VA-11 HALL-A review
VA-11
HALL-A : Cyberpunk Bartender Action Review
“Come in, Have a drink, And tell me your story”
Warning : Mild
Spoilers Ahead! (I’ll tell where)
- · Overview and First Impressions
VA-11 HALL-A : Cyberpunk Bartender
Action (too long of a name so I’ll just call it Valhalla : Waifu Bartending
instead) is a bartending simulation with
Visual novel style storytelling developed by Sukeban games whose
previous game is a flat out visual novel and published by Ysbryd Games on 2016.
To be honest I’m not a visual novel enthusiast and this is the first time I
review a visual novel so this might be new for me and my game reviewing
activity. At first I get this game because of the phrase “Waifu Bartending”
since I am an anime enthusiast and played this game twice far back in 2016 with
good impressions that stuck with me for more than a year, recently I played it
again and what do you know this game has a unique mechanic built into it and it
worked.
- · Story overview
We play as Jill, a bartender
working in small a bar named VA-11 HALL-A inside the city called Glitch City
serving drinks to various types of clients starting from a random guy, a cat
girl with cyber eyes, a talking shiba inu, to a sex worker robot girl that
looked like an underaged kid. I shit you not, she is on the legal age yet looks
underaged girl that understands all the sexual innuendos thrown at her. While
serving drinks Jill also listens to her clients stories and worries and talk
with the clients. The story revolves around what happened around Jill rather
than focusing too much on Jill herself unlike the typical visual novel where
the story revolves around one character with the exception of the second half of the game after some
stuff happened. After work she also has to deal with her bills ranging from
electric bills, apartment rent, and porn subscription. I shit you not, porn
subscription.
- · In-game Mechanics
Unlike a typical Visual novel where
you can literally save anytime, anywhere in this game you can only save on two
occasions which are before going to work or during breaks so you can plan your
playthrough accordingly. The other thing that is unique to this game is that to
progress the story towards the ending that you desire or not depends on what
drinks you serve certain clients and how you financially manage your money
before work so you can decide to go for a bad ending first or the good ending
first, unlike the usual Visual Novel style which you just pick from a selection
of dialogues and hope you don’t get a bad ending and yes this game has multiple
endings so multiple play is encouraged.
Serving drinks also has its
mechanics in that you have to put certain ingredients on certain amounts and ad
ice or let it age and then you either mix it or blend it, all of that can be
done with simple click and drag. There are drinks that are straight as the
recipe suggests and there are drinks that you can add more alcohol you can make
the client even more drunk and all that goes to the story progression mechanic,
you can even make the drink bigger to get more money out of clients or just
leave it at normal size. Certain drinks for certain clients can also trigger
certain events in-game that most players might overlook on their first play. In
Visual novel sometimes all you have to do is load a certain save file to redo
the same event wishing for different result through different dialog choices
after you finish the game for the first time, unless you are a 1 save slot guy
like me this kind of trick also exists in this game but I don’t like it that
much. After you finish your first playthrough there are NG+ mechanics where all
you bought in previous playthrough carry over to the next and this is a good
feature considering there are management elements in this game though not that
important for those who are used to Visual Novels.
Just
click and drag when an order is up
- · OST, and Jukebox
To be honest I find the OST to be
not that memorable and it is different from being a bad OST since the OST is
not bad at all in fact some of them are great, sure the music is quite catchy
in its own right but I find the music
only serves as background noise like when you turn on the TV and get to some
random channel but you don’t actually watch it and just turn it on for the
background noise. The music goes for the retro gaming aesthetic with some song
catching that cyberpunk feel quite well but the rest of it is just to fill the
jukebox. There are some unlockable OST that can be gained through simple play
(although the number of those can be counted with 1 hand) and there are many
that are unlockable to buy after you finish the first playthrough AKA going
NG+.
Is this bad design? I don’t think
so and I like to be incentivized to collect them all since most NG+ are simply
another chance to 100% complete the game, not to mention this is a Visual Novel
where playing again to unlock other endings are encouraged. Going to the topic
of jukebox you have to fill the jukebox to the maximum number of songs to start
your work as a bartender and to be honest I find this obligation annoying to do
and what I do is simply random picked all the songs and use the same set for
the entire gameplay while occasionally change one or two songs to get that
feeling where you are in a small downtown bar since the OSTs are not that
memorable to begin with.
- · Graphics, and writing
For the record, this is my first
time reviewing a Visual Novel and I rarely play this genre so this might be the
worst part of the review so bear with me on this part.
This game goes for the anime type of character
arts, that much is obvious when the official website is called waifu bartending
but to go a bit deeper the color palette evokes that of a retro game (late SNES
era I think) and this is quite good for me personally since this is
eye-catching and evokes a bit of nostalgia since I am looking for a retro
looking game first time playing it. For anime enthusiasts (me included) there
might be some characters you can consider a “waifu” candidate, I’ll tell mine
later.
For the writing of this game, I
think it captures the dystopian cyberpunk feeling quite well with themes of
corruption across the government to stories about living in the worst part of
the city although some dialog will feel a little bit annoying and let me tell
you that there are lots of easter eggs inside this game. Like I said before the
story revolves around what’s happening around jill since Jill will be working
as a bartender so she learns as her clients tell her whatever happens in glitch
city. Whatever the clients tell her she just responds accordingly without
getting too invested in it be it after some bad stuff happened to her clients
before entering the bar or something else. If we’re talking about most Visual
Novels the protagonist might get a bit too involved with a certain character
one way or another but this game feels a bit more realistic since in actuality
she has problems of her own in her daily life. In short the writings revolve
around her clients for at least the first part and interactions felt a bit real
since we are not just dealing with random person who asks for their drinks and
leave, at least in my opinion.
Sums up my
life pretty well LOL
- · Playing experience : Fun or not? (Mild spoilers inside, I will tell again if fun or not in conclusion)
Across
my time of play there are definitely some conversations that catch my
attention, like when a client talks about breast size and for me many conversations
hits home quite hard. The mechanics are also functional although I have little
gripes with the clickbox of certain items but it turns out I just have to play
slowly, after all this game is best experienced as comfortable as you are and
at your own pace.
The
ultimate argument regarding favorite sizes (I think)
Let me tell you this, after a few
hours of playing this game you will have memorized some recipes since there are
patterns of how much an ingredient is added in some drinks that makes
memorizing a bit easier. Another pro tip : if you are playing in windowed then
I suggest opening a notepad to take notes of what drinks the clients prefer and
sometimes to remember what the order is should you are distracted at the moment.
The second half of the game is a little bit gut punching since there are moments
that even after you got spoiled (in my case by playing it twice) can still
leave an impact in your mind, and that for me is the proof that the writing if
not great is memorable. The ending also comes in an unexpected way (I got the bad
ending BTW) but this is again a visual novel which encourages multiple
playthrough.
Playing this game is simply FUN since there are stuffs that normal
visual novel don’t have but sadly there are no special CG for certain events
and are explained through various ways but this is definitely a fresh spin on
the Visual Novel genre that I find memorable. In short I buy and play this for
the waifu but came out thinking about important stuffs in our daily life since
some of them hits home that hard and to simply play this game for the waifu is
missing the point but I can’t blame you for that. My favorite character is the
cyber eye catgirl, it caters to all my…… favorite characteristics.
No special
CG but oh well
- · Conclusion
VA-11 HALL-A is definitely a fresh
spin to the Visual Novel genre that adds a unique mechanics not seen in any Visual
Novels (at the time of writing). Mechanics are functional with minor gripes
that can be ignored and you are encouraged to play the game slowly and
comfortably, music is good but not that memorable, and the writing kind of
passes for my standards (the standard of those who almost never play Visual
Novel aside from the eroge kind). Is it fun? It is FUN. Recommended? Worth checking
out.
This game is for :
- Gamers who have played Visual Novel before and looking for fresh spins
- Anime enthusiasts (no judging, I am one too)
- Loves cyberpunk theme and vibe
- Loves playing games slowly and as comfortable as possible
This game is not for :
- Players who want action and faster paced gameplay (dislikes visual novels)
- Players who dislikes anime aesthetics (no judging)
- Players who dislike retro gaming aesthetics
Final score
and verdict : 7.5/10 “a fresh and
memorable spin to the established ways
of the Visual Novel genre”
Recommendation
:Definitely Worth Checking out
The game
can be bought on steam and here is the link should you be interested to play :
thank you
for reading, and if you have any comments or further advice for reviews (especially
the Visual Novel games) then leave it in the comments!
Comments
Post a Comment