Sucker For Love: First Date Review – Summoning Eldritch Goddesses for Smooches

It’s a hole I dug for myself, but I’m almost out of a pile of reviews and can turn my attention to a game for me: Sucker For Love: First Date. Akabaka kindly provided this review code. That won’t impede my voice, though they did insinuate their connections with cosmic deities should I say anything incriminating.

Sucker For Love: Crush Landing changed my perspective that this kind of game would be too cringey, as I thoroughly enjoyed it and added it to my recommendation list. I liked this game even more.

Here, our protagonist is trying to summon a deity to his apartment. For a smooch. After having a vision of an eldritch goddess, he has become obsessed and sought all manner of occult paraphernalia to pull it off. The ritual, not, well… y’know.

Sucker For Love: First Date doesn’t leave that carrot dangling long, as a package arrives and it appears to be the Necromonicon, only this one is pink. Thinking it to be a joke, he goes along with it, only to find it to be the real deal. Then Ln’eta appears, tentacles an’ all.

Kiss Me Quick (Before She Eats the World)

Despite making it clear she will kill Lover Boy and devour the Earth, she is gobsmacked that all he wants is a smooch. Perform the ritual, and you can have your kiss, she says. As well as the annihilation of humanity. Deal.

On the surface, Sucker For Love: First Date sounds gross and exclusively for one-handed typists, but trust me – the delivery is brilliant. There are three dateables offering lip-to-lip/tentacle engagement, and they’re all voice-acted. Ln’eta is by far my favourite, in case she’s reading.

Our guy, however, is such a simp that he doesn’t have a name and instead goes by what they name him. Instead of scum, shitheel or Colin, they call him Darling, Dearest and Daryl. That works for me; I’m already theirs.

Rituals, Risks, and Ridiculous Consequences

With regard to the rituals in Sucker For Love: First Date, it’s very straightforward. Instructions in the Necromonicon are very clear and will indicate items needed to be in your possession and the correct lighting. If you get it wrong, there isn’t usually a consequence. Usually.

The results are often amusing, but also graphic, with Lover Boy losing his eyes, face, and naturally, dignity. The ongoing quest for a smooch (and believe me, he is tenacious) is really funny, but the actual darkness these eldritch gods bring is alarming.

What’s unique about the interaction in the game is the summoning. This isn’t exclusive to Ln’eta, and all require a line to be recited in which you drag a pair of lips to repeat the words. It’s hard to get it wrong, but there is room for failure.

After all, we are punching above our weight with the ladies in Sucker For Love: First Date. Get on the wrong side of them, which you will, and you’ll suffer the consequences. Hell, even if they do start to warm to you, it’s a Lovecraft situation – you’re doomed!

Still, I loved every minute of it, and knowing full well from the last game, Ln’eta heading in the shower and telling me not to peek, I waited for an automated checkpoint before pretending not to know she was in there. Oops – bad ending!

How I Learned To Forget About Others And Think About My Smooch

When completing Ln’eta’s chapter, we expand upon Estir, who is introduced as a benefactor in the first. I wasn’t such a fan of her, but it was entertaining nonetheless. When getting good and bad endings, you can view a timeline to see what you need to unlock next.

It’s like Five Hearts Under One Roof in that it’s clear where you need to go; it’s how to get there. With a couple of secret paths that take a bit of trial and error, a third chapter opens with another beauty for you to woo, and suffer those consequences once more.

Visual novels tend to have some really generic voice actors that could be swapped out for any other title and still sound flat. The characters in Sucker For Love: First Date sound like they mean what they say, and their delivery is brilliant.

I couldn’t believe that I was risking the shower scene so that I could get a good ending with Ln’eta on the first try. I did, and I was very satisfied, but then went back to the bathroom. Then I realised I was chasing tentacles.

We could say the bad stuff was the world ending in Sucker For Love: First Date, but eff ‘em. What I didn’t like were only afterthoughts, like not being able to play on my handheld, as it would not register the chants from the book when using the touchscreen.

There were also a couple of times that I couldn’t jump back to the menu and had to sacrifice myself to get to the checkpoint selection again. Other than that, I loved every minute of it, and as mentioned, Sucker For Love: First Date is currently my favourite of the bunch, with Sucker For Love: Date To Die For coming soon.