit like a letdown even if it does end up as the real culmination of nearly every aspect that Sucker for Love has going for it, drawing horror, romance, and comedy together into one truly perfect scene.
Gameplay
For the most part players will find that Sucker for Love: First Date doesn’t really play like an average visual novel as many of the standard mechanics and even quality of life elements are non-existent. There is no ability to drop the text box or rewind dialogue and even the ability to save the game has been removed and replaced with a frequent enough checkpoint system that can be loaded from the main menu or any fail state. It is a bit unfortunate however that things such as ending CGs or unlocked endings cannot be rewatched once obtained.
Now that that is out of the way, what Sucker for Love does focus on heavily is the aforementioned rituals. Players will need to interact with various items in their apartment to complete a ritual to advance, though there rarely is a fail state should a mistake be made. Instead players will simply be told if something is out of order though even this is a bit inconsistent as game overs can happen randomly through improperly performed rituals as well. Performing these rituals in the correct order will generally lead players towards the most straightforward ending in a character’s route but with three chapters and multiple endings in each, it is up to players to experiment a bit and figure out just what they can do to see everything that Sucker for Love has to offer.
That being said, even with this bit of experimentation it shouldn’t take players too long to see most of what the first two chapters in the game have to offer before making their way to perhaps the most challenging chapter, the unlockable third and final one. While we will still avoid details here, it is worth noting that this third chapter throws the game mostly into an entirely different genre as rapid rituals must be performed to solve randomized challenges that are thrown the players way. Unfortunately it is here that many of the game’s bugs begin to rear their head as properly completed rituals can still result in a loss of health even when taking on multiple at the same time. This wouldn’t be too much of an issue if it weren’t for how frequent issues like this would arise and the fact that the challenge must be restarted from the beginning each time.
Visuals & Audio
Now before we go anywhere else, it should be mentioned that Sucker For Love: First Date is not an erotic game by any means. In fact nearly every character in the game is as covered up as possible outside of a certain third unlockable entity and even that can barely be considered as fan service. Instead what is presented to players are some gorgeous looking character designs that strike the right balance between cute and horror, though fans of monster girls may be a bit more forgiving on that scale. It is worth noting that players are given a couple moments of teased fan service though acting on this immediately leads to a chuckle-worthy bad end. Along those same lines there is some gore that will be present throughout various moments in the game and while things aren’t taken to an extreme, those sensitive to such things should be a bit wary.
As for the voice work, all of the characters with the exception of the protagonist are voiced fittingly enough with the best stand out really being Ln’eta and the second dateable character which works quite well given that both of them have the most lines in the game as a whole.
Overall
Sucker for Love: First Date takes its Lovecraftian dating premise and runs with it about as far as a horror comedy can go while still trying to subvert player expectations a bit. For the most part this works incredibly well as a talented voice cast make these characters shine and their interactions throughout the story, as short as it ends up being, are great but unfortunately many of these elements are kept at a surface level while the ritual mechanics quickly become routine with only a bit of spice at the end.
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