PAX East 2023: Sucker for Love: Date To Die For Preview

As someone who identifies as asexual, let me tell you - representation is rough out there. Every time I find an asexual (ace) character in a game or series, I’m absolutely over the moon. There’s usually not many ace characters in dating sims in particular, for rather obvious reasons. So, when I found out that DreadXP’s upcoming sequel to Sucker for Love was not only a demonic dating game but also had an ace protagonist, I was thrilled. Fortunately, at PAX East 2023 the devs let me take a turn and preview Sucker for Love: Date to Die For.

Regrettably, I haven’t played the first Sucker for Love game, so I went into this preview pretty blind, much like the poor main character. Nicknamed Stardust, our protagonist heads to her hometown of Sacramen-cho after receiving a letter from her purportedly dead parents and is thrust into a Lovecraftian nightmare. People in and around her hometown have been going missing, so much that public transport has stopped servicing the city, and the natives who live there have all developed a bizarre, illuminated stare that scares the hell out of everyone else.

Stardust is set-upon by a woman who is psychotic and clearly not human, forcing Stardust to run for her life, literally. She ends up back at her childhood home, where she then meets the eldritch horror The Black Goat of the Woods With A Thousand Young, aka Rhok’zan, who also happens to be a very sexy goat/human lady. Rhok'zan is also the cause of the crazy cultists in town, as well as ultimately responsible for Stardust’s parents’ deaths.

Sucker for Love: Date to Die For is absolutely hilarious, even from just the first 15 or so minutes. Stardust being completely immune from Rhok’zan’s powers of lust absolutely baffles the goddess, who is thrown off balance, given that she’s apparently never met an asexual before. The game’s dialogue and writing is top-notch, and I already love Stardust as a protagonist.

The gameplay itself is pretty basic visual novel stuff, with Stardust needing to click through a few dark rituals to facilitate her and Rhok’zan’s escape from the crazy cultists. The worst part was having to click through and navigate Stardust’s bizarrely designed childhood home that’s like something M.C. Escher would doodle on a napkin.

As developer Akabaka explained, the visual style is partly inspired by horror legend Junji Ito, with a color palette of dusty purples and pinks and evil green hues thrown in. The whole world has a strange, hazy shine to it, as is fitting for what is now a supernatural location.

As a horror enthusiast and one who’s always up for comically weird eldritch terror stories, I’m excited for Sucker for Love: Date to Die For. As an ace, I’m just plain excited. Stardust and Rhok’zan are both fun characters so far, with a suitably spooky setting and an out-of-the-box premise, Date to Die For is shaping up to be a great game.

Sucker for Love: A Date to Die For was previewed on an early build at PAX East 2023

Disclaimer: Our reviews editor, Samuel Guglielmo, works with the publisher of Sucker for Love: A Date to Die For. He was not involved with this article.