Venba

While not traumatic for me in anyway, I always regret not being more connected to my Macedonian/Greek roots. I didn't have much time to spend with my grandparents, and so what I've learnt has mostly come from my father who was already disconnected from said culture.

This of course is the main theme of Venba and it is told in a way that uses the visual novel medium to its advantage. The fact that "gameplay" tells the story of culture being lost time through cookbook interpretation is one that is both creative true (my family has spent a lot of time trying to recreate bubba's spanakopita). The struggles of the Tamil family tells a story of alienation that isn't reinventing the wheel, but it is certainly well done.

The art is beautiful, the tunes are nice, and the recipes seem great, I might have to try some of them. Great game to play on a rainy afternoon

Venba is a very short (like 1 hour short) visual novel that has some cooking simulation segments in each chapter. The focus is really on the story of an immigrant indian family that settles in Canada looking for a better life, and the hardships that entails. Its a very touching story, which manages to say so much with so little, and its helped by the games incredible art style. The fact that it manage to draw some feels in someone who has no idea what immigration feels means that it suceed at everything it was trying to do.

The cooking sim sections offer a good middle ground between not being too easy (showing how hard it is to get alienated from ones culture if you arent paying attention), but not too hard to disrupt the flow of the game. The real focus is the VN segments, there is no doubt about that.

Just dont play this one before a meal. The foods look just marvelous and I end up being disappointed what gets on my plate for my meal.

Since I had gamepass I thought I would give this game a shot since I knew it was so short. Little did I know I would be playing one of the most wholesome and sad games I've played all year. For being such a short experience the game is able to cover so many topics in a way that are subtle and very powerful. Themes of becoming disillusioned with ones culture and finding a home in a foreign land all feel very lived in. I will not begin to say I relate to these experiences given that I am a white boy from the Midwest.

Even given my background I still felt extremally sympathetic to these struggles. The unconditional love on display really reminded me about all my parents have done for me. I'm just gonna come out and say it, this game almost left me crying like a baby. It's such a short sweet experience I just can't recommend it enough. Even if the gameplay is nothing super special, if a game can make me cry you bet I am gonna give it a high recommendation.