Sucker for Love Date to Die For Review (PC)

Have you ever looked forward to a game and when the game finally released, something killed your excitement for the game? That excitement and anticipation you held onto and kept you going forward. When this has happened, how did you get past it? Did you try powering through and try to enjoy the game? Did you put it into your backlog and come back to it later? This is what happened while we were playing Sucker for Love: Date to Die For. Something felt off while we played through the story and it made the playthrough a bit more challenging to enjoy. Now, we will share with you our thoughts on Akabaka/ Dread XP’s Sucker for Love Date to Die For and explain how we had a love-hate relationship with this game.

Now, that isn’t to say that Sucker for Love Date to Die For is a bad game, we are just trying to convey that something felt off while playing through it. Was it the 3D exploration, the game’s audio and sound effects, or was it just the overall length of the chapters? After taking a while to think about what made the game less satisfying and careful consideration, the answer was the overall chapter length. Yes, there is more content for the player to enjoy and Akabaka gives their fans a deeper narrative to enjoy, but the overall chapter length felt too long. Yes, it is a dating simulator. You will typically want to replay through the chapter multiple times to see the best possible outcome, but after a certain amount of time, you check out.

Yes, you can resume the game where you left off, but you don’t typically want to unless you can easily remember what previously happened. Part of what tied into the overall chapter length increase was the jump scare horror element of the game. Yes, there were jump scares in the original, however, in Sucker for Love Date to Die For, the player must navigate throughout the house and avoid the cultists trying to kill you. Akabaka has made the game a bit easier for players who get scared easily with a warning system. If you die, you will need to load back to the last checkpoint; some of the checkpoints can cause you to lose a bit of progress.

Story

Sucker for Love Date to Die For tells the tale of Stardust, who has returned home after receiving a mysterious letter. Upon arriving back at her hometown, she realizes that things are a bit off. The places in Sacramen-cho have changed and the area around have become dark and dangerous. When heading to her family home, she is confronted by a woman who seems to be a part of the group that has caused all the missing people cases. Afraid for her life, Stardust runs to her family home and seeks comfort in a familiar setting. When she goes to her old room, she finds that things aren’t how she last left it. With no options left, she decides to use the black book to summon Rhok’zan, The All-Mother and Black Goat of the Woods.

Unlike Sucker for Love: First Date, Sucker for Love Date to Die For revolves around only one Lovecratian Diety. Rather than the player’s character lusting after the god, the main character has more of an asexual approach wanting to learn more about the diety and help them out rather than get something in return for their help. Throughout the story, the player can pull out a spray bottle and spritz Rhok’zan to get her to calm down.

Overall, Sucker for Love Date to Die For has a good overall story that has you focus more on the characters and the world rather than the looks of the gods. A ton of details go into building the environment to help enhance the narrative elements to support the alternate endings. Unless you play through recklessly, you will most likely get the basic ending; however, you will only get the best ending if you unlock each chapter’s alternate endings.

Gameplay/Controls

As previously mentioned, Sucker for Love Date to Die For uses a 3D environment to allow the player to explore throughout the house. The game itself is not 3D but instead uses multiple pieces of 2D art overlayed to create a 3D effect. This effect gives the world a bit more depth and creates more of a simulation vs a point-and-click adventure. Additionally, this makes the sliding door mechanic more feasible adding a different layer of suspense to the game. As you are searching the house, you will need to find key items and avoid the cultist. The game does randomly generate where the cultist will be but by sliding the door carefully, you can get an idea of where they are in order to try and avoid them.

The game’s decisions are pretty straightforward, however, there are a few occasions where you can inadvertently die or kill someone else by acting impulsively or recklessly. Yes, you can load back to the previous checkpoint but that does cause you to lose a bit of time. At one point when trying to avoid cultists, we died 20 times in a row; now this is partially due to stick drift on the one controller, and we were able to remedy that by unplugging the controller and just using the mouse and keyboard.

In fact, playing through the game using either a mouse and keyboard or a controller was fairly simple when everything worked as intended. Sliding the door felt a bit easier using a mouse while interacting with other objects, quick reactions, and moving around the house were easier on a controller. The reading of the rituals felt smoother on a controller than they did using a mouse.

Graphics and Audio/SFX

Akabaka and the team have done a great job of blending different American and Japanese elements together in order to create a dark but fun environment. Again, it can not be understated how impressive the use of 2D images to create a 3D environment is. While playing through Sucker for Love Date to Die For you will not see tearing or a faint image where it breaks; it creates what many would describe as the perfect panoramic experience. The attention to detail in each room and scene makes everything feel like it was placed with purpose rather than set to fill a void. Even if you don’t like narrative dating sims, you can enjoy the visual experience. Yes, it won’t win you over and make you want to play more dating sims, but it will give you something to think about.

In regards to Audio/SFX, Sucker for Love Date to Die For creates an uneasy feeling that death could be around any corner. Even when you feel like you are in a safe space with a god, there is still tension that death could come at any time. The voice acting within the game will suck you into the world and keep you on edge; disappointingly, there was not an option to give the player’s character a voice. Yes, we know that it is a dating sim and that you are supposed to embody the character, but for some, that filling in the silence can make or break the experience.

The game’s audio does a good job overall of setting the mood but it fails to keep players on the edge of their seats. Yes, this probably sounds very contradictory to what was said before but let us explain. Yes, we knew death was around any corner but it wasn’t to the same level as Nemesis trying to kill the player in Resident Evil 2 or Pyramid Head trying to kill the player in Silent Hill.

Verdict

At the end of the day, Sucker for Love Date to Die For succeeds in improving the overall franchise despite the long chapters. The longer chapters can make it a bit of a slog to get through but the overarching story will make you feel like the long haul is worth it. Akabaka and the team have done a great job of creating a dark and rich world for the player to analyze. The game’s sound effects and audio can also keep you immersed in their overall world; again the only downside is that there is no audio to the player’s character.

If you are a fan of dating sims and like horror then the sequel-prequel, Sucker for Love Date to Die For is worth checking out. The long chapters may seem like a daunting wall but at the end of the day, they just make you crave the end even more.

A review code for Sucker for Love Date to Die For was provided by Dread XP.