’Thirsty Suitors’ Is a Hilarious and Refreshing Game Made for the South Asian Community

Growing up as the child of Indian immigrants to the United States, I’m very used to feeling like I’m on the outside looking in. As a kid, I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere; my skin color set me apart from my mostly white peers growing up in Oklahoma, and I didn’t quite fit in at the temple either. My Indian friends and I felt like in-betweens, not quite belonging anywhere, and it’s something I’ve gotten used to as an adult.

That’s why it came as such a shock to feel like I belonged, to feel seen, among the misfit characters in the video game Thirsty Suitors.

The premise of Thirsty Suitors, from Outerloop Games, is that you play as Jala Jayaratne, a South Asian (by way of Sri Lanka and Bangalore, India) American woman returning to her small hometown for the first time in three years. Jala left Timber Hills without so much as a word, leaving brokenhearted exes in her wake, along with a loving family. She has some apologies to make, starting with her older sister Aruni, who’s getting married—but Jala doesn’t even know her soon-to-be brother-in-law’s name.

The story seems simple, and it could be a little boring in someone else’s hands—but thanks to the unique gameplay, excellent art style, and wonderful scripting, it’s anything but. Jala must confront each person in her life, everyone she’s wronged in the past, and fight them in order to forge ahead with a new friendship.