Really good, unexpected 11h VN with a cool minigame. The story is not about being a bartender. Specific drinks are needed to unlock extra dialogs and endings, so its worth a second playthrough with a guide. Take a drink, lay back and time to mix drinks and change lives
Va-11 Hall-a is a sweet story that has everything placed where it should. Jill is an amazing character that sticks in your mind, same with every character that walks into the bar. The presentation of each character's struggles is great, it's engaging, it's meaningful.
What is it that I look for in a video game? What is it that I look for in any form of media? The determining factors that can make or break the entire experience for me? When I interact with a medium like this, be it game, movie, or otherwise, I'm looking for a world. A world that I can look into and appreciate, examine, feel every aspect. A world that knows how to pull you in, using every tool it has available. VA-11 Hall-A, and its cyberpunk dystopia they call Glitch City, is precisely what I'm looking for.
This is not a world you are meant to appreciate, though. This is, as stated earlier, a dystopia, run down by the corporations and awful governing bodies that tower over it and its citizens, criminalistic and morally bankrupt at every turn, where dreams struggle to make it out alive or die trying. Yet, despite it all, there's a place of respite. A bar tucked away from the public eye, and a glance into a story that doesn't belong to you, but to a cold, tired woman on the verge of losing it all, whether she knows the full extent of it or not.
Amidst the cyberpunk bartender action, you will meet new faces, a large majority of which are already well acquainted with the game's protagonist, Jill Stingray. Immediately, you'll notice that, in a sense, there is no beginning to this story. There's no need to formally introduce everyone, as this is just another day on the job for Jill, mixing drinks and changing lives as she does for the regulars of Valhalla. Through these customers, you'll soon recognize the depravity of Glitch City. Customers of all shapes and sizes, all different motives and purposes will stumble into the bar each and every day, yet life proceeds as normal for the citizens of the city, and through listening to their story and talking to them, over time, you get used to them. Everyone you talk to has a story, no matter how minor, and those stories can change everything you know and believe. Valhalla gives these characters a place to be vulnerable and speak their mind, giving the player a glance into even more stories, the awful pasts that bring one to where they are now.
But a story isn’t what makes a world. Not alone, at least. A world isn’t complete without its environment and atmosphere, and VA-11 Hall-A nails this aspect stunningly. Michael “Garoad” Kelly’s work on this game’s soundtrack is a damn masterpiece for every scenario, complemented by the jukebox system that integrates the music into the world of the bar seamlessly. To speak a little more personally, this is easily my favorite soundtrack to come out of any video game. Just launching the game and listening to its title screen is enough to get me emotional, knowing full well what’s to come. Making it past that, things only get better with tracks like Safe Haven playing outside of the bar, and the wide list of songs to select during your work, with such beautiful standouts like Synthestitch, Snowfall, and the classic Every Day Is Night, not to mention the way it all meshes perfectly with the PC-98 aesthetic of VA-11 Hall-A’s entire interface. Everything just feels so natural, as it should. The songs that play each day are handpicked by you, the player, at the start of every shift, making it that much easier to immerse yourself in this short glimpse into Jill’s life.
It all comes together to make the perfect world I look for in an experience. The perfect, imperfect world. It is this imperfect world that I fell into so quickly all those years ago. Only starting out as me stumbling across some screenshots a friend of mine posted way back, a silly conversation between Jill and Alma. I laughed, and grew curious, not only by the humor of the moment, but by everything that was presented to me. I still remember that first playthrough. Watching as characters I would grow attached to would disappear for days upon weeks, I would let out an audible gasp upon seeing them again, just to indulge in their casual musings yet again. The sharp twists and turns of this story would break out, and the entire mood would shift dramatically. Characters would grow weary, concerned, Jill herself would lose the cool demeanor her customers had gotten so accustomed to, and the music would become much more somber. All of it, from the brutal reality the protagonist had suddenly been thrust into, to the despondent music I had selected to play by my own hand, it all just felt… natural. Despite the physically unnatural circumstances of the city and its residents, every story I had read felt natural, but I never felt like I was a part of it. Because I wasn’t. It was all just a crucial chapter of Jill’s own story, not the beginning, nor the end. Life went on, for everyone involved, and I found myself holding its precious moments close to me, through multiple replays and reminiscences of the world I had fallen in love with.
And it is in this world, where I can find myself at my most vulnerable. VA-11 Hall-A brings out the emotion in me that few other games can so easily, just as the bar itself does so regularly with its clientele. From day one, I have, and forever will hold this experience closest to my heart, and I will surely do the same with whatever story is to be told in the future with its sequel.
This is my favorite game of all time. The perfect blend of every element I look for in a video game, in a show, in any form of art. This warm and comforting feeling, even in the face of such a brutal environment as this. This is what I would happily call a perfect game. The perfect game.
Cheers to eight years of cyberpunk bartender action.
This is not a world you are meant to appreciate, though. This is, as stated earlier, a dystopia, run down by the corporations and awful governing bodies that tower over it and its citizens, criminalistic and morally bankrupt at every turn, where dreams struggle to make it out alive or die trying. Yet, despite it all, there's a place of respite. A bar tucked away from the public eye, and a glance into a story that doesn't belong to you, but to a cold, tired woman on the verge of losing it all, whether she knows the full extent of it or not.
Amidst the cyberpunk bartender action, you will meet new faces, a large majority of which are already well acquainted with the game's protagonist, Jill Stingray. Immediately, you'll notice that, in a sense, there is no beginning to this story. There's no need to formally introduce everyone, as this is just another day on the job for Jill, mixing drinks and changing lives as she does for the regulars of Valhalla. Through these customers, you'll soon recognize the depravity of Glitch City. Customers of all shapes and sizes, all different motives and purposes will stumble into the bar each and every day, yet life proceeds as normal for the citizens of the city, and through listening to their story and talking to them, over time, you get used to them. Everyone you talk to has a story, no matter how minor, and those stories can change everything you know and believe. Valhalla gives these characters a place to be vulnerable and speak their mind, giving the player a glance into even more stories, the awful pasts that bring one to where they are now.
But a story isn’t what makes a world. Not alone, at least. A world isn’t complete without its environment and atmosphere, and VA-11 Hall-A nails this aspect stunningly. Michael “Garoad” Kelly’s work on this game’s soundtrack is a damn masterpiece for every scenario, complemented by the jukebox system that integrates the music into the world of the bar seamlessly. To speak a little more personally, this is easily my favorite soundtrack to come out of any video game. Just launching the game and listening to its title screen is enough to get me emotional, knowing full well what’s to come. Making it past that, things only get better with tracks like Safe Haven playing outside of the bar, and the wide list of songs to select during your work, with such beautiful standouts like Synthestitch, Snowfall, and the classic Every Day Is Night, not to mention the way it all meshes perfectly with the PC-98 aesthetic of VA-11 Hall-A’s entire interface. Everything just feels so natural, as it should. The songs that play each day are handpicked by you, the player, at the start of every shift, making it that much easier to immerse yourself in this short glimpse into Jill’s life.
It all comes together to make the perfect world I look for in an experience. The perfect, imperfect world. It is this imperfect world that I fell into so quickly all those years ago. Only starting out as me stumbling across some screenshots a friend of mine posted way back, a silly conversation between Jill and Alma. I laughed, and grew curious, not only by the humor of the moment, but by everything that was presented to me. I still remember that first playthrough. Watching as characters I would grow attached to would disappear for days upon weeks, I would let out an audible gasp upon seeing them again, just to indulge in their casual musings yet again. The sharp twists and turns of this story would break out, and the entire mood would shift dramatically. Characters would grow weary, concerned, Jill herself would lose the cool demeanor her customers had gotten so accustomed to, and the music would become much more somber. All of it, from the brutal reality the protagonist had suddenly been thrust into, to the despondent music I had selected to play by my own hand, it all just felt… natural. Despite the physically unnatural circumstances of the city and its residents, every story I had read felt natural, but I never felt like I was a part of it. Because I wasn’t. It was all just a crucial chapter of Jill’s own story, not the beginning, nor the end. Life went on, for everyone involved, and I found myself holding its precious moments close to me, through multiple replays and reminiscences of the world I had fallen in love with.
And it is in this world, where I can find myself at my most vulnerable. VA-11 Hall-A brings out the emotion in me that few other games can so easily, just as the bar itself does so regularly with its clientele. From day one, I have, and forever will hold this experience closest to my heart, and I will surely do the same with whatever story is to be told in the future with its sequel.
This is my favorite game of all time. The perfect blend of every element I look for in a video game, in a show, in any form of art. This warm and comforting feeling, even in the face of such a brutal environment as this. This is what I would happily call a perfect game. The perfect game.
Cheers to eight years of cyberpunk bartender action.
Jill is cute.
Personagens incrivelmente carismáticos e um mundo que parece ser tão real que chega a doer. Não é o tipo de coisa que agrada todo mundo, mas pra quem gosta é definitivamente uma das melhores experiências do gênero!
This review contains spoilers
i liked it a lot, we have a winner.
the atmosphere and vibes are immaculate. the art is fantastic, and so is the music. the characters are all wildly varied, ranging from sex worker AIs to totally not J Jonah Jameson from spiderman. but despite this variance, all(besides one, but we'll get to her) are written incredibly well, and with a great deal of complexity that unravels as the days go by. because of the nature of the bar, youre always wondering when youre favorite could possibly show up again, some are definitely more regular than others but its moments like Donnovan busting in 2 weeks later only because he was chasing kira miki that really make you appreciate seeing them again. the characters have their own lives outside the bar, but youre always on your toes waiting for certain oddballs to show up again.
the game's never too dark in it's tone, either. glitch city is a great place to learn about, and this game has solidified me enjoying what ill tentatively name 'papers please-likes'. it's just a really cool way of unraveling a story, being in a single stationary location learning about the hustle and bustle/goings on of people through mundane jobs. something i commend both va11 and retroactively papers please on is the money management aspect of it. i was totally more immersed bc every drink counted when you might not have enough for the huge sum. i was spending shit willy nilly on knicknacks throughout the first week but i had to slow down and barely made my electric bill and rent. really makes you feel how awful it is to have to pay these exorbitant costs and to even consider purposefully giving regulars expensive drinks to make ends meet. frankly, it probably hits a lot harder in the 2024 economy than it did back in 2016 when it launched. and thats another thing, the fact that 8 dollars has basically ballooned into 80 dollars is crazy, just another thing that adds to the worldbuilding.
character art is great. sprites are all beautiful, and all definitely pfp worthy(kira miki best girl tho). music is a banger too. gameplay is simple but engaging enough, and frankly makes me more interested in learning about drinks than anything else ever has.
theres one fatal flaw this game has. ANNA. she has no explanation, she is a nuisance and is never resolved. takes me out of the experience and i wish she wasnt included. i was considering a 10 but seriously she just bumped down the score.
the games a great one, and i can see how it has so many 10s. tons of my friends gas it up and its definitely worth that praise. the dev has earned my trust and i will definitely pick up nirvana on day 1. it also makes me giddy to think that jill and dana might be customers in that one.
the atmosphere and vibes are immaculate. the art is fantastic, and so is the music. the characters are all wildly varied, ranging from sex worker AIs to totally not J Jonah Jameson from spiderman. but despite this variance, all(besides one, but we'll get to her) are written incredibly well, and with a great deal of complexity that unravels as the days go by. because of the nature of the bar, youre always wondering when youre favorite could possibly show up again, some are definitely more regular than others but its moments like Donnovan busting in 2 weeks later only because he was chasing kira miki that really make you appreciate seeing them again. the characters have their own lives outside the bar, but youre always on your toes waiting for certain oddballs to show up again.
the game's never too dark in it's tone, either. glitch city is a great place to learn about, and this game has solidified me enjoying what ill tentatively name 'papers please-likes'. it's just a really cool way of unraveling a story, being in a single stationary location learning about the hustle and bustle/goings on of people through mundane jobs. something i commend both va11 and retroactively papers please on is the money management aspect of it. i was totally more immersed bc every drink counted when you might not have enough for the huge sum. i was spending shit willy nilly on knicknacks throughout the first week but i had to slow down and barely made my electric bill and rent. really makes you feel how awful it is to have to pay these exorbitant costs and to even consider purposefully giving regulars expensive drinks to make ends meet. frankly, it probably hits a lot harder in the 2024 economy than it did back in 2016 when it launched. and thats another thing, the fact that 8 dollars has basically ballooned into 80 dollars is crazy, just another thing that adds to the worldbuilding.
character art is great. sprites are all beautiful, and all definitely pfp worthy(kira miki best girl tho). music is a banger too. gameplay is simple but engaging enough, and frankly makes me more interested in learning about drinks than anything else ever has.
theres one fatal flaw this game has. ANNA. she has no explanation, she is a nuisance and is never resolved. takes me out of the experience and i wish she wasnt included. i was considering a 10 but seriously she just bumped down the score.
the games a great one, and i can see how it has so many 10s. tons of my friends gas it up and its definitely worth that praise. the dev has earned my trust and i will definitely pick up nirvana on day 1. it also makes me giddy to think that jill and dana might be customers in that one.