9/10

I don't gravitate towards visual novels because I generally would rather just read a book, whether it's a comic book or a novel. I do try to play a couple a year, just to get some variety in my playing habits. VA-11 HALL-A is one that you need to play if you're a fan of the genre or are looking to get into it. This is top notch stuff, both in storytelling and presentation.

You are Jill, a bartender in a bar in a futuristic society. The game consists of you dealing with regulars and your co-workers, while also mixing drinks according to the preferences and demands of the people who visit the bar. There are no conversation options; in their place are the drinks you make, which is your way of making decisions. If you give them what they want, you will get a different response than if you fuck up. It's an interesting way to do things, but it's not without a flaw.

Mixing drinks gets tedious. Most of the time it consists of you merely opening your book, finding the recipe, and then dragging the ingredients into a glass. Most people will tell you exactly what they want, but occasionally you do have to make choices, whether it's them being vague or talking in riddles. You also have to make money in order to pay bills and buy things you want. It's not exciting, coming off as filler, but it exists to keep this a game. It's also not terrible or enough to sink this wonderful game.

It excels with its music. You add songs to the jukebox each day and those are the songs you hear. There's a nice collection of songs that range from menacing, upbeat, tragic and catchy. It's a treat to listen to these tunes, and starting off my shift with "Digital Drive" (I think that's the name) every time was a highlight.

The visuals are also appropriate, being detailed enough in both the character models and their expressions to make it easier to care about these people. The environment isn't complex, but the developer did a good job of nailing the atmosphere. There's little to complain about here.

Ultimately, a game in this genre has to nail the story and this does it. There isn't a big payoff, no massive conflict that engulfs the player, but it tells a very personal tale. On top of that, getting to know the regulars that frequent your establishment was a joy. Whether it was the robot sex worker, the hacker with the big tits, the journalist, or any of the other people, it was a pleasure. I ended up getting so involved in this life as a bartender, that I could feel what Jill was feeling; the frustration, the happiness, the sadness -- all of it was very much present. After the game was finished I felt some sadness that I won't get to see these people again.

With that said, the game does do a good job of fleshing out its world with the articles you can read or the stuff people say. They have deep conversations on the nature of reality, corruption, violence, sex, etc. It never comes off as hammy and it's always believable. Some of it could be uncomfortable to people, but this is the seedy world of Glitch City.

Make sure to get this game if you haven't. It tells one of the best stories in gaming this year.

The events of VA-11 Hall-A fade in and out with the grace of a good dream. I love that the perspective is 100% devoted to a few weeks of Jill's life, barely giving any exposition. I found not a single thing to break the immersion of this perspective, with every detail being believable. I think Glitch City and VA-11 Hall-A's customers are an accurate estimate of lifestyle in the middle class of Vancouver, BC a century from now. For instance, the mention of a "catgirl craze" from an actual catgirl is really nice and grounded science fiction. Current virtual oddball celebrities like Projekt Melody and Gawr Gura further cement the realism of VA-11 Hall-A's ecosystem.

The art is so fucking good. Macro pixel art like this shows off the souls of characters so well, and every bit of color, in the text and the drink ingredients, vibrates with the soundtrack to formulate a lovely softcore experience.

When Jill retreats to her apartment, one can really feel her comfort, emptiness, and solitude. One gets a sense of what she really cares about, and that it is insignificant compared to the urban ecosystem going on outside.

Naturally VA-11 Hall-A leaves the player unsatisfied because of the way the game is just over. Well, the game is over. I guess I am not Jill from Glitch City with bartending experience. I am... someone else...

I didn't finish VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action. The game simply wasn't for me. The music is the only thing I liked about the game. It's a cool concept, each time you open the bar, you load 12 songs into the jukebox and they're all pretty decent.

I couldn't finish this game because the writing completely irked me; it is extremely horny. The character that most embodies this is Dorothy. Dorothy is a sex robot and talks about sex in a way that I found off putting. There are several mentions of dildos, faking orgasms, big tits, filling up all the holes, etc. On paper it's at least reasonable for a lonely person to strike up these conversations with a bartender at a dive bar. The problem is most of the girls in the game, including Dorothy look UNDERAGE. Of course the game rationalizes this under the guise of "It's cyperpunk, yall, people can mod themselves to whatever they want".

The actual bartending is a useless distraction. It's a puzzle game where the solution is already spelled out for you and all you need to do is execute. There are a few occasions where patrons will ask for something vague and you will need to figure out what to serve them, but whether you serve the right/wrong drink doesn't seem to make much difference.

I find The Red Strings Club a better alternative to VA-11 Hall-A. It's not exactly a game of the year contender, but it packs a bigger punch, in a more condensed narrative without the excessive adolescent sex jokes.

Not every day do you get to play a game like this. Va-11 Hall-A is light on the gameplay (not too light), but hefty on the story.

Taking place in a seedy bar in a vastly futuristic city, you play a bartender who mixes drinks and chats up patrons to make new friends and pay the bills. The simulation system is a more comfortable, un-timed version of simulations like Papers, Please, where you have a guide to make drinks based off of orders from customers, varying from direct suggestions to cues from conversation and riddles. It sounds boring but is actually pretty fun to concoct whatever drinks you think are best, and the choice of drink steers the conversation in interesting directions.

That story, though - it's a fairly non-directed one, as you just welcome patrons and listen to their stories, but the developers at Sukeban really pulled out all the stops to create empathetic, likeable (or unlikeable) characters you bond with, and a main character that you play through that, while having her own voice, gives you a sense of immersion most games don't manage. Combine that with witty dialogue, hilarious moments, and some dramatic moments and you've got a cocktail of characterization that you won't forget for awhile.

The game isn't long or branches out too far, but is incredibly engaging and will encourage at least a playthrough or two to see what customers you can bring in. Va-11 Hall-A is one of the more humanizing games I've seen in awhile; you feel for the characters, bond to them and listen to their stories, crossing sci-fi, sexuality and gender, and just the hard knocks of life into a treat you'll be sad to see go once the credits roll.

Waifu or not, this is some seriously good bartending.

not going to lie, i was torn between giving this game a 2/5 or a 3/5 because i'm not sure where i sit between "liked it" and "didn't like it". it's one of those games where the more time has passed since i've played it, the less i like it.

concept-wise: absolutely loved it. i like little games like this where you get to exist around a story taking place instead of being the story. there's just something really neat about that, and i think this game handles it very well. you get to feel like you're a part of these characters' lives, without really being the hero of The Story, or even their stories.

character-wise... is where this starts having issues for me. all the characters are pretty consistently written, and most of that writing is good technical quality, it's just... there's a lot of sensitive topics being brought up, and handled, and in my opinion they are not brought up or handled well, and it's what sours my feelings for this game as time goes on.

if that's not something that matters to you, then, whatever, you can probably ignore the rest of this. if it is though, then... that's where i'm stuck not knowing what to rate this game. i guess i just feel like topics such as (but not limited to) drug addiction and pedophilia need a bit more careful handling than just "making jokes but in a totally woke way i swear". especially when this type of jokes and careless handling show up in significant chunks of the game, to the point where i don't really feel like i'd want to play this again.

Came across the soundtrack, loved it, saw some screenshots and remembered the game. That said, the soundtrack in this game by Garoad is really top notch, so do get it. It's a great retro/jazzy/noir feel really hauntingly beautiful, complements the game well... but gee, you rarely come across music in a game this good and completely compositely whole in and of itself. It doesn't get better than this. It is a perfect soundtrack.

I immediately found myself liking the art style of this game. It's a catchy look, supposedly based on Snatcher, but in my eyes, there's nothing especially about it that does... It looks more or less like any of those wicked Nipponesey PC-98 game screens you see floating around on tumblr that have been turned into animated sprites. The palette used is perfect. There are smooth animations in the background too, And a few visual effects and other eye candies that sometimes will pop out to keep you on your toes (maybe wake you up?) it all looks very nice, crisp and clean. As you play, it's a joy to look at, and (most importantly) easy to read. The game is good on the eyes. I can't give enough praise about that. I've played games where there is lots of reading and the text is crap and it just kills the the whole thing (Final Fantasy the After years is the WORST) Here it's vital because thats all you are really doing is reading. There is a fullscreen option and it scales nicely on my 1920x1080 monitor. So In this regard you also could not ask for more.

As for the gameplay. This is something different. This is a reading game. It's been described as interactive fiction/adventure, but mostly it's a player character who acts as a vehicle to tell a story (or rather a listening device through which stories the stories of your patrons are heard) and well being a bartender is not a bad gimmick to tell a story, and meet characters, so it works well for what this is, at times it almost feels like a 'sim' or even a jrpg, but it's not... It's fluid and mixes together with the visual aesthetic (that is pleasing to the eyes) that augments the retro feel, in addition to a smooth flowing soundtrack that fits the game all too well. This provides an enjoyable and immersive experience that is tough for me to compare or describe other than it's very holistic and fits nicely together. The game brings with it a sense of presence and realism, in a strange way. some days are good, some arent as good.

My experience with interactive fiction is non existent other than a brief glimpse of Radical Dreamers on SNES (i intend to revisit). Between the visuals and the soundtrack though, you feel the atmosphere very well, so it is perhaps top of it's class as far as an interactive fiction game might go, though I am not sure I can say I am a fan of the genre. I am however a big fan of cyberpunk, and appreciate the PC98 style of art a lot. Game is well done, doesn't feel cheap, or feel like an 'indie game' It is unified and well put together, for what it is. That said I found myself finding it a bit linear at times, but it's trying to tell story. Yet In a way this game is somewhat boring, as a game. The drink mixing aspect is not that interesting, and it's not too game-like. Ultimately, this game is not too 'game-like' However, I like the way drink mixing is done, it's more of a simple puzzle (sort of a mild brain teaser or riddle to solve the client to drink) rather than a damn minigame. It doesnt distract or detract from the story (this is good design imo) There is less emphasis on doing the work of mixing the drink and more of figuring out what to do, doing it, and listening to your client's stories. That's really where the meat of the game is. It's about reading and listening. A lot of this dialogue though, it is just listening to drunk people. (Your enjoyment of the dialogue may very well depend on your tolerance for those under the influence!) Some characters are more pleasant to talk to (or listen to) than others, some are rather unpleasant. Sometimes you really just want some of these patrons OUT (which make it feel almost like a roleplaying game but possibly the strangest role playing I could imagine...). Other times you find them endearing. I would imagine that's as real as it gets. The dialogue is well done, believable, albeit a bit random at times. This is (self described perhaps?) a game you might crack open a drink of your own and have a convo with some game character. Yet you dont have dialogue options.

The loadable jukebox to choose what music the bar plays is a nice touch, though I wish there were more of a way to randomize more of the tracks without fiddling with them if you just want to listen to the whole soundtrack, or more of it (rather than load 20 or so tracks from many pages to pick from) still, this is a nice aesthetic touch. A lot of the way things are done in this game or manage to express themselves just feel right. And in a strange way, immersive? (if that is the proper word) For the most part, it's very well designed. Lots of little details too. There are two things i really love in this game. It's well crafted and perfect the way it is.

Here are some nice touches I was particularly impressed with:

1. Different tones for voices. It's basic. But there is a male (deeper bass tone) and female voice for the scrolling text of each character so as to give them a 'voice' This was osmething done in Evoland (i mention in my review) that really is nice. As you read, it feels right. And while there are two voices in this (male and female) it is better than having one.

2. Names have COLOR association of the character. The color is maybe the color of their hair, or their jacket, some color that distinguishes them. God what a simple idea... I dont' think i've seen this done elsewhere in any RPG? How the hell can that be? There are maybe thousands of games with blue, green, and pink haired anime girls who have something to say... In this game, it is the first in which their names will be displayed in color.

3. Specific minigames in this are actually interesting and add to the story and mesh right in to the dry dialogue 'gameplay.'

Some things I dont quite like are

there is money but no real concept of how to use what you make from the bar. It's just there really. Mostly, you just know you need to pay the rent and i think that you scrounging for cash adds to the atmosphere of some urban desperation (thought its not a big challenge really) You buy meaningless stuff for your apartment and have certain financial goals 'pay rent, etc') but it hardly feels like a management aspect of the game. add to this the fact you get bonuses and rewards for getting drinks right, penalties for giving them what you want (rather than they want) and it seems like the mechanic has no purpose. (warning, if you buy too much crap you could maybe get stuck in the end of the campagin... Again, i don't like this money device) if you run out of money you get a game over ending that so i found out the ending where if you run out of money you get to sleep with alma. this is consideredthe bad ending. haha. yeah how bad!

dialgoue options, even limiited ones would be a bit interesting. it seems there was an idea to use different drinks, extra alcohol laced drinks, or other things like that to be 'decisions' but there would be a lack of agency, and that detracts from the linear narrative approach (and maybe makes things too complicated) FWIW, i am glad the game is linear, and there is no mixology decisions because that would just make things too tricky/clever for what is an otherwise smooth and easy going experience.

In any case this is a sweet title that's bold and different. Interesting, well designed, unusual genre. It's the kind of briliancy and composite wholeness you find when a game is made by one or two people with a strong cohesive vision. Pick it up if you like to chat to NPCs in your RPGs. (I have little to compare it to other than exhausting all the dialogue options of my crew in DA Origins campfire scenes) After completing this game I feel like I will miss some of these characters. It would be nice to see some of them again someday in some form or another.

The working title, waifu bartending, sums up this game pretty well. A visual novel where you act as bartender in a hole-in-the-wall bar, tending to the few regulars and stragglers. You'll meet an unlikely array of characters (many of which could be called waifus), hear their stories, and live your otherwise melancholic life.

The writing excels in interconnecting ideas and topics throughout multiple conversations. Often you'll get multiple takes on the same subject, or people dealing with similar hardships in different ways. It melds the separate conversations with clients into a single piece.

There are some references to other media, most notably Kojima's Snatcher (from which the game's visuals are based) and some minor ones from Metal Gear (the Peace Walker / Phantom Pain era), and Seinfeld (!). Some of them are really good. My favorites are: The protagonist's name is Julianne Stingray, the first name coming from Gillian, the protagonist from Snatcher, and the last name is from a strange random name in Peace Walker, Max Stingray. There's a character, Art Von Delay, based off of George Costanza.

The earliest teaser (proof of concept?) hinted at some pretty deep bartending mechanics, like drink customization and client drunkenness(* edit - see below), but I think the designers chose to nix those, for better or for worse. It would be really interesting if pulled off correctly, but time consuming to make and potentially detract from the writing. What's left is a very basic drink mixing interface, which isn't that fun to use (a lot of clicking and dragging). I think the game would benefit from further simplifying the bartending aspect, but then the novelty of the concept vanishes. A tough call. The little bartending duty left is like remembering client's favorite drink ("I'll have the usual") or deciphering cryptic drink orders ("I'll have the drink named after its maker's best friend"). EDIT: After reading through some of the scripts (they're stored in plaintext) I see that sometimes you can get your clients drunk, but to do so you have to serve them incorrect drinks. How this was hinted at working in the teaser was that you could freely alter the amount of alcohol in a drink (it's a separate ingredient in this world), but now only certain drinks can do this, the others have prescribed amounts of alcohol. So, you can't be a good bartender (serve what they ask) and still get their drunk speech. I'm not too much of an issue, you just need to reload your save a lot, as you get a game over after serving a few wrong drinks in a day.

I should add that there aren't branching paths, but there are a few places where you might miss some dialogue. Essentially you'll have a few "tests" (an obfuscated drink order) where, if you get it right, you'll get a bonus heart-to-heart.

If you're interested, a demo (alpha) and prologue (reflects and leads into the main game) are available for free.