A pleasant night out.
I made my peace with linear visual novels a while ago—as long as there’s at least a little interaction. Let me muck around in a scene deciding what I look at while being rewarded with some ambient dialogue or whatever before I get back on the train to Plot Town, and I’m happy. That’s the kind of game Love Sucks: Night One was. You might have enjoyed the illusion you were steering it at times, but really it was a ride you were on and even if you leaned into the corners, you still got off at the same place. I mean “got off” literally, because the Love Sucks series sure are horny.
Each game in the series—a planned trilogy—is about surviving a single night. A college student in the Sunnydale-adjacent monster-haunted town of Crescent Valley, you’re on a dangerous double date with a vampire and a succubus and, just like a stereotypical college boy, you will absolutely risk your life for even a sniff of a chance of getting laid. You’re helped in this boner-headed endeavor by a magic sigil that bounces you back in time if your dates murder you before midnight.
