REVIEW: ‘Dosa Divas’ Embraces Healing Through Food And Community

Dosa Divas, the new food-centered turn-based RPG from Outerloop Games and published with Outersloth, is full of heart. The narrative and writing are incredible, with a surprisingly dark story at its core. The turn-based combat is solid, even if it doesn’t do too much. The cooking at the heart of it all, and its connection to community, are constantly front and center, making it a great experience unlike anything else around it.

Dosa Divas follows two sisters, Amani and Samara, as they journey to meet with their parents. They’re accompanied by a sentient mech, Goddess, who also acts as their transportation. It’s not a smooth journey, though. Their younger sister, Lina, is trying to use corporate fast-food to outlaw cooking worldwide. 

The sisters all carry their own trauma, spinning out from a family restaurant they ran together years prior. Amani disappeared, only to come back now. Samara carries the weight of the failed restaurant, while Lina turns to evil corporate life. It’s a simple setup that ends up as anything but, dealing with themes of loss, trauma, mortality, and ultimately, community. Dosa Divas goes places, man, and when it does, it hurts. 

Dosa Divas takes time to set up, and then really effectively answer disparate plot threads.

The story is easily the strongest part of Dosa Divas. It keeps you guessing and you quickly get invested not just in the world around you, but in the central characters. Why did Amani leave? What happened to their restaurant? What exactly is Goddess, and how does it connect to the other mechs? Dosa Divas takes time to set up, and then really effectively answers all these disparate plot threads. It comes together in a really satisfying way. 

Those narrative highlights extend to the supporting cast. From a young child fighting desperately to save their sibling, to a town doing its best to resist Lina’s takeover, there is a lot to fall in love with. Each new area has a life of its own, with its own ingredients and stories. And you learn more about it all through cooking. It’s not just that the meals have their own effects for the party, but you see how food can really bring people together, and how its absence can keep them apart. 

Even through the darkness, the cooking and its connection to community are always centered. On their journey, Amani and Samara reach new places, their inhabitants all suffering in some way due to Lina’s machinations. They work with the townsfolk, taking cooking requests to try and help restore their connection to food and those around them. You can pick up requests from townsfolk, with plenty of ingredients out in the environment and at the shop.

Not everything comes down to cooking, as you’ll need to fight through battles with Lina’s cronies.

Once you have a request or two, along with the requisite ingredients, Dosa Divas jumps into mini-games. Depending on how well you do, you get more meals at the end. The mini-games are largely great, even if there aren’t too many of them. From timing button presses to cut at the right time to using the sticks to keep a moving circle in the center of a larger one, they’re engaging and short enough not to overstay their welcome.

One of the mini-games, though, doesn’t feel as good as the others. It requires you to tap the A button fast enough in specific sections of a moving bar. It’s simple in theory, but the sections never feel big enough to get to the upper levels of completion. It only gets more frustrating as Dosa Divas introduces mechanics that block parts of the bar, requiring you to press other buttons to clear them away. The rest of the mini-games are fun, making this one stand out negatively.

Not everything comes down to cooking, as you’ll also need to fight through battles against Lina’s cronies. The turn-based battle system is solid. You’ll time button presses to negate incoming damage, while also dealing out more on your own attacks. You can boost your own attacks using points to slide in a few extra hits. The enemies all have their own type of weaknesses, and using the right attack lowers their shields until they break, leaving them vulnerable to a pounding.

The bosses are built on cool ideas, even if they are just fine.

It’s pretty standard fare, but it never really does anything more than what you see at the start. Enemies get stronger, sure, but rarely does Dosa Divas introduce or change the battle mechanics. The flow never changes. Enemies will always attack first, leaving you on your back foot if you block unsuccessfully, before you even get a chance to attack. You’ll then play a guessing game, trying to figure out weaknesses, as they’re concealed every time. The flow never really changes.

The battles end up getting stale, and even when Dosa Divas tries to change things up with some of the later game boss encounters, they’re usually not anything more than mildly frustrating. One boss requires blocking enough attacks to wear them out. It’s a fun idea in theory, but in practice, you just end up chewing through your healing items to stay alive long enough. These enemies hit hard, and if your inputs aren’t exact, you’ll pay for it. 

It’s not that the battle system isn’t fun moment to moment, because it can be, it just rarely does anything interesting. The battles you fight in the first few hours are largely the same all the way through. It doesn’t push you to change up approaches or deal with enemies in different ways. Even the shields are rarely ever broken, as the enemies usually go down before that happens. It has cool ideas with some fun battles, but overall, it’s just fine. 

Dosa Divas is a worthy adventure that’ll put a smile on your face.

The graphics are another highlight. They’re bright and colorful, drawing you into a false sense of security with the games narrative being as heavy as it is. Each area has its own identity, from underground mines to a beachside resort, with each new space a visual feast for the eyes. It also runs great on Steam Deck, with no issues at all through my playthrough.

Overall, Dosa Divas is a worthy adventure despite its faults. The narrative and writing are so strong, unique, and interesting that the issues that are present fade away. Even if the battle system grows stale, Dosa Divas is so full of heart and charm that you can’t help but have a massive smile on your face the entire time.

It’s so charming and full of life that it plants itself firmly in your brain and doesn’t let go. I couldn’t put Dosa Divas down, and it makes me want to go cook a wonderful meal for my family to see them smile.

Dosa Divas is out on April 14, 2026, on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.