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.
70
Though I genuinely loved my time with Venba, I could not swallow the steep asking price for the short, one-hour experience that you will have. It's a great, tear-jerking story that immigrants will resonate with, but there isn't enough here to justify the entry fee.
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.
7
Game: VenbaGenre: Interactive Visual NovelDeveloper: Visai GamesPublisher: Visai GamesSystem: Steam (PC)Year of Release: 2023Date of Completion: January 3rd 2026Length of Playthrough: 2 Hours---PC SpecsGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GBCPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3DRAM: 32 GB DDR5 SDRAMSTORAGE: 2 TB SSDOS: Windows 11 Home---• Story: 7/10• Characters: 7/10• GamePlay: 7/10• Graphics: 8/10• Sound: 7/10• Music: 8/10• Length: 4/10• Replay Value: 6/10• Player Value: 8/10Total Score: 72/100Value Score: 7.2/10Pros+Great soundtrack with Indian theme music+Great visual design and a emotional storyline about a Indian family living in Canada+Detailed recipe guide (post game) and Soundtrack modeCons-Short, can be done in 2 hours
7
El juego es recomendable, pero tiene algunas sombras que le restan puntos.
Destacable en su diseño artístico, con unos gráficos coloridos, una banda sonora notable y una buena historia sobre la familia, las diferentes culturas y los problemas a los que se tienen que enfrentar los inmigrantes. Pero el problema es que básicamente es una historia con algunos toques de interactividad (que realmente no parecen tener importancia en el desarrollo del juego) y salpicado con unos minijuegos de cocina que le dan un toque divertido, pero demasiado escasos, pasando mucho más tiempo leyendo que jugando.
A esto hay que sumarle que el juego no está localizado al español (de hecho, sólo está en inglés), lo cual es imperdonable en un juego en el que la historia es la protagonista
4
This is a great story, telling about the life of a family of Tamil immigrants to India and nearly brought me to tears. But as a game it ultimately fails, since it has so little gameplay aspects: From the around 1,5 hours I was playing this game only at most 30 minutes were cooking and from that there was a sequence that lasted round 10 minutes, where you could not go wrong. TLDR: The story is great, but too little gameplay.
Venba
Released On:
Jul 31, 2023
Metascore
Generally Favorable
79
User score
Mixed or Average
6.4
My Score
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
71% Positive
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
29% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
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.
Jul 31, 2023
90
Venba is a heartfelt tale of an immigrant mother doing her best to raise a son in Canada while passing on her Tamil culture. It’s a story not often told, and it will stick with you long after the credits roll. Learning about this culture is a ton of fun and done through inventive puzzles having you cook traditional dishes. It’s a gorgeous, passionate game that gives you a glimpse into another culture.
User score
Mixed or Average
38% Positive
42 Ratings
42 Ratings
46% Mixed
52 Ratings
52 Ratings
16% Negative
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
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.
Jul 31, 2023
90
Venba beautifully depicts the struggle of the first-generation immigrant experience — fighting to give your family better opportunities while holding true to your roots. It’s a golden example of how games can give players an authentic peek into underrepresented cultures when the right people are in charge. With the game being beatable in a sleek two hours, it’s impossible not to give Venba an incredibly high recommendation.
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.
Jul 13, 2023
80
While the specificities of lead developer Abhi's lived experience give Venba its distinctive flavour, they serve a story with which anyone can identify. [Issue#387, p.123]
Nov 27, 2023
70
Though I genuinely loved my time with Venba, I could not swallow the steep asking price for the short, one-hour experience that you will have. It's a great, tear-jerking story that immigrants will resonate with, but there isn't enough here to justify the entry fee.
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.
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 10/10 and must-play experience.
Jan 3, 2026
7
Game: VenbaGenre: Interactive Visual NovelDeveloper: Visai GamesPublisher: Visai GamesSystem: Steam (PC)Year of Release: 2023Date of Completion: January 3rd 2026Length of Playthrough: 2 Hours---PC SpecsGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GBCPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3DRAM: 32 GB DDR5 SDRAMSTORAGE: 2 TB SSDOS: Windows 11 Home---• Story: 7/10• Characters: 7/10• GamePlay: 7/10• Graphics: 8/10• Sound: 7/10• Music: 8/10• Length: 4/10• Replay Value: 6/10• Player Value: 8/10Total Score: 72/100Value Score: 7.2/10Pros+Great soundtrack with Indian theme music+Great visual design and a emotional storyline about a Indian family living in Canada+Detailed recipe guide (post game) and Soundtrack modeCons-Short, can be done in 2 hours
Oct 28, 2025
7
El juego es recomendable, pero tiene algunas sombras que le restan puntos.
Destacable en su diseño artístico, con unos gráficos coloridos, una banda sonora notable y una buena historia sobre la familia, las diferentes culturas y los problemas a los que se tienen que enfrentar los inmigrantes. Pero el problema es que básicamente es una historia con algunos toques de interactividad (que realmente no parecen tener importancia en el desarrollo del juego) y salpicado con unos minijuegos de cocina que le dan un toque divertido, pero demasiado escasos, pasando mucho más tiempo leyendo que jugando.
A esto hay que sumarle que el juego no está localizado al español (de hecho, sólo está en inglés), lo cual es imperdonable en un juego en el que la historia es la protagonista
Sep 5, 2025
4
This is a great story, telling about the life of a family of Tamil immigrants to India and nearly brought me to tears. But as a game it ultimately fails, since it has so little gameplay aspects: From the around 1,5 hours I was playing this game only at most 30 minutes were cooking and from that there was a sequence that lasted round 10 minutes, where you could not go wrong. TLDR: The story is great, but too little gameplay.
Jan 29, 2024
3
This is a visual novel with very minimal gaming "experience". A cliche story, but can be chill to play. It's also very short, and superficial. The time skips are crazy though.
3/10, won't redeem, sir.
SummaryCook 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 famil... Read More
