Venba is ultimately over quite soon, but I’d rather have a beautiful but small experience that will stay with me than one that lingers too long and wears out its welcome. There are a few parts of its story that could perhaps have been explored with more depth, but its story comes together to span a generation in the blink of an eye and leave players feeling satisfied with the experience. This is a game well worth experiencing, which even the busiest players should be able to fit into a free evening.
Venba
Visai Games · Jul 31, 2023
About
Venba is a narrative cooking game where you play as an Indian mom who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Players will cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations and explore in this story about family, love, loss and more.
Cook Mouth Watering Dishes
Venba's recipe book gets damaged when she moves to Canada. Restore the lost recipes to cook delicious, mouth-watering dishes that serve as a connection to the home left behind.
Explore, Converse, Experience
Get to know the family well, hold branching conversations, and explore as you face the challenges that arise from day to day life.
Trailers & screenshots
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Critic reviews
- 7.0Overall, Venba might feel somewhat too brief to fully do justice to its character paths, but it has a lot to say about the importance of preserving one’s culture, the difficulties of generational friction, and the excruciating irony of realizing the value of something after you’ve already lost it.
- I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Venba, even more than I was anticipating. I expected a laid-back cooking sim, but what I got was a deeply moving narrative about generational struggles with immigration and creating a home for yourself in an unfamiliar land. Solving the puzzles of the missing steps in each recipe is surprisingly fun as well. Even though it’s a short experience, taking only about two hours to complete, it still a journey worth taking.
- Through a exploration of Southern Indian cuisine and the preparation of it that’s been given a slight puzzler twist, Venba manages to serve up a captivating story about culture, motherhood, immigrant life and more, spiced up with likeable characters and great dialogue, and topped off with eye-catching visuals and an ear-pleasing soundtrack. It’s a short feast, but a filling one, so it would be wise to give it a shot. Would it help if we said that it might remind you of a rocket somehow?
- Short but oh-so-sweet, Venba is an engaging slice of life in which one family seeks to make a new life in Canada and overcome everyday obstacles, connecting and sharing special moments over South Indian cuisine. As the decades drift by and Venba and her family go through change and transition, food remains the one reliable constant – a permanent, immovable connection to their roots. Like a rich and aromatic biriyani, Venba is a tasty, short-lived morsel that lingers on the taste buds for but a moment, but lives on in the memory long after you've tucked in. Tasty.
- 8.0This is a beautiful portrait of a couple and their son who feel just as real as you or I. It’s a celebration of being Indian, of being human, of being a parent, of culture, of food. It reminds us of the importance of family and tradition – and the joy that eating (and preparing) a good meal can bring even in the darkest of times. Brief as it may be, Venba has left a lasting impact – and it’s made us desperate to try some traditional Tamil cooking of our own.
Gamer reviews
Made Me Cry
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This was a beautiful, touching game about an immigrant family. Even though I am not an immigrant (yet), this one really tugged on my heartstrings. I thought about my cousins, aunts and uncles, and what it must have been like raising their family in America. I thought about what starting a family with my husband in Japan would be like. Thought about my mom's sacrifices to raise me... and how ungrateful I was when I was younger. This game also featured a lot of Indian food. This game made me crave it! I love how it feels like I am really learning/experimenting with the recipes. The only downside with this game is that it's very short. Under 2 hours short. I hope there would be a spin-off, or DLC with just more cooking. I really enjoyed those parts. Recommendation: If you want to buy this game, it's cheapest on the Nintendo Switch, Argentina Region. It's still on sale until August 15. Enjoy!
Makes you miss your lola
Though I am not from india, The story hits close to home when you have OFW parents and grandparents that feeds you food as a sign of their love. Love the art style and the gameplay but the story is just done so right. There are short games that are forgettable and there are short games that you will stay with you as long as you live.
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