VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

A relaxing game about making drinks to a well design set of characters. The soundtrack is really good and the pixel art is gorgeous.

A bisexual bartender makes penis jokes about their 'minny winny' and serves an %85 alcoholic Sugar Rush to a robotic sex worker. Probably a 8/10

[h1] A Great Visual Novel Game, Even for Non-Visual Novel Fans [/h1] Honestly though, I wasn't even a fan of the genre in the first place. The idea of just "reading" through the ending didn't really appeal to me that much, but I shrugged it off and gave it a chance, and damn was the game so good. The gameplay mainly consists of just reading (it's a visual novel, what did you expect?), along with creating drinks by mixing different ingredients, where the drink you serve can actually change how a conversation goes. Personally, I think it fits the narrative well considering the protagonist is a bartender. It's a simple mechanic that gives a bit of spice and player interaction to the game instead of just "reading", which is a plus for me. But what really got me into this was the story and the writing. The characters are quirky and memorable and some can be relatable at certain parts. Despite the setting taking place in a fictional cyberpunk world, many of the conversations and characters' actions felt incredibly human (which is hard to get for a game that's all just about texts). And then the soundtrack? It blows me away with how catchy some and relaxing "bar-feeling" like music that definitely complements the tone and the atmosphere of the game. I even sometimes boot the music when I'm working as well. The music just resonates with me so well that it becomes my go-to playlist when I'm feeling down or wanting to just chill. Overall, this game is a narrative masterpiece. Fantastic writing, memorable soundtrack, rather easy-to-connect with the characters – it's absolutely worth playing. I honestly can't think of any flaws this game had other than the anime-inspired pixel art style, which isn't necessarily a problem for me, but some people might not be into it, but don't let that be an excuse to skip this game. I highly recommend giving it a chance, and who knows, you might end up like me, wishing for more VA-11 Hall-A content. [i] Also side note, Dear Sukeban Games, please release N1RV Ann-A already; it has been 8 years since the game was announce as of writing this now. [/i]

It's a game where you DON'T want to rush through, just absorb the vibes while reading the conversations. Give customers varying amounts of alcohol (as long as it still fits their order), they have different dialogue based on their soberness. Sometimes you can mess up their order and still be fine too. In the main menu there's a "+" at the top left, it has the 4 prologue days before the main game. You can play them at any time (at first I thought it was a game demo meaning it would be the same content as the main game, but it's actually different) Pros: [olist] [*]Good variety of characters and dialogue, I didn't get bored reading their conversations. The POV character Jill is also an interesting character, rather than a blank slate for the player to self-insert. [*]Good music. You can choose the playlist for the bar every half-day, I personally used a chill playlist. [/olist] Cons: [olist] [*]Some bugs (e.g. trying to make a big Gut Punch with no alcohol should work, but results in a failed drink; there are other bugs but this is the one which ruined my experience a little) [*]For achievement hunters: you need to be good at a completely different genre to get 100% (minor spoilers): [spoiler]you need to beat a bullet hell minigame. It's extremely hard: 3 lives, no "bombing", and when you die the on-screen bullets don't clear so you could die almost instantly after respawn. There is a safe-spot cheese but it only works for the first half.[/spoiler] [/olist]