Developer: Sassy Chap Games
Publisher: Team17
Platform: PC, Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PC
Date Everything! – Review
Have you been jumping for joy at the thought of dating your kitchen table? Maybe not, but you might have heard of a little game called Date Everything! from Sassy Chap Games. It has absolutely been blowing up on social media, in part because of its roster of voice actors, which includes many well-known and popular names. And obviously, that means we wanted to get a bite of that romance action. We can say two things for sure. The first is that the game has a good reputation for a reason. And the second is that you can take the title extremely literally.
Story
The main character in Date Everything! is a bit of a loser. They live alone, haven’t dated anybody in years, and work a boring customer service job where they’ve recently been replaced by an AI. But all that changes into a whirlwind of excitement when a mysterious package shows up on their doorstep. Inside, you can find the Daviators, a set of special glasses that you can aim at an inanimate object to manifest a personified version of whatever thing you’re looking at. As the glasses themselves explain after appearing in the form of a gorgeous woman named Skylar, this means you can go around your house and meet your belongings, discovering their unique personalities, hobbies, and traits. What exactly happens next is completely up to you and who you decide to engage with, though there is a story going on in the background that slowly unfolds over the days, focused on who exactly sent you these glasses and what some people would do to get their hands on a pair.
Graphics
While art styles can very much be a matter of personal taste, we love the style of Date Everything! We enjoyed the 3D environment of the house that you can explore, with objects themselves personified into 2D characters. The art is colorful and vibrant, and the character designs are to die for. You can really look at them and realize the artists went the extra mile trying to represent an object as a person. We also appreciated that among the one hundred dateables, there is a good variety of both men and women (and a few more androgynous looking people), with a range of various ethnicities, body shapes, fashion styles, and just overall appearance. While you’re free to date whoever you prefer, it’s nice to have options outside of the conventionally attractive cookie-cutter format you sometimes get in dating sims.
Sound
As we said before, one of the main selling points of Date Everything! is the voice actors. Every dateable is fully voiced, as is the narration of the game, with a star-studded cast of performers and a few internet favorites such as Matt Mercer (known from his DnD podcast Critical Role). If you play a lot of video games, watch cartoons, or enjoy dubbed anime, there’s a good chance you’ll hear a voice and go “oh, I know that guy!”. As a result, it shouldn’t be surprising that we really liked the line delivery and overall voice work in this game. Moreover, the soundtrack is excellent too, and both really make for a fun experience.
Gameplay
Date Everything! is a dating sim (big surprise) that has a bit of a sandbox feel to it. After the first day, which functions as a tutorial guiding you through the most basic features, you are let loose in your house to use the Daviators on whatever objects you encounter. Doing so will spawn a personified version of said object. Your Daviators have five charges per day, meaning that you can talk to five objects per day, with time passing between each use. You can also only talk to any specific object once per day, so the storyline of that object automatically gets spread out a bit. For each dateable, you can develop your relationship into either love, hate, or friendship. Each of these branches will lead to unique interactions. With over a hundred dateables in the game, you can imagine that talking to them all will take a few playthroughs.
But that’s assuming you can even find them all. The game poses a bit of a challenge by not giving you an easy map to determine where all the objects are. Some can be quite tricky to find, like hidden in a closet or in a locked attic. There are hints that allow you to find them more easily. Similarly, a relationship is not always as quickly progressed as just talking to the same object over and over. You might need to encounter them at a certain time of day, or their arc can require you to interact with other dateables to solve interpersonal issues for them. The game also has a stats mechanic, where building relationships will increase your stats and unlock specific dialogue options that weren’t there before. All of this makes for some extra depth.
While the game overall has a very funny and casual atmosphere, we do need to mention that some of the storylines get rather dark. If you want, you can turn on ‘content aware mode’, which will display a warning whenever you’re about to encounter a more serious topic, along with an option to skip. The game also contains several more sexually descriptive segments, though all the art is clean and safe for work.
Conclusion
Date Everything! is a unique take on the genre while also having enough of the classic dating sim elements that most enthusiasts crave. With a myriad of colorful and interesting characters who go through genuinely engaging arcs, gorgeous art, and incredible voice work, it’s not hard to see why people are raving about this one. And hey, what other game will allow you to literally sleep with your bed?
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