A Delightfully Delicious Corporate Takedown
HIGH A touching story about the power of a good meal.
LOW A slow, meandering third act.
WTF A cartoonishly evil ghost kitchen.
Games can make you feel a lot of things — joy, despair, or even fiery rage induced by some of the most asinine mechanics ever put to screen, but rarely has a title made me feel as hungry as Dosa Divas did.
In the third title from developer Outerloop Games, Dosa Divas tells the story of Samara and Amani, two sisters and former restaurateurs who are returning home to reconnect with their parents in the sleepy resort town of Port Zest, but the world they left where everyone appreciates a home-cooked meal is long gone. Instead, their other sister Lena and her cartoonishly villainous ready-to-eat meals corporation named LenaMeals has turned the region’s bespoke food production into a soulless pseudo-government.
Dosa Divas is an absolute delight in concept, telling a gripping story about the communal power of food with an absolutely standout turn-based RPG foundation to support it. Despite a repetitive third act, every facet of the world is humming with inspiration and everything looks delicious.
If I had to describe the vibe of Dosa Divas in one word, it would be “bouncy.” A kineticism flows through every aspect of the overworld, starting with its beautiful art style. Although this is a place that’s been taken over by LenaMeals and has forgotten the magic of cooking, you can still see remnants of what once was. Ingredients are littered across the landscape, hungry workers hovering left and right, and themed areas like Canopea, a once-thriving community of tree-dwellers who harvested the largest tree for sap to turn into maple syrup. Yet that grandeur is tempered by Samara and Amani’s LenaMeals problem.
The bounciness also makes its way into the moment-to-moment gameplay of Samara and Amani’s adventures. The main mission focuses on the two sisters taking back control of each of the world’s towns from LenaMeals, which have ironically deprived their townsfolk of food. Each enemy is notably not a chef, usually a lawyer or a tech bro that wants nothing to do with the actual cooking bit. The two sisters and their mech named Goddess fight back against these enemies with the typical JRPG fare — basic attacks, special attacks that use a special meter, and plenty of consumables that they cook themselves.
Arguably the most interesting part of Samara and Amani’s interactions with these characters and the larger plot beats is that they remain bouncy, but not because they’re emotionally upbeat. It’s because their relatively inert demeanor bounces off the corporate rest of the world. The funniest line of dialogue in Dosa Divas is in the beginning when the two sisters are introduced to LenaMeals, and both of them ask, “What even is a corporation?”
All they want to do is cook, and thankfully, they have the time. Samara and Amani have the option to stop at any point throughout the world and make a quick meal out of ingredients they’ve foraged or bought. Players must then survive a few minigames to make a dosa, rice bowl, or countless other dishes inspired by South Asian cuisine. Players can give these food items to NPCs or use it on themselves in battle to heal or grant stat boosts.
Samara and Amani’s past has made an impact on them. They love cooking. Part of the reason they came back to Port Zest is to revisit the restaurant that Amani left behind — a place they and their parents worked at, and has now been left to crumble as Lena took over. They’re appalled by how the people have forgotten how to cook food, and working in the food industry left the sisters with trauma they don’t find joy in rehashing, but Dosa Divas makes us revisit anyway.
Each of the campaign’s mini-bosses are characters who worked at the old restaurant in some way, and each is followed by a robot companion that fights for them. Amani and others also sport prosthetic limbs thanks to accidents in their restaurant, and it’s here where Dosa Divas explores the more trauma-heavy parts of the culinary world similar to what one might see on The Bear, except instead of tattoos and cigarettes, the characters adopt metal limbs and a similar inability to work through their issues. They hope to heal through the shared love of the thing that got them there in the first place – preparing meals together.
Unfortunately, these larger themes never reach a satisfying conclusion and are overshadowed by what amounts to a pretty lousy third act. Every major battle is a retread of a previous fight with a somewhat new challenge added. Dosa Divas also ramps up a subplot with the mechs like Goddess that ultimately loses what made the major threads of the main plot so interesting. Activities like the cooking minigame and random encounters become borderline lost their appeal after being mired in the late game and I started focusing on barreling towards the finish line.
That last leg’s dip in quality wasn’t enough to completely sour my experience with Dosa Divas, though. It’s a delightful title that tells a story about what really matters about cooking — family and community building. If there’s one lesson to take from Dosa Divas, it’s that even a pile of mush can be a quality meal if it’s made with love.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Disclosures: This game is developed by Outerloop Games and published by Outerloop Games and Outersloth. It is currently available on Switch/SW2, PC, PS4/5, and XBX/S. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 8 hours were spent in the single-player modes and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T for Fantasy Violence, Language and Suggestive Themes. There are some swear words and a few instances of innuendo. This game is safe for older kids.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: No audio cues are required for successful play, and the only text is displayed in text boxes at the very beginning of the game. These subtitles cannot be resized, although you can alter text speed. As such, this game is fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: Yes, the controls are remappable.
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