We are divided between two worlds, and it is through these conflicts that the author of Venba weaves a beautiful and profound tale.
Despite the abundance of new ideas in the independent gaming community, I rarely come across titles with a cultural focus. I don’t want to oversimplify the ideas that underlie Venba, a narrative culinary game combining puzzle-focused cooking parts with aspects reminiscent of visual novels to excellent success. Because in the end, it’s a game about many different topics, but culture is the overarching theme, and the game’s short but touching tale can become a little muddled at points. Those who take pleasure in reading a narrative framed from a different point of view will find a lot to adore in this article.
As the player, you take on the role of Venba, a mother from India who, in the 1980s, emigrates to Canada with her husband. Even though the story can be finished in under one and a half hours, it is nonetheless entertaining. It covers decades in the process, beginning with Venba’s pregnancy early on and later covering the growing pains of raising a child in a location where they may consider their culture as more of a burden than a blessing. Both of these events take place in the present day.
It’s possible that Venba’s story won’t strike a chord with anyone other than a native-born American. This is in no way a dramatic tale with high stakes or intense disputes between opposing parties. Venba is a painful look at the difficulty of retaining one’s culture in a location where it may not be totally welcomed, thanks to the high-quality writing and in-depth characterization of the story’s protagonist, which give the story an air of unquestionable authenticity.
Despite the fact that the narrative of Venba is by far the most important aspect of the game, I was shocked to discover that the gameplay is more than just a backdrop for the narrative beats. Instead, it’s in an unexpectedly central location. There is a gameplay sequence in each chapter of Venba in which you are tasked with following the instructions for a particular recipe that is authentic to Indian Tamil culture.
While some chapters have you more or less going through the motions, the majority of the chapters act more like a puzzle. You will be required to follow a recipe book, but portions will frequently be missing or require translation.
In order to figure out what needs to be done, you will need to check Venba’s memories or look at context clues. It is possible to make a recipe absolutely wrong and be denied regression; nevertheless, the game makes it easy for you to restart from the way to step, so this does not become overly frustrating. This aspect of Venba is not very challenging, but it is rewarding, and it adds to the story in a way that just couldn’t be done in any other medium.
You can either use a gamepad or a mouse and keyboard to operate the game, but regardless of which method you choose, you’ll spend a lot of time dragging and dropping one item of food or utensils onto another. To accommodate players who either do not choose to or are unable to make use of an interface based on a mouse pointer. It is sad that there are no accessibility choices that permit the use of any alternative control techniques.
However, during my run through the game, I didn’t see anything that seemed to be timed really precisely, which gives me faith that this strategy will be enjoyable for the majority of players. The charming visual style that Venba employs in these culinary segments is another factor that contributes to the overall enjoyment of the show. Despite the fact that Tamil cuisine is presented in a cartoonish manner with a lack of attention paid to fine detail, it nonetheless looks very mouthwatering.
The presentation of Venba has been crafted with great attention to detail in every aspect, but the gameplay portions are where the game truly shines. When you hear the sizzling of ginger and garlic and heated oil, or when you watch your dosage of brown around the edges, the aroma and texture of the dish will almost appear to jump off the screen at you—providing an educational experience that is both interesting and, in equal measure, a source of excruciating hunger.
Each of these scenarios will typically be accompanied by culturally appropriate music, which is a topic about which I cannot pretend to know anything at all, but which I appreciated and which contributed a great deal to the general atmosphere. The success of Vabna’s presentation is not solely dependent on the quality of the food but rather on how you personally prefer the visual novel parts to appear and feel.
Despite the purposeful lack of detail on their character models, Venba and her family’s features never fail to convey emotion, which contributes to the overall impression that each character is genuine. Venba and her family show clear signs of aging despite the passage of time.
The animations are basic and occasionally feel a touch stiff, and there is very little in the way of voice acting. But taken as a whole, the visuals and sounds of Venba are a feast in more ways than one. Venba is incredibly appealing for a wide variety of reasons. The game may not have a long duration, but it is filled with intensity and has a pointed feeling of purpose throughout its entirety.
However, the main plot does not come without its share of issues to contend with. It is not my intention to give anything away, but despite the fact that I enjoy games that are brief and are able to achieve their objectives without the use of padding or filler, I find that Venba’s playtime is somewhat condensed. The writing is compelling enough to make a connection with the story’s characters almost instantly, and when the story’s events desire to carry weight, they do so because they have earned it.
Since the game is constantly moving forward, frequently skipping many years at a time, it gives the impression that it is doing each character a disservice by omitting events that appear to be essential to the progression of their story. There will be no spoilers here, but there is a particular point of the story that seems like it should have been a large, weighty scene but is instead given as hardly more than a footnote without much accompanying background.
Along the way, there are also some selections to be made regarding the dialogue; however, whenever I try the scene again and select a new option, it seems like there is no meaningful difference in the conclusion other than a slightly different bit of phrase. Those seeking a high level of replayability will be sorely disappointed with this offering.
There is no way to predict how much any of these things will upset you, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from trying out such an innovative story told from a fresh, previously unused angle in the game industry.
Overall, 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.
Furthermore, as if all of that weren’t enough, you get to prepare some amazing-looking Indian food while watching the movie. Therefore, fans of narrative-heavy games with a twist might give Venba a look if they are willing to keep their expectations in check concerning the amount of information they get here.
