In an entertainment industry where telling authentic cultural stories has gained importance, the indie video game Thirsty Suitors follows Jala, a South Asian bisexual woman who is returning to her sleepy hometown to a judgmental mother and a host of upset exes.
Jala is an avid skateboarder, an aspiring home cook and a heartbreaker perhaps ready to make amends. And in this offbeat, humorous, and playful role-playing game, it is her family that will ultimately help her succeed.
Jala’s father calls her on the phone, suggesting that she could repair her relationship with her mother by asking for cooking lessons to make traditional dishes like paratha, Indian flatbread. Each night, her father carries Jala to bed when she falls asleep, even though she is well past the age of needing a piggyback ride. When defeated by one of her ex-lovers, she is revived by her father, who provides a few words of encouragement.
By blending the emotional heft and punch of a distinctly immigrant story with whimsical elements such as physics-bending back flips, Thirsty Suitors follows in the path of recent Asian immigrant films like “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Turning Red.”
Thirsty Suitors, which releases on Thursday for the computer and all major consoles, is the second project from Outerloop Games. The game incorporates quick-time events, which require pressing the right buttons within a short time frame after onscreen prompts; those actions allow Jala to skate across town, whip up culinary delights and fight off male, female and nonbinary suitors, including her third-grade boyfriend, Sergio.
Once in a turn-based dance battle against a jilted lover or possible partner, you can call on Jala’s mother to trounce enemies with a slipper, or otherwise taunt, flirt and insult opponents into submission.
“My mom says I’m irresistible,” Sergio pleads with Jala during one battle. “And my mom is always right.”
Jala can then hit Sergio back with a “thirsty taunt,” where she flips into a coy pose and bats her eyelashes, as the player is prompted to press a key or button repeatedly. Doing so puts Sergio in a thirsty mood, so that his attacks do less damage and he has a chance of slipping and falling.
Outerloop developers were originally exploring the idea of arranged marriage but decided they did not have the specific experiences to pull that off.
“We thought maybe we’re not the people to make it,” Meghna Jayanth, the game’s narrative lead, said. “Over time, it became honed into something way more personal that was more about relationships, and not just romantic relationships.”
Jala’s inner critic is a fantasy version of her older sister, who often chastises her actions; the stinging insults mellow out as Jala comes closer to achieving inner peace. And one key antagonist is Jala’s maternal grandmother, who arrives in town and plunges into a fractious argument in the kitchen.
Jala’s auntie is portrayed as an extremely strong woman who can lift a huge barbell while jumping up and down, and her uncle offers hints throughout the game after shouting “Hinti!” in a deep and rich tone.
“I was watching some movie and it made me think of an uncle that we all have in our family, that’s like the wheeler-dealer that has some import-export business,” said Chandana Ekanayake, who voices the uncle character and is Outerloop’s creative director.
Ekanayake likes to call Thirsty Suitors a “baby Yakuza,” referring to the Japanese role-playing games that are full of activities, such as managing a business or racing cars, along with fun side quests and mini arcade games.
Thirsty Suitors, which takes six to 10 hours to beat, is packed with side activities: At the onset, you’re prompted to take a dating quiz to find your “Thirstsona,” a portmanteau of “thirst” and the role-playing series Persona. It is a lighthearted, BuzzFeed-like pop quiz, but like the rest of the game, it has hidden depth. If you answer that you simply don’t care, the game guesses that you most likely do care.
The game also acknowledges that the powerful force of families can be both uplifting and destructive. Homophobia that might exist in a real-life version of Jala’s family is dialed down, said the game’s developers, who sought to highlight and celebrate queer brown love.
“We see enough narratives of queer misery; forget queer people of color misery,” said Jayanth, who is bisexual. “That’s not the purpose of this game. It’s a celebration. Of course, it deals with hard themes, and it has critiques. It’s not just pure fluff, but it’s certainly not mournful.”
