VA-11 HALL-A (2016): The Price Of Pleasure

"Time to mix drinks and change lives"

VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action is an indie bartender simulation video game, developed by Venezuelan studio Sukeban Games and published by Ysbryd Games. Initially released for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux on June 21, 2016, it was later ported to PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch by developer Wolfgame and Published by Limited Run Games. VA-11 HALL-A tells the story of Jill Stingray, a young female bartender and her daily life in the futuristic world of Glitch City. Your main goal in the game is to mix and serve drinks while you engage in conversations with the characters who visit the bar VA-11 HALL-A (pronounced Valhalla).

Set in the year 207X, VA-11 HALL-A presents us a dystopian cyberpunk future in which big corporations control everything and people are oppressed by corrupt law enforcement. This is very usual in dystopias and cyberpunk fiction, but the twist in the game is that the main story is set inside a bar, which means that most of the context is given by customers through dialogue like many other visual novels. The video game lasts roughly 10-14 hours (depending on how fast you read and serve of course), and has 6 different endings, which means there is a lot of replay value. How you get the endings depends on various factors such as giving a flawless service, not spending money on useless things, among others.   

As mentioned before, you play as Jill Stingray, a sarcastic and grumpy 27-year-old woman who lives to serve drinks and listen to the stories the characters who visit VA-11 HALL-A tell. The gameplay is relatively simple since you just read dialogue (you don't have dialogue choices) and advance the plot by serving fictional drinks. 

While you create the drinks you have no time limit, so you can take your time, and if you make a mistake while mixing (or blending) the ingredients, you can just reset the order and do it all, all over again. However, if you create a drink that was not requested and still serve it, you get less tip money for making the mistake at the end of your shift.

To create a drink you have five ingredients to mix (or blend):

- Adelhyde

- Bronson Extract

- Powdered Delta

- Flanergide

- Karmotrine

By mixing/blending these five ingredients in different amounts you get a variety of drinks. These drinks can have different flavors (bitter, bubbly, sour, spicy or sweet), or be different types (bland, classic, bottled, burning, classy, manly, sobering, vintage, happy, strong, girly, soft, promo). Some are really cheap, while others are very expensive. When to serve them depends on what the customer wants, of course.

Some characters of VA-11 HALL-A are:

- Julianne "Jill" Natalie Stingray: The main character of the game. She is a 27-year-old barwoman who works at VA-11 HALL-A. Jill is a grumpy, but well-intentioned woman, and very professional most of the time. She is bisexual, and has many stories which we unravel while we play.

- Dana Zane: Former wrestler and Jill's boss. She is very funny and treats his employees with a lot of respect, which they return in favor. She also has a mechanical prothesis. Jill has feelings for her.

- Gillian: The other bartender in VA-11 HALL-A. He is a very mysterious and reserved person. People often make fun of him. He is good at heart.

- Rebecca Dorothy Willow Graem aka Dorothy Haze: She is a robotic sex worker. She looks like a child, which makes the whole sex worker thing really shady. Dorothy is cheerful and very open regarding her line of work.

- Alma Armas: A hacker who goes to the bar. She is a very calm and clever person. She often teases Jill for fun, despite being straight. People often talk about her big breasts, being dubbed as "Titty Hacker".

- Donovan D. Dawnson: Chief Editor and owner of The Augmented Eye, a magazine. He's a real son of a bitch, and very rude towards people. If it were up to Jill, she would punch him in the face.

- Sei P. Asagiri: A former White Knight (a corrupt law enforcement entity). Sei is a very kind person, and Stella Hoshii's "informal" bodyguard.

- Stella Hoshii: When she was little she went through a genetic treatment to have her life saved. Due to this she looks like a "catgirl" and dubbed a "Cat Boomer". Stella is a very wealthy girl, and Sei's best friend. She is also a very caring person, but her personality greatly differs from Sei's.

- Anna Graem: Probably the most mysterious character of the game. She is an entity who appears to Jill throughout the game. Anna usually breaks the fourth wall.

VA-11 HALL-A's visuals are very "aesthetic", and it totally has the cyberpunk feel the game wants to convey. A lot of purple, magenta, and obscure colors mixed with vivid neon lights. The bar looks like something taken out of Blade Runner, which I absolutely adore. This lines up really well with the OST composed by Garoa, which ranges from fast paced industrial pieces to cheerful piano melodies. The Original Soundtrack is on Spotify and YouTube, so even if you don't play the game, you can totally enjoy the music.

Another strong point the video game has is the setting, which, as said before, is in Glitch City. Despite not leaving the bar except when going home, you get a lot of context in the conversations that take place in VA-11 HALL-A. How the city came to be, its government, law enforcement, citizens, among others. How you picture the city and the lives of the people in it is up to you, but it's not difficult to imagine a dystopia. In a way, the video game tries to mirror the reality of its creators, since they live in Venezuela and want to show in a very interesting and cheerful manner the trials and tribulations of a third world country.

Jill tries her best in the bar while serving drinks. She is a very good listener and most of the people who go to the bar have a story to tell. Whether it's Dorothy with her naughty stories or Alma with her family issues or Anna's apparitions, VA-11 HALL-A offers a very chill experience for someone who wants to feel immersed in a futuristic world without being a hero or participating in a larger-than-life mission. This bar is for listening and helping others and yourself in the process, all by serving drinks to wacky and strange characters who will make you have a good time.

Perhaps the only negative aspects of the game are the fact that for some it is a game so relaxing that there is no tension at all (you don't get a really heavy penalty for screwing up a drink or anything) and the grey area regarding the sex jokes, innuendos and specially the character of Dorothy, which is the usual anime loli. There will always be trouble when writing and presenting those types of characters, and this calls into question if these characters should be in an adult story at all. But aside that very controversial topic, I can't mention other aspects I dislike.

To sum up, VA-11 HALL-A is a very original piece of entertainment, but since simulation games and specially visual novels are still a niche genre, not everybody is going to be able to enjoy it, but those who can will find a very engaging and immersive video game, in which you do what you're best at: Serve a drink and talk about life. 

PS: In here I leave the OST so you can enjoy the awesome music by Garoad.