Ah bars, the proverbial Eden Hall for the lonely, the downtrodden, the happy, and the lost. If you also lived in a college town with a bar district, they were home to the sexually frustrated students experiencing the prodigal, unsupervised actions of people free from repressed households. Now, take that level of horn doggery, make it into a slew of sexual innuendos interspersed with deep character exploration and you have VA-11 HALL-A. Pronounced Valhalla, this self-described cyberpunk bartender simulator has you mixing drinks and chatting up the clientele of waifus, hitmen, sex robots, cybernetic brain androids, hackers, Corgis, and Shiba Inus to explore relationships and identity against the backdrop of a dystopian future.
The anime and science-fiction tropes on display are far from the shallow plot devices, fan-service mediums, or easy caricatures that forgo originality in their designs. Instead, there’s an attention to detail along the routine that express a heart and witticism amongst the patrons that frequent the bar. You assume the role of Jill, a bartender— or if you wanna be a pretentious twat a mixologist— that talks to the customers as they divulge their life story in episodic segments across several in-game days. The main happening of the city, like a terrorist attack or concerns of corruption, are told in the background as bits of information spring up in conversation with the regulars that may or may not be involved.
It’s a more natural, yet slow form of story-telling that earnestly tries to reflect the slice-of-life exchanges you’d have with an acquaintance or good friend. The external events of our environments become the jumping off points for personal anecdotes, and as you come to know the characters you learn what drinks they like to help complete individual storylines. As the chats play out, you’ll have to mix the requested or hinted at drink to satisfy the consumer, which if done correctly allows you to get the true ending of their story after the final day. Some of the exchanges can take their toll, like getting trapped in a conversation you’re actively planning to leave, but others take a more introspective approach as they dissect the meaning of identity in relation to the current times, as well as our weight of responsibility to those in our lives compared to the self-freedom we often seek. You can also listen to Shiba Inus say what accounts to vaguely racist remarks about Corgis.
Everyone is horny on main as the player is barraged with sexual innuendos, some that land and others that get repeated to the point that you’re wondering if the giddy, hyper-aggressive sexual comments of a high schooler were used as inspiration for “we get it, she used a cucumber on herself you don’t have to repeat yourself ten times.” There are a few characters that I think would have been more interesting to develop like Taylor, the Brain in a Jar that shows up for only one day to echo the sentiments of classic Ghost in the Shell, while some storylines are predictable, since they utilize standard tropes, and fall prey to their own cliché. Overall though, it’s an intriguing experience that’s a great change of pace from the intensity of modern videogames where everything is exploding as the faceless hero is the only one who can save humanity. VA-11 HALL-A pours itself a tall glass before it passes out on the counter of your local dive.