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Venba
Venba is short but there is rich storytelling flavour in every moment: the brisk animations of a late recipe carry a real sense of ‘let’s do this’ purpose, while scrolling back through text exchanges delivers an emotional wallop
Developer/publisher Visai Games Format PC (tested), PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series Release July 31
V enba pulls out her mother’s tattered cookbook and frowns: a vital step in a handwritten recipe she’d been hoping to recreate for her husband’s breakfast has been smudged. Achieving the desired result in Visai Games’ narrative-led cooking game, then, requires you to follow the instructions you have been given and also figure out the parts you haven’t. It’s a neat way to capture the trial-and-error process of cooking an unfamiliar dish, but it doubles as a metaphor for its protagonist’s circumstances. Having uprooted their lives to move to Canada, Tamil couple Venba and Paavalan likewise feel they’re missing something. Can they – and you – adapt, without knowing what they’re supposed to be doing?