Sucker for Love: Date to Die For review - '90s anime-inspired romantic horror keeps things short and sweet
Sucker for Love: Date to Die For is the midpoint of a planned trilogy that grew out of solo dev Akabaka's submission to Dread X Collection 2 back in 2020. The theme of the second lockdown game jam overseen by indie horror publisher DreadXP was "Lovecrafting", which Akabaka ran with to create a dating sim where you romance anime-esque waifus who are also eldritch goddesses inspired by deities described in the Cthulhu Mythos. The aim was to create a horror dating sim where the romanceable monsters were sexy and terrifying in equal measure, pulling no punches when it came to demonstrating the dreadful and often disgusting things a human would have to do to catch the romantic attentions of an incomprehensible cosmic being.
This irresistible concept quickly led to a three-game deal between Akabaka and DreadXP, beginning with Sucker for Love: First Date, an expansion on the original one-shot released in 2022. The second game, Date to Die For, is technically a prequel to First Date rather than a sequel; I say "technically" because timeline chronology doesn't have a huge amount of importance in reality-warping cosmic horror stories, and the fact that it definitely takes place before its predecessor is only revealed off-handedly near the end.
Familiarity with the first game is far from mandatory to enjoy this one, although playing them in release order will furnish you with some useful context about characters and mechanics from the original that are riffed on in Date to Die For. However, the prequel focuses on an almost entirely new cast, with cameos from returning characters kept fairly low-key — a wise choice, given that Date to Die For has the potential for wider appeal than its predecessor, which was lauded in the niche circles of horror dating sim fans but never really broke out beyond that.