Game Roundup #1

Storyteller, Venba, Strange Horticulture

I play a lot of small indie games in between bigger, longer games. These games aren’t big enough to warrant their own entries, but I do want to talk about them to get them out of my system and possibly recommend them. I will be doing game roundups to do this. The games under these game roundups are generally great to wind down with after a long day.

I hope you will get something good out of this, dear reader!

Storyteller

Played on: iPad
My Playtime: Unsure as iPad doesn’t keep track of it (but around 2 hours)

This is a little gem of a puzzle game. I had my eye on it for a long time and when it came out as a free Netflix game, I immediately grabbed it.

This game is about building little stories using characters, settings and events, with just a title as your clue. The art, the music, the “voice acting” are all impeccable.

Developer’s Foresight is in full force in this game, enabling you to do weird things with the characters and settings. There are different ways to achieve the end result, and if you ever look up a guide, you might be surprised that the guide differs from what you ended up doing in the game.

I absolutely enjoyed opening this game on my iPad before sleeping, and going through the levels as if they are bedtime stories. It was so satisfying to try out different scenarios.

The idea of this game is fantastic and I’m so happy that it is free with a Netflix account, because I cannot justify the price tag on Steam. It is a delightful experience, but if I ended up paying the full price for this, I can imagine that I’d be a little disgruntled. The issue is that it is a hard balance. As lovely as the idea is, making a longer game with the same mechanics can end up being dull after some time. So maybe 2 hours worth of gameplay time is good. But then again, it is not a cheap game. And THEN AGAIN, I’d like the developers to be paid well. So like I said, it is a hard balance.

They put out a DLC recently with the same levels (which is included in the Netflix version) but the “devil” messes with the story, and it was also pretty great. But again, you can be done with that in an hour, max. I think if they could somehow make a level creator and we can play community levels, it would elevate the game so much more. It is good enough as it is, so I would definitely recommend it, but being able to play more levels would certainly be fun.

Venba

Played on: Steam Deck (Windows)
My Playtime: 1.5 hours

This was the first game I downloaded on my Steam Deck as soon as I set up the Windows dual boot (which was a pain, seriously) and got the Game Pass. Venba had been in my wishlist for so long, I was waiting for it to come out. Then I heard it was on Game Pass, so I decided to wait until I installed Windows on my little monster of a machine that is the Steam Deck.

Venba is a game about an Indian mom who immigrated to Canada with her family in the 1980s. As Venba, you will cook various dishes and restore old recipes while going through moments of her life. This game does not shy away from difficult topics such as immigration, racism, alienation from your peers, or even the loss of a loved one. Venba’s journey reflects the ups and downs of real life, and you will be a witness as she overcomes her struggles.

I have mixed feelings about this game. Turkish culture and Indian culture have their similarities, particularly in their approach to food and family. So I related to some of the themes in the game, but as I’m not an immigrant, that aspect was new to me. It’s not my place to say if they nailed the experience of being an immigrant or not, but I will say that I was entranced by the story. The characters’ struggles really came out as genuine, and I wanted them to find happiness. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always work out that way and our characters have conflicts and issues that they need to work on. The food looked delicious, and the art style is nothing short of amazing.

My biggest issue with the game was its length and the lack of gameplay. The cooking puzzles were almost infuriatingly easy, the choices you made during the dialogues did not matter. The game took me around 1.5 hours, and I wasn’t in a hurry. It could easily be completed in an hour. I feel like the game did not want to make the players frustrated by creating more complex puzzles, but as a result, it suffered from poor gameplay. They had some clever ideas (Kavin not being able to read Tamil very well, so the recipes were more of a challange) but the execution was lacking. I wanted to rack my brain more, dammit!

It might seem like I’m dunking on the game, but I’m only doing it out of love. I just stop playing games I have no interest in, and Venba kept me going enough to warrant a section in this newsletter. I wanted to absolutely adore this game, but because of these shortcomings, I ended up liking it, but not to the point where it became one of my favorites. I can see how Venba may resonate with people who can relate to it more, and I can openly acknowledge that I am not really in the target demographic for the game. So if you say that this game just doesn’t want to BE my favorite game, that I’m not the target audience, you are very valid.

I have to say, I really want to learn to cook the dishes in the game. Some of the dishes looked mouth-wateringly tasty! I had to keep myself from going to the kitchen to look for snacks in the middle of the night. Apparently, the devs are working on some sort of cooking DLC, and I WILL be getting my hands on it!

Strange Horticulture

Played on: Steam Deck
My Playtime: 9 hours

If you are into “dark academia aestethics”, you will adore this game. In this game, you assume the role of a horticulturist and give your customers various plants based on their requirements and/or how you want the story to go. It has obcurely magical plants that can open locks or alter minds, it has a vintage map that you can use to discover new places, and it has a black cat that purrs anytime you pet it! Really, can you even ask for more from a game?

The story of this game is surprisingly a complex one. It starts out slow, then you start connecting the dots and making sense of some things you didn’t understand before. I gave this game a try in back in April, but didn’t pay enough attention to the conversations and the plot. My life was pretty hectic around those times. Not understanding the plot, I dropped it even though the puzzles were actually very fun.

Then October came, and I was ready to give it a try again. This time, I paid super close attention to all the details and tried keeping track of the customers. And let me tell you, it was an amazing experience. The game manages to be dark and calming. It feels very good to open the map and collect plants from various places by figuring out the vague hints given by your customers or from the cards you pull at the end of the day.

Every day is a different chapter, and customers come to you for herbal solutions to their problems (no, not like that… well, maybe some of them like that, now that I think about it). You have a book that helps you identify the plants you collect, and it lists the effects of the plants, which you can use to help your customers. Usually there will be a simple drawing of the plant to help you identify it, but they may be misleading so it is better to read everything carefully.

The appeal of this game is definitely the dark vibes and aesthetics. Even though it looks gloomy, I found it very relaxing as there was no time rush. The only times I was anxious were when I had to choose between two plants, which would have different consequences during the ending, or when I got some things wrong and “a rising dread” was taking over me. The Rising Dread mechanic is essentially your health, and getting puzzles wrong lowers your health by hurting your mind. The way the game does this is admittedly creepy, and the skull in the meter does not help. But it renews every in-game day, so you can have a fresh start every chapter.

The mechanics of the gameplay get more complex as time goes on, and I actually wished we could use some of them more. Still, it was very satisfying to solve the puzzles, so to speak. I recommend turning on the “auto-labeling” option when you begin the game, because if you are not a very organized person like me, I assure you that you will forget to label them and will have to look for it again. Some people like the challange and turn off auto-labeling, but that person is certainly not me.

Halloween may be over now, but this is the perfect game to play in Autumn season!