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VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

Hi, dear reader, with you zombies, and you know. I realized that Cyberpanka in games is surprisingly lucky with a variety of gameplay and plot genres. Immakev Sims? Series Deus Ex and System Shock. Triller gunpowder? Observer. RPG, grown from a hut with a step -by -step fighter and isometry? Shadowrun. Shooter with a top view? Ruiner and ascent. Lightning-bearing parkour-rubilovo? Ghostrunner. Libeent shooter in the first person? Syndicate. Quest? I have no muteh, but I must scream. Platformer? Dex. Yes, and take into account that half of this is RPG.

And genre visual novels He did not remain deprived . Someone will immediately remember Snatcher. Someone will come to my mind Neo Cab about a Taxist girl. But most will immediately say: visual cyberpunk-none? This is VA-11 Hall-A.
(Or Wallhalla, if easier. And in this case with two “l” in both syllables).

Video version of the review as always somewhere here.

When I settled to play this game, I was already well tuned to her in advance. Usually with games, after all, as it happens? Well, there is no such thing that everyone likes the game. People are different.
But not in the case of Walllglah. Here I did not ask who I played, always received the answer: “Yes, It should be passed. Yes her and Re -hardening is not a shame!”

And what can I say? Yes. It is worth going through and even rely.

During the passage, I already noted the numerous advantages of the game and the few minuses. Well, in the course of writing the script, I was already able to scorn this in a clearer and more combed view.

So this is A positive review of the game, where I will designate all the fat pros on the game and I will tell you a little about the minuses. A huge barrel of honey with a small spoon of tar.
And the viewing review. Of course, I will not paint plot turns or endings, but I will contravate some jokes and features of this game, which it would be better to check the player on my own, and only then read the review.

Before I move on to the transfer of pluses, I will briefly describe Klast games to make it minimally clear what is about. Well, you never know? Maybe one of you did not play, but is not going to and wants to just read the review. Or is going to play, but do not care about spoilers.

In a dysfunctional city in a typical cyberpanic future, there is a VA-11 Hall-A bar, an inconspicuous place where multicolor personality.

The main character Jill works in this bar. She mixes cocktails to visitors and at the same time acts as a kind of psychologist for each client. She asks them questions and listens to their stories. All action takes place inside the bar, or inside the apartment of Jill.

From gameplay: interfere with cocktails, put music, click channels on TV, read newspapers and forums and decorate the Jill apartment by going to the store + 2 mini-games in the late 1st and 2nd chapters.

Two more people work in the bar along with Jill: her boss Dana and the second bartender Jil (and yes, Jill and Jiel always understand in some magical way to which of them others turn to).

All. This minimum is enough.

So, Plus the first. This is an ambiguous dignity, because for some players this is more a minus. The game is already cracking at the seams from overwhelming it Reference. They literally shimmer through the edge, so there are many of them there. Sometimes it even seems that the whole game is a continuous reference.
Sukeban Games, before making their game, played in a bunch of other cyberpunk games, watched many cyberpank anime and films and, perhaps, even read some books, although I doubt it.

I naturally like these references, otherwise why would I attribute them to the pluses?
Let me say right away Three of their favorite references.

1. Reference to Raiden from Metal Gear. Specifically to Raiden from MGR and from four. Cyborg-ninja in heels.

2. Reference to a very specific scene from Deus Ex. And no, not even the game itself, but literally on the stage.
So, the character, who is a reference to Jensen, orders the main character the cocktail “Blow on the liver”. Then I suggest you read by screenshots.

Do you know what the laughter adds this reference? Gil, who usually orders Jamie this cocktail, by nationality, the Chinese.

3. AND Fat reference to Metal Gear v. It’s straight powerful.

And the fact that these are two dogs, one of which wears a bandage, and the second sunglasses.

And the fact that one to the second is addressed by “boss”.

And the fact that they discuss where to get more boxes.

And the fact that they build parades on Earth especially for dogs.

And even through the little things went, for example, here.

Well, then I will just list those references that I managed to buy.

The store that the main character goes to is called Jacey Elons (a reference to the name of Jacy Denton, the protagonist of Deus Ex).

Jill Srisova herself with Ri-El from the Anime Ergo Proxy.

Her girlfriend Alma Armitage is a reference to the armistage from the anime of the same name.

Obvious reference to Sailormun.

Obvious reference to Robocop.

The obvious reference to Jensen, the protagonist of Deus Ex.

Nanomashins – they are everywhere, they are everywhere (sending to the Metal Gear series).

Nanocamouflage, by the way, is also Metagirovsky.

This is sketched with Ray from Evangelion.

This character is outwardly literally Conor from Detroit Become Human, and the name of the character is Brian (also the name of the actor from which Conor’s appearance and who voiced him were reflected).

Singer Biodeoid Kira Miki is a reference to Hatsune Miku (Japanese virtual singer).

The brain in the bank is submitted to the presidency – well, this.

And, by the way, Christmas, which changed its essence, also suspiciously resembles the Futurama Merry Christmas situation.

Jamie most often serves Gillian, and in general they seem to be old friends. So: quite suddenly the main character Snatcher’s name is Gillian, and his wife is Jamie.

Replica reference to replicants from Bladerunner well or Snatcher Snatcher Snatcher.
And the appearance of Mario is a reference on the anime Akira.

Well, more or less everything that I managed to identify myself or with the hints of friends, but I think more sophisticated people will find even more references here.

As I said above: I liked these references. You recognize some references right away and sit giggling, you just assume, but some will pass by you.
I personally rush this. But I can understand those who don’t like this. I know people who are annoyed from endless references.

The second plus is already more unambiguous: His ENT, coupled with a cozy atmosphere.
You might have thought that the game is non -self -state in terms of the plot and is based only on other works with countless references. But. No. The game has more than its own independent universe.
Glitch City, in which the VA-11 Hall-A bar is located is not the most pleasant city in the world.

Rules this city “Dzeibatsu Corp.”, crushing everything and just pulling resources from the city, not particularly giving something in return.

The press shuts their mouths, which is why the newspapers constantly write some kind of little nonsense instead of loud and big news.

Instead of the police – PMCs “White Knights” who can create natural lawlessness in relation to ordinary citizens.
Prices for all horse, and if you think carefully – the city is on the verge, it seems to explode the rebels and protests of citizens who are simply tired of the power of the corporation.
And we even find these riots a little. How it all ended, we will not see, since the ending of the game will come earlier, but if for garlic, the game is not about (what exactly the game I will tell you when we reach its main plus).

At the same time, we see that the technology has stepped ahead. Augmentations have become the norm (bartenders can establish an implant of the liver on a freebie). Artificial intelligence has developed so much that now it is not to distinguish it from a person, which led to the appearance of Lilimov – such biorobots as in Detroit Become Human.

All people are now carriers of nanomas, without which they cannot exist and by which they are easy to track.

Nanomashins, however, can be removed from the https://nokyccasinos.org.uk/ body and replace them with an implant, if, for example, the character’s activities are illegal.

Nanomashin’s rejection is a deadly disease.

. But if you diagnose at an early stage, then the child can be saved by increasing him by which and turning him into a kind of furry-nyshka.

Gene engineering has developed.
Dogs found the mind and learned to talk (as I did, to be honest, I did not understand).
The bars have turned into a whole franchise, and now each bar uses the same set of drinks.
The essence of Christmas has changed due to wrestling. In general, in this world, anime wrestling is held in high esteem (although I personally think that Sukeban Games is simply personally dragging from wrestling and anime).

Some technologies are used in general for everyday life. Well, here’s what you think, Why is nanoculating in this universe? For some fighting, maybe? No.

Here, with the help of Nanocamo, they change the color of the wallpaper in the apartment, furniture.

. and even clothes (be prepared for the cring from discussing cowards-Nanocamo, yeah).

So that the game has its own lor. It is quite fragmented, and the player has to glue the pieces of Laura himself in a clear line. But this is due to the fact that we will learn about the universe of this game either in conversations with people (and not only people), or from newspapers and forums, and I remind you: the whole action of the game takes place either in the bar or in the apartment of Jill.

But I still appreciate this ENT. The creators were not too lazy and came up with their universe. This universe does not have enough glue, let’s say, but, nevertheless, it boldly goes into the test and a piggy bank of unique cyberpunk worlds.

And of course atmosphere. In a chat on streams, they wrote to me that this game is best to take place in winter, and on the same opinion I came across in the comments on YouTube. Wallhalla is a winter cyberpunk.

What is quite unusual, I only know one winter cyberpunk, and this is Snatcher, and there was winter in the plot.
In Walllgall, winter does not really affect the plot, it just happened that we are observing the December events.

The game constantly emphasizes that winter is on the street. The main character walks in a cute pink coat. After a snack, she bursts into a bar with exclamations.

She buys things that will make her apartment warmer, and 2 parties will take place for the game: Megarogrami and New Year’s.

And it is felt very. cosy. Thank God that the action of this game does not take place in the rainy time. Such a game as VA-11 Hall-A would just not go. The action of this game should unfold in not the most smooth weather, but there should be The feeling of an approaching holiday, uniting people and giving them hope for something good next year.
Given the mood and idea of ​​the Wallghalla, cold, but comfortable winter Here more than in the subject.

The third plus: Characters. Interesting, bright, memorable characters – this is important for a visual novel. If this is not in your introduction, then you have bad.

Wallhalla coped with interesting characters. Mostly, of course, the basis is taken as a basis Stereotypical types, but I personally think that in the visual short story we must do so. It was not worth shocking any ambiguous heroes or villains with gray morality in this game, and it’s good that Sukeban Games did not do this.
Here we have a colorful set. Well, for example.

Busty smart hack.

An eternally cheerful call girl (Lily we also).

Greyhound, but good boss of the main character.

Mysterious intelligent killer with principles.

Rude murmur – head of the local newspaper.

A fighting and not far girlfriend is a police officer, (good and cute, but previously having problems with outbreaks of anger).

Well and so on. There are many characters, and Each is remembered in their own way. Not only thanks to bright appearance and character, but also due to the fact that the game is not lazy to reveal every hero of this vaudeville. Each of the visitors will go to the bar not once or twice, and Jill will get the opportunity to learn more about them and about the events that are happening now or have occurred earlier.

By the way As for Gil (L) OV. The game can not cope with these two. Still interesting characters, but one did not have one, and the second was overpowered.

Jila tried to make it very mysterious, hz who he is, that he, where did he come from, what is his past. He is a dark horse of the most black coffee. But just Sukeban Games wise with his mystery, that they could not explain who he was really, and stupidly scored on it.

And the main character Jill on the contrary received too much attention in terms of lines of text.

We will learn about her In general, that’s it During the game, and at the end of the game I did not understand who she was, although she knew everything about her. She is like three different people, and you do not understand which of them the real jill. Then she is calm and cynical, then she is impulsive and psycho. It seems to be quiet and a poster, but at the same time thumps, smokes and cuts about sex. It is too hot, then it is too cold. The feeling that Sukeban Games tried to give her everything at once, but in the end they went too far.
This does not make her a bad character, but in the course of the game I recommend perceiving it as a protagonist, as the one from whose face is a story, and then you have no problems with her.

But it’s me so. Grumble on some little things. All characters are interesting here. With each of them it is interesting to talk and learn about them a little more. Moreover, stories there are not weak.

4th plus. Variability.
You already realized that This game can be replaced. She has several endings, and the characters depending on some circumstances Other phrases will speak and make other elections.
What is cool, true. Valgalla skillfully clings the player to try to go again, but already completely different.

What depends on the ending? Well, firstly, from whether you paid for the apartment Jill. The girl will have to introduce Three boards For the game: Subscription to porn site, electricity fee and housing fee. If you do not make payment for subscriptions for a porn journal, it is almost unrealistic, then licking the fee for housing and communal services and housing is still as real!

I must say right away that the non-payment of the subscription to the porn, disconnected by El-in and ignoring Jill’s Witnesser (and she wants to buy something after each working day) The ending does not affect. They affect the concentration of Jill at work. If you leave it in the dark and without paid wisdom, then at work she will constantly forget the orders. Why the player will have to concentrate.

But the non -payment of housing activates you Poor ending, While timely payment will provide you with a good.

The poor ending consists of one katsen and nothing else includes anything else.

But a good ending consists of two parts: the main katsen, which you will receive in any case, and additional ending, One of four. And you get one of the four endings, if on certain days you will pour certain drinks to certain characters.

Here I recommend walking. It is very difficult to guess there, it’s easier to spy on how to activate certain endings, I can even give a link.
https: // va11halla.Fandom.COM/Wiki/Endings

And if you want Jill to be enough for everything: for Wishlist, and the housing and communal services, and the apartment, then it is important for you to remember that

You must not make mistakes at all during work, so that you are given a premium for impeccable service,

You need to buy only what Jill asks, in no way to buy something beyond that,

And you need to forget about Nanocamo. Buy some simple, but nothing more.

This damn nanocamo is a jokushka trap. I was burned on it and could not pay for the apartment, and I had to roll back to the s. My comrade bought Nanocamo and also burned on it. Damn, Sukeban Games is not in vain have the word suke in the name, well, who does this, you want to buy Jilka new wallpaper on the walls and kotatsu (google what it is), but Then you will fail the payment for the apartment.

And I just told about the endings. During the game, you can spin characters on other dialogs. Not everyone and not always, but half for sure.

How exactly you change the course of dialogue? Drinks. Well, what else, drinks are your only tool of influence.

For example. If you give Inigram on the first day what he asks for the dialogs with him will be more irritating, Ingram will seem frankly unpleasant, and even also a pervert of some kind of pervert. Huge misunderstanding, by the way, is he just not talking, and in fact he is not a pervert.

But if you ignore all his wishes and give him Only sweet drinks, He will tell what happened to his wife, he will tell what happened to his daughter, and he activates additional replicas in dialogues with Jamie.

It would seem: garbage? Just poured other drinks to a person, but in the end changed three dialogs.

Or, for example, after some certain drinks can be activated Additional scenes, where Jill takes a character with him for a smoke break, and these scenes are full of revelations. This can be cranked from this and from Dorothy.

You can give certain characters three times the secret cocktail “burning MOAI” (its recipe will have to google), and then three secret guests will appear during your plot:

A friend of our boss,

Hacker looking for Alice_rebbit

And there is a second tool of influence. Here you are a bartender, yes? What do you think should be done to The man got a lot more to you? Daaaaa.

Our colleague Jil at the beginning of the game with direct text says that there are drinks for which Karotrotin (local analogue of alcohol) optional. You can at all pour it on, or you can fill it with a shaker until it stops.

And there are drinks that can be made large. More drink = more karmotrin.

Well, rushed, darling. For the second passage, feel free to go into the variety, and where the passage says “If you drink this character, he will tell more”, feel free to attack. Personally, my choice always fell on a sugar flour or a big bon of the backbone.

Jamie will tell you more about his work.

Stella feels to the limit

(By the way, I also gave Stella the wrong drinks, which is why she did not give me rum, but Jill brought to work absinthe from a personal collection, which can subsequently drink a couple of characters to activate other dialogs).

Alma will give out a vulgar story, and then he will completely begin to poison the perverted tales of racing with Dorothy.

And some characters that you chuckled by Karotrin in the first passage make sense On the contrary, do not attack, to see more adequate behavior and listen to another dialogue.

Stream-chan, for example, will not fall asleep right in the bar, but will tell a rather pleasant story why she began to strive.

And then he will go to fight with a trading machine, because it is abnormal. By the way, you will already read about this on the forum at the house at home.

And yes, newspapers and forums will also be different. Not more capital others, all the same by 90 percent, these will be the same discussions and articles, but you will notice some difference, and some new articles will appear.

But I still recommend being more careful. Because if you give all the drinks wrong for half the shift, then A heimover will come. Very strange and ridiculous gamer, but nevertheless he is here.

This happened to me when I tried to leave three characters in sober, despite the fact that they ordered purely alcoholic beverages.

So yes, VA-11 HALL-A is more than re-playable. I want to scold it only for non -obviousness, because well, without passing, you will not guess which drink will change the dialogue or pull another ending. However, this did not steam, here is the case when I accept such reiglabia.

I recommend, by the way, to open not so much passage as the Wikipedia of the characters. It more or less says, who to pour what to get a completely different stream of words and another development of events.

It is also worth adding that there is a “game +”.

And there is additional content in the form of a three -day prologue of the game and two episodes, where Jill will chat a little with his. let’s say so – a longtime friend. I’ll talk about her a little later.

Well, it remains to discuss the two main most fat pluses of the game. But before I go to them, let’s briefly go through the minuses so that everything is honest.

The first minus: There are too many lesbukh in this story. At some point, the Sukeban Games themselves is ironic over themselves in one note, they say, this whole story is graphomania about lesbukh and sex, but this is not easier for me. If talking about sex here is perceived normally, because the game has sufficiently carbon monoxide, and jokes about sex are also normal, then lesbukhs are a whim of a scriptwriter.

The fact that almost all the chan in this game is either a lesbian or bi, does not make any sense, these are just the humid fantasies of the screenwriter and nothing more. With the same success, all these chan could be hetero, and nothing would have changed.

The second minus: some dialogs here really resemble the same graphomania. The same thing when you read, and at some point you stop understanding that you are generally reading. Thank God, this is practically not here, but a couple of times a couple of times per game will meet.

And the third minus: Anna Graham or Anna Gram. This is the very old friend Jill. She is a local deadpool, she is aware that she is in the game, while she is dead, but Jill and some characters can see her.

To be honest, I thought that the plot was somehow tied to Anna. She appears at the beginning of the game and pushes mysterious speech, she periodically appears on the TV TV, at the end of the game, she again comes to Jill and as if trying to convey something to her.

So, Anna is just like that. Just a character who is aware of what is in the game. This already smacks of scenario bad taste, as well as the presence of lesbukh in the plot. Anna can take her sailor for the blizzard and throw her out of the game, and it will only become better without such a character, who is joined for the sake of joke, they say, look: we also have someone who breaks the fourth wall. But guys, you have a serious story here, why do you need this female dedapul in the plot?

And go To the two main advantages of the game.

MUSIC. The soundtrack wrote under the name Michael Kelly Aka Garoad. And my God, he did not just deal with it, he created One of the best soundtracks for cyberpunk games in principle.

The first thing you notice during listening is that the soundtrack Positive and inspiring. There are no aggressive, evil, gloomy and pressing tracks in it. No, this is either a positive.

Or pleasant melancholy.

either something cheerful and bodyvaging.

It is very difficult to say by the genre what it is. I would say that this is a retrovium, but it’s not him. There are a lot of synth in the music of Walllglah, the piano.

. In some places there is a guitar and bass.

I am inclined to call it a crossbar of a lounge, retrovium and jazz, and then it will not be close to the truth one hundred percent.
True, it is very difficult to say what it is, Garoad did unique and recognizable. Those who played VA-11 Hall-A always recognize her soundtrack, if they turn it on, and many can even say what this or that track is called. And such a good memory for the names of the tracks in the player is no coincidence.

The fact is that the game will make you listen to your soundtrack. There is a musical apparatus in the bar, and twice for a gaming day Jill will have to load music into it.

At the beginning of the shift and after the break you will be thrown out in the menu of the musical apparatus, And until you download 12 tracks, you cannot continue the game.

At first, of course, you will listen to all the tracks that are. But somewhere on the third day you will be dashingly draw up a playlist for a day.
During the game you will see what track is playing now, and your memory will notice what kind of track is good, what is average, and which is not very (personally to you).

And your memory will slowly record the names of the tracks.

Yes, this will work out outside the game. I turned on the soundtrack of the Walllglah during business, and, without looking at the screen, I could say the name of the track.

“Oh, EVERY DAY IS A NIGHT.”” Oh, the march of white knights.”Oh, Will U Remember Me.”” Oh, carpotrin dreams.”

Huge respect Garoad For an excellent soundtrack And no less huge respect Sukeban Games for this approach to Soundtrack memorization. In my memory, not a single game has done so, and this is already worthy of respect.

And finally the last plus and he is the largest. Message.

Remember, at the beginning of the blog I listed all sorts of cyberpunk games. That’s what they were all about? This is usually The story of the struggle. Lonely fighters with evil corporations or a group of wrestlers. Fight, defend their interests, overthrow the villains! The city is in danger, the earth is in danger!

Or is it about all sorts of investigations and mysterious murders. Noir detectives in cloaks are looking for answers to their questions and even find these same answers.

Well, that is, it is always A kind of direct confrontation whatever.

And now the question: At least one of these games tells us about ordinary people? After all, there are the most ordinary citizens who are forced to live in this hopeless darkness in these worlds.
Yes, games are shown to us the life of ordinary citizens, the main character or heroes somehow see all kinds of renegades and homeless people at burning barrels. But is he trying to help them? Not really. The protagonist has a global goal to combat the universal evil or the search for truth, and he goes to her. Maybe in passing it will help some kind of homeless person with a difficult story, and even then – hardly.
In my memory, only Mankind Divved at least somehow tried to illuminate the issue of helping ordinary people, but there it was additional tasks, and the main plot was still about the fight against world evil.

So VA-11 Hall-A is not about the fight against evil corps. This is about the most ordinary people And about how they try their best to help each other in this crazy world.

All these characters are not superheroes with guns at the ready, They are just people (and not only people) who sincerely want to help others. And probably, to some extent, this makes them superheroes.

Jill the most ordinary girl, she just works as a bartender. But she is struggling to help every visitor. She asks leading questions, listens to people’s stories, gives sensible tips and really affects their fate.