Sucker for Love: First Date

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Put the love in Lovecraft, one ritual at a time.

Platforms: PC, Switch
Price: Paid
Rated: Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (98% of 3,032 reviews); Metacritic 77
Length: about 2 to 4 hours
Players: 1
Made by: Akabaka
Released: 2022

What frightens An occult obsessive summons a cute, Cthulhu-like girl from a bright-pink Necronomicon and must perform ever more dangerous rituals from the book to win a kiss; the cosy bedroom turns eldritch, and a botched ritual can end very badly.
Content: occult imagery.

Sucker for Love: First Date is a horror-comedy dating sim. Obsessed with the occult, you summon Ln'eta, a cute Cthulhu-like girl, from a pink Necronomicon, and perform rituals from the book to win her affection, and later that of other eldritch beings, with choices deciding which ending you reach.

About Sucker for Love: First Date

Sucker for Love: First Date is made by Akabaka (Joseph Hunter) and published by DreadXP. It began as a short game-jam project and came out in full on PC in January 2022 and on Nintendo Switch in December 2022. A sequel, Sucker for Love: Date to Die For, followed in 2024.

You have finally found the last thing you need to summon the eldritch horror from your dreams: a strange, bright-pink Necronomicon. The one ritual that does not look like insane ramblings brings forth Ln'eta, a cute Cthulhu-like girl. She agrees to a kiss on one condition: first you perform a few more rituals from the book. Suddenly the other pages make sense.

It plays as a visual novel with gameplay. In your bedroom you gather items, follow the book's instructions and perform rituals while your date watches and a heart meter keeps score. Over three chapters you meet other dateable beings, among them the masked Estir, and your choices, and your mistakes with the rituals, decide which of the endings you reach.

It is a comedy first: the art and music recall old anime dating sims, and the writing is full of jokes. The horror is in the eldritch imagery, the rituals that go wrong and endings that are not kind. Critics praised its writing, voice acting and art and found it short. It suits players who like their Lovecraft with romance and a laugh.

How to play Sucker for Love: First Date

Follow the Necronomicon's instructions to perform each ritual, gathering the items it asks for around your room.
Talk to your eldritch date and choose your words; her mood is tracked on screen.
Perform rituals correctly, or deliberately wrong, to change what happens and which ending you reach.
Play all three chapters and replay them to collect the other endings.