Time to mix drinks and change lives

This is how to make your very own VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action, right from the comfort of your own home! 🍸✨

Here’s what you’ll need:
- 5 parts Blorbo-Bicon Extraordinaire
- 3 parts Purified Heart-warm
- 3 parts Feelings That I Still Don’t Know How to Process
- 2 parts Banger OST
- 2 parts Fucking Funny Shit
- 1 part Nanomachines
- 1 part Girl 4chan
- 1 part Mega Christmas
- 1 part Bad Touch pffts
- 1 part Dorothinquisition (your ass was not expecting this shit)

Directions
1. Start by smiling a little, maybe throwing in some laughs if you’re feeling adventurous (note: you are feeling adventurous).
2. Feel every emotion under the sun.

And you’re done !~


i’m always wary of any usage of the word “waifu”, but this game is simply delightful. admittedly, i have only had any amount of interest in the visual novel genre for less than a year at this point, but this game has already earned a spot in my top 5 favorites. it’s literally so fucking sweet i don’t know what to do with myself??? almost every character radiates such warmth and authenticity that i can’t help but smile. even when a character’s kinda a piece of shit, i still just feel so damn charmed by the whole presentation and atmosphere that it’s virtually impossible* to have a client interaction i dislike. it is clear that there was a lot of thought put into the backgrounds of many of the characters; not only do you get to experience storied friendships between your clientele, but you also get to forge your own relationships with them. character development WIN!! it’s so fucking fantastic to watch characters change over the course of the game. one thing i find incredibly well-done about this game is just how involved our main character is with the entire narrative. in Coffee Talk (2020), a game that came out after this (but one I played before), the barista player character repeatedly says things to the effect of “just being an observer.” in VA-11 Hall-A, however, Jill is front and center, albeit often off-screen. yes, you do get to act as an observer sometimes when a group of people come in talking to each other, but the vast majority of the time, our girlie is integral to the conversation. quite literally, this motherfucker is out here changing lives. the B.T.C. should make a fun little catchphrase based on that notion and pay me e-royalties (in the future they call them e-royalties).

so,, how the fuck does Jill even change lives? she mixes drinks, silly! this is where the Bartender portion of the Cyberpunk Bartender Action comes into play. a goofy individual—a creature, if you will (unless you won’t)—will come into the bar and either directly ask for a Bad Touch smirk emoji, some other specific drink, or give you some constraints for what they want. the game’s interface then lets you sort through the modest selection of possible drinks by name, flavor, or type to allow you to discern what could be a good option. you drag set amounts of the 5 ingredients into the mixer, select to add ice/age the drink, then mix for a specified amount of time. it’s not too complex, but offers just enough interaction to really make you feel like you’re Cyberpunk Bartending Action. sometimes a client will speak in riddles or ask for “the usual” like haha did you remember what Joe Barbeque always orders? no??? what are you a fucking idiot or something??

while there is a plot in this game, i think it would definitely be classified more as character-driven versus a story-driven narrative. this is ABSOLUTELY not a bad thing. i love me some characters! they’re often far more important to me than any sort of story beats. the game starts with a narrative hook, but it kinda just disappears by the end of the game. it’s mentioned semi-frequently, but there’s just not really any resolution to that thread. gone. there’s some pretty significant in-world events that occur over the course of the story that tie into some of the characters’ arcs, which is pretty cool. there’s even a TV in the bar that you can change the channel on, and different channels become available depending on the point in the story you’re at. really though, i’m not here for the happenings in Glitch City. there’s some honestly pretty good social/ political commentary for the most part, and the game leverages its cyberpunk setting to talk about the consequences of technological advancement, like any good piece of cyberpunk media should, but i’m here for the critters on my screen ordering they goddamn drinks. fucking hell, i think Jill’s arc might be one of my favorite character arcs in any piece of media ever now. i genuinely cannot think of any nugget of character development i like more than her’s. even ‘unimportant’ side characters get to grow, and it’s just really fucking awesome. fantastic characters and writing overall. extremely funny, too.

speaking of characters: gang, we need to talk about Dorothy (good song btw). to start off, i will say that from a pure personality standpoint, Dorothy is probably one of my favorite characters in this game. she’s fun, has an infectious energy to her, and can even end up being pretty serious and philosophical when she feels like it. i probably enjoyed every single time she showed up at Valhalla looking for a drink and a chat. now, i do not know any backstory behind the motivations of the writing behind this character, so anything i say will be my own interpretation of solely what can be gleaned from the game. however, from what i understand about the writer of this game, they seem to be excessively horny and i would not be surprised if they hold some unsavory views on women and potentially even worse things. but again, i am locking in on what can be understood from the game. while i 100% think there is merit to be had in taking the author behind a piece of work into account, i’m personally here on this website to review VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action, not some horny twitter user.

Dorothy is a sex-worker Lilim (a robot, of sorts), who is mentally about 24, but has the body of 13-year-old. the game feeds you some background along the lines of “oh like Lilim are just kinda created looking like kids cuz we’re tryin’ to mimic humans as much as possible or whatever and most ‘upgrade’ to look more adult later,” but this alone can obviously not explain its inclusion. at one point, Dorothy says something to the effect of not wanting to get said upgrade because her young appearance helps her immensely in her line of work. some people hire her for pedophilic reasons, and others hire her for non-sexual reasons, such as asking her to pretend to be their late daughter. isn’t that just kinda fucked up? like, that’s so clearly fucked. willingly choosing to look like a child for the expressed purpose of elevating sex-work is absolutely a terrible reality. yet, in that same vain, i feel like the reasons this is fucked is more because of what it makes me feel about society. pedophiles do exist, and if such an individual like Dorothy existed in our world, i can guarantee there would be similar occurrences. the problem here is that i don’t feel like this whole concept was given the care it needs. in my opinion, if you’re going to attempt a scathing critique of society’s sexual obsessions with underaged individuals blended in with cyberpunk-based worries about integration of self-aware artificial intelligence and body modifications, you better fucking make it SCATHING. yes, i can see media literacy, she’s that cutie sitting over at the corner of the bar, but i wish i was fucking talking to her too!!! (that one doesn’t really make sense, i just wanted to say it, sorry.) seriously, though, i feel like there’s some topics that you can kinda dance around with when you’re trying to get across a message in a piece of media, but sometimes being explicit is completely warranted, and in this case i think it is. it’s a little difficult to try to tackle a dicey topic such as this, but then also try to make that same character be a silly little goofball. like, yeah, i love silly little goofballs, but maybe we shoulda divorced the two concepts if we’re gonna attempt this at all. i’m glad they gave her some more depth than ‘just’ being a sex-worker, but i don’t think the overall depiction was all that fantastic. i don’t think it’s a complete failure, though i do still wish it was handled with a little more grace and tact than it was given. i one-hundred percent understand if the inclusion of this character in the way it was done is off-putting to the point of ruining the entire experience of the game, as unfortunate as that may be.

i don’t wanna end this review on a sour note after talking about all that jazz, so i’m gonna end by talking just a little bit about the music in this game. it’s good! like, really good! i like to listen to it?? at the start of each day and after each break, you get to select 12 songs to play on the jukebox, which is nice, cuz you get to listen to the bangers you bang to, and not just the bangers you don’t. there’s a seriously great soundtrack here, and i enjoyed pretty much all of the songs i had access to during my playthrough. there’s a shuffle feature you can use, but it’s like that ‘shitty’ shuffle where it doesn’t care if it plays the same song it just played. it’s a little annoying, but really nothing all that terrible, seeing as you can just press skip song anyways. some of my favorites (non-exhaustive) were:
Nighttime Maneuvers
Synthestitch
Digital Drive
Through the Storm, We Will Find a Way

despite my critiques, i really loved this game. i can see why it is loved by many, and now i get to be excited for the sequel. sigh, add it to the pile,,,

all booze and no firecrackers makes mae a dull girl.

A game made with much love in RPG-maker, I had a great time with Felvidek. The humor is top notch, and the graphics are absolutely gorgeous, especially during the cutscenes. I loved the environment and the fight style, and really loved having an RPG party with a 15th-century priest helping you fight. There was lots of humor involving the time period, including jokes at the past's expense, that I felt played pretty well. 15th-century Slovakia is interesting because well, there was no Slovakia! The area was probably under Hungarian rule at this point (...maybe German, who knows), with threat from the Ottoman's eventually taking over as well. It's a topic brought up often in the game, and I feel it makes Felvidek even cooler! Not only does it focus on an uncommon setting for a video game, but it focuses on a precise group within the time-period on top of it all.

The music is great, the art is gorgeous, and the gameplay is fun! Check Felvidek out if you can, it's a very strong game released into the 2024 pool that's worth checking out if you're interested in playing some indie goodies from this year.

3.5/5

This review is exclusively for Chapter 4 (Thy Flesh Consumed)

Ok, I can see why the rating is high for this one, Ultimate Doom includes all of the first game AND the additional content, so it's not like this is a DLC or something like that.
I was about to rate both experiences in the same review, but I just found out they are pretty different, so this review was born.

Not gonna lie, I reviewed the base game with a lot of information from chapter 4 in mind, due to this, I included some criticism there which I had to remove to bring it here.
Chapter 4, launched in Ultimate Doom includes everything you had before, it's just an additional chapter, so, new stages, new mechanics, basic the same but more, right?
Not really.

It seems this was launched next to Doom ll (after it) so the team thought they had to do some marketing, bring something a little different, and some challenge for the veterans, this resulted in some issues.

In base game's review, I mentioned acid/lava floors being an annoying mechanic but used a few times. For the new chapter, it turned into a core element, it's like the main theme of the chapter, it is everywhere, bringing down your HP each step you explore the map to find out the solution. Geez, what a great way to kill the first training experience and already punish those who did not figure out what needs to be done next, forcing you to die and restart with the now-acquired necessary "knowledge".

Also, there is another mechanic I'm not a fan in the original Doom used a LOT in this, which is the overuse of the basic movement/running to achieve different platforms. Maybe that's optional to get some extra items or secrets, but often it is part of the main objectives of the stage, basically, they are platform challenges in an FPS without a JUMP ability, also enemies' hits have knockbacks and below you, there is a pool of lava, bruh wtf.

And what can I say about the first two levels? What the heck happened there lmao, the difficulty is on steroids on those, and then the game is on normal again for the rest of the chapter, until level 6, which is both hard AND annoying as hell, with a main elevator placed in the middle of the acid, hidden behind basic map elements, like a secret, except it is not a secret, it is NEEDED to progress in the stage, also there are tons of enemies around the room shooting projectiles nonstop, barons of hell AND cyberdemon, this stage is the truly Doom '93 final boss.
Worth mentioning that they reused the chapter 3 final boss, just adding more random enemies on a new battle arena.

Chapter 4 is not as good as the main game, but is a big challenge for those seeking for more carnage, just be aware of some poor design choices and you're fine. In the end of the day, is still Doom, and still fun to play.

When I was a kid I was bullied a lot and had no friends at school. But what I did have was Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. That game made me feel brave. It made me feel less alone. I was the Hero of Time. It was a much needed escape from the hardships of my elementary school social life.

Tunic is a blend a lot of things, but mostly it's a love letter to Zelda, a series very near and dear to my heart. Others my age who grew up influenced by Ocarina of Time are now making their own games, and it's an encouraging sight for the future of video game artistry. Tunic made me feel like a kid again in the most wholesome way. I felt excited when discovering something new, triumphant when beating a difficult boss, and even felt brave when overcoming the spooky bits.

Tunic features one of my new all-time favorite "tutorial" systems which was the Instruction Booklet. I think this is worth talking about because it's so freakin' cool. It plays on the nostalgia while also being a puzzle in itself; there are many secrets to find within the guide. I love the little details like notes written in it. It also never felt meta or 4th wall breaky to me, more so it just felt like I was a kid again reading the manuals to help me beat Temple of Time.

The presentation was also wonderful. The music slaps (I've been listening to Memories of Memories on repeat for 4 days straight) and there was some really fantastic visuals (shoutout to the awesome skeletal shop vendor creature, he was so cool looking).

However... very unfortunately, this game was not perfect. I really do not like Soulslike gameplay tropes and this game had its fair share. A few systems I did not like:
- When you die, you lose all your consumables. This made boss fights annoying because if you wanted items you'd have to go grind coin to buy more.
- Enemies respawning whenever you rest. It's just annoying.
- There was some enemy minion designs that I just despised. Like they were annoying just for the sake of being annoying.
BUT! even with these frustrations I still adore this game, which to me just speaks volumes about how much the game excels in its other areas. They were, however, annoying enough to make me want to skip bonus content. And really, I can't even call all of the gripes I have sins since it's mostly just personal preference.

Overall, this game was absolutely wonderful. I wish I felt a little more emotional weight at the end, but I also just learned there are two endings and I got the "bad" one (was only missing 4 pages, dang it). I always love when a game can bring back that childlike wonder out of me and this game did just that.

WAIT TIL THEY GET A LOAD OF ME!
Virtual Boy Wario Land is quite the step up from the first Wario Land. The level design is of similar quailty (no train level though), however the controls and overall smoothness of Wario is massively improved. It makes sense, as the Virtual Boy is a more powerful machine than the Game Boy.(Yeah I just praised the Virtual Boy's hardware, what are you gonna do about it?) The bosses are pretty fun, my favorite being the third with you having to jump as head, however his main attack comes out of his head. All and all, it's actually a good game. Damn good. But, only one problem: it's on Virtual Boy.

maybe one of the weakest dragon quest games to me and one of only two of the games in the series i even dislike at all. while dragon quest 3 makes up for its lack of defined party with an almost unparalleled sense of adventure and dragon quest 10 makes up for it with the greatest extended cast in the series, dragon quest 9 just doesn't do anything to make up for it at all and it's really disappointing. the game simultaneously has no defined party and also features one of the more unremarkable stories this series has other than corvus, and while i imagine the gameplay and more is made more enjoyable by the multiplayer capabilities its hard for me to even justify entertaining the thought of not only sinking my time into 9 but asking another person for their time when dragon quest 10 is right there, easier than ever to play in english with a fan translation infinitely better than the official ones we've been getting since the ds games, and is deeply compelling in its own right without even needing to play with other people at all. i get that this is a game that is very special to a lot of people within and outside of the dragon quest fanbase but i could never enjoy this one, especially in the current year now that it's as redundant to me as it is boring.

Clunky and unwieldy, but bizarrely satisfying in this way. You need to hit each enemy just right, you need to block just right, you need to know and understand your surroundings. And training that skill is the real gameplay loop. Building your understanding of that game, keeping careful track of resources, and slowly improving your supplies and your strategy for the battle ahead. I ultimately just wasted too many supplies after some bad choices and my best path forward is an eventual restart, which I'm slightly too Gamer Angry to do right now. But goddamn, Kwaidan is a game overflowing with charm, effort, and thoughtful craft. Carefully tuned towards a certain aesthetic and thriving in the pursuit of that aesthetic. A true gem.