Such a cozy experience man.

Everyone has a story to tell, be it the regulars that appear frequently throughout the story or the characters who only show up once or twice. And Jill sure knows how to help them drown their sorrows.

Even though the city in which the game's events take place is heavily implied to be a terrible place, most people manage to get by in their day to day and somehow find their own happines. If only for a few hours, visiting Va-11 Hall-A can help you put your mind to ease. Every dialogue is full of charm and feels real: the hacker who can't find a good enough husband, a pair of coworkers who need to relax or a sex worker sharing requests that seem out of this world. And sometimes that's what life is about, sharing a drink while venting about your troubles.

Time to mix drinks and change lives!

I only played it briefly back in 2018 and actually thought it was good. I wasn't in the mood for this game back then, but now that I've finished Coffee Talk and loved it so much, I wanted to give it another chance. A chill bartender simulation with a cyberpunk twist actually sounded quite appealing, and after a few years I've now finally finished it. I really enjoyed the game, but overall I found it much weaker than Coffee Talk. This was mainly due to the writing. I just didn't find the conflicts between the characters that interesting and the constant sexual innuendos really got on my nerves. I wish the developer had hired another writer, then this game could have been a little masterpiece. The graphic style, the music and also the gameplay all come together very well and create a cool cyberpunk atmosphere. So, even though I have my points of criticism, I had a good time with this game.

Eu fiquei completamente apaixonado por esse jogo e seus personagens. A maneira que é apresentada as relações já construídas entre eles e as que ainda vão se formar é tão natural que me fez querer não perder uma linha de diálogo sequer.

Ao mesmo tempo que ele mostra situações divertidas ou dolorosas que fazem você se relacionar totalmente aos personagens do jogo, é apresentado um mundo cyberpunk muito interessante de se conhecer e ouvir sobre, além da gameplay de drinks que é bem divertida de explorar.

Charming bartending simulator. Learning about each client's story and seeing how they connect was a nice touch. I liked how they managed the main character as well, since most of the main characters in visual novels usually feel bland or like a self insert of sorts, so such an interesting protagonist definitely raised my interest and enjoyment of the game.

There's a New Game + as well, but honestly as far as replayability goes I'd say one playthrough is enough to experience the game as a whole.

I have a fun story about this game - I really had to crunch to make the final rent payment in the game, I played poorly and was more interested in the characters than min-maxing the drink orders. I also was a really bad bartender in real life at the time, so it makes sense that I was a bad bartender in the game. As a result, I got to the deadline just under the amount of money I needed with a day to go. By serving the Media mogul a "Big Beer" rather than the regular-sized one, I was able to eke out just enough money, but my laptop battery died and I needed to play that final day out again. In this second playthrough, I forgot to give him the big beer and ended the day $2.80 short - netting me the bad ending. Something about that felt right, and I accepted the bad ending as my ending of choice.

A masterclass of story telling and character depth.

The world building was great, even tho you never really leave the bar (or your house for that matter) the game still does a solid job at making Glitch City and engaging town that feels lively (and quite dangerous at times).

All Characters you interact with have a solid amount of layers on them, and what makes them even more likable and organic, is the fact that they also interact with each other and are not limited to Jill, which leads to certain revelations and connections to feel really charming. (Someone has to put a restraining order on a certain press chief tho, he's a dangerous individual lol)

As for the gameplay itself, it was quite interesting, being able to mix drinks and serve them, which ultimately affects the endings you get is a cool idea for a VN, it felt very interactive, even more so the fact that you're getting little bits of character story by doing so,

The music is also nice, and you can certainly control the mood of a conversation by switching songs. (There were a couple of songs that were not of my taste unfortunately, but most of them were great.)

As for the art direction, I was always fascinated by the effort put on pixel art games, the art on this game was great, which also contributes to the world building at times (the attention to detail is great)

And you also get to play a side scroller Touhou minigame! (if you're up for the task, that is, lol)

All in all it's a really fun solid VN.

VA11 HAII-A: CYBERPUNK ACTION MADE ME DRINK AN ACTUAL BEER ALONE

Look, I drink plenty fine when in a social environment. That's not the issue. I just make it a rule to never drink by myself due to a family history of alcoholism. SO IT SAYS SOMETHING, that when seeing that first card (upon starting a new game) saying to "get comfy and have some snacks", I thought "Hey, I'm gonna be a Glitch City bartender, may as well have a drink with my clientele".

And so I cracked open a cold one. It was a milk stout. The type of drink that you can chew on. The kind of drink that you only need one of to feel satisfied.

And that's also, conveniently, how I would describe Va11 HaII-A.

The game itself is really a visual novel punctuated by segments where you make non-healthy poison sauce that people, for reasons I will never understand, willingly pay real Cuberpunk currency to drink. I mean...you can literally just "make a beer" on the spot using the same ingredients you use to make a Marti--I mean a Brandtini. It's honestly just there as a gimmick to immerse you into your role. Most of it revolves around looking at instructions on what ingredients to use...and then doing that. There are few moments (maybe one or two max) that made me think a little bit due to the vague requests of my patrons. The only real depth comes from knowing when to get people wasted or not, as this can determine which ending you get.

So, as a visual novel, how is the story? Well...it's mostly lovely. The various patrons are a rogue's gallery of "everyday non-heroes", as the devs themselves describe. I think there is more commentary in casually serving a man who admits openly he is a literal assassin, an AI sexworker that has kept her...youthful model despite her age due to people's...predilections. There's just something thematically cool about Jill Stingray (the player character) just sort of accepting the nightmares of a Cyberpunk dystopia because it's just...normal to her. This itself is singlehandedly more interesting commentary than any single "ship of Theseus-ed, corporations evil" theme in Cyberpunk 2077.

Overall, the characters are colorful, charming, have enough depth to chew on, and made me feel something. They are diverse and well-represented. Seriously, a large portion of the cast is queer as fuck, and depicted well. There's a moment when your big boob hacker friend is talking about her family. She mentions "having three other sist--two sisters and a younger brother". Oh, and yeah, Jill's storyline was also quite touching and made me cry by the resolution. Really enjoyed her as a protagonist.

I do have an opinion that is likely unpopular. I don't like Dana very much. She's charming enough. But she really is just a "bit too quirky and perfect" for me to feel immersed in her as a human person. And I really didn't care for the writer's
decision for her to be Jill's main romantic interest. It had the blueprint of a manic pixie dreamgirl trope that I really just didn't care for.

I will also say the conclusion of the game was quite unsatisfying. As the game slowly faded to white, I literally thought to myself "Seriously?" I don't need the plotlines of every single character wrapped up neatly with a bow. And I do think Jill has a nice moment of growth at the end. But some characters really just felt as if their storylines were dropped completely. And while I liked Jill Stingray's growth-moment, I still think the overall RESOLUTION of her story ended prematurely and didn't really offer much in the way of, "Where she is going from here". The latter by itself is not necessarily bad, but the way it was handled made me unsure as to what her options even were.

Overall, I really enjoyed myself. It's one of the few visual novels that grabbed me enough to binge-play, and I think it's strengths lie in it's world-building, music, charming cast, and--most important for the Cyberpunk genre--STRONG VIBES.

And I kind of hate how much the game made me want to try a drink containing the games five ingredients: rat-poison, sugar sauce, spicy grease, bitter juice, and pseudo-alcohol.