Venba

 PC
Venba Image
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 19 Ratings

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  • Summary: Cook delicious South-Indian food and experience the journey of an immigrant family in Venba! Venba is a narrative cooking game where you play as an Indian mom who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Players will cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branchingCook delicious South-Indian food and experience the journey of an immigrant family in Venba! Venba is a narrative cooking game where you play as an Indian mom who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Players will cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations and explore in this story about family, love, loss and more.

    Cook Mouth Watering Dishes
    Venba's recipe book gets damaged when she moves to Canada. Restore the lost recipes to cook delicious, mouth-watering dishes that serve as a connection to the home left behind.

    Explore, Converse, Experience
    Get to know the family well, hold branching conversations, and explore as you face the challenges that arise from day to day life.

    Features:
    - Cook authentic and delicious recipes handpicked from regional South-Indian cuisine
    - Hold branching conversations and explore different narrative beats
    - Beautiful visuals and animations
    Unique soundtrack inspired by Indian musicals    … Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. Impulsegamer
    Jul 24, 2024
    90
    An exploration of the immigrant experience straight from the horse's mouth, Venba tackles a Tamil family's struggles of a loving and living in a strange land, and the turbulence that follows, with a heartwrenching flair.
  2. GamesRadar+
    Jul 31, 2023
    90
    Venba is a must-play experience, an enthralling tale of immigrants across multiple generations, all backed by a brilliantly absorbing puzzle game in the form of cooking.
  3. Hardcore Gamer
    Aug 3, 2023
    90
    Through a exploration of Southern Indian cuisine and the preparation of it that’s been given a slight puzzler twist, Venba manages to serve up a captivating story about culture, motherhood, immigrant life and more, spiced up with likeable characters and great dialogue, and topped off with eye-catching visuals and an ear-pleasing soundtrack. It’s a short feast, but a filling one, so it would be wise to give it a shot. Would it help if we said that it might remind you of a rocket somehow?
  4. Press Start Australia
    Jul 31, 2023
    80
    Venba is a sweet, short-lived episode that presents the place held by food and cooking within our lives and cultures as near-on divine. It explores familiar relationships, as well as the ones we keep, for better or worse, with food itself, and left me with plenty to ponder as the credits rolled.
  5. GamesHub
    Jul 31, 2023
    80
    Venba’s portrayal of the complex diasporic family dynamic is spot-on. It’s a perfect portrait of the challenges and wistfulness that come with trying to live a life while being torn between two completely different cultures. I’d like to think that Venba is ultimately a hopeful narrative in the end, an emotional, cathartic celebration of it all. But whatever the interpretation, Venba is an essential depiction of the immigrant experience.
  6. SpazioGames
    Jul 31, 2023
    72
    Venba is an interesting and thoughtful experience that lasts as it should and that, in about a couple of hours, is able to make you feel attached to its characters and themes.
  7. Games.cz
    Aug 21, 2023
    50
    Pretty colours, smell of spice, they couldn’t dull my senses enough to not notice all of Venba’s imperfections. The characters aren’t very nice, the conversations tend to say nothing of substance, the story never reaches the required depths. But it’s short enough for it to be a cute visit of Indian culture and cuisine.

See all 20 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 9
  3. Negative: 2 out of 9
  1. SalvorIndies
    Aug 2, 2023
    10
    Lovely visual novel with cooking puzzles, all its parts fit together perfectly, making it entertaining from beginning to end. A solid 10/10Lovely visual novel with cooking puzzles, all its parts fit together perfectly, making it entertaining from beginning to end. A solid 10/10 and must-play experience.… Expand
  2. Psynapse
    Aug 2, 2023
    10
    Easily a must play.

    Great story of a family that is trying to fit in to society.

    It's short, but it's super super sweet.
  4. lanp
    Aug 26, 2023
    10
    简单的玩法，治愈的画风，绝佳的故事，我并不觉得流程短算是多大的缺点，但是只有英文有些可惜。
  5. Thelordhasspoke
    Aug 22, 2023
    8
    Don't know what this game is about but It seems fine. Heard it has a good sound track. Would've been higher but the reviews crashed my Commodore 64 .
  6. grihajedy
    Aug 11, 2023
    7
    In terms of gameplay, this is a basic point-and-click, the complexity of which lies in the correct sequence of actions and the ingredients,In terms of gameplay, this is a basic point-and-click, the complexity of which lies in the correct sequence of actions and the ingredients, and if you don`t know English at the conversational level, then it will be very difficult to understand, especially at the last levels, there are quite a few dishes in the game, lless than 10, and the main timing is occupied by animated cutscenes telling a rather everyday story about moving and lack of money, as well as about the importance of maintaining communication with parents, and we often have timeskeeps, hop and now Venba is already a grandmother, hop and the son is already at the age of the father, we don`t even have time to feel the characters in 1-2 hours of timing. IIndian songs annoyed me in culinary episodes, so the "cultural" bias in the game is clearly not for everyone, isn`t suitable for everyone, but you can learn some interesting facts about food if, again, you know English.
    Nevertheless, I cannot but note the pleasant visual part of the game, it’s impossible to hate the game for “average”, probably suitable for fans of cooking or simple cute games, but I would also recommend you to try the "Assemble with Care" game, although the story there is also weak.

    Subscribe on my Steam`s Curator`s page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41977550/    … Expand
  7. OfficialFESFEW
    Aug 1, 2023
    6
    Venba is a short half visual novel game that has some cooking. It's nice to cook Indian food and the story is fine.
  8. bokarsh-z
    Aug 4, 2023
    3
    only worth 4 dollar or watch it on utube
    =======
    - 1 hour long (loool 15 dollar). -not game virtual novel predictable story with annoying    only worth 4 dollar or watch it on utube
    =======
    - 1 hour long (loool 15 dollar).

    -not game virtual novel predictable story with annoying cooking and annoying sound writing cant turn it off.

    -only good soundtrack.    … Expand

See all 9 User Reviews

Awards & Rankings

85
#85 Most Discussed PC Game of 2023

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