Category: Games

Dosa Divas Brings the Heat With Turn-based Combat and Spicy Meals

Chandana Ekanayake, Co-Founder & Creative Director, Outerloop Games

Summary

Dosa Divas is a narrative turn-based RPG from the studio behind Thirsty Suitors, out now on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC.
Platform through vibrant villages, battle corporate goons, reconcile with loved ones, and eat one last meal together before saying goodbye.
Utilize your spirit-mech’s mechanical and fantastical abilities in strategic turn-based combat.

Hi everyone, I’m Chandana Ekanayake, the Co-Founder and Creative Director at Outerloop Games. The team and I just launched Dosa Divas, a narrative RPG all about cooking delicious meals, reconciling with loved ones, and rebuilding communities. You can play the game starting today on Xbox Series X|S.

As you guide sisters Samari and Amani, along with the spirit-mech named Goddess, on their journey, you’ll encounter corporate goons working for LinaWorks, an evil fast food empire built by Samara and Amani’s estranged sister, Lina.

Like our previous game Thirsty Suitors, Dosa Divas features turn-based combat heavily inspired by JRPG games like Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler, giving you a number of familiar mechanics such as boosts and shield breaks reimagined to fit Dosa Divas’ food and cooking theme, right down to weapons like the Spatchuks and Wokarang.

Action-packed Turn-based Combat

While Dosa Divas’s turn-based combat is straightforward on its surface so that anyone can jump in and play, there is a lot of depth underneath. Once you get a feel for everything working in tandem it becomes a strategic, energetic dance.

Each enemy you encounter has a weakness to one of five attack types – Salty, Sweet, Spicy, Sour, or Savory. By choosing the correct flavor profile with your class-based ability, you’ll lower their guard to stun them and knock them out. Attack at just the right moment with the action button, and you’ll deal extra damage by getting another hit in. Likewise, if you don’t block just as the enemy is about to land a hit, you’ll take the full force of the damage.

In order to keep this approachable for everyone, regardless of your experience with turn-based combat or JRPGs, the type matching is kept simple. Spicy attacks will lower shields on enemies weak to Spicy attacks, and so on. When an enemy’s shield breaks, they are Stuffed or stunned for a number of rounds, letting you do massive damage. You don’t need to memorize a weakness chart as everything is laid out for you.

Boosts also let you multiply your damage, but you only have a limited amount at your disposal as you gain them on new turns. When facing off against multiple enemies at once, it’s important to plan your turns carefully.

Attack enemies with matching flavor types to break their shields and put them into a Stuffed or stunned state for a number of turns. While enemies are Stuffed, they’ll take double damage from any of your attacks including Boosted attacks.

Each member of the party will learn new flavor based Skills which use Spirit Points and have active timing like pressing rapidly to quickly punch with Goddess, hold for a growing Spirit Ball with Amani, or timing bounce Sam’s wok back and forth to hit an enemy multiple times. New Skills get unlocked as you help each village as well as through an upgrade system.

And as you progress through each round of combat, your Ultimate meter will slowly fill up until you’re able to unleash devastating team combos to hit multiple targets, buff up the whole party, or fill up all your Boost Points.

You’ll be able to upgrade attacks, unlock new Skills, get bonuses on Perfect Blocks, add more Boost points throughout the course of the game as you face enemies that hit multiple times on a turn and can debuff your party. Luckily you’ve been cooking a lot of delicious meals that can be used in combat to replenish Health and Spirit Points, remove any debuffs, or buff up the whole party.

An Ancient Spirit-Mech Ready to Take On Evil Corporate Goons

Tagging along with Samara and Amani is Goddess, their ancient spirit-mech with fantastical abilities like Mecha Stomp to help them take down Lina’s forces. Acting as the Tank, Goddess can take some heavier punches than Samara and Amani, but can dish it out just as much. As you level up, you have the option to select physical, health, or spirit bonuses depending on your playstyle.

Outside of combat, Goddess can be customized with various parts that you can mix and match, along with custom wraps and accessories to make her your own.

Fun fact: Goddess is inspired by the kaleidoscopic, elaborated decorated auto rickshaws or tuk-tuks found all over South Asia and South East Asia.

Cooking Up Flavorful Meals and Dishing Out Powerful Punches

The heart of Dosa Divas, as emphasized in its name, is food. Narratively, we wanted to explore food’s importance in reconnecting communities with each other and their culture, and losing traditional food is a tool of cultural erasure, but food in Dosa Divas also serves as a tool for you in combat. By cooking up different dosa recipes through several mini games, you gain combat buffs that boost your defense, power up your attacks, replenish your health, or cure status effects. There’s nothing a nice home cooked dosa can’t fix should you find yourself beaten down.

Out Now on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC

After nearly two and a half years of development, the team and I couldn’t be more excited for you to jump into Dosa Divas! The game is out today on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC.