Thirsty Suitors Review (Wox77)
So I'm reasonably early days into this game, but I gotta say it's a blast. Genre-wise it's a smash bag between skating, cooking, fighting games, and narrative choice. Which sounds like it shouldn't really work? But...it does. The game embraces theatrical-realism right out of the gate, and it makes all of the rest of it just *flow*. Everything is both real, and a silly metaphor: You read a magazine quiz? It's a psycho-sexual examination of your preferences (while also skating). You pet a dog? You get a 30 second long QTE to do a secret handshake with the dog. And that's the first 5 minutes of the game (not kidding btw).
I will say if you dislike QTE (quick time events) then this game is possibly not for you, because it has a lot of them. Fortunately it's not a case of 'do the QTE or die', it's more a case of mastery and bonuses. Time the rhythms and QTEs, do more damage, that kind of thing. So I quite enjoy it, which is rare for QTEs!
It's also just a hell of a lot of fun to play a game about a protagonist that, well, isn't anything like me! Getting slammed into someone else's life, culture, internal-understanding, it immediately makes for an interesting experience.
And importantly, it's all really well written. It walks the line where you kinda hate Jala (the protagonist), but you also get it? Other people are also assholes, and you get why they are too. And mixing in the over the top drama of quasi-real sexy-insult fighting as a blunt metaphor for your relationship with other people is...well...actually pretty close to how that often feels! The quips, the negative self talk, the obvious fuck ups, it's often funny at the same time as it hurts. Which, yeah, that's just real good writing.
Also the music fucking whips. It's just great.
Basically if you're willing to give something bright and colourful and enjoyably fun/peculiar, I absolutely recommend.
OH ALSO it's really horny. The name of the game should have tipped you off to that, right. But yeah, you can be a thirsty mess for all these messy people. So if you want to be hornt up, then go get it!