For those indie game lovers out there, Alyana looks back on the games featured in the recent Indie Direct held by Nintendo in November and highlights some of her favourites.
Alyana Fatima
Nintendo held their annual Indie World Showcase on the 9th of November to unveil some of the upcoming games from independent developers to be released on the Nintendo Switch, revealing 22 games in total. I will be listing my personal standouts out of the new games coming out.
Venba
Developed by Visai games, Venba is a narrative cooking game where you play as an Indian mother who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. The game uses cooking as a lens to tell the story of the immigrant family from the perspective of the mother as they grow and change and involves trying to reconnect with her heritage by cooking a variety of traditional foods and dishes and restoring lost family recipes.
A heart-warming story of love and loss
You also experience a heart-warming story of love and loss through conversations with her son and husband – all to a soundtrack inspired by Indian music. As a South Asian, I am delighted to see this beautiful representation in a video game that we haven’t seen before in the media, and will definitely be picking up this game when it’s released next spring.
Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly
The sequel for the original and much-loved coffee brewing and heart-to-heart simulator is set to be released later in 2023. In this narrative-driven visual novel, you play as a barista in your own late-night coffee shop, meet all the quirky characters and listen to their life stories.
Features a cosy lo-fi soundtrack
As you progress you can eventually learn and make each customer’s usual coffee order as you get to know them more. The game also features a cosy lo-fi soundtrack. I was a huge fan of the original game and fell in love with all the characters, and am so excited for the sequel!
Sports Story
The highly anticipated sequel to the smash hit indie game Golf Story is set to be released later this month. It is an RPG where you can rise through the sports world by playing a massive range of games such as football, volleyball, cricket, tennis and of course golf, raising your ranking to unlock new disciplines including BMX and mini golf.
Definitely worth playing
There are also other elements such as shopping, fishing, and dungeon quests. You can explore multiple different areas such as abandoned ruins and forests, meaning this game is so much more than just sports. This game is definitely worth playing as it has so much content bundled into it.
Botany Manor
The atmosphere of the game is peaceful
In this exploration puzzle-based game, Arabella Greene, a retired botanist, explores a manor in the 19th century. You take care of the gardens by solving plant-based puzzles and preserving a collection of forgotten flora. You can discover seeds, plant them and find an ideal habitat for them. To guide you along this journey you explore and inspect the manor for clues through newspaper clippings or letters. The atmosphere of the game is peaceful and cosy and is set to release later next year.
Dordogne
This is a narrative adventure game in which you play as 32-year-old Mimi who is visiting the house of her recently deceased grandmother. She tries to search for her forgotten childhood memories via letters and puzzles left behind by her grandmother, to remind her to make the most of life.
Colourful, beautifully drawn
In this colourful, beautifully drawn region, Mimi immerses herself in her childhood memories as you play as her as a 10-year-old, while also jumping back to her present timeline. You collect photos, sounds, and objects to keep in Mimi’s journal. This beautiful nostalgia-based coming-of-age game is set to be released later in 2023.
Alyana Fatima
Featured image courtesy of @Enrique Vidal Flores via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In-article video 1 courtesy of Venba Game via YouTube. No changes were made to this video.
In-article video 2 courtesy of Nintendo of America via Youtube. No changes were made to this video.
In-article video 3 courtesy of Nintendo of America via Youtube. No changes were made to this video.
In-article video 4 courtesy of Nintendo of America via Youtube. No changes were made to this video.
In-article video 5 courtesy of Nintendo of America via YouTube. No changes were made to this video.
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