Dosa Divas was one of the SGF Play Days appointments I was most looking forward to as I finalized SmashPad’s schedule. Developed by Outerloop Games, known for last year’s unique and stylish Thirsty Suitors, Dosa Divas looks like another winner of an indie title with Indian inspirations. As someone that strives to champion diversity and representation in video games, especially within the Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (ANHPI) diaspora, this is one I definitely had to have my hands on.
The game is a narrative RPG centered around Amani and Samara, who seem to be estranged but are working together to take down a fast food empire that threatens their very home. Along with a colorful ancient mech named Goddess, Amani and Samara venture out to stop the LinaMeals fast food corporation from taking over the culinary world by rekindling everyone’s passions with the big boot of flavor. Want to throw in some more drama? LinaMeals is actually run by Amani and Samara’s other sister!
I honestly haven’t played too much of Thirsty Suitors, but what seems to really separate Dosa Divas is both the existence of the mech in addition to a more top-down look that gives the game more “cozy” vibes. When admitting this much to him, Chandana “Eka” Ekanayake, Creative Director and Founder of Outerloop Games, mentioned that it was all good and the one key to the games they develop is with the theme of food.
Food is, and always has been, a uniter when it comes to cultural appreciation. As a Filipino-American, despite leading a handful of non-profits in my lifetime, I always get a little anxious when it comes to talking about the culture, but it’s when I mention food where I become more comfortable with myself discussing things with people I don’t know. This is what really made me click with the beginning of the Dosa Divas demo. As I mentioned, it seemed like Amani and Samara had an estranged relationship as the dialog choices you face made it seem like the two were really struggling to connect. It wasn’t until their sister, along with her dastardly ways with corporate fast food, showed up where there was all of a sudden a common goal.
From there, the game showed off its QTE-reliant, turn-based battle system. If you’re coming off of Expedition 33 or Paper Mario, you’ll be in familiar territory here. In addition to adding more hits to your attack combos, you can also defend yourself when enemies attack by hitting some buttons at the right time. What really sets everything apart here, though, is the fact that when it comes to picking the kinds of attacks you want to use to gain an advantage, you aren’t worrying about different kinds of “magic.” The rock-paper-scissors, Pokemon-type, strategizing of it all is tied to the five flavor profiles (salty, spicy, sweet, etc.). Another interesting wrinkle the combat has is with its Octopath Traveler-like multi-hit system. I didn’t get enough time to absorb which flavor beats what or develop a deep understanding with other gameplay nuances, but the cool part about the flavor stuff is that it isn’t just tied to combat either.
A big part of Dosa Divas is in its cooking system, which actually feels quite involved. It’s nothing as intimate as Cooking Mama or overly simplistic like what we saw in the modern Zelda games–I’d probably say the closest comparison is with the Goro Goro Kitchen minigame in Pirate Yakuza. In Dosa Divas, cooking will be an essential element in a lot of both the sidequests and main quest. With the ingredients you find around the places you explore, you’ll be able to make a bunch of dishes that various NPCs will crave and each dish you make will be accompanied by a minigame of varying nuances depending on what it is you’re cooking. This is what gives the game the cozy vibes I alluded to earlier.
The gameplay loop seemed like it revolved around choice-based dialog and story, exploration (complete with the mech running around like she was Naruto or Goku) that leads to finding ingredients to cook with, cooking, and then combat tying it all together. No part of gameplay, at least right now, seemed to be more important than the other, so I would say everything is shaping up quite nicely.
I only had 30 minutes with the demo and had a couple other people waiting their turn, so I ended up beelining as much as possible but unfortunately didn’t get to “finish” the demo, but once everything clicked, I was really enjoying what I was playing. I was hoping to ask Eka some questions, but we were getting towards the latter part of what ended up being the last day at Play Days, so I’m hoping I’m able to book some time with him in the near future.
The worst but most understanding part about playing such a short demo is that it’ll be a bit before we actually get our hands on the full game. Dosa Divas: One Last Meal is currently slated for release next year on PC and consoles.
Dosa Divas was one of the SGF Play Days appointments I was most looking forward to as I finalized SmashPad’s schedule. Developed by Outerloop Games, known for last year’s unique and stylish Thirsty Suitors, Dosa Divas looks like another winner…
Dosa Divas was one of the SGF Play Days appointments I was most looking forward to as I finalized SmashPad’s schedule. Developed by Outerloop Games, known for last year’s unique and stylish Thirsty Suitors, Dosa Divas looks like another winner of an indie title with Indian inspirations. As someone that strives to champion diversity and representation in video games, especially within the Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (ANHPI) diaspora, this is one I definitely had to have my hands on.
The game is a narrative RPG centered around Amani and Samara, who seem to be estranged but are working together to take down a fast food empire that threatens their very home. Along with a colorful ancient mech named Goddess, Amani and Samara venture out to stop the LinaMeals fast food corporation from taking over the culinary world by rekindling everyone’s passions with the big boot of flavor. Want to throw in some more drama? LinaMeals is actually run by Amani and Samara’s other sister!
I honestly haven’t played too much of Thirsty Suitors, but what seems to really separate Dosa Divas is both the existence of the mech in addition to a more top-down look that gives the game more “cozy” vibes. When admitting this much to him, Chandana “Eka” Ekanayake, Creative Director and Founder of Outerloop Games, mentioned that it was all good and the one key to the games they develop is with the theme of food.
Food is, and always has been, a uniter when it comes to cultural appreciation. As a Filipino-American, despite leading a handful of non-profits in my lifetime, I always get a little anxious when it comes to talking about the culture, but it’s when I mention food where I become more comfortable with myself discussing things with people I don’t know. This is what really made me click with the beginning of the Dosa Divas demo. As I mentioned, it seemed like Amani and Samara had an estranged relationship as the dialog choices you face made it seem like the two were really struggling to connect. It wasn’t until their sister, along with her dastardly ways with corporate fast food, showed up where there was all of a sudden a common goal.
From there, the game showed off its QTE-reliant, turn-based battle system. If you’re coming off of Expedition 33 or Paper Mario, you’ll be in familiar territory here. In addition to adding more hits to your attack combos, you can also defend yourself when enemies attack by hitting some buttons at the right time. What really sets everything apart here, though, is the fact that when it comes to picking the kinds of attacks you want to use to gain an advantage, you aren’t worrying about different kinds of “magic.” The rock-paper-scissors, Pokemon-type, strategizing of it all is tied to the five flavor profiles (salty, spicy, sweet, etc.). Another interesting wrinkle the combat has is with its Octopath Traveler-like multi-hit system. I didn’t get enough time to absorb which flavor beats what or develop a deep understanding with other gameplay nuances, but the cool part about the flavor stuff is that it isn’t just tied to combat either.
A big part of Dosa Divas is in its cooking system, which actually feels quite involved. It’s nothing as intimate as Cooking Mama or overly simplistic like what we saw in the modern Zelda games–I’d probably say the closest comparison is with the Goro Goro Kitchen minigame in Pirate Yakuza. In Dosa Divas, cooking will be an essential element in a lot of both the sidequests and main quest. With the ingredients you find around the places you explore, you’ll be able to make a bunch of dishes that various NPCs will crave and each dish you make will be accompanied by a minigame of varying nuances depending on what it is you’re cooking. This is what gives the game the cozy vibes I alluded to earlier.
The gameplay loop seemed like it revolved around choice-based dialog and story, exploration (complete with the mech running around like she was Naruto or Goku) that leads to finding ingredients to cook with, cooking, and then combat tying it all together. No part of gameplay, at least right now, seemed to be more important than the other, so I would say everything is shaping up quite nicely.
I only had 30 minutes with the demo and had a couple other people waiting their turn, so I ended up beelining as much as possible but unfortunately didn’t get to “finish” the demo, but once everything clicked, I was really enjoying what I was playing. I was hoping to ask Eka some questions, but we were getting towards the latter part of what ended up being the last day at Play Days, so I’m hoping I’m able to book some time with him in the near future.
The worst but most understanding part about playing such a short demo is that it’ll be a bit before we actually get our hands on the full game. Dosa Divas: One Last Meal is currently slated for release next year on PC and consoles.
by Danreb Victorio
