Venba has been announced to launch on Xbox Game Pass later this year. It is one of several games that was already planned for other platforms but will soon be available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.
Xbox Game Pass has been host to many of the most acclaimed indie games of the past few years with Tunic, Vampire Survivors, and Hollow Knight being some of the best games currently available on PC Game Pass. By being available on the increasingly popular Game Pass service, indie games that players might have otherwise missed out on are now far more accessible. The inclusion of these games is one of the biggest examples of Microsoft highlighting indie games in a manner similar to Nintendo's Indie World presentations.
A highlight from the November 2022 Indie World presentation was Venba, a narrative cooking game from developer Visai Games which was announced to be releasing for Switch and PC. A new announcement made today by the Venba Twitter account shows that the game will now be coming to PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S this spring. Additionally, Venba will be launching on Xbox Game Pass, joining the service's growing roster of indie games.
Venba takes place in 1980s Canada and has players in the role of the titular Venba, an Indian mother who immigrated to the country with her family. Cooking in Venba is treated similarly to puzzles in adventure games as players must follow recipes in a specific order but with the added inclusion of authentic Indian cooking and a story revolving around family and food. Games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Stardew Valley have included cooking as a mechanic similar to crafting, but Venba falls more in line with more immersive cooking games that have cooking as the primary gameplay mechanic like Overcooked and Epic Chef.
Some of the most prominent and influential indie games in recent years are those that play on older styles of game design that are not as common today. This can be seen with Tunic which is consistently compared to The Legend of Zelda games like A Link to the Past but with many of its own original ideas. Venba similarly plays off of classic adventure games like the King's Quest and Monkey Island series but with a culinary and cultural twist that makes it distinct. With Venba slated to release this spring, gamers with Xbox Game Pass will not have to wait much longer to see what it brings to the table.
Venba will release for PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in Spring 2023.