VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (stylized as VA-11 HALL-A) is a 2016 visual novel developed by Venezuelan studio Sukeban Games and published by Ysbryd Games. The game was initially released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on June 21, 2016, and ports were later released for PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch, with the Vita port developed by Wolfgame and published by Limited Run Games. The game puts the player in the role of a bartender at the eponymous VA-11 Hall-A, a small bar in a dystopian downtown which attracts interesting customers. Gameplay revolves around making and serving drinks to patrons while listening to their life stories.
VA-11 Hall-A contains nonlinear gameplay, and the game's plotline is influenced by the drinks the player makes and how the customers react to them. There are no dialogue options in the game, and making different drinks is the only way to influence the direction of the story. VA-11 Hall-A features a diverse cast of characters who are average people as opposed to heroes, with developers noting how they were based on the types of side characters that are never fleshed out in movies. Over time, the player begins to know the characters well enough to infer what drinks they want, resulting in an intimate experience.
VA-11 Hall-A was originally developed for the Cyberpunk Game Jam of 2014; however, Sukeban Games liked the concept so much that they eventually turned it into a full game. The original prototype is downloadable for free on the game's official website, and players who pre-ordered gained access to a playable yet separate prologue. The game features a retro-futuristic look based on cyberpunk media, PC-98 games, and anime-inspired visuals, and the writing drew on the developers' own experiences of living in a poorer country. The original planned release date of December 2014 was moved back multiple times due to delays, including when the developers changed the game engine. VA-11 Hall-A garnered pre-release critical acclaim, and post-release reception was mostly favourable, with positive reception directed at its premise, cast of characters, writing, and music. However, some reviewers perceived the game's dialogue as awkward and the gameplay as repetitive. A sequel, N1RV Ann-A, was scheduled for a 2020 release but has since been delayed indefinitely.
Gameplay
Premise
VA-11 Hall-A has been described by its developer, Sukeban Games, as a "cyberpunk bartender action" game, and has been described as a "bartending simulator meets a visual novel somewhere in a cyberpunk dystopia" by TouchArcade. In the game, the player assumes the role of a bartender at "VA-11 Hall-A" (pronounced Valhalla), a small dive bar in a dystopian downtown said to attract interesting clientele. Set in the year 207X, according to the game's official website, VA-11 Hall-A is described as a "a booze em' up about waifus, technology, and post-dystopia life", in a world where "corporations reign supreme, all human life is infected with nanomachines designed to oppress them, and the terrifying White Knights ensure that everyone obeys the laws." Corruption and food shortages "run rampant" in Glitch City, the city where the eponymous bar is located.
At the bar, the player's interaction with the game is focused on preparing drinks based on the given instructions and then serving them to characters. However, the game's experience is primarily storytelling and dialogue-driven, since as the player serves the characters they also listen to their stories and experiences. The game also includes scenes outside the bar, such as at Jill's home where players are able to have text conversations and use apps on her phone. Players can also visit shops and buy items using money they earn while working at the bar to decorate Jill's home, as well as to pay the rent. Keeping Jill happy at home helps her stay more focused at work as well as making her more attuned to cocktail suggestions. Players find out about VA-11 Hall-As world through the patrons of the bar and a selection of news reports on their in-game tablet computer at the outset of each day. At the start of each work day, the player creates their own music playlist for the game in the bar's jukebox.
Bartending There is no time limit for creating drinks. If a player makes a mistake while creating a drink, they can just reset the order and start again; thus, there is no real tension in the gameplay. Making flawless drinks gives the player more money through tips. To create a drink, there are five different ingredients that the player can mix together: Adelhyde (a sweet flavour) Bronson Extract (a bold taste) Powdered Delta (a former rat poison) Flanergide (a spicy kick) Karmotrine (makes a drink alcoholic) Although the ingredients are fictional, mixing them together creates nonfictional cocktails as well, such as the Piledriver or Blue Fairy. To add additional variety, patrons at the bar may ask for single, multiple, or one large drink; these drinks can be served either aged or with ice. Players must also pay attention to infer what patrons actually want, which may be different from what they order. For example, a character might be feeling depressed and ask for a sweet drink, though the player instead giving them a shot of alcohol to help them forget their troubles would have a better effect. Alternatively, the player may be able to make a character happy by talking to them instead of letting them feed on their alcoholism. At various points, the player can also tweak the customer's drink, such as adding Karmotrine to a cocktail that was previously non-alcoholic. In these ways, the player creates new scenarios as they advance in the game.
Optional ingredients can be added to the drink, with its usage altering how much the drinker gets drunk. There are no dialogue options in VA-11 Hall-A, with the only interactivity being making clients' requested drinks. Most of the time, clients tell the player exactly what they want, though some can be more cryptic, for example by asking for a certain flavour. As such, VA-11 Hall-A contains nonlinear gameplay in the form of branching storylines, though it is dependent not on traditional choices but rather through the drinks the player prepares. There also exists a recipe book where the recipes to all drinks that can be made can be looked up. Sukeban Games says that they hope the book, which was a requested feature in the game's prologue, would make the bartending "feel more organic", and allow players to experiment.
While the characters drink, they also converse with the player. Depending on how well the player is able to recall drink recipes and create drinks to the clientele's preferences, such conversations change and the overall plotline changes as well. Designer Christopher Ortiz noted that the bartending mechanics in VA-11 Hall-A were made to deliberately "tease the player's mind into doing things out of the box", as opposed to "play[ing] through [it] like a machine, always serving what the patron want[s] and never questioning what they [are] doing." Traditional visual dialogue options which the player could choose were deliberately avoided as they interfered with the subtlety of the game.
Characters Much of the details of VA-11 Hall-As world are not directly told to the player, but instead inferred through interacting with the characters. This is so the world is introduced in a more natural and believably human way, with each character contributing their own perspectives, "providing details that are just random or obscure enough to paint a believable picture." The characters have their own personal story routes in the game. The player character of the game is Jill (formerly named Gillian during development), the bartender at the eponymous VA-11 Hall-A dive bar in Glitch City. Jill is a young female bartender who chose to forego an offer to work at a research institute, instead finding herself to be better suited to the "field of alchemy" in mixing drinks for customers at a dive bar. The game eases the player into its gameplay by letting Jill practice making drinks every morning before she heads to work. The game contains a "colorful cast" of regulars at the bar, including "sex working robots, assassins, private detectives, and pop stars", with how the player serves them having lasting impacts on their lives. Alma, described as a "Christmas Cake" by developer Ortiz, is a female hacker who is full of anecdotes about relationships and the consequences of following your dreams at the expense of loved ones. Dorothy, an android sex worker. An "odd character", Ortiz described the different reactions players had to her as fun, since some strongly disliked her characterization in the game's prototype while others praised it. Ingram McDougal, a grumpy and complaintive man. Donovan D. Dawson, the chief editor and director of prominent news site "The Augmented Eye". He is straightforward, quite demanding, and a guy who knows what he wants. Streaming-chan, a woman who streams herself 24/7, including her intimate moments. Other characters in the game include Kim, a neurotic girl who is found passed out outside the bar one evening; Stella, a catgirl; Sei, one of the few pure-hearted and non-corrupt White Knights tasked with protecting Glitch City; *Kira*Miki, an android idol singer; as well as Deal and Betty, an android and veterinarian respectively, who work at a company whose majority of employees are "corgi dogs, fitted with voice boxes." Pete Davison of MoeGamer noted how some characters in the game ridicule or parody real-life themes. For example, the corgis have prejudiced, "even racist" tendencies, with the "disagreements between the different breeds of corgis who work at the company, and seeming resentment between some of the corgis and what they see as other types of dogs trying to take their jobs away from them" mirroring real-life discrimination between humans; Betty, meanwhile, has irrational and illogical resentment of human enhancement. Davison praised these characterizations as laying bare the "sheer ridiculousness of irrational prejudice." There are at least seven different endings in VA-11 Hall-A depending on how well the player gets to know the characters. To obtain these special endings for certain characters, the player must get that character's order right every time throughout the game's story. Eventually, the player gets to know a character well enough that they understand what they wish to drink in an exact moment, which leads to a "very personal experience" between the player and character.
Development
History VA-11 Hall-A was developed by indie game developer Sukeban Games, and initially released for the Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux platforms on June 21, 2016. A PlayStation Vita port was developed by Wolfgame, and published by Limited Run Games, a publisher specialising in physical versions of digital-only titles. The game was later released for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. Sukeban is also considering an iPhone version of the game, though that would require a changed interface. The game was designed and drawn by Christopher Ortiz, programmed and written by Fernando Damas, with accompanying music by Michael Kelly; the publisher is Ysbryd Games. VA-11 Hall-A uses the GameMaker: Studio engine as the developers felt it is suitable for the game's "bunch of crazy effects" and is also easy to port to other platforms. Sukeban Games also planned collaborations and crossovers to promote VA-11 Hall-A.