Posted on: July 5, 2025
MackieStingray
Verified ownerGames: 249 Reviews: 5
Music, characters, and nanotech poisons
This game prepared me for what police riots are, and what they're like. I knew they were a thing, but until 2020 I'd never seen them on the scale they occurred in the US, not in person, not so close to home. They were a thing that happened elsewhere. I played this game and was like, "Oh. Huh. So that's a thing." and then it happened here and I was like "Oh so that's what it's like IRL." The game wears a lot of its influences on its sleeve, which is cool. While the music doesn't sound derivative, you can hear familiar vibes in it, including Kōji Makaino, composer of the Bubblegum Crisis score and soundtrack. Indeed, multiple characters in VA-11 Hall-A bear character names with clear references, including the lead, Jill Stingray, and the character Sei P. Asagiri, whose name is suspiciously similar to Priss S. Asagiri. But Sei is not Priss, and Jill is not Sylia, and Dorothy is not Dorothy (Big O); the Red Comet is doing suplexes but not dropping colonies. Those are simply names. Y'know how it's a little awkward and frustrating that autistic characterization is so often only robots/constructs, but also it's really cool because beep boop robot? Y'ever think, what we need is exactly as many autistic robots but also some autistic humans? VA-11 Hall-A has got it covered. Y'know how it sucks sometimes that autistic rep is either characters who have totally got it together, found their niche, and it'd be nice to have better representation for us total disasters whose lives suck? VA-11 Hall-A has that covered too. It's time to mix drinks and change lives.
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