Thirsty Suitors combines turn-based combat, skateboarding, and cooking to make a wholly unique experience about coming to terms with your past mistakes and mending relationships. The title comes from Outerloop Games, a studio which specializes in storytelling about underrepresented cultures, and publisher Annapurna Interactive. Though Thirsty Suitors lacks complexity in some areas, it makes up for it through creativity, aesthetics, and emotional South Asian-inspired storytelling.
The concept of Thirsty Suitors sounds like a trifecta of activities that wouldn’t mesh well together and would come off feeling disjointed, but it pulls it off in a way that feels organic. The game’s combat, cooking, and skating mechanics feel naturally woven into the storyline and flow smoothly back and forth from one another, suiting protagonist Jala well. While fighting is never exceedingly difficult and skating doesn’t go as in-depth as something like Tony Hawk‘s Pro Skater, a diverse cast of compelling characters and a slew of unique ideas go a long way in terms of making those gripes seem much less noteworthy.
Thirsty Suitors’ Storyline
Thirsty Suitors stars Jala, which the game amusingly describes as a “bisexual disaster.” After ditching her small hometown of Timber Hills three years prior to be with a woman named Jennifer, Jala has returned after being dumped to make amends. She’s on bad terms with both her family and a group of vengeful exes, and is determined to go on a reconciliation tour ahead of her sister Aruni’s impending wedding. Out of everyone she left behind, no one hates Jala more than Tyler, her on-again, off-again girlfriend whom she dumped via payphone as she left Timber Hills.
However, Tyler has to put aside her differences with Jala after a mysterious new figure Soundie has taken over their old haunt Bearfoot Park, the local skate park. Soundie – who is always wearing a bear costume – has been recruiting the local youth to their skate punk cult, though their end motivations are unclear. This part of the game’s plot line doesn’t have the most satisfying resolution, but it’s eccentric enough that it stays interesting and is still arguably less of a focus than Jala’s reconciliation goals, which are more narratively satisfying.
The culture of Jala’s family also plays a big role in the game’s overall story – her mother is from India while her father is from Sri Lanka, providing an authentic look at South Asian culture throughout. Much of Jala’s conflict with her family has to do with things like cultural expectations and generational trauma and is handled with care, never feeling too heavy while still remaining insightful and relatable. Jala’s roster of exes is also diverse in its own right, representing a number of LGBTQIA identities and cultures in a way that feels compelling and genuine.
Thirsty Suitors’ Combat
The combat of Thirsty Suitors doesn’t stray too far from traditional turn-based mechanics in most ways; Jala has two stats during combat, Health Points and Will Power, the latter of which allows for special moves, and can choose to do basic or special attacks, taunt, or use items. However, taunts’ intent in Thirsty Suitors is to manipulate an opponent’s mood. Players can choose between five taunt types – Impressive, Raging, Heartbreaking, Shocking, or Thirsty – which if effective will grant specific debuffs to enemies for a certain amount of turns. Each has mood has different special move weaknesses as well as other specific negatives like self-injury chance.
Players can even summon others to help in battle, including exes and their own mother, which is incredibly entertaining. As Jala progresses, she’ll gain Thirstsona points in three categories: Heartbreaker, The Star, and The Bohemian. Some are earned through dialogue choices while others are made manually when she levels up, and each one provides varying levels of boons to Jala’s HP, WP, attack, and defense. For both offense and defense, players will make a few timed movements each time like hitting a button or flicking an analog stick to determine the efficacy of blocks and attacks, which helps keep things engaging, but can also sometimes feel repetitive.
For example, if an enemy is in a specific mood that’s best exploited by the same special move each turn until it wears off, doing the same moves repeatedly can get a bit old. However, the concept of exploiting the emotional weaknessess of enemies alongside the physical is creative in a way that never gets old. Jala will fight skate punks and unwanted random suitors sent by her grandmother, but the biggest battles are those with each ex, which take place in intensely stylized environments meant to represent their inner world. These alternate fighting and conversation, ending with the two making up once Jala wins.
Thirsty Suitors’ Cooking
While combat is how Jala repairs things with her exes, cooking is how she attempts to regain closeness with her family. Each recipe is broken into a certain amount of steps, each of which has the same style of timed movements as combat but for things like stirring and frying. Whether a recipe is made with her mother or father, Jala is looking to earn as much Approval as possible through perfect moves, and will earn Heat each turn which can be put towards fancier cooking moves, complimenting her parent, or getting a points multiplier through calling on her ancestors.
Though much like fighting the timed movements are quite easy, the real fun of cooking comes from the conversations Jala has with her family, learning about things that happened while she was away and fighting to hold her own in conversations with her judgmental mother. These talks are almost always a mix of heartfelt and entertaining, and come with the added bonus of actually teaching the player about traditional South Asian dishes like Kathi Rolls and Makloubeh. After cooking, the food made can also be used during battle, granting different buffs and additions to HP and WP depending on the recipe.
Thirsty Suitors’ Skating
Both in Bearfoot Park and downtown, Jala will be able to skate around on her board racking up combos. There aren’t any incredibly complex moves to be learned, but players can still grind, wall run, and do a good amount of other basic tricks, and can also take part in a myriad of Soundie’s challenges which involve things like score trials and collect-a-thons. Good combos will grant Jala WP and HP as well, which is a great way to top off between battles. A thoughtful addition for those who aren’t skating-inclined is the fact that all skateboard sections are optional, and can be done automatically if desired.
Final Thoughts & Review Score
The combat of Thirsty Suitors is never extremely challenging, and its skating isn’t a hugely complex system, but the game has depth where it counts: its characters and story. This coupled with the title’s nearly boundless creativity, which shines through in its unique cartoon graphics and eccentric mechanics, makes the seven or so hours it takes to complete feel completely worthwhile. Things never drag with Thirsty Suitors, and it captures a delightful slice-of-life story that brilliantly blends magical realism and South Asian culture to make something truly special.
Thirsty Suitors will release November 2 for PlayStation consoles, Xbox consoles, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Screen Rant was provided with a Nintendo Switch code for the purpose of this review.
