From left to right: Ln'eta, Nyanlathotep, and Estir
Sucker for Love is a Horror Comedy Dating Sim / Visual Novel, developed by Akabaka (Chromatose) and published by DreadXP, which takes direct inspiration from the Cthulhu Mythos but given a more lighthearted adaptation.Originally a part of Dread X Collection 2, a free "Prelude" version
was released in December 2021, in order to promote a three-chapter "First Date" sequel with (to quote the store page) "Three" "fully-voiced" "dateable" "girls" and no horror elements or danger whatsoever.
Obsessed with rituals and haunted by visions of an eldritch horror, a young man acquires a copy of the Necronomicon that's oddly pink. Reciting the only legible ritual within it, he inadvertently summons Ln'eta, a Cute Cthulhumanoid who offers him a kiss in exchange for a few more rituals that now suddenly make sense in his mind. Will he find love, or will he just end up a sucker?
A full sequel focusing on Muu and The Black Goat of the Woods (also known as Rhok'zan), subtitled Date to Die For, was announced in the The Indie Horror Showcase 2023 Trailer. Originally it was slated for a release date of Valentine's Day 2024, but it was delayed to April 23, 2024.
On July 23, 2025, a third installment in the series was announced subtitled Crush Landing, with the trailer showing an adaptation of The Colour Out of Space. As of writing, there is no release date.
Tropes Applying to the Series:
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General tropes
- Adaptational Attractiveness: All of the Eldritch gods and horrors have been reenvisioned as cute and/or sexy girls that can be romanced.
- Adaptational Heroism: In general, the eldritch entities featured are far less malicious and murderous than they were in the original Cthulhu Mythos. Nyanlathotep seems to be the only Token Evil Teammate, and even she isn't anywhere near as hostile as Nyarlothotep was.
- Affectionate Parody: Of Dating Sims.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: This is implied to be the case with the ladies you meet and the entities they allude to or mention in passing.
- Cast of Expies: The majority of the eldritch beings are all Captain Ersatz of characters from the Cthulhu Mythos:
- Ln'eta - Cthulhu, a betentacled Old One dreaming under the sea
- Estir - Hastur, the King in Yellow, associated with a play of the same name that causes madness, and with the city of Carcosa.
- Nyanlathotep - Nyarlothotep, the Crawling Chaos, Messenger of the Outer Gods, and God of 1000 forms, one of the most-utilized being that of an Ancient Egyptian Pharoah.
- Rhok'zan - Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with 1000 Young, and Cthulhu's grandmother.
- Hheilly - the titular The Colour Out of Space, named after Halley's Comet. She's also based on the titular flame from The City of the Singing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: As expected of Eldritch Abominations, their Cute Monster Girl forms are just facades.
- The true form of Ln'eta can be seen in the "AWAKE END", a giant monster looking much like the classic portrayal of Cthulhu, towering over the city.
- Estir is the planet-star Carcosa itself, and the humanoid form the protagonist interacts with is a projection by the star's light.
- Nyanlatothep boasts of having over a thousand forms. Thirty seven of which are catgirls.
- The true body of Rhok'zan is the entirety of the dark woods that are overgrowing Sacramen-Cho. When the protagonist asks if it means her true appearance is just a regular tree, she replies that it's a really sexy tree.
- Hheilly is literally the comet and the form you interact with is a projection of colours. She initially copies the protagonist's appearance to communicate with him. He eventually convinces her to take on the appearance of Minami Ichikawa from a swimsuit magazine.
- Cessation of Existence: Since the realities that the games play out in are simply dreams of the eldritch gods, cutting them out does this, as they wake up. Immortal humans get put into a limbo state, unless the Eternal Sleeper (i.e. Azathoth) is woken up, in which case pretty much everyone else gets hit with this, bypassing immortality and such.
- The Ghost: Muu, the creator of the books, is mentioned but does not appear in First Date. Nyanlathotep shows up with a book she intimidated her into making so that you can banish her, so that the figurative bridge between worlds stays severed for the mutual safety of both sides. Muu double crosses her by hiding a banishing ritual and defenses against her torments in the book, but you have to be canny enough to spot it first. This status is removed in Date to Die For, with Stardust personally meeting her at the start of the game.
- Interspecies Romance: The entire concept of the series.
- Punctuation Shaker: A subtle gag is that the names of the eldritch ladies are actually fairly standard ones disguised as alien ones. So when pronounced outloud, these unknowable horrors are, in the end, known as "Lynetta", "Esther", and "Roxanne".
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Touching a book of rituals partly gives this power to the protagonists, allowing them to remember events from the previous "realities" (as in, the previous dream of the Elder Gods they inhabited). Buck from Date to Die For also has this due to Rohk'zan's Kiss of Immortality letting him persist through the void between dreams.
- Running Gag: "Worcestershire sauce" being words that only eldritch beings can pronounce correctly.
- Shout-Out Theme Naming: Muu, the creator of the books, is named after Mu, a mystical lost continent and source of civilization that appears in some Mythos stories.
Sucker for Love/First Date
- All for Nothing: First Date reveals that Ln'eta ended the protagonist's reality even if you severed his connection to her with the 'Break Up' spell, rendering the "Good (Enough) Ending" moot. Worst of all, the player didn't even get a smooch for his troubles.
- All Just a Dream: According to Ln'eta's Blue-and-Orange Morality, the young man's reality is one of her dreams, and the complete annihilation of humanity is merely a Dream Apocalypse. In First Date, this turns out to actually be the case, as Ln'eta "wakes up" even if transformed into a powerless squid.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Inverted in First Date for Estir's KING IN WHITE ending. When listening the terms of his eternal servitude to her, the protagonist explains that it just sounds like marriage and is excited instead of horrified, much to Estir's anger and confusion. Estir's confusion continues into the ending still, which shows the pair getting married.
- Balking Summoned Spirit: When summoning Ln'eta, she's expecting you to use her for destroying reality. When you explain that you actually just want to kiss her, she freaks out and asks to be sent back, until she sees the survival guide in your hand and offers this smooch in return for doing everything she asks of you.
- Big "NO!": Nyanlathotep's reaction to the player being in her next reality is this.
- Bittersweet Ending: Choosing to go through with the date with Ln'eta ends with the destruction of reality ... but at least Ln'eta delivered on that kiss she promised. First Date confirms that even if you break up with Ln'eta and turn her into a harmless squid, she ends reality anyway and you wake up in an alternate one. She remembers what you did and tears the break up incantation out to prevent you from doing it again.
- The redux edition of the "AWAKEN" ending from First Date. Ln'eta suggests they put off invoking the final incantation and spend a while longer in her dream state to repeat the process of the rituals forever. And while the protagonist initially agrees, he completes the spell anyway despite her pleas and promises to meet her in her next dream. The ending shots show Ln'eta crying before drawing what he looks like in her notebook to remind herself of him in the next reality they meet in.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Ln'eta seems to understand human concepts of morality, but she clarifies that she is not ending reality out of any kind of malice - to her, all of reality as we know it is All Just a Dream that, no matter how pleasant, she simply has to wake up from eventually.
- Body Horror: As he performs more rituals, the protagonists body begins to change, such as growing tentacles out of his face. Ln'eta finds him to be more attractive this way.
- If he washes his face after performing the tentacle ritual, the lower half of his face will tear off completely, leaving bloody, exposed muscles. Oddly, Ln'eta doesn't seem to notice.
- There's also an instance of it in Estir's First Date path. Once the player chooses to wear the stage mask, he is unable to take it off, as his face begin to mold to fit it perfectly. He also cannot blink anymore, as his eyes are permanently stretched open to look through the eye holes. If the player continues to pursue Ln'eta after this, the protagonist will rip the mask off his face, taking his eyeballs, nose and skin around the mask with it in order to hide his secret meeting with Estir from her. He can still see somehow despite this.
- If you choose to become Nyanlathotep's devoted follower for eternity, your face will vanish, leaving a black void with a single eye in the center and black ichor dripping from the edges.
- Bookends: The first chapter ends with Ln'eta proudly beckoning the protagonist to her at the conclusion of their date, telling him that because he followed the book to the letter, he's earned her farewell smooch. The last chapter in First Date spins this into an Ironic Echo, with the protagonist declaring his intent to smooch every outer god if he's able to, then telling Nyanlathotep that she's earned his own smooch.
- Chekhov's Gag: The bottle of Worcestershire Sauce. Initially used as a joke on how Ln'eta can pronounce words that the player cannot, later used on Missy to out her as another eldritch god.
- Cthulhumanoid: Ln'eta, at least how the protagonist is able to perceive her.
- One of the spells transforms the protagonist into one of these, even changing the cursor from a hand to a tentacle. However, it seems to not really be happening, as seen with the glimpses back into reality.
- Colony Drop: The Terrible End, where the protagonist decides to smooch Estir by drawing Carcosa to Earth resulting in the latter's destruction.
- Cute Monster Girl:
- Ln'eta, a cute, curvy Cthulhumanoid. At least this is how the protagonist sees her...
- Nyanlathotep (or "Auntie Nyan Nyan" as she prefers to be called) is a very tall and very curvy Cat Girl with a very deliberate Silver Fox vibe to her.
- Cypher Language: The script found on the posters and in Ln'eta's notebook. When deciphered, the text in the notebook is revealed to be the 5 AM writings of Akabaka (the developer). It starts off explaining the plot of Date to Die For, then devolves into nonsensical rambling. Here are some quotes, verbatim:
- "Do you think dinosaurs went extinct because they didnt know the word for meteor yet so they couldn't be like, ah! Meteor! Look out!?"
- "I invented a move called the Hilarious Fatal Uppercut it's a regular uppercut that you do with a metal flashlight"
- "Heya Kids! I just flew in from Guantanamo Bay, and boy, am I being prosecuted for multiple war crimes in Bosnia"
- "Todays episode, Malicious Trivia! Did you know that cemetaries are perfectly safe at night? Come alone and unarmed"
- A Deadly Affair: Discussed in First Date. The alternate romanceable options Estir and Nyanlathotep are both connected to Ln'eta's initial path. This means choosing to pursue them would mean cheating on Ln'eta, which the protagonist acknowledges and fears the deadly consequences of.
- Deconstruction: Of Did You Just Romance Cthulhu? and the concept of romancing monsters in dating sims in general. The protagonist's single-minded determination to get a smooch from Ln'eta does end up wooing her; however, she still plans on ending all of existence once the date is over and has absolutely no intention of sparing him. There's also the fact that as the game progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that being around her and performing her dating rituals has adverse effects on his mental and physical health.
- First Date suggests that Ln'eta has developed actual feelings for the protagonist, as she continues dreaming of him after his original reality is destroyed. This serves as an explanation for why he was able to continue on after his death.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Downplayed Trope, being a dating sim and all, but D realizes pretty quickly how teasable Estir is, and will usually do some light trolling whenever she's not horrifying him.
- Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: The point of the game: You summoned a dark god from beyond the veil with the power to destroy all of creation... in order to smooch her.
- Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: You manage to get Missy to reveal her true identity as the King in Yellow by tricking her into pronouncing a word that no human can: Worcestershire.
- Expy: Nyanlathotep bears a striking resemblance to Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village; both present as tall, powerful, commanding, mature, extremely curvy, inhuman women with deep voices in flowing white dresses and rather nice headgear. They're even both animal-themed. Nyan with cats, obviously, and Lady D with ba-sorry, dragons.
- Flat "What": Nyanlathotep's reaction to the player character saying that he was able to resist her attempts to break them through The Power of Lust, calling it stronger than fear.
- Gilligan Cut: In the "King in White" ending, when D keeps insisting that Estir's demand to serve her for all eternity is exactly what marriage is:Estir: Eh? Y-you can't be serious, right?
''(fade out to an image of D and a shocked Estir getting married, with the caption "He was serious".) - God in Human Form: Estir initially presents herself as an eyepatched human girl named Missy in order to get near the protagonist and try to steal him away from Ln'eta, unaware at first that he's actually more attracted to fourth-dimensional beings with non-Euclidean forms.
- Henpecked Husband: Invoked in Estir's best ending. While Estir tells the protagonist that his pledge of loyalty to her demands total submission under threat of punishment, the protagonist matter-of-factly tells her that she's essentially describing a typical human marriage. He then uses this opportunity to propose to her.
- Horrifying the Horror:
- Ln'eta's initial reaction to learning your intentions with her is a request to go back to millenniums of imprisonment.
- By the True End of the final route, even Nyanlathotep, who is stated to be the second strongest of the Elder Gods, is terrified of him because of his sheer, lust-driven determination to smooch all of the Elders Gods and eventually the cosmos itself.
- Interface Screw: Nyanlathotep's specialty, specifically with her Writing On The Wall curse messing with the HUD, her Silence curse preventing you from chanting, and her ability to mess with the Smooch bar, instantly filling it if you banish Muu and turning it into a health bar when she starts to attack you.
- Minimalist Cast: The main cast consists of the player character and his three romanceable options. The only other "characters" to appear onscreen are Estir's followers and various apparitions that appear during the rituals.
- Mood Whiplash: Starts out as a somewhat comedic Dating Sim about romancing a Cute Monster Girl. Should you actually go through with it, things don't end well.
- Multiple Endings: On top of the original Ln'eta good and bad endings, First Date has 3 endings per route you choose, with 8 in total for the main routes.
- "MEET AG-END": Ln'eta and the protagonist mutually decide that it's better to break off their relationship, deciding that it's not good for either of them, though Ln'eta believes that there may be a chance for them in a different reality. She still kills the protagonist regardless, though only to spare him from a slow, agonizing death. The ending still depicts the protagonist dead but seemingly at peace with it.
- "AWAKEREDUX": Ln'eta stops the protagonist from reciting the final incantation, offering to dream a little longer so that they can stay together. "Darling" initially agrees with her, but decides to go through with reading the spell anyway. Despite her pleas and insistence that they stay together, he reasons that if he's her dream guy, they'll simply meet again in another reality. The ending stills have her waking up from the dream in tears, thanking "Darling" for giving her a dream that she can remember clearly. The final still shows a doodle of the protagonist in her notebook with a note reminding herself of what he looks like so she can dream of him again.
- "TERRIBLE END": If the player gets two black broken hearts with Estir before the ending, she'll go back on her word to give the protagonist his promised kisses while still expecting him to pledge his servitude. Defiant and desperate at this point, "Dearest" reads the incantation that brings Carcosa, the planet Estir represents, dangerously close to the Earth with the intent of kissing it. Despite her warnings that doing so will result in an extinction level event which will kill them both, he continues reciting the spell until the planet slams into the earth, killing everything and everyone on it.
- Nightmare Fetishist: The protagonist, who wishes to summon an Eldritch Abomination for the sole purpose of kissing it.
- Not Hyperbole: The first time you turn to the 'Breakup' spell, Ln'eta will abruptly and menacingly question what you're looking at in the book, already knowing exactly what page it's on. She threatens that if you try to cast the spell on her watch, you won't get past the second word. She's not kidding.
- The Not-So-Harmless Punishment: Estir informs the protagonist that screwing up the performance of her play will result in a scathing review in the Carcosan Times publication. And he'll be killed.
- Playing a Tree: After performing the first section of her play, Estir notices that "Dearest" has some acting experience, with him mentioning that he was part of a staging of Macbeth in high school. When Estir asks what role, he says it was Tree #4, then admits that was a joke and that he did play the title character.Estir: I... wasn't aware that was a role.
Dearest: It's not.
Estir: ...You weren't even the leading tree? - The Power of Love: Subverted. When the protagonist lets loose a Badass Boast about an emotion stronger than fear, Nyanlothotep assumes he means love. He means The Power of Lust.
- Scenery Dissonance: The second chapter, "The King in Yellow Approaches", is set in the warm, golden light of a setting sun. It manages to be quite disturbing nonetheless.
- She Is the King: Estir is based off of Hastur, but she presents as a human woman and is described with she/her pronouns. Nonetheless, she refers to herself as the King in Yellow. Justified in that normal human concepts of gender most likely do not apply to her kind, to say nothing of the fact that the various deities you interact with can look however they like to the protagonist.
- Shmuck Bait: Once the rituals have started, don't look out the window...
- Sleep-Mode Size: If you successfully sever your connection with Ln’eta, she becomes depowered into a harmless squid-like form. The Protagonist still has no problems smooching her in this form.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Getting an ending, good or bad, is accompanied by peppy music. When you finally smooch Ln'eta, her true form appears in the window behind the two of you, with terrified screaming in the distance.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: For the most of First Date, the rituals are a method of advancing the plot, must be performed in order, are revealed in the book one by one, and you can take as much time as you like to cast them. But in the "date" with Nyanlatothep, if you defy her, you receive a book of counter-rituals, all of which are available from the start, and the correct rituals must be performed within time limit in reaction to various spooky happenings in the apartment, or the protagonist will be killed. The gameplay in that segment is not unlike a simplified Five Nights at Freddy's.
- Villain Has a Point: When Ln'eta tearfully asks why you severed their connection in the Good (Enough) Ending, you respond that a smooch isn't worth allowing her to end reality. She then brings up the fact that you were the one who summoned her in the first place, knowing full well what she was capable of, to which you just kinda brush her off.
- Villains Never Lie: Ln'eta may be a vicious, world-ending Eldritch Abomination, but she never once makes any attempts to deceive you. She typically won't tell you WHAT exactly her rituals do until after you perform them, but there's no explicit falsehood on her part. She also makes no illusions about what will happen once the date ends. Finally there's the Awake Ending, where she keeps her end of the bargain and smooches you as her true form awakens to destroy the universe.
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Fail to perform the right counterevil in time against any of the horrors Nyanlathotep throws at you and one of these screens will pop up depicting a blue cat unplugging a cable as you take damage.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In First Date, Ln'eta disappears from the narrative in Estir's route if the player chooses to continue pursuing Estir without invoking anymore of her incantations. While Estir does briefly mention her toward the end, simply saying she "got rid of her", it's never shown what happens to her. This can be averted if the player attempts to continue a romance with Ln'eta after Estir's Banquet.
- Worth It: The bad ends obtained from peeking at Ln'eta while she takes a shower are referred to as "Worth It (Chapter 1)" and "Still Worth It (Chapter 2)".
- Yandere: Ln'eta angrily warns the player against talking about other girls while on their date.
Date to Die For
- Actionized Sequel: It has much more interactive elements than the first game, mainly requiring the player to move between all the rooms in the house without being ambushed by the Thousand Young or the denizens of the Black Woods.
- Adaptation Deviation: This game loosely adapts / takes inspiration from The Shadow over Innsmouth, with the premise of an oblivious visitor to a town uncovering the dark secret of a cult that performs sacrifices in the name of a deity.
- All for Nothing: The Truth Ending. At the end of the game, Nyanlathotep provides Stardust the means and option to conduct the Uprooting Ritual a final time, rendering all of her and Rhok'zan's efforts throughout the game moot. See Through the Eyes of Madness and Wham Line below for more details. Notably, though, this is optional- Stardust can ignore Nyanlathotep's words and leave the house even after she is given back the ritual book.
- Anti-Frustration Features: A toggle in the accessibility options enables a pop-up that'll appear to warn the player when a Jump Scare is about to occur, minimizing the fear-factor for those averse to said scares.
- Bait-and-Switch: The start of Chapter 1000 has Stardust wake up to see what appears to be Muu hanging from the ceiling dead. After a moment of panic, Muu's true body appears and reveals the bookstore owner Stardust has been interacting with is just a lifelike puppet.
- Chekhov's Gag: The plant mister, which spends most of the game as an optional Running Gag where Stardust can shut up whoever's talking to her. When it's picked up, the game mentions that it has another use, which comes into play when Stardust needs to stop Nyanlothotep from capturing Buck and dooming the universe.
- Continuity Nod: The "Worcestershire sauce" gag from the first game comes up again, this time when Muu points out Stardust can't pronounce certain eldritch words.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: The protagonist of First Date is a male Loveable Sex Maniac with no Backstory, motivated by lust to summon eldritch horrors in order to smooch them, with no regards to his own or the world's safety, being involved heavily in the affairs of both L'neta and Estir. The protagonist of Date to Die For, Stardust, is a female asexual with a personal backstory involving her hometown, who only summons Rhok'zan out of desperation, and only because the ritual book assures that the summoned eldritch god is "benign".
- Darker and Edgier: The second game is substantially darker and leans far more into traditional horror. While the first game was a lighthearted dating sim with some horror elements sprinkled in, the second game is full on Survival Horror with some traces of the first game's dating sim elements sprinkled about.
- Distracted by the Sexy: One of the upper bedrooms has been decorated with sexy posters by the Thousand Young. That room becomes one of the few safe ones through most of the game, as cultists and even some creatures looking for Stardust there will be too distracted by the posters to see her.
- Faustian Rebellion: An inverted example with Rhok'zan's cult. She claims she initially granted her cultists benevolent gifts of fertility, health and abundance, but they eventually trapped her in the form of Sacramen-Cho's woods, and started using her power for evil against her will.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: This is a trait of those who have the "Sacramen-Cho Stare". The fact that Stardust doesn't have it clues in Rhok'zan that she's not one of her followers.
- Ignore the Fanservice: Rhok'zan's attempt at seducing Stardust falls completely flat, due to the latter's asexuality. You even have the option of spraying her with a squirt bottle in response!
- Implacable Man: Due to the Black Woods forcing its inhabitants to ignore their own fatigue, wounds and trauma, everyone in the game can keep fighting past the point of exhaustion until they drop dead. Fortunately for Stardust, Rohk'zan reminds her to eat and heal herself before she reaches that point.
- I Never Told You My Name: Stardust is alarmed when Rhok'zan calls her by her parents' nickname for her when comforting her over her parents' deaths. When questioned on it, Rhok'zan explains that anything that dies in the Black Woods becomes part of her, and their love likely lives on in Rhok'zan.
- I Want Grandkids: Rhok'zan wants as many grandchildren as she can have, and takes it pretty hard when Stardust explicitly states she doesn't want children or the powers that would come with having them. She does eventually get over it, though, and apologizes for losing her composure.
- Metaphorgotten: Stardust asks Rhok'zan if her cultists could be considered her exes. Rhok'zan agrees, going along with the metaphor by saying that if Stardust tries to date her... then the cultists will hack Stardust to death with farming tools. She lampshades how the last part isn't exactly a metaphor.
- Non-Standard Game Over: The regular Game Over screen is a missing person's poster for Stardust, but if Stardust allows Nyanlathotep to capture Buck at the end of Chapter 1000, the screen will be completely blank to represent Buck successfully managing to wake the Eternal Sleeper and erase everything.
- Resurrection/Death Loop: Stardust takes advantage of the reality resets each time she dies, allowing her to pick off the Thousand Young one-by-one.
- Prophecy Twist: Nyanlathotep makes this argument to Stardust should she find her in the house's basement at the end, arguing that although she came here to destroy the forest, she was tricked as the prophecy said into falling for it.
- Punny Name: Sacramen-Cho is a pormanteau of the Californian city of Sacramento and the Japanese suffix "-cho", meaning "town".
- Sadistic Choice: Kidd gives one to Stardust at the end of his route by telling his Brainwashed and Crazy fans that he hates people who escape from burning buildings. If Stardust performs the Uprooting ritual and ignites the Black Woods, they'll throw themselves into the flames in devotion to Kidd, forcing Stardust to indirectly kill up to 5 innocent people if she doesn't surrender. Rohk'zan suggests that Stardust should Take a Third Option by killing Kidd to break his hold over the hostages, essentially turning the situation into the trolley problem. In the normal ending, Stardust will admit that she can't bring herself to kill Kidd and leaves him and any remaining fans to die, but not before calling out Kidd's attempt to blame her for the result of his actions. In the true ending for the chapter, she takes a fourth option and frees everyone to remove Kidd's leverage.
- Stealth Prequel: Revealed to take place before First Date when the end of Chapter 1000 shows Rhok'zan talking about her dreams to a young Ln'eta and Estir, wondering if they'll find the same type of love some day.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: It's revealed early on that Stardust is seeing an edited version of reality. She's unable to see when she's cripplingly wounded, and there are occasional flashes to reality, showing things are far more extreme than she sees at first. In one transformation, she's a Cute Monster Girl, but it flashes to show a much more extreme transformation, and she is bleating instead of speaking. It's shown in final ending that Stardust has been tricked into falling in love with the black wood despite attempting to destroy it at the beginning, just like the prophecy said.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Sacramen-Cho, Stardust's hometown, is hit by a plague of people going missing. It's soon revealed that they've either been getting sacrificed by the ruthless cultists controlling the town, or getting consumed by the cursed woods surrounding it.
- Tsundere: Rhok'zan has been stuck for years being abused by her supposed cultists and initially thinks Stardust is one, leading to her being extremely moody when you meet her and it quickly becomes embarrassed grumpy shyness when she realizes Stardust is romantically attracted to her. She warms up pretty quickly when she realizes Stardust actually freed her, though.
- Void Between the Worlds: Any mortal who became immortal will get sent to the void between realities, during the period when no Eldritch Gods are dreaming any realities up.
- Wham Line: In the Truth Ending of Episode 4 Nyanlathotep repeats the warning from the beginning that everyone who tries to destroy the black woods ends up worshiping it. The entire plot of the game was fulfilling this curse.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: This is Rhok'zan's reaction when she realizes that Stardust is experiencing Love at First Sight rather that fear or Sanity Slippage.Rhok'zan: OH MY GOD. I thought I was driving you insane!! All that sweating, and hyperventilating— it looked like you were going to throw up!
Stardust: Oh, that just happens when I talk to girls sometimes.
Rhok'zan: WHAT?!- She also reacts this way to Stardust believing that taking Rhok'zan "as her partner" entails a romantic relationship, as opposed to a sexual one.Rhok'zan: YOU THOUGHT — (cough) You thought, of the two definitions of 'partners', that a fertility goddess was referring to the platonic meaning?!
- She also reacts this way to Stardust believing that taking Rhok'zan "as her partner" entails a romantic relationship, as opposed to a sexual one.
Crush Landing
- A Lizard Named "Liz": You have a pet chameleon named Leon.
- Been There, Shaped History: If you feed H'heily cooked crayfish, she implies that she was the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs.
- Came from the Sky: The game starts when a strange, sentient meteorite crashes into your apartment. This, surprisingly, only obliterates a wall and the rest of your home is still intact.
- The Corruption: H'heily's presence causes non-human living things to grow exponentially and then wither into colourless ash. Merely extending a hand in her direction causes one's skin to become necrotic and become drained of color, while turning a sickly patchwork (similar to severe radiation burns). The ambient effects eventually spread to humans at a wider radius and the results aren't pretty.
- Insistent Terminology: A meteor is what you see in the sky. A meteorite is what actually lands on Earth. Referring to the meteorite as a "meteor" seems to be an embarrassing, amateur mistake that will get you laughed at and brushed off.
- Kill It with Water: Pouring water on H'heily will immediately extinguish her, snuffing her out.
- Living Mood Ring: H'heily will turn red when angry or flustered, and blue when sad.
- Meaningful Echo: H'heily learns how to speak by adapting what you say to her into her own sentences, and often gets stuck because you haven't said the words that would convey what she wants to say.
- Multiple Endings:
- Neutral End: Blackout: You let the meteorite extinguish and give it to the shady folk in trench coats. You feel like you avoided something terrible and quickly forget about the incident.
- Neutral End: Got Off Easy: You let the meteorite extinguish and give it to the Natural History Museum researchers. You're credited with finding the meteorite, your crazy story about H'heily is lost to cryptid history and soon, you forget all about your brief adventure with the unknown.
- Neutral End: Host: You invite the Natural History Museum researchers to look at the meteorite, only for them to start succumbing to strange, alien afflictions. Anyone attempting to investigate it afterwards meets the same fate. One day, the meteorite suddenly flies up into the sky and disappears. However, you have some of H'heily's colour inside you still and you can't wait to unleash it when it's ready.
- Non-Standard Game Over: At the beginning of the game, you have the choice of touching the meteorite or touching it with "something else". Choosing the latter options leads to you either peeing on the meteorite or sticking your dick in it and getting reduced to a pile of ash as a result.
- Opaque Nerd Glasses: The woman from the Natural History Museum wears these. Youthful Freckles, braided pigtails and appropriately nasally voice complete the nerd look.
- Rainbow Puke: One of the Natural History Museum researchers suddenly starts vomiting rainbows. Considering Hheily's influence, this might not be a stylistic choice and the researcher is actually vomiting rainbows.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Your neighbour speaks using H. P. Lovecraft's signature prose. He says it's to protect your mind from the mind-breaking effect of eldritch knowledge but he asks to borrow a toilet plunger in the same overblown way.
- Shout-Out:
- The official annoucement trailer sees the protagonist inspecting a goopy bunch of bananas while thinking of the quote "I'm a mad scientist, son of a bitch."
- Delivery from the ramen restaurant is delivered by Ramen Rider, who wears a green helmet with a red visor.
- The music when you're touching the meteorite with "something else" is Also sprach Zarathustra.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: One potential visitor is a door-to-door Con Man named Scam Likely. Subverted if you purchase his help to board up the hole in your apartment, which he will do immediately and quickly. Double-subverted if you buy his meteor insurance, since that doesn't cover meteorite damage.
- What the Hell, Hero?: H'heily will be upset if you feed her your pet(s), with it counting as a negative relationship value.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: If you order ramen, you'll admit to Ramen Rider that it literally did not occur to you that you would need to pay for the food. This shocks him so much he drops his Baritone of Strength and Large Ham act.Ramen Rider: Dude, please tell me this isn't happening. My manager is going to JUSTICE FIRE me if I come back without getting paid.