Venba, The game that reminds you to call your mom
After waiting for a few months since I discovered it on Twitter(X) I knew this game would immediately from the day I put it on my Steam Wishlist. Venba is a short narrative cooking game where you follow the story of an immigrant family in Canada along with their old family recipes which act as the anchor to their background as they live in unfamiliar territory. The story of Venba reminds me of the novel 'The Namesake' by Jhumpa Lahiri but with the main emphasis being the food rather than the name but tackles all the issues of being an immigrant and raising a child. This makes the game somewhat a simplified version of the novel which may be seen as rude but I would view it as a major compliment since it can tackle all the main themes and draw up or should I say cook up a message to its players that somewhat hits close to their heart.
However, that is not the reason why I waited for the game, instead, it is the language and its cuisine as the background for our characters as they are Tamilians thus making me a perfect player to play this game since I am also a Tamilian. So, listening to the soundtracks and preparing the food in the game made me more connected with my roots as did the characters as I currently live away from my home. It even goes beyond with its sound effects as each time the mother moves the sound of the bangles and anklets jingling accurately reminds me of my mother's footsteps. Its art style is simple but detailed in a manner where it highlights all important details of the traditions and culture but kept in a minimal form with the main example being the wall calendar as its design accurately depicts what kind of calendar every traditional Indian family have in their home but in a much clear form as those kinds of calendars are brimmed with words and symbols making bit chaotic to see.
I would highly recommend this game to anyone who looking for a short narrative game my only major criticism towards the game being too short and would love to any expansion of this type of narrative game. But other than that it is an engaging game that hits you hard emotionally and even harder if you share any similarities with the game narrative.
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