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VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action |OT| Do Androids Drink To Electric Beats?

Thanks. I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure where I first learned of the game but it's too bad sites like Giant Bomb haven't covered it. It just oozes style and charm.

It's the kind of game that would be ignored by everyone but maybe Austin and Patrick, and both of them are now at Waypoint.

Coincidently, Waypoint has an article about sex work in games, with a major focus on Va-11 Hall-A
 

1upsuper

Member
Thanks. I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure where I first learned of the game but it's too bad sites like Giant Bomb haven't covered it. It just oozes style and charm.

Giant Bomb is extremely hit or miss with indie games. Emphasis on the miss. I remember cringing out of my mind when they tried talking about Undertale last year.
 

emiliano

Member
I'm on the third run through, this time
I want to see the bad final so I'm in for wasting all the money
and also
I'm doing something like a "douchebag run" giving everyone the opposite they want, something I didn't had the heart to do in undertale, but here I'm not killing anyone, I hope at least eheh. And surprisingly I've discovered at least two alternative dialogues that I wouldn't be able to see otherwise, just on the first day. This run is gonna be much more interesting of what was expecting for sure.
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
I picked up and played VA-11 HALL-A. I didn't actually buy it on the Steam sale. I paid the full price on itch.io after seeing the garbage discount on Steam.

Great game. I love the art and the characters. I know the developer is kind of done with this world, and that's pretty cool, actually. The developer told a story and I'm satisfied. I only hope for more world building through the fans, in a similar sense as Undertale.

The bartending got to be a little repetitive. I wish there was a little more action to break up the segments or just straight up no making drinks. Thankfully, I figured out the keyboard shortcuts to make life easier.

Are there any fan art sites? I'd like to make a custom iPhone case. The art is just awesome.
 
I picked it up in the Steam sale. No prologue or demo for me because apparently the Mac versions aren't available anywhere. I've only played a little bit. So far the bartending is pretty annoying, especially having to drag and drop every ingredient. Not sure why they thought this was a good gameplay mechanic or a good UI. The two customers I've had so far were not very interesting, but hopefully it gets better. The music is very good though, as is the art.

Speaking of the music, are the mp3s available anywhere in the Steam installation, or..?
 
Giant Bomb is extremely hit or miss with indie games. Emphasis on the miss. I remember cringing out of my mind when they tried talking about Undertale last year.

Wasn't Austin fairly articulate about Undertale? I have to admit, I glazed through their discussions about the game since I was largely unaware of it at the time, but Austin sounded like he knew what he was talking about
 

Moonlight

Banned
I picked it up in the Steam sale. No prologue or demo for me because apparently the Mac versions aren't available anywhere. I've only played a little bit. So far the bartending is pretty annoying, especially having to drag and drop every ingredient. Not sure why they thought this was a good gameplay mechanic or a good UI. The two customers I've had so far were not very interesting, but hopefully it gets better. The music is very good though, as is the art.

Speaking of the music, are the mp3s available anywhere in the Steam installation, or..?
Click on the border between the ingredient and the mixer box. You don't need to literally drag and drop the ingredients. Or just use the keyboard shortcuts for adding them.

And no, but it's available on Bandcamp where you can buy it, and Spotify where you can stream it.
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
I picked it up in the Steam sale. No prologue or demo for me because apparently the Mac versions aren't available anywhere. I've only played a little bit. So far the bartending is pretty annoying, especially having to drag and drop every ingredient. Not sure why they thought this was a good gameplay mechanic or a good UI. The two customers I've had so far were not very interesting, but hopefully it gets better. The music is very good though, as is the art.

Speaking of the music, are the mp3s available anywhere in the Steam installation, or..?
Use qwerty and as keys for shortcuts.
 

Squire

Banned
Click on the border between the ingredient and the mixer box. You don't need to literally drag and drop the ingredients. Or just use the keyboard shortcuts for adding them.

And no, but it's available on Bandcamp where you can buy it, and Spotify where you can stream it.

Apple Music, too!
 

Valxal

Member
My buddy gifted me this game for Christmas and it instantly became one of my games of the year

I'm avoiding spoilers but I can't wait to read through the thread once I beat it.
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
jwMJxWX.png
.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
So...
I can't pay my rent and I am apparently locked into the bad ending now. I can replay the game to get others, but WTF? It's a visual novel. I don't want to read it again. I don't even want to finish the game now, lol.
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
So...
I can't pay my rent and I am apparently locked into the bad ending now. I can replay the game to get others, but WTF? It's a visual novel. I don't want to read it again. I don't even want to finish the game now, lol.
Hit CTRL
 
So I've been playing this a bit more. I don't feel a need to rush through it, but it's a nice diversion at night with a cocktail in hand.

I still don't think the writing is great; I mean it's adequate, but not exactly something I would read outside of a game. I think Jill is a bit odd for a bartender. I've been to plenty of bars, high-class to total dives, and I've never seen a bartender be so sassy to customers. Rude/terse yes, ignoring customers yes, but never talking shit to their face unless they are a regular and doing some friendly teasing, what the Brits call 'banter'. The way she talks just doesn't feel authentic (have you ever heard a bartender use a word like "laconic"?), and I don't really like her that much.

The drink-making mechanic is okay – I mean at least it gives some sense of interaction with the customer – but I would have preferred something more complex and using real drinks and real ingredients. I guess you can barely call this interactive fiction, but just barely. The interactivity with other characters is very indirect. I haven't felt that need to keep playing for more than a chapter at a time because I don't really feel invested in the characters so far. There's also some poor contextual awareness which adds to the lack of interaction with the narrative, as sometimes I'll make a drink, and then the next drink they want is the one I just made, but they act like they've never had one.

I don't like the scorecard at the end of each chapter, with number of mistakes listed. That makes me want to just replay the chapter to get it "right" instead of just focusing on the story.

Like I said at the beginning, I do enjoy it to an extent. It has a fantastic mood that's generated by the music and art (though I wish they would have ditched the ever-present VA-11 HALL-A logo to make room for more bar scenery), and it's rather relaxing. But the characters and plot so far haven't grabbed me.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
I enjoy it so far. Jill could have been a normal nice bartender, but since the boss is her friend, she probably doesn't give a damn. It feels accurate to how customers act, too. Talking about things you could've done better without knowing, but they just keep going.
 

Sojiroh

Neo Member
I got it with the Humble Bundle and I've been loving it so far, specially the music.

Does the music reminds anyone else of Phantasy Star Online?
 
I agree that the writing oftentimes feels a bit too smart and not enough like natural banter. Jill and some other characters feel like mouth pieces for the writer's own worldviews. Which it is fine to represent your own identity in your work if it sounded more natural and less like a paper or a forum response.

I still like it enough to keep playing though. Think I'm on day four or five.
 
^ Cool gif art. Is that fanart or from the original artist?

I agree that the writing oftentimes feels a bit too smart and not enough like natural banter. Jill and some other characters feel like mouth pieces for the writer's own worldviews. Which it is fine to represent your own identity in your work if it sounded more natural and less like a paper or a forum response.

I still like it enough to keep playing though. Think I'm on day four or five.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. But I'm on Chapter 2 now (not sure how many there are) and I'm beginning to get sucked into the world and characters. Some characters are definitely written better than others though.

I'm getting stressed about having enough money to pay rent. :O
 

Moonlight

Banned
Yeah, I'd agree with that. But I'm on Chapter 2 now (not sure how many there are) and I'm beginning to get sucked into the world and characters. Some characters are definitely written better than others though.

I'm getting stressed about having enough money to pay rent. :O
I'd say that as the game gets more comfortable with its' cast and Jill in particular (and has to move from coasting purely on novelty), the writing really begins to shine.

Also I'll warn you right now to be as frugal as you possibly can with your cash. It can get really tight later on.
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
I bought everything Jill wanted along with the expensive wallpaper and still was able to afford rent. I bought nothing else, though, and got perfect bonuses daily.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
The soundtrack took over my life this past week. Gotta buy the game just for that.

No PS4 version in the works? If "never" I'll happily buy on Steam.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
Is this mostly mouse driven?

I only have a MBP to play on at the moment

i played with my mouse but you can use the keyboard too. most of the game is reading text and then dragging songs/ingredients.

The soundtrack took over my life this past week. Gotta buy the game just for that.

No PS4 version in the works? If "never" I'll happily buy on Steam.

there is a ps vita version in the works so maybe it'll be on PS4 too.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
there is a ps vita version in the works so maybe it'll be on PS4 too.
The fact that they keep mentioning Vita without PS4 doesn't fill me with hope.

If it's best played with mouse then I'm fine getting it on PC. I just prefer solid console living room experiences whenever possible.
 
Don't count on a PS4 version, the devs aren't even handling the vita version in house. You ask them a question and they ignore you like you've got the plague.

The people doing the vita version had put a feb timeframe for release late last year.
 
The fact that they keep mentioning Vita without PS4 doesn't fill me with hope.

If it's best played with mouse then I'm fine getting it on PC. I just prefer solid console living room experiences whenever possible.

Don't count on a PS4 version, the devs aren't even handling the vita version in house. You ask them a question and they ignore you like you've got the plague.

The people doing the vita version had put a feb timeframe for release late last year.

Wouldn't expect a PS4 version. Vita version is still happening. One of the devs working on it even posts on GAF iirc.

Get it on PC. it runs on anything. I played it on a 5 year old Macbook Air.
 

Moonlight

Banned
Well, it finally happened - the pre-release Prologue (now fully remade in the new engine/aesthetic) and the demo (the other prologue) are now both in the game, and you can now play through the entirety of the game's story without any of the weirdness with playing through like three different applications.

Actually interested to see how they've rewritten things because I feel like Betty got a lot more chipper from her original version, lol.
 
I played the prologue earlier today. It was nice to just spend some time chilling and playing Va-11 Hall-a again. If I wasn't drowned in choice of what to play, I'd give it a replay.
 
Well, it finally happened - the pre-release Prologue (now fully remade in the new engine/aesthetic) and the demo (the other prologue) are now both in the game, and you can now play through the entirety of the game's story without any of the weirdness with playing through like three different applications.

Actually interested to see how they've rewritten things because I feel like Betty got a lot more chipper from her original version, lol.

Oh, thanks! This is great news. This is actually the first time the demo and prologue are available to Mac users (I think the Mac demo was briefly on itch.io long ago, but removed).

I'm still playing through the main story...I got distracted by Yakuza 0 though.
 
I feel like I've been told this like a million times but:

Is it prologue and then demo, or demo and then prologue?

e - it's prototype, prologue, demo, game as far as i can tell
 
Well, it finally happened - the pre-release Prologue (now fully remade in the new engine/aesthetic) and the demo (the other prologue) are now both in the game, and you can now play through the entirety of the game's story without any of the weirdness with playing through like three different applications.

Actually interested to see how they've rewritten things because I feel like Betty got a lot more chipper from her original version, lol.
About 30% through the game, think I'll just start the game all over again so I don't miss out on the corgy action.
 
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