VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

I am not a visual novel fan. Never was, to be honest, even though I love reading. This is why I love playing RPGs, which involve lots of lore, narrative and story. But VA-11 Hall-A literally changed my life. Not many pieces of art can do that. Not every movie, not every composition, not every story. Yet what you face here is inspiring and honest. So, let's do a quick one about every single aspect: 1. Graphics. Amazing art complements the game design. You see a lot of oldschool-styled pictures of characters, menu designs, fonts. The game is styled so nicely that you'll lose yourself in a nostalgia you didn't even know. It looks 90s from the starting screen to the credits. 2. Gameplay. Don't expect too much - but don't forget, your decisions will directly affect the storyline. The process itself is rather easy, quite repetitive, and yet it doesn't turn into routine. Sometimes you need to serve the exact drink you're asked for. Sometimes you must be more liberal in that. Whatever you do, it will change something - sometimes in a small way, and sometimes it will massively affect much later story. Enjoy and experiment. 3. Soundtrack. I'll be honest - I didn't exactly clicked at first. Yet now only "Safe Haven" makes me home, while "Every Day is Night" is my usual while taking a walk in my wet, dark city at night. It will hook you. Not every single composition, but you'll have your associations. Incredible work by Garoad. 4. Story. This will punch you hard. Developers did their best to transmit their own experience onto completely fantastical world. As a main character, you will watch the world change, move and live. But unlike so many other games, you won't really have a chance to change it big time. Nor should you - your main character got her own life, her own troubles. Her own friends with their lives. So you live it...and change it. In short: this game is alive. You'll see if you try. Expect puns, nostalgia and well-written narrative. 10/10. Replaying it weekly.

This is one of, I’d not the finest narrative-centric game I have ever played. When most people laud narrative based experiences, they often reference walking sims like Edith Finch, or poorly written modern ideal praising trash like the Life is Strange series. This game is able to provide opposing viewpoints and interesting discussions without telling you how to feel about specific characters or plot points. It lets you decide who is a positive character and who isn’t. Since it is a game, let’s talk gameplay. It does take a backseat to the narrative but is nonetheless important. Supposedly you can change character interactions by serving them the wrong drinks or by getting them more or less drunk over their visit. The mechanic is kept nebulous about that you don’t even know if it’s working, ala Amnesia TDD’s insanity mechanic. The infrequency of its inclusion also makes perfect sense. People don’t order drinks every second you talk to them. Their style of drink order also rewards your attentiveness. If everyone just said the name of the drink they want, it wouldn’t be that interesting or complicated. It pays to pay attention. The game is very well written, with a cast of likable, or unlikeable, but nonetheless believable and relatable characters whose dialogue and quirkiness carry the title. A great game to play while drunk (duh!) and has a nigh unmatched soundtrack. Get this game!

Yeah, there's barely any gameplay here. You need to mix drinks but you have unlimited attempts and they are easy, there's no time limit. The challenge is PAYING FREAKING ATTENTION. When you are just clicking fast through text, maybe you don't read in time and you don't remember the drink they asked you. The bartender makes a reminder but if you didn't keep her happy (by buying her the stuff she wants every day), she won't remember either. Even if you are paying full attention, maybe it works as a puzzle, maybe the customer don't ask you directly what he or she wants and you need to guess by using clues. Honestly, simple and scarce gameplay but it's a lot of fun when it happens... and that's not the reason to buy the game. Va-11 Hall-A makes a better, deeper and much more interesting Cyberpunk world to put its lore in, than Cyberpunk 2077. People love the city in that game, but Va-11 Hall-A makes a better city WITHOUT EVEN LETTING YOU SEE IT. The city is there, but the only thing you see is your apartment and the bar. However, it's so well described, their culture, their problems, their news, their worries... that you feel like you know that city. And it's really amazing, fascinating stuff. Not for minors, you know, a lot of sex references and some of them a bit... I don't know, creepy from the start. Like robots (lilims) prostitutes with the appearance of kids. Not... a great start. But it doesn't devolve and it uses those creepy setups to make interesting philosophical questions. You need to think of Va-11 Hall-A as a Novel. Graphic novel. It takes probably around 20 hours to beat comfortably, without rushing. It has some secret customers, at least one secret drink (and at least one half-secret drink), and some other secrets and easter eggs. And the music is pretty damn good too. I can't recommend it enough. If you are a calm player that enjoys reading and science fiction, this game is for you.

This game is lovely, I had a blast reading the story and serving drinks. I agree with the other comments that there is no challenge at all in the drink mixing mini game, however it was still pretty pleasurable to self-challenge making them the fastest I could. The characters are all pretty nice, the atmosphere is done great and the soundtrack is one of my favorites in a game ever. I will not say anything about any character or the story itself since I feel a lot of my enjoyment came from playing the game blindly (no information at all prior to buying). So, as the game says when you start a new game, grab a drink, some snakes and enjoy your time at VA-11 HALL-A

First of all, if you're looking for a game with lots of gameplay, you won't find that in this game. This game is basically a visual novel. That said, if you're looking for something relaxing AFTER playing something mechanically heavy, this is it. There is barely any story. As mentioned in the title, the focus lies on the characters, who you get to learn more about through your profession as a bartender. Almost every character is very charismatic, with believable problems and backstories. Fun is a perfect descriptor for the dialogue, as it mainly consists of (good) jokes. If you're unsure, take a look at some screenshots of dialogue to get an idea of the humour. As a side note, worldbuilding happens in the background. It's not forced in but built up naturally through dialogue. Another important aspect is the soundtrack. If you enjoy genres such as synthwave, retrowave etc., you'll like what you hear.