Thirsty Suitors

I'm a straight cis white male. I don't like skating. quicktime fights always bore me to death. I'm really not into capital D drama. This game consists precisely of the elements that I either don't usually care about or straight up don't like in my games. And yet it's so sweet, fun, whimsical, warm and straight up hilarious that I can't help but love it.

[h1]How thirsty are you?[/h1] So this game is a weir done but in a good way. Small indie game done right. You play as Jala who comes back to her parents and faces all her ex-es. It's hilarious, fun and has a deeper meaning. While most of the game is silly the story is about generational trauma passed from parents to their kids and how to escape the curse. It really was quite emotional. But everything is presented in a silliest way possible. Gameplay consists of battles against suitors and ex-es, skating and cooking. So combat first. It's very basic jrpg style turn based combat with a fun twist. You attack with words and enemy's words can also debuff you. Each attack you pick how to respond emotionally (angry, thirsty, raging, etc.) and if that phrase is the weakness the enemy get a debuff and is prone to more damage. Enemies do exactly the same. While attacking and defending you also perform qte's. While it seems really fun and makes you laugh at first, the combat becomes very repetitive after some times. Except for the bosses. Bosses have more to say and most of the combat is talking to each other to solve your differences. You also have side quests which are easy to do and gives some dialogue options. Skating is quite fun although clunky. It's kinda hard to land where you want exactly because you can jump either straight or to either side but not diagonally or slightly to the side. That makes it frustrating and tedious. It's still fun to skate around and do some challenges but half of the are way too frustrating with these controls. And finally cooking. While you're at home you can cook. As with combat you chat a lot while cooking, usually arguing with your mom or chatting with dad while learning about their past and what bothers them. Cooking is basically a series of qte's you have to succeed. The game also is very diverse when it comes to sexuality, gender, race. It promotes equality and good moral values onto you. Which is very good to see in a game. We need more such games which send a message. Another good thing is that the games accessibility options so anyone can play it. Don't like qte's? Just turn them off. Graphically the game looks great, artistic style is very pleasing and character designs are great. Technically graphics are nothing special but for an indie game I have no complaints except for the lack of ultrawide support. Sound is good. While the music isn't super memorable it isn't irritating and its company always cheers you up. The game is fully voiced and voice acting and great. Each character sound believable. Overall a good jrpg with strong story and progressive values. Definitely worth it. It falls short at skating challenges and combat. But since the game is really easy it's not an issue. [b]Pros[/b] [list] [*]Good meaningful story [*]Original combat mechanics [*]Fully voiced [*]Progressive values [*]Accessibility options [*]Artistic style [/list] [b]Cons[/b] [list] [*]Combat becomes too repetitive [*Skating challenges suck [/list] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32930811-Kosmos%27s-Cosmic-reviews/?appid=704030][h1]Follow my curator page for more[/h1][/url] [url=https://www.twitch.tv/crazykosmikbunny] [h1]My Twitch[/h1] [/url]

Can a game be too much and too little at the same time? Thirsty Suitors makes a strong case. It’s a stylish RPG ♥♥♥ cooking sim ♥♥♥ Tony Hawk-like with a large (and queer) principal cast but only has 3 areas and can be finished pretty quickly. If you like Scott Pilgrim and/or familial drama, you’ll probably like this. If you’re looking for great gameplay, you’ll probably be disappointed. Loaded statement out of the way, the gameplay in Thirsty Suitors isn’t bad… it’s just merely serviceable. I would say around 70% of the game is an RPG with timing-based combat. One of the unique things about it is that you can inflict status effects on enemies but it’s up to you to figure out what they’re susceptible to based on what they’re wearing. There isn’t a lot of depth here, however. Each encounter will play out the same way: summon your mother since it’s free, inflict a status effect, do the move corresponding to the status effect, do a regular attack if you’re low on MP, rinse, and repeat until all enemies are dead. Combat lacks impact, is just a little bit too slow, and isn’t very challenging. The next 20% of the game is a cooking sim. These segments are pretty fun and involve trying to impress the person that you’re cooking for. You’ll do this by executing button prompts, managing a heat meter, and gambling by complimenting them. Like combat, the cooking is repetitive and you’ll see the same prompts over and over again. The game, however, weaves its story and character interactions around the cooking and RPG segments so I didn’t really mind the repetition. The actual surprise (at least for me) is that the last 10% of the game is a Tony Hawk-like. The main character spends more time on a skateboard than on foot. The skateboarding is very simple - you can chain together tricks to rack up score multiplayers, but the emphasis here is keeping momentum rather than doing actual combos. Your multiplier only ends when you stop after hitting a wall or when you go to designated spots to do a combo finisher. There are optional skating challenges that you can do but after finishing a handful, I didn’t really feel like engaging with them anymore. Whether you’ll actually enjoy Thirsty Suitors or not depends entirely on if you can stomach the story and characters. You play as Jala, a messy and deeply flawed mid-twenty year old that returns home after being estranged from her family for several years. While home, she tries to make amends with her family and with her exes. To be honest, I didn’t really enjoy the inclusion of Jala’s exes as much as I thought I would. Yes, they flesh out her character and provide room for her to grow (AKA she treated them like ♥♥♥♥) but the way that she makes up with each of them feels abrupt and unsatisfying. In contrast, Jala’s relationship with her family is way more interesting. Despite all my quibbles about the gameplay, I still enjoyed Thirsty Suitors. The relationship between Jala and her family is enjoyable and the game tackles themes around immigration and heritage that some people might find extremely relatable. Toss in an appealing presentation and you have a nice breezy way to spend 10 hours.

Woke slop.

TL;DR: Very queer and fun (but slightly bumpy) ride! This game kept my attention until the end (which is really saying something nowadays). I liked the (dad) humour, the queerness, the truthbombs (on society) and having a peek into the hardships of the immigrant life in America. The cooking mini game part of the game was done in a fun and interactive way, and for the Tony Hawk fans there is loads of skating minigames to enjoy. I really appreciated the accessibility feautures to make the game enjoyable no matter your gaming skill level. The (main) cons I ran into were dialogues from exes and parents (in the cooking minigames) didn't catch up to my progression. Like the game was built to do the quests in a certain order for the dialogue to make sense to the story progression. I also didn't like how rushed and abrupt the Soundie subplot and the ending felt to me. I would have liked to see that more fleshed out. Especially Tyler, Aruni and Paati deserved more interaction and dialogue to make it conclude more naturally. I loved to collect all the different jackets, sneakers and cassettes, and had hoped for an achievement for this! But that's a small nitpick :) I would definitely play a sequel or similar style game from the same devs.

7.5/10 Mario & Luigi RPG + Tonyhawk Skateboarding + Emotional Damage + A Bollywood Movie - could this game be like 10% less horny??? + voice acting for everything + decent skateboarding tricks or you can just mash all the keys + art style + music is ok, nothing memorable + can call your mom mid fight to come ♥♥♥♥ them up and she DOES!!! - very few places to go in game or skate + can skate as just about everybody including a cat and dog

What I expected to just be a silly little anti-dating sim game ended up being so much more impactful that, I'm actually bothering to take the time to review. Firstly, the gameplay is fun, quirky, and while perhaps a little unpolished in some places I genuinely enjoyed using the taunt combos and items. Also, I actually liked the skateboarding! I was surprised, I know. Secondly, the art style is goofy, but also charming and it really grew on me how colourful and bright this world is. Finally, I was shocked by the depth of Jala's story and her introspection through goofy mechanics and surreal battles with her exes. It was wonderful to see the warmth and effort put into this story, especially as it touched upon some truly challenging topics: classism, homophobia, transphobia, cultural alienation, generational trauma. All of which supported a single thesis: radical self-acceptance and compassion. I cried multiple times during the ending, and I'm so touched I took the time to play this game that happened to be in a bundle for Pride. I think so many more people should play. It isn't very long, but I think it was just right as it doesn't spend and excessive amount of time justifying itself. It simply works. Please give this a chance if you want a fun but touching story, I bet you'll be blown away.

个人游玩印象：[b][u]震撼神作[/u][/b] 超级喜欢 玩得开心 略有失望 强忍玩完 后悔购买 全成就追求：通关即拿 [b][u]简易补齐[/u][/b] 硬核冲刺 以后再说 枯燥堆时 手残放弃 我不行了，这游戏绝对可以角逐我生涯中玩过的最搞笑也最中二也最风格化并且最有想象力和创造力的游戏，幻想一个长得和自己姐姐一样的旁白来吐槽自己，把嘴炮和吵架幻视成回合制战斗，就连洗手也要翻跟头来段QTE，还能玩滑板（看滑板的键位说明真的懵圈了）以及烹饪。烹饪当中和父母的互动更是笑点拉满，父亲一翻跟头立马就能想到主角这股子劲是随谁，做好饭后夸张的特效动画更是让我捧腹大笑。游戏也有很多文化元素，主角一家从斯里兰卡移民美国，因此做的菜都是南洋料理（从印度飞饼到叁巴酱真的让我梦回《狩猎小厨》了），也是头回了解了剑玉和康乐球这些东西的起源，竟然都是源自欧洲但被亚洲人发扬光大，隐隐有种世界大同的感觉。 剧情方面，主角家庭和前任舰队们的故事够硬，战斗的时候甚至可以选择适当的句子来直接造成情感伤害或让自己取得优势，相当有代入感，不过滑板公园那条线就感觉不怎么出彩了。到最后，外婆登场压迫感十足，并且也把主角家的矛盾放在了台面上，戏剧性拉满，也能让玩家们有一定的思考，毕竟家家有本难念的经嘛（笑）。 仔细想想的话，游戏剧情引发我思考的点其实非常多，比如外婆就是典型的“要引导孩子走在她选好的路上”的控制型家长，虽然是以爱的名义出发，但实际上剥夺了孩子的自由意志，而且随着时代发展和代际差异，几十年前走得通的路在现在就不一定了（当下正是最好的例子，感觉60~70后和90~00后的代际矛盾真的相当大）；还有一个很典的发言就是“我知道女儿非常聪明，所以她应该去读PhD，这样才算发挥出了最大的价值”，感觉这是超典型的亚洲式实用主义思维了吧，我在现实中也碰到过，当时高中同学和她母亲来温哥华，一块吃了个饭，就聊到我的主业和爱好，提到了我爱玩游戏爱写攻略，然后阿姨就觉得“你这股劲应该用到科研上，你这脑子不搞科研太可惜了”，于是在这款游戏中我听到主角外婆类似的发言后真的狠狠共鸣了，一个人的价值到底为什么要交给别人决定？一个人如果在某些人看来没能发挥其最大价值又有什么错？好在，游戏结尾的外婆开始作出了改变，从最初的不待见自己的女婿，到竟然主动问起他的观鸟爱好，虽然她自己并不了解这些，我觉得这已经薄纱现实生活中的许多长辈了吧。当然，老一辈的性格是有时代原因的，他们已经在努力用他们认为最好的方式去爱我们，但这并不意味着我们就要全盘接受，这里真的要像主角学习，家庭关系有什么问题就应该积极说出来，家也可以是讲道理的地方，把话说开了之后反而彼此能更理解对方，毕竟大家的初衷都是好的嘛。 总共花了15.4小时全成就，游玩时间估计高于平均了（主要是每天去小镇看到礼物盒是真的想拆，然后对外婆派来的追求者们一个个上渴求奚落然后一发暴扣hhh）全成就还算好拿，烹饪最后一关可以先攒5.5能量然后召唤食灵，并在接下来的三个步骤里超级+普通+超级即可拿到三星。滑板挑战倒是真的硬核（幸好只要拿15个S就行了），我游戏设置里转向灵敏度都调到最低了但还是过于灵敏了，经常接不住轨道然后落水，感觉这游戏的滑板玩法可能更多是为手柄设计的吧。不过死磕一关然后通过不断的练习甚至排轴然后拿到S还是挺有成就感的~

this game is super fun, and has stellar lgbtq+ and body representation! it's got just the right amount of dark humor, deep introspections, and silly shenanigans to keep me interested for hours. i avoid combat games generally but this one does it in such a fun, paced way that i really enjoy it. i also love that there are so many accessibility and difficulty features, it makes this game possible for me! looking forward to many more hours having fun with this game :)

I got this game from a bundle,I didnt expect too much from this but it really suprised me.Its a really good game,heartwarming story,good music,creative designs.The only problem with this game is that there are some plots that are not resolved.I like skating as a dog.