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.

What a bitch.

I did two playthoughs: one time as mean as possible, and one time trying to be a good friend. Both times Emily was boring, whiny, selfish, self-pitying, and constantly looking for flaws in other people. You can't be her friend, you can't be her partner, you can't help her out an abusive relationship, you can't have sex without being accused of coercion and assault. I also hated the way romantic narratives seemed to appear without any prompting--if Emma's my friend, she's my friend, no need to insinuate I'm secretly pining for her. I'm not sure if there's a path through to a good relationship with Emily, but I lack the social dexterity to navigate it.

Aside from a bit of heavy-handed nostalgia, what was the point here? I never would've befriended someone like Emily in the first place, if her whole personality is anything like what we see over these five years. Coming of age, growing apart from the people you once were close with, abusive partnerships, even the ephemeral nature of online relationships and post-Internet communication--these are all topics with a lot of potential emotional and narrative depth. Sadly, "Emily Is Away" can't be bothered to start digging.