VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

I wouldn't say I'm the target audience for this game, but I still had a good time with it. Art and soundtrack is great, and there are a few characters that are compelling enough to make powering through the bland ones worth it. Difficulty is quite low, as you can just re-make a drink you messed up. WYSIWYG, so if you like what you see, get it.

great game, excellent story, incredible characters, highly recommend

Excellent story, wonderful music and overall a great experience! Highly highly recommend this game!

Perfect game for relaxing after work hours, writing is great and characters are quite fleshed out. Core mechanic is quite simple and engaging just enough, as it should be. Art and music are top notch, they are just absolutely gorgeous. The world slowly draws you in as you mix drinks and change lives :) My only complaint is that it takes way too long to load your music into the jukebox :/ Aside from that, this game is perfectly matches what it claims to be, definitely worth a try.

cyberpunk bartending or something i don't know but you actually can spend your earnings in valuable stuff in the shop great game I love shopping + there's a big chungus void at home

A visual novel where you mix drinks and talk with customers.
Every character have an interesting and unique story behind them, including heavy themes and psychological questions.
The game is not that long overall - lasting only 10 or so hours. And doesn't have much of a replayability except serving wrong drinks to get a diffrent outcome or something.

If you like visual novels and like exploring lore of the characters in it, then go ahead and buy it. And as for the rest, if you hate only reading dialogues and would rather skip them for gameplay, then you better skip the game that contains only that.

Score: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

thought it'd be some quick time, mobile game esque mixing drinks game. ended up getting an engaging story and the most relatable main character

Love the art style and the storyline!!!

A very, very good game. Essentially an interactive book. You alter the flow of the story by mixing the right drinks, or the wrong ones ;)
For extra impact play this around Christmas or New Year's holydays.

P.S. After getting all achievements I can say that I don't regret playing VA-11 Hall-A. It's been an enjoyable experience. I'm avoiding spoilers as much as I can. Go in blind.

Amazing game. Characters are so well-written and managed to capture the essence of a cyberpunk game. Jill Stringray is an amazing character with an outstanding character development as I keep playing this game. It is truly a work of art.

Despite being bogged down by the occasional lewd line or joke that felt forced or out of place
VA-11 Hall-A provides a consistently engaging narrative experience with just enough interactivity to hold your interest

It tells an incredibly personal tale and an emotionally gripping one at that, I'm sure you'll find at least one character you'll relate to as each have their own baggage and personal issues, the music , aesthetic and atmosphere are all lovely

Though word of warning the writing can be very abrasive and sexual, it fits the world and themes but I don't expect it to be everyone's cup of tea
but if the style works for you then there's plenty to love

Few games for me hold the honour of being side splittingly hysterical while also making me feel deep sadness with it's emotional beats and managing your tone so well to achieve that effect takes artistry

In summary I loved this game and if it's themes or aesthetic seem interesting to you I cannot recommend it enough

I have been meaning to play this game for years as the music and art style had immediately captured me. I finally gave it a go after a friend recommended it; I am glad I finally did!

Besides the amazing art and music, I enjoyed the story. It starts off a bit general but once you get to know the patrons you quickly get invested in them. The bartending mechanic is basically how you make choices in the game. More often than not, you will follow what the customer wants. However, sometimes it pays to ignore their request and use what you know about the patron to prepare the drink. As more time progressed, I related to the protagonist more and more.

Overall, a very nice experience. A cosy and bittersweet game.

The chill gameplay, listening to everyone's stories and all, serving drinks, combined with the relaxed Electronic music makes this a MUST-play game!

A really nice game, it wasn't quite what I was looking for but the story and the characters really drew me in.

An incredible setting and cast of characters, with great music and writing. One of most simple yet entertaining and fun VNs I've played, with a surprisingly hard-hitting story that's the cherry on top of this great game.

Words cannot do justify to how much this game impacted me emotionally in just 14 hours. Must buy if you feel like killing yourself.

guus story gam and i liek how u serve beers while listenien

This is a lovely visual novel style game! It has a nice vibe, art and music and the story and characters are quite enjoyable!
I really hope the sequel gets made one day <3

Story: ★★★★★
Music: ★★★★★
Gameplay: ★★★★☆
Overall: ★★★★★
Hits too close to home sometimes

Chill gameplay, love the characters (sei and stella are so cute i love them so much aaaaaaaaaa).

The plot is relatively simple, but the character writing is so real and natural. Some good tracks on the jukebox too.

Time for a second playthrough!

This is probably the best visual novel I've played. Granted it has some gameplay elements which I think personally that should remove it from being a true cut and dry visual novel. It's great though. I want to play the sequel.

If you're the kind of person that when reading an book/movie/comic you're more interested in the dialogue between characters, you're going to have a great time with this game.

It has also anime tropes around there, sometimes are a bit annoying, but others are charming.

I wish I completed this game sooner. Was introduced to this game thru a friend and didn't complete it until I got the true ending on the switch.
Got the true ending again here since it's been a while, and the game is still as amazing as it was back then.
Its story is evergreen regardless of when you play it. And I still love Dorothy.

absolutely stunning gameplay, completed the whole game in one go in about 8 or so hours. 11/10, love the lesbos in this game too

Just a really well made game. It's nothing too crazy or innovative, but it's very enjoyable. The story is really well written, the character feels real, the music sets the mood, the art style is very relaxing and the cyberpunk setting ties it all together. I've never been a big fan of visual novels and more relaxing stories, but this game just hit all the right buttons to make a really good experience that I won't forget. 10/10 - would recommend.

An Amazing Visual Novel Game also I LOVE DOROTHY TAKE ME!!!!!

This game is exactly what I needed to wind down and relax. The game has an amazing story, simple mechanics and an unique art style. You can tell the devs really put the time and care to write and animate the characters to give them life. In addition to that, all the dialogue and facial features flow well together to give off the emotions of each character while they talk. I also like the mini games, reading the blogs, threads and posts that give the world more lore and dimension.

I can't put into worlds how much I needed this game and truly appreciate it! Original, I played it using steam family share from my close friend, but once i finished it I bought it to support the creators and the upcoming sequel! I also 100% the game in 12/22/24, just a week and a half after I started playing. I want to see more from the devs, but until then this will be my comfort game!

Shut your brain off, grab a cold one, relax.

Conversational is the name of the game, you aren't here to make life or death decisions. Your only true input is to be aware of your orders, make money and prevent your game from ending prematurely, but your true role in this game is to be a window into the setting and the story of other characters.

You can piece together hints and read into things yourself but unlike other VNs, your decisions won't have a great impact in the story or your experience. In exchange we have one, mostly the same, story with nice character's with colorfull personalities, great music, a great setting, and a good contemplative experience.

I also think that you will love this one if you are into slice-of-life animes, like cyberpunk-like settings or you really love multi-character driven stories.

Simple,cozy, and very fun game. I highly reccomend it regardless of your game preferance

I love the Hel out of this game. It may be one of my favorite games of all time even, but today this game took something from me. I played this game on Switch about 5-ish years ago.

Picture this:
You're about to play this older visual novel about a bartender in a non-standard cyberpunk universe the game when you start it even tells you to sit back and relax so you do. It's finally your weekend you have no plans, and some time to actually relax so you go out of your way to make everything extra cozy. You grab a hot cocoa/mocha, some snacks, you get a big blanket and set your couch up extra nice and comfortable with said blanket, you grab your controller and find the game despite having a physical release does not have built in controller support.

So what do you do?
Well steam input is fine surely? Someone must have made steam input settings that doesn't suck. NOPE all of them are terrible. They all feel weird and use the joystick as a mouse. Why? WHY? You look online for solutions. You find someone made a mod a couple years back you think oh thank goodness this surely will solve the issue right? WRONG. Your hot cocoa is getting cold your excitement drains from your face as suddenly one of your favorite games soundtracks is not to be heard once you start the game as if nothing could get worse the mod doesn't seem to work without causing the game to have no sound and nothing makes any sense.

What did this game take from me you ask? An hour and half, and my cozy afternoon where I avoided responsibility and my hot cocoa.
The only thing that makes this more frustrating is that the game has had controller support on console for the last half a decade almost with no issues. Why wouldn't you update the game to support this? It makes absolutely no sense.

I will revise my review if built in controller support is added, but I will never get my afternoon back.

If you want my review of the game this is easily one of the best stories ever told in cyberpunk sci-fi setting in a video game.
It's extremely relatable if you've ever worked retail from the weird people you meet day to day, and the returning clients you even end up making friends with sort of. Even to the struggles of just paying your damn bills on time, but also wanting cool stuff for your apartment. It's very real, and the experience is so good all the way through. All the characters are amazing and interesting. It's worth reading/playing for them alone. Aside from that the entire soundtrack is killer. I have the collection on Vinyl Record and listen to it on a semi regular basis. I would recommend this game 1000/10%.
Just maybe not on steam if you wanna play it from your couch like I did.

The game is great.
It's a visual novel with minimal gameplay, where you listen to the very fucked up characters of a cyberpunk dystopian future as they drink their days away.

The OST is outstanding, and the art is nice to look at.

Given that it's a cyberpunk universe, you'll find heavily sexualized characters and themes. However, if you're sensitive to mentions of rape, you might want to avoid this game—they talk about it. A lot.

Technical stats for nerds:
Intel Core i7-11700K (Octa-Core)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
ASUS ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming [SLI]
Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4
1TB Ironside Certified SSD
Seagate 4TB HDD

I love this game so much! The cast of characters is incredible and I loved making the drinks and learning all about them, following each story as time went by! It was so so so good and the ending warmed my heart and made me tear up at the same time! If you're looking for a funny, creative, and emotional cyperpunk game where you can make drinks and chat with characters, grab this game right now!!

Awesome game with a good story. The way it tells you the story, the way you can change it with just drinks, it's pretty fun and the puzzle aspect of trying to get a right drink is fun too! The style is pleasant as well, there aren't really any bad things that I can say about the game besides it being short (total of 24 hours for 100% completion, 3 runs total but you can do it in 2 (maybe even in 1 but I am not sure) unfortunately I messed up flawless service bonus though so I had to complete a third run) and I wish I had more choices to get a little more personal with the characters, that said it was really immersive as is, especially while playing only at night for extra vibes. I highly recommend this game and if you read this then you definitely should at least give it a try.

NOBODY EXPECTS THE DOROTHINQUISTION!!i love this game so much..i actually pirated this at a time i couldnt buy it which is why im so glad i could finally buy it and support the devs!!Much love for .45pb

cool graphics, cool story, cool characters. I LOVE MAKING DTRINKLES!!!!!

A very relaxing and atmospheric game. 9/10

I really enjoyed the story despite it being a little short and very personal. Most major events happen off-screen, which at first was a negative, but it grew on me as I realized you're just here to do your job and chat; not change the world.

The setting, while only seen in a few images and through character descriptions, does its job well. Glitch city is pretty much the same as Blade Runner's Los Angeles, or Cyberpunk's Night city, both of which are excellent settings to draw inspiration from.

The characters are a bit more divisive. I personally don't mind trope-y and gimmicky characters, but I can see how others would be annoyed. The cast feels very similar to the casts featured in the Ace Attorney series, with each having some sort of gimmick and striking design.

The soundtrack is a masterpiece. I went through the entire game only using the same twelve songs on the jukebox and never got bored of them. Definitely looking forward to the composer's future work.

Highly recommended, and here's hoping the sequel comes out in my lifetime.

tIME TO MIX LIVES AND CHANGE DRINKS!!!1
I cannot even put on words how good this game is.
It genuinely captivated me the moment I opened it for the first time, plus the OST is just chef's kiss.
The story is good, the characters are good, the mechanics are good and this comes from a person that doesn't play visual novels regularly, even though this is more of a visual novel with a few extra things, if you can put it that way.
Also, there's the exact amount of dogs a game needs for it to be great.

It's a good game. Buy it, Play it.

fun game to play when multitasking. very cool designs and art. the characters are expressive and unique. limited choices in dialogue but imo it makes it require less attention which i like. im yet to complete the game. i like it.

Dorothy and jill are the best girls of the game. I WILL DIE ON THAT HILL BUT I WILL DIE HAPPILY!

Anyways. Fuck "Model Warrior julianne". It took me like, 3 hours of in game time (at least) to beat it. Jill of all trades tho!

Amazing game.

Surprisingly good. All the reviews are about how relaxing or cozy it is except this game is much more than that. It actually has a pretty good story, it just takes sometime to get to (end of chapter 1). There are many characters and each of them are pretty well written and their relations to one another are tied together surprisingly well too.

If you are looking for a visual novel that has a pretty good story and well written characters with some bar tending mini game on the side, I highly recommend this one.

quite chill game. absolutely love it. though, pixelation could have been a bit smoother (smaller pixels) as sometimes it can hurt eyes.

Peak visual novel, it's such a relaxing game to pass the time. Jill Stingray my GOAT, the writing is so good, 10/10 would recommend!

"VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action" - необычный взгляд на жанр визуальных новелл, предлагающий погрузиться в атмосферу киберпанка не через экшен или сложные интриги, а через будничную рутину бармена. Игра обещает уютный, почти интимный опыт общения с персонажами, но не всем может хватить терпения на это путешествие.

Игра строится на одной механике — приготовлении коктейлей. Она интересна на первых порах, но быстро надоедает. Когда понимаешь, что всё действие будет заключаться в смешивании напитков и чтении диалогов, энтузиазм угасает.

Завязка интригует, но, к сожалению, она не развивается. Первые часы ты ждешь, что вот-вот произойдет нечто важное или драматичное, но этого не случается. Нет ни яркой кульминации, ни ощутимого прогресса в истории.

В игре тебе не дают возможности влиять на развитие событий. Ты можешь смешивать коктейли разными способами, но итоговые изменения минимальны. Такое отсутствие интерактивности может разочаровать поклонников визуальных новелл, привыкших к нелинейности.

Чем дольше играешь, тем больше понимаешь, что основная идея игры исчерпана. Посетители приходят, рассказывают свои истории, ты готовишь им напитки — и всё. Ожидание чего-то большего постепенно сменяется разочарованием.

С другой стороны хороший саундтрек, приятная картинка, интересные персонажи и качественно написанный текст не позволяют дропнуть игру на десятом часу прохождения.
7/10

i grabbed it cuz it was cheap on sale, and i cant stop playing it. the writing is great (with the very rare spelling error) its fun, heart felt, and interesting. very much like.

Most soothing, relaxing, chill game ever. I can't stop playing this - and I don't want to, either!! Literally perfect for cozy winter days.

You should play VA-11 Hall-A at least once in a lifetime. I ranked this game as great that I rank Outer Wild, as a must-play.

The game talks about topics that may be difficult for some people, as characters talks about real problems in their lives. I never being emotionally implicated in a game before VA-11 Hall-A. And for a first time, it stings me so hard, because I was able to recognize myself in their talk, thanks to the great writing of the characters (Shoot-out to Jill, Sei and Gil).

The soundtrack and specifically Every Day Is a Night is amazing and can really add a lot of depths during the gameplay.

I wasn't a huge fan of visual novel to be honest, and 3 years ago, I discover this game on YouTube and play through watching it, and something like 6 months ago, I wanted to give it a try and it was a blast. Spend all the week playing it to achieve 100%.

Cyberpunk Bartender Action: VA-11 Hall-A is truly a masterpiece and should be on everyone library.

Thanks a lot Jill, I was able to understand where's my struggle and now I'm working to be better than the me of yesterday.

Do you want just sit and relax in the evening? Well, that will really fit you. This game is just awesome and really atmospheric. The music is really awesome, you can even change music playlist in this game, so you will enjoy it much more! You don't need to do a lot, It's just a novel where you doing drinks and enjoying the game.

making drinks is fun but my customers complain about my tit size

10/10

This game is a piece of art. The characters and dialogues are incredibly well written. Each character has their own past, problems, goals and mysteries surrounding them. As the story progresses, we gradually learn more about the motives of our acquaintances and the world around us. The narrative always remains suggestive and leaves it up to the player to put the individual pieces together. It also leaves a lot up to your imagination, but in a good, non-confusing way.
Although the game is not challenging in terms of difficulty or gameplay elements, it knows how to inspire and captivate with its unique vibe. The soundtrack is incredibly well done and complements every scene. The same applies to the colour palette and art style. You can simply feel that the developers put their heart and soul into every detail.

I started the game "blind" and recommend you do the same. If you like cyberpunk, synth soundtracks and relaxed, cozy gameplay, you're in for a treat.

I played it on the Steam Deck OLED and was left with ~50% battery after 7h (FPS limited to 30 and TDP limited to 7w). While the controls are not optimized for the deck (or controllers in general), the community layouts worked really well.

This is a game i've found myself enjoying more and more as i went through it, easily one of the most personally engaging experiences i've had with a game, the characters are all charming and full of life, they show a depth and humanity that helps you feel like you're really a part of the world that they inhabit, which is also served by the brilliant writing that doesn't shy away from getting meta and making the world of VA-11 Hall-A seem like an alternate reality version of our own.

And of course, can't go without mentioning the beautifully crafted music and aesthetics, evocative and immersive as they get, they'll leave a mark long after you've experienced them.

TL;DR Play this, it's charming and funny while also hitting deep and emotional moments, be warned though it is for mature audiences and you might have trouble swallowing certain stuff.