Over an incredibly brisk runtime, Venba deftly handles themes of immigration, integration, assimilation, and cultural appropriation. In terms of gameplay itself, Venba is similar to a visual novel with cooking minigames. But the cooking sections are great. Real life cooking knowledge will actually benefit you (cook your onions longer, fry your aromatics before adding other ingredients). I was thrilled by these little details, being a passionate home cook myself. But even if you’re not, you will figure it out eventually.

Venba avoids typical pitfalls of immigrant narratives that boil the essence of immigration down to “we worked very hard to give you a better life; we have succeeded because we worked hard” (true for some, not all). many many many families, including but not solely immigrant families, work incredibly hard and still won’t thrive (or even survive) in the promised land of a western capitalist “meritocracy”. depending on your own experiences, you may agree with Venba, Paavalan, or Kavin, but there are no right answers here. Did Venba and Paavalan make the right choice? I don’t know, but this is really nice.