Is there a studio that knows how to present the messiness of human relations better than Outerloop Games? The developers behind Thirsty Suitors are experts at conveying how, when people come together, messes will be made. For their new game, Dosa Divas, Outerloop has decided to tackle what can be one of the toughest of relationships: family. When former chef Amani decides to return home, she and her sister Samara decide to travel together as they set off to visit their parents. During their travels, the siblings quickly discover that their younger sister Lina has set off to revolutionise the world of food by getting rid of cooking altogether. But is that such a good thing?
In Dosa Divas, you travel through a number of unique villages, all suffering from Lina’s influence in different ways. You do so by travelling in your customisable mech called Goddess, one of a number of mechs discovered asleep underneath your former restaurant, the titular Dosa Divas. Goddess is key to creating the best meals, as they work together with Amani to turn fresh ingredients into beautiful meals. You might be wondering: why is an ancient mech helping humans to cook food, of all things? That’s a great question, and I won’t answer that here because, you know, spoilers.
Lina’s cooking revolution has unfortunately come with some dire consequences, and many of the people you meet along the way are suffering because of this. It’s up to Amani and Samara to help out where they can, mostly by cooking for the locals or beating up Lina’s goons when necessary. These two actions are where you’ll find most of the gameplay elements, aside from wandering through the beautifully crafted world.
To cook food, you need to find the right ingredients during your travels. Once you’ve obtained these, you enter this kind of spirit zone where Goddess does her work: here, you have to play a couple of minigames to actually prepare the food. These range from keeping a sensor in the middle of a circle to chopping ingredients at the correct times. It’s not too challenging, even when you get hindered at later stages of the game, but it does add to the feeling of preparing the food yourself.
The other major gameplay feature is the turn-based battles. Here, Goddess, Amani and Samara take on goons and even other mechs in combat, which is very reminiscent of typical games in the turn-based genre: make sure you block incoming damage and maximise your own input by hitting the right buttons at the right time during your own attacks. These battles don’t do anything really new, and later on during the game there are times where it feels like they’re added on as a little bit of padding, but they work really well nonetheless, and even more so: they look fantastic.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise to any fans of Outerloop’s work. The developer’s visual flair has always been one of their strong points, and it’s on show in full strength once again. Characters don’t just move in certain ways; they look spectacular while doing so, always choosing the most aesthetically pleasing ways of entering the fray. The combat moves in particular are a highlight, with the choreography being incredibly creative once again, just like it was in Thirsty Suitors.
But while the visuals are showstopping and the music is once again another great feature of the game, Dosa Divas really shines with its writing and character work. As mentioned before, family relationships are incredibly messy, and that’s no different in the case of Amani, Samara and Lina. Not just because Lina seems hellbent on taking over the world of food, but even more so because of the history that has led to this moment. This is made clear through a set of flashbacks, where we discover more about the sisters’ childhoods and their work at the Dosa Divas restaurant back in the day. But what I admire even more is that this history is also evident in the way the sisters interact with each other.
The game doesn’t just tell you everything that has happened between the siblings. It becomes evident through the discussions between them what is being said and, more importantly maybe, what isn’t being said. There’s a reason why Amani has decided that now, after ten years, is the right time to come back home. There’s a reason why Samara is doing everything she can to make sure Amani feels welcome back. And there’s definitely a reason why Lina has turned to getting rid of cooking by replacing all food with the type of food that comes in pre-made tubes.
Outside of the family, there are other people you will meet during your travels, all of whom have been influenced by or have influenced whatever has happened with your own relatives. They might be happy to see you, or they might hold grudges, but they make one thing clear: what happens within your family is not relegated to only your family. Your actions and choices have consequences, whether you want them to or not. And it quickly becomes clear that Amani and Samara aren’t perfect humans either: a lot of the villagers’ reactions come from the way the sisters have treated them.
In the end, Dosa Divas delivers everything I had hoped for from another Outerloop game. It’s another beautiful look at a culture that isn’t entirely influenced by the typical Western view you get in most games; it’s visually stunning, and it offers some fresh ideas on what a game can be. Despite its short run time, I did feel like it was padding a little bit with some of the gameplay, although I do understand that it was necessary to tell the story in the right way. But that doesn’t stop me from loving this game and reaffirming that I will play anything Outerloop makes in the future.
