Sucker for Love: Crush Landing

Sucker for Love: Crush Landing is the third instalment from Akabaka in bringing Lovecraftian Horror romance in the screne. The artstyle that inspired from 90s Japanese animation, together with point and click style puzzle to reach multiple endings. Surprisingly its all tie between the other two games as well. The Characters except main character is all fully voiced. Overall its a great fun to play and try out different endings, the only suggestion from me is add a ending collection tab, so we player can keep track on which endings we missed. First Hour Walkthrough YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/KZOjt4LQ20Y Gameplay: Good Graphics: Very Good Music: Good Story: Good PC Requirements: Normal

As a fan of the SFL (Sucker for Love) series, I am certainly disappointed with this installment. The secondary characters feel redundant to me. There are no ritual mechanics, nor any similar mechanics or puzzles. On top of that (and admitting that, as of the date of this review, I am unfamiliar with the lore of the creature the waifu is based on), I find her to be a rather flat character with no real motivations. As I progressed through the game, I interacted with the neighbor. I thought, “Okay, he’ll be the one who gives me the ritual book or provides me with information on how to deal with the girl/creature.” But none of that happens. He simply asks for items and provides banal, largely useless information. So, unfortunately, considering everything mentioned above, I cannot recommend this installment, neither to newcomers nor to fans of the series.

It is truly weird to see such a step backwards in the series. 1. There is no chemistry/attraction between main character and main girl. 2. There is no rituals or tie in with established lore. 3. Encounters with other character are pointless since for good ending you just have to turn them away. No puzzle to solve, item to find or special dialog option you need to choose. 4. There is no checkpoint system for easy navigation and search for new endings. 5. The game is short and has no satisfying ending. It feels like first chapter sold as separate installment. ALL THESE MISSING THINGS were present in previous games. So it is truly baffling to see this level of disregard by dev torwards something that seemed truly inspired.

Major spoilers ahead I want to start this off by saying I am a huge fan of Sucker For Love. I've seen people play it and fell in love with its stories and characters. In First Date, D's interactions with L'neta, Estir, and Nyanlahotep was a joy to see, with there still being good horror elements and humor. In Date to Die For, Stardust and Rhok'zan's relationship was honestly very cute, and I loved seeing it. So when I picked this one up as my first game, I was intrigued. Straying away from the ritual system and instead having a seemingly timed survival system, with people showing up at your door, and you have to decide who to trust. Very interesting. When I stated playing, I had some good fun. Hheily was a fun character, and the fact that her dialogue really did change based on what dialogue options you picked was a really nice touch. I got the True Beginning on my first try, and the reveal that Dude was Buck was an honestly amazing reveal, implying that he had possibly taken immortality from Rhok'zan intentionally to see Hheily again. But then when I jumped back in to find more endings... it became tedious and frustrating. Since phone and door events only have a chance of happening when you feed Hheily something, the limited number of objects you have becomes apparent fast. The letters seem like a good work around, giving you something to feed to Hheily and trigger events, while also having a chance to give flowers and thus colors, the second you find Midori's letter, you can't do that anymore. In the second phase, this makes it all too easy to get a game over because there just aren't enough colors. Second, there's oversights and bugs with character events. Midori calling you can happen after you feed her to Hheily, and Scam Likely can come back to your door saying something was wrong with what you gave him multiple times after feeding to Hheily. Also Maria just... never shows up. I've had her appear once during my first playthrough, and I called her almost immediately. She didn't show up until the parade or something like that. Additionally, the threat of the Darkness just doesn't feel like a threat, considering you have to actively seek her out for anything bad to happen. The Darkness barely feels like a presence at all. And as for the parade, they show up so slowly, that it's very hard to keep feeding Hheily colors in part three, considering the shortened timer. There's no threat, and since Hheily's form only actually appears in a handful of scenes, you don't really feel any connection with her on repeat playthroughs. Maybe that last one's just a me problem, but all in all, this game can just feel so drawn out, since the random events only happen when you feed Hheily. It becomes near impossible to feed Hheilt anything in part three, so you're just left standing there until time's up. Again, I absolutely adore the Sucker For Love series. The dynamic between Hheily and Dude in this entry is genuinely cute and interesting, and it adapts the source material in an interesting way I don't think any other series could. The problem just comes in the gameplay, as going for specific endings can feel like a chore to get through. I wish nothing but the best for the developer, but I feel like they could've done so much bette with the gameplay. Please, keep creating. But this needed a little more work.

Sentient Darkness is a straight baddie, she might be best girl so far. 10/10

only saying this because the front door makes the game unplayable some sort of insane lag spike leads to frame drops needs update other than that very fun

I really respect that Akabaka keeps changing the formula instead of simply trying to recreate the first game. Crush Landing brings us back to one room, this time keeping Hheily’s flame alive through color-based puzzles while dealing with strange visitors through the phone and the door. The ritual-book gameplay from the previous games is gone, replaced by these new mechanics. Honestly, I don’t miss the rituals that much, since they often amounted to following instructions in the right order, but their absence definitely makes this entry feel different. And once again, the tone has changed considerably. This might actually be my favorite entry so far. Hheily feels much more eldritch than our previous love interests: heartwarming and strangely adorable, but also profoundly alien. The things happening around her are genuinely unsettling, and the story leans much harder into cosmic horror. If you're expecting the mostly comedic flirting of the first game, this one is considerably darker. The side characters were also a pleasant surprise. You don't build relationships with them the way you did in the second game, but their short encounters are colorful, well written, and can develop in different ways depending on how you approach them. I also like the small amount of planning involved in deciding which colors to preserve depending on the encounters you get. There are multiple endings and some randomness you can manipulate, although sometimes the game feels surprisingly determined to push you back onto a particular route. My biggest down is how much time we spend with Hheily. For a game centered around her, we actually spend less time talking to her than I expected. I really wish there were more unique conversations, things to feed her, and endings based specifically on how we choose to interact with her. She feels a little too passive. Still, in terms of art (it's gorgeous), music (Parade is coming), atmosphere, writing, and overall theme, I think this may be the strongest Sucker for Love yet. A great direction for the series, even if it leaves some very tempting possibilities unexplored.

absolute cinema

If you were a fan of their other games you are sure to enjoy this one too. There are some complaints for the game being short, I suspect they got a single ending and called it a day, there are several, and honestly it took me more than one run to figure out HOW to manipulate events and find new variables to further affect the outcomes. I had a good time figuring out each of the endings and getting all of the achievements. Here's to hoping they come out with more good work in the future!