At a look, Thirsty Suitors is a sport about revenge. Its story follows the just lately heartbroken Jala Jayaratne, who returns to her hometown solely to be relentlessly attacked by a league of evil exes. However it is usually a lot greater than that. Because the story progresses, we come to find that none of those exes are evil per se, and Jala herself is extremely fallible. She left scorched earth in all of her earlier relationships in Timber Hills, and her solely choice now’s to reconcile and take accountability with every of those exes. Her makes an attempt to make good take the type of turn-based fight constructed upon RPG development that has a singular taste and is enjoyable to interact with. There’s even a surprisingly pleasing skateboarding mechanic. In so some ways, Thirsty Suitors is exclusive and artistic, however when all is alleged and achieved, what makes an enduring affect is a private, weak, and culturally nuanced story about making issues proper.
As beforehand talked about, you may be preventing every of Jala’s exes all through the sport in turn-based fight, leveling up stats, studying new abilities to make fights simpler, and utilizing summons that may be unlocked via sidequests or the principle story. Every battle is a dialog, a puzzle, and a battle in a single the place the target is to find the weak spot of an opponent via a technique of trial and error. As soon as you have recognized that weak spot, you may inflict standing illnesses or deal extra harm to chip away at their well being. The RPG mechanics and the method of exploring and exploiting weak spot are offered as a back-and-forth between Jala and her interlocutor the place previous wounds are reopened and points are hashed out till the dynamic between them evolves or resolves. This method manages to work within the foundational component of RPGs however cleverly rethinks it to additionally give it narrative weight. The trial and error course of is certainly one of choosing dialogue choices, and these can have an effect past the battle too. Make the proper choices and you will provide you with a plan that’ll pinpoint the enemies’ weaknesses via taunts, so you may simply trounce them with the usage of the proper abilities.
Jala’s preliminary ambition and consciousness of her wrongdoings are distinctive for the principle character of an RPG, not to mention one spearheaded by a queer South Asian girl. Jala conveys her self-awareness by internalizing that she is the one at fault in all of her earlier relationships, which manifests within the sport as a banter between herself and a narrator. The narrator is a voice she has conjured up that’s harking back to her sister, Aruni, in seems, voice, and tone. This, it seems, can also be a method for Jala to grapple along with her strained relationship along with her sister whereas nonetheless having steering internally. The dialogue between them had me laughing all through the sport’s 17-hour runtime. The snide, direct, and reassuring nature of this narrator determine permits Jala to convey her struggles successfully by presenting these challenges to a different entity in a candid method. The Narrator gives the steering she seeks all through the sport although her precise sister avoids confronting Jala. Every of Jala’s exes additionally has a coping mechanism comparable to Irfan and what different characters name his “obsession together with his cat” to the purpose of carrying his pet round wherever he goes.
Conversations with different characters, like members of the family or exes, provide you with totally different dialogue decisions that can decide Jala’s stats and construct, and can form how a given narrative second performs out. The three builds, or paths, out there to the participant are The Heartbreaker, The Star, and The Bohemian. Every of those determines whether or not Jala has elevated assault rank, hit factors, or Will Energy (the latter is expended to make use of Taunts or Abilities in fight).
Battles mostly play out in opposition to the random suitors that Jala’s patti (grandmother) has despatched to “win her love.” You may select to begin these battles as usually or as little as you want by interacting with “Grift or Reward?” containers. Grifts might be fights and presents will earn you in-game foreign money with out having to battle any suitors. The end result of interacting with these “Grift or Reward?” containers is randomized to keep up a component of shock. It’s nonetheless helpful to have full well being and/or Will Energy earlier than interacting with these containers, nevertheless, since a battle could happen you will wish to be ready.
Thirsty Suitor’s battle system might be daunting at first, because it delivers a variety of details about its mechanics up entrance and expects you to retain it after the primary battle, however there’s a useful “Thirstpedia” within the choices menu that could be a useful information that can break down how the principle fight mechanics work and the other ways to make use of them to Jala’s benefit. Whereas the mechanics do finally click on into place, getting there could require referencing this information as an alternative of relying solely on the sport’s transient tutorial.
Like many turn-based RPGs, fight is constructed on a system of weaknesses. In Thirsty Suitors, most weaknesses are decided by Temper, of which there are 5: Thirsty, Raging, Surprising, Spectacular, and Heartless. Completely different Taunts are used to determine the Temper only to make use of on an enemy. In case your chosen Taunt is efficient on the enemy, it’s going to inflict standing results on the opponent and earn you an additional flip that can be utilized to inflict Taunts on different enemies or land a strong Talent in your now weakened goal. It is a acquainted however satisfying system of creating openings, exploiting them, after which repeating to construct momentum.
In your first dozen or so battles, it does really feel like a trial and error course of to determine the weaknesses of enemies. In different RPGs comparable to Persona 3, exploiting a weak spot of an enemy sort permits the participant to retain that info on the particular weak spot. However in Thirsty Suitors, this isn’t preserved since weaknesses aren’t as constant from battle to battle. To decipher weaknesses, the dialogue from the preliminary battle introductions might help. For instance, an enemy may begin their battle introduction by pushing Jala for marriage. This little trace can function a clue to zero in on utilizing a Thirsty or a Heartless Taunt with success. Nearly all the time these hints of enemy weaknesses are current. They’re refined, however a great way to supply just a little help, and over time it turns into a lot simpler to interpret how the dialogue is guiding you in battle. It’s satisfying every time to use a weak spot and obtain extra turns to proceed taunting different enemies or unleash highly effective abilities. I completely loved that I may have that “aha!” second and achieve the higher hand or flip the tables as quickly as I discovered an enemy’s weak spot.
When utilizing these Taunts (or Abilities), you’ll have to coordinate your button presses or directional inputs, inflicting the related Temper for added turns. In the identical respect, timing button presses and directional inputs when your opponent is attacking permit you to mitigate harm from oncoming enemy assaults or Taunts. Fortunately, gamers can simply activate choices that mechanically full the onscreen prompts. It will probably get hectic when preventing enemies, so having these choices available permits freedom to not fear about lacking precise timings and helps with accessibility for many who want it. Altogether, Thirsty Suitor’s fight could be very gratifying, particularly once you handle to make use of the proper Taunt on an enemy. It feels nice to correctly use the sport’s Temper system to your benefit and emerge victorious from a battle, particularly once you handle to do it fully unscathed. Gameplay and narrative weight for dialogue decisions come within the type of how a lot HP or WP is elevated for the following bout. Sure plot factors or conversations between characters can evolve and alter relying in your decisions as nicely.
Battles are zany, charming, and endearing, and the totally different taunts and abilities are an enormous a part of that too. I could not assist however smile at how absurd the fight can grow to be by playfully poking at South Asian tropes, but in addition subverting them utilizing the sport’s RPG mechanics. Calling your personal mom as a summon in these psychological battles to deal large harm along with her slipper is objectively hilarious and likewise, why not? All the things is truthful sport in these surrealist and fantastical fights, so calling your chappal-wielding mom to deal enormous harm, much more so for those who do it with an acceptable enemy and unlock secret dialogue interactions. The battle mechanics do not change an excessive amount of all through the sport, however the sport’s evocation of South Asian tropes retains issues recent so that every battle stays pleasing, even for those who’re not intimately aware of South Asian tradition.
Every of Jala’s exes has turmoil and trauma, all with their very own coping mechanisms, and that trauma impacts Jala in her personal life separate from that relationship. For instance, Diya is a lesbian and certainly one of Jala’s exes. She was disowned by her household at a younger age, leaving her with nowhere to go. Her mother and father, who dwell in the identical city don’t even acknowledge her. After their confrontation, Jala is pressured to mirror on her personal life and relationship along with her household. She confronts her father and asks if her father would have disowned Jala similarly, which ends up in an surprising revelation about Auntie Chandra, who sees being a queer elder as a accountability for the youthful era of Timber Hills. There’s a considerate intersection between characters that highlights the domino impact of interactions, relationships, and behaviors. There are deep bonds and lengthy histories that come to mild, and many do not even have Jala on the middle of all of it. It’s spectacular how the sport explores themes of queer trauma, particularly queer South Asian trauma, in excruciating element, whereas not shying away from the fact that being queer is tough for thus many causes.
Characters all have nuances and complexities boiling beneath the floor that talk to how they have been modified and I actually admire that component of the writing. Andile attempting to juggle his ancestors, roots, cultures, and traditions whereas being overtly non-binary, but in addition subvert that they aren’t “small, petite” because the phrase “non-binary” tends to use in white/western circles, for instance. I am unable to assist however wish to be taught extra in regards to the folks on this city and listen to the tales that make every of them distinctive, to the extent that it is disappointing when anybody is not given sufficient time to totally discover, as is the case for Andile.
I used to be additionally shocked by Thirsty Suitors’ primary journey mechanic, skateboarding, which is each a simple and fascinating method to get round. Exterior of her house, Jala will mechanically use her skateboard and she will leap on totally different guardrails, shred on benches, and grasp off wires to do totally different methods. By simply holding down the set off or altering the route with the left analog stick when already on any of those objects, you’ll construct up combo multipliers with totally different methods or strikes. You may freely hop round to totally different objects or run on the facet of partitions to stack up the combos. Hitting any of the denizens roaming round or any objects will drop your combo multipliers, so you have to to concentrate on the environment and adapt to what’s forward. If you really feel like ending your intensive combo, there are particular objects such because the fountain in the midst of Downtown to complete your factors in a trendy showstopping method. The sport’s skating is intricate and well-crafted, with among the challenges instructing you do extra expert-level methods. Between story aims, I discovered myself getting sidetracked skating round Downtown or the Skatepark–not even by any particular out there challenges, however fairly by the hypnotic pleasure of attempting new methods and build up the combo multiplier or unlocking new characters to skate (you may skateboard as a canine that wears wings!). On-line Leaderboards permit you to compete in opposition to your mates on challenges, providing you with the additional push to do higher or rank larger on the Leaderboards for bragging rights. Having just a little message pop up that you’ve earned a brand new private finest or trumped certainly one of your mates is a satisfying feeling.
The sport has a plethora of elective skateboarding actions and challenges that can grant you objects or in-game foreign money, and there are a number of necessary ones as nicely. Nonetheless, there are accessibility choices to autoskate, which alleviates the potential roadblock of the necessary skateboarding challenges wanted to progress the sport’s story.
The final core mechanic of Thirsty Suitors is cooking. Jala can prepare dinner many alternative South Asian dishes and, like the sport’s battle mechanics or the skating, you may simply activate accessibility options to good the cooking segments, since additionally they require precise execution of on-screen prompts. Jala brings a pizzaz and oomph to cooking duties that’s enamoring to look at because of the superb animation work on show. Easy duties like washing her fingers or shaking spices have her do flips, jumps, and classy maneuvers across the kitchen, and it is a delight to look at.
Cooking dishes can also be an integral mechanic of the sport with cooking achieved in a step-by-step vogue overseen by certainly one of Jala’s mother and father, and I discovered myself creating the identical meals once more to decide on totally different dialogue choices. Exterior of offering extra dialogue between Jala along with her mother and father to debate totally different matters comparable to marriage and life’s obstacles, or inquire about issues Jala by no means knew about, the dishes you prepare dinner can be utilized in battle. The higher you execute the cooking steps, the extra approval (and warmth) you’ll obtain out of your mother and father. Approvals add up, granting you bonus dishes to make use of in battle with stronger results. Oothoappam will restore HP over time, for instance, however Oothoappam+1 will restore extra HP over time and quickly lower the harm taken.
Regardless that I did not use the accessibility choices, having them out there is most welcome. These accessibility options enable many various kinds of gamers to attempt a turn-based RPG comparable to this, and it’s already such a rarity for video games on this style, with speedy button presses or round motions, to supply these simply togglable options. It reveals the care the builders positioned not simply on the sport’s illustration or storytelling, however the participant too.
Just like the animations, the sport’s music could be very complimentary to the presentation. The primary battle theme in opposition to Patti’s suitors might be a observe you’ll hear loads, however I by no means bored with listening to it. My favourite tracks are the person ones orchestrated from the sport’s totally different boss battles, and as quickly as you beat any boss you should utilize jukeboxes round Downtown to hearken to particular tracks in your free time.
The cel-shaded artwork type and colourful environments actually showcase the characters by uplifting their fashions. Every boss battle is crammed with creative prospers. One boss battle could have backgrounds in pink with crystals and diamonds abound, like a royal kingdom. One other boss’ surroundings is ghoulish, darkish, and vampiric like a graveyard. The environments and aesthetics very successfully spotlight the qualities and vibe of the ex you are preventing.
Certainly one of my favourite features of the sport was the usage of fashionable tradition references. Listening to references to Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Shining, and different artwork however with a singular spin on actually highlighting the sport’s personal allegories, analogs, and analogies. A non-playable character says they love Neon Genesis Evangelion as a result of they “love large mechs, however hate their dad,” which is an attention-grabbing method to discover the struggles of explaining to others who you’re, and exhibiting that artwork could be a good stepping stone to discovering that. These references additionally current Timber Hills as if it have been an actual place that’s impacted by the affect of media and artwork we’ve got in our world, making all of it really feel relatable because of this.
The best way Thirsty Suitors meshes turn-based fight, cooking minigames, and a skateboarding simulator is a big success. On paper, so many disjointed concepts do not sound like they’ll work, however Thirsty Suitors brings all of it collectively in spectacular vogue. And it does so whereas additionally elevating and celebrating South Asian characters and their tales in a modern-day setting.