For a game about intersecting, overlapping and sometimes conflicting identities, it perhaps makes sense that Thirst Suitors feels the same way. This is an adventure game on the visual novel side for a lot of its gameplay — with a focus on relationships and connections — (a touch of Persona, perhaps), with a turn-based RPG battle system (a touch more Persona, it seems), a recurring cooking minigame, occasional dancing sequences and, to top it all off, it’s a skateboarding game complete with challenges and a trick system.

Each of these elements pull from the same selection of gameplay ideas, with overlapping mechanics appearing in different contexts, and each is on the ‘lighter’ side, a focus on accessibility (that stretches even further in the options menu with lots of welcome ways to modulate difficulty). One recurring mechanic is quick time events, timing button presses to on-screen prompts (though you can get the game to do this for you) to enhance attacks, block damage, stir a pot or bust moves on the dance floor (to give a few examples). It is a satisfying layer of interactivity that facilitates expressive animations, Thirst Suitors is a great looking game with a lot of visual personality — a game about the south-Asian (primarily) diaspora that uses this cultural background as its aesthetic touchstone. It’s a look that sets it apart from most games and it is a huge part of the enduring appeal.

Don’t let the long list of gameplay mechanics fool you, this is a story game. You play Jala and you are returning home after a relationship has fallen apart. Jala is a great protagonist to embody and she is allowed to be flawed in interesting ways. There’s a Scott Pilgrim (with a twist) inspired narrative thrust, where the exes from your past are out for a kind of revenge. The overarching narrative is one of emotional reckoning, you trying to make good with the exes you wronged in the past — building healthy relationships with boundaries and reflecting on a life lived chaotically. This comes alongside fitting back into your family. Your mother left her family in India, moving to America to marry a Sri Lankan man she fell in love with. This is one of many thematic beats about independence, living your own life and dealing with the complex relationships with one’s own cultural heritage. Wounds passed down is core to the game but all is handled with a lightness of tone. Heavy moments are pulled off very well and the games push towards catharsis and emotional healing genuinely works.

It works because of the characters. They are a varied and eclectic bunch, well written figures who you will want to spend a lot of time with. Interactions are beautifully written and the game giving you space to have these relationships play out is its key joy. In a Persona-lite way, gameplay mechanics overlap and your actions in the games semi-open environments (two small zones that also function as skate parks) feed back into combat. There’s actually quite a lot of combat here, and it is fun enough. Though ‘enough’ is the operative word. It is about exploiting weaknesses in order to get extra turns and do more damage (like a certain RPG series), though it does get repetitive quite quickly. Your tools aren’t that varied and a lot of it boils down to different coloured ways to do the same thing. Taunting characters to open up their weakness is fun but also a touch illogical. You are supposed to make them angry, thirsty, heartbroken and more, and each enemy is susceptible to one or more of these. It seems part of the game is working this out but it is more trial and error than it is logical, giving the feel of a layer missing to make combat shine.

However, it is flashy and can be very satisfying. It is also a good way of serving up narrative moments. The conceit is emotional combat, mental reckonings that are punctuated with dialogue. At certain points, sequences burst into other sequences. A cooking minigame is functionally the same as the dancing minigame, and more a vessel for the moments in between where you talk to your mum or your father (which are excellent). A later game sequence starts off as cooking and then, motivated by narrative, explodes into a skateboarding sequence which culminates in a fight. Here, the multiple identities work, finding great ways to use the disparate parts to create a coherent whole with a personality that shines. It is a hard thing to pull off but the game would benefit from more curated sequences like this and less of a focus on repeated tasks and structures. Each day is functionally the same, more a narrative convenience than a necessary gameplay structure, in which you will (usually) do some cooking (if you want), do a skateboard challenge (more if you want), do some fodder combat and fight the level’s boss.

Skateboarding fits the character and is part of the game’s distinct attitude. It is best as a fun mode of traversal, though, the aforementioned late game sequence using it as a simple platforming mechanic rather than a score based challenge. The challenges, which recur, are decent but the system is simple to a fault. You magnetise to elements and it feels a touch automated, a system easy to grasp but one that isn’t that satisfying outside of pure movement. I felt little incentive to do challenges, especially as they don’t link to the narrative. It is perhaps a mechanic too many, especially when the game is at its best when everything connects and justifies itself. There’s a decent set of systems here, each are independently fun, but not enough time is found to make the most of them. A few sequences do really show promise and ultimately its unobtrusive.

Fundamentally, it comes back to the writing being very good. Some of the smaller moments falter — some attempts at ‘teen dialogue’ stick out as they always can. However, all the big moments — the really important stuff — works. It also is worth saying that this is a game that works because it is a game. Systems may not be fully realised but the intersecting layers are additive. The space you get to be in the world and interact with people on your own time, to initiate certain things and ignore others, is why this is a success. The structure is where the narrative shines. Ultimately, the story itself is a barebones one, but such by design (and in a positive way) to allow you to have brilliant character moments facilitated by interactivity. Is there too much going on? Probably. But it is all charming and even the ways it falters link back to character: somebody with too many conflicting things going on trying to get it all to come together. Sometimes in spite of itself, Thirsty Suitors is a real success.

I have so many mixed feelings about this game. The highs are really high and feel like a great FF game. But the lows are just meh and feel like another generic Square Enix “rpg”. The real big problem I have with this game is that once I get past the fun spectacle sequences, the in between stuff(which is where you’ll be at many times for a big chunk of this game) is just boring and meaningless. Which is a damn shame bc the world/lore they’ve built in FF16 is so interesting. I honestly don’t really know how to even rate this game. It’s good but also has so many faults that I can understand why some people, especially the hardcore fanbase, would be turned off by FF16. But if you just like a flashy action/adventure game with some rpg elements to it then sure you’ll probably have a good time. But this game just felt so soulless to me.

I’d compare FF16 with FF12. FF12 was a Final Fantasy game with a Star Wars inspired theme to its story. Bc of this inspiration, the world building and overall narrative was well done. But the uninteresting characters and the mostly empty world that you actually played in really dragged the game down from being great. FF16 on the other hand is a Final Fantasy game with a Game of Thrones inspired theme to its story. And just like with 12, world building and overall narrative benefits the most from this inspiration. But that’s where the comparison with 12 stops. At least 12 did something innovative with its gameplay and stood out as a unique game in its own right(which is saying a lot for me considering I don’t really like FF12). FF16 though just feels so generic at times. I also couldn’t connect with a single character in this game. Maybe it’s just me but idk. Clive felt like a lifeless FF protagonist with 0 interesting character traits. Lifeless and 0 interesting character traits describes almost all of the characters in this game tbh. Can’t believe they managed to dethrone Lunafreya from FF15 as the most boring FF love interest with Jill. That’s honestly really impressive. Cid and Joshua are probably the only characters I actually got somewhat invested in(Torgal is a good boi too so I will not be slandering him). I’d even go as far as to say that I think it was a mistake to make Clive the main protagonist when Joshua has the more interesting character story arc and would overall just make for a better protagonist.

Also despite the world being interesting, it’s just very empty when you’re actually playing in it. Yeah there’s some “side quests” scattered but they’re all so half baked it’s not really necessary to do them bc they don’t really add anything worthwhile and aren’t all that fun. You can do the typical FF grind in this game but so many of the RPG elements that the series used to have has been stripped down and you’re not really grinding for much outside of a character level and a few pieces of gear. The skills in the hollow skill tree don’t really provide much of a benefit either bc all you’re really unlocking is a new flashy cooldown ability animation that you can do.

I know I’ve been mostly negative but when it comes to the highs in this game, man do they make you feel like you’re having a tremendous experience. The highs in the story are so engaging and do genuinely feel like you’re watching a FF spin on Game of Thrones. Benedikta was a great introductory villain. And everything from Hugo Kupka’s arc in the story and beyond was really well done and engaging to play through. Ultima was an okay villain with a pretty dope character design. Combat is fluid for the most part and there’s a lot of fun combos you can do. I just wish there were elemental effects to enhance it(weird choice to take that away btw). The big boss battles with the Eikons are always so damn cool too. And of course, the game is very pretty to look at.

But again, a lot of what’s in FF16 is just not for me and it may just not be any deeper than that. I wanted to love this game but there’s just a lot holding it back for me despite the occasional fun moments that are presented.