Played on: Xbox Series X, PC
Venba is another discovery I initially made via Xbox Game Pass this year, which it has unfortunately since departed. Thankfully, I also got a free Steam key for the game after donating to this year's newly crowd-funded Day of the Devs event, so I can at least own a PC copy of Venba to keep now.
Venba is a game inspired heavily by South Asian culture, and amazingly, it's not even the first South Asian-inspired indie game that I played through this year (more on that in a future post). Developed by Toronto-based Visai Games, Venba is a fictional story based in immigrant reality, told from the perspective of the eponymous Indian woman and her husband, who move to Toronto in the 1980's, from Indian state, Tamil Nadu. After having a son together not long after emigrating from India, Venba and her husband soon struggle to adjust to a new country where they don't speak the language, their son is growing increasingly out of touch with his Indian heritage, and the prospect of the Canadian dream seems to slip away more with every passing year. One thing maintains the family's happiness and core memories however; Venba's cooking, which is catalogued in a heavily damaged, somewhat illegible hand-me-down cookbook that the player is tasked with deciphering and repairing during the main cooking sequences.
Serving as a puzzle game built around a rich, grounded slice-of-life storyline, Venba is a superbly creative little indie game that I enjoyed immensely, even if I finished the whole game in about 90 minutes during both of my two playthroughs. As with several other indie games I especially enjoyed this year, I wish it didn't fly by quite so fast, but the tale of Venba nonetheless gripped me from beginning to end, as it runs the emotional spectrum of anxiety, hope, intrigue, despair, and ultimately, resolution. I also appreciated that the game felt engagingly educational about Tamil culture, and seemed very authentic in that regard to boot, giving me a window into the perspective of an immigrant parent, a perspective I'm doubly removed from in real life.
As great as the storytelling is throughout Venba however, it's the cooking sequences where the game makes an especially strong impression. Reminding me a little of Unpacking from earlier this year, Venba similarly takes a seemingly mundane task, and adds some legitimate magic to it by making it feel both emotionally gratifying, and legitimately clever to try and decipher. Venba's recipes are only somewhat readable, often missing crucial steps that can be deduced with a bit of careful thought, and a modest amount of trial-and-error. It always felt rewarding to finally put the pieces of the cookbook together and help Venba's family make a valuable memory though, becoming closer together in their challenging new lives.
I also have to mention that Venba is yet another indie gem with a stellar soundtrack. Composed with South Asian melodies that range from bombastic and operatic to mellow and soothing, Venba's soundtrack further accentuates its rich spectrum of characterization and social commentary. It also adds more than enough acoustic spice to the cooking puzzles, making you feel like the exotic meals you're putting together are stage-worthy productions, even laid out across Venba's simple, Unity-developed foundation. That's not a knock against the game's graphics by any means; Venba's South Asian painting aesthetic is also a major highlight, providing one of the most visually exceptional art styles that I've ever seen the Unity Engine deliver to date!
As for downsides, Venba joins the growing pile of otherwise fantastic indie games I played this year that I merely wish weren't so frustratingly brief. Even among them, Venba is infuriatingly fleeting, with the entire game able to be completed, with every achievement earned, in less than two hours, if you're sharp enough with the family cookbook and dialogue sequences. I played through the game on both Xbox Series X and PC as well, and between them, I did find the PC version to be most intuitive and easy to navigate, since much of Venba appears to be designed more around a mouse than a controller.
Even on consoles though, Venba is bound to warm your heart, while providing an oft-underrepresented perspective on the immigrant experience in Canada. Its main gameplay hook is exceptional, and its writing is sublime. It's also too bad that the game has now left Xbox Game Pass, since a subscription service feels like its natural home, though I'm nonetheless glad I was able to experience Venba without paying a dime on two different platforms. Knowing how good it is now, I would have happily paid the entry fee for it!
IF I HAD TO SCORE IT: 9/10
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