#I reaaaaaaaaaaally want to cook those recipes now XDD

[miyakuli]

Venba

A cooking game that lacks a little spice

Time to eat! I've concocted a few dishes that I hope you'll enjoy. The recipes? No, I admit, they don't come from me, but from a little game called Venba, in which a Tamil woman immigrant living in Canada with her small family encounters various obstacles linked to her origins. Cooking becomes a means of escape for her and a way of consolidating ties with both her family and her culture. However, while the game whetted my appetite, it didn't really fill me up.

❤ The game is a feast for the eyes. The chara-design is truly charming, the colours are warm and soothing, and the simplistic animation is enough to convey the emotions. You'll also find your stomach growling at the sight of dishes that look really appetizing. ❤ The narration is delicious, as it's mainly done through what we're shown, even if a few lines of dialogue are occasionally used to give us a bit of context. In this way, through a host of small visual details, we can guess at the characters' situation and their state of mind as they go through life. (SPOILERS: e.g. Venba's son holding a spoon to eat, unlike his parents, to emphasize his distance from his Indian culture, an empty half-bed to convey the loss of a husband, the son wearing his father's broken glasses to reconnect with his roots….) ❤ The sound design is very well done, with mouth-watering kitchen sound effects and songs that make us travel as much as the different meals.

+/- The cooking takes the form of little puzzles, during which you have to think about when and how to use each ingredient. So you make mistakes, try again, learn from them, and then really want to reproduce the dish from memory for real. The game even includes its own recipes on the menu (literally), a succulent idea that really shows the developers' desire to share their love of this culinary culture. On the other hand, these gameplay phases are very brief, and some require barely a few mouse movements before the meal is ready, which is slightly frustrating.

✖ The shortness of a game isn't necessarily a negative thing in my eyes, unless, as in this case, it affects the pace and impact of the narrative. The story is certainly touching, but it unfolds at high speed, without really taking the time to establish strong connections with the characters. Although the visual storytelling is effective, after 1h30 in game, I don't really know this family well enough to be moved by it. Also, while the relationship between the mother and son is the most developed, the father is totally neglected and clearly lacks personality. And while the cooking was an interesting idea to united this family, it isn't developed enough and remains a little too superficial for my taste. ✖ Besides, there's no real replayability, as the few selectable dialogues won't make any significant changes. As a result, the price may bite a little. ✖ Although you can finish it in one go, there's no indication that you can save during the game (which always tends to stress me out a bit x'D).

Venba is undoubtedly a game made with the heart, and with the tummy. Food lovers will find it satisfying to discover new flavors, and if you're just a curious gourmet, the game will make you feel a little peckish, but perhaps not completely satiated. For my part, it was an appetizing experience, but I'm still not quite full.

➡ My Steam page