The Indie Informer

I’ve written about Dosa Divas a lot over the last year, but I’ve thought about it even more. I got the chance to do two hands-on previews of the game that left me impressed, but reviewing a game after previewing it can be a complicated business. I really liked what I played in previews, but I always walked away from it with the same thought: “I really hope this game sticks the landing.” It’s a peculiar place to be in since it feels a little bit like I watched this game grow up, in a sense. Now that I’ve played the entire thing, however, I can breathe a sigh of relief. I don’t have to spend anymore time wondering if Outerloop Games has another hit on their hands or if Dosa Divas is more akin to a good looking meal that doesn’t have quite enough seasoning. To stop tip-toeing around the point: Dosa Divas is a banger.

Dosa Divas is one part turn-based RPG, two parts visual novel, and a pinch of Cooking Mama for flavor. The game juggles a lot, but because all of its elements are not particularly mechanically-driven, cycling through each section feels seamless and natural. You fight some goons with the quick-paced turn-based combat, then talk your way through an emotionally resonant cutscene, and finish things off by playing some minigames and cooking everyone dinner before heading off to the next area to explore. While you do have to juggle a few systems, none of them overstay their welcome too much and, instead, give way to the core driving focus of Dosa Divas: its narrative and characters.

The story follows Samara and Amani, two estranged sisters now reunited as they trek the world in a sentient mech suit fighting back against their youngest sister, Lina, the CEO of a grocery megacorp that’s trying to replace home-cooked meals in favor of highly processed slop. It’s a story that initially struck me with its obvious parallels to current issues surrounding the creation of art vs. the synthesization of generative AI, but Dosa Divas has a more engaging emotional message than simply pointing at over-processed goods and saying “that’s bad, actually.” Instead, the game is interested in exploring the hurt that familial rifts can cause and the way that running away from the people you’ve hurt in the past without apologizing can lead to years of suffering for everyone involved.

On top of that, Dosa Divas tells a story about what happens when people yield to overreaching corporations and governments. There are a lot of characters who, in their eyes, are trying to do the right thing by making everyone happy and not pushing back against anyone, even the people perpetuating injustice. With its colorful cast of well-written characters, Dosa Divas showcases the harm in letting oppressive groups have even a single inch — an increbily potent and relevant message for our current era.

Dosa Divas tells an obviously emotional story with its main narrative surrounding the pain of assigning and owning up to blame, but I found the nuances of everything layered underneath to be just as emotionally resonant. It’s the sign of a well-written story to take a simple concept such as two sisters reckoning with their messy family and pack it full of additional storytelling that wastes nothing and leaves no character without an arc.

It’s a good thing that the core narrative to Dosa Divas is so strong since its other main elements, the RPG combat and cooking minigames bring less to the table. That’s not to say that they’re bad, just that they’re lifting far less of the experience. The combat isn’t reinventing the wheel and it’s largely focused on using the right types of skills to break your enemies’ defenses, but instead of using classic RPG terminology, the entire system is dessed up in cute southeast Asian cuisine-inspired packaging. You don’t break their guard using elemental attacks, instead, you “overstuff” your enemies using attacks assigned to different flavors.

The cooking system is equally light. Once you’ve been assigned a recipe by hungry townsfolk, you need to gather ingredients from around each area and then complete two randomly assigned cooking minigames such as salting the dish by mashing the X button or stirring the pot by rotating a thumbstick. If you follow directions well, you’ll make leftovers that you can eat in combat to buff your stats. These systems are simple, but they’re necessary parts for breaking up the pace of the story and each have their own incredible visual flare. If the game leaned more into them, then Dosa Divas might have a mechanical depth issue, but it balances itself strongly by knowing when to lean on its visual novel narrative and when to ease up and let you explore, cook, and fight.

On top of everything, Dosa Divas also looks incredible. I previously wrote about how impressed I was with the leg flip animation for the mech suit, Goddess, that plays each time you finish cooking a meal, and I’m pleased to report that it literally never got old. There are a lot of visual flares that Dosa Divas employs to make small transitions into memorable moments like the flips Samara and Amani perform as they get ready for combat or the way Goddess’ body unhooks itself from its legs to perform a smash attack.

There’s a lot to love about Dosa Divas, but there is one group of people I’d never recommend it to: anyone playing on an empty stomach. It’s a game that makes every new dish that Samara and Amani prepare look better than the last which drives an insatiable desire for Indian food. The game gets so much right with its characters and pacing that you can’t help but feel like you’re actually sitting alongside the cast, hoping they might pass you a plate as they discuss their lives and troubles.

I’m happy to have been introduced to new pieces of southeast Asian cuisine, but the biggest point against Dosa Divas is that it doesn’t come bundled with anything to snack on while you play. Who knows, maybe they’re saving that for the collector’s edition.