VA-11 Hall-A: Making Drinks for the Waifus

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Mix drinks for the waifus in a city that shouldn't exist in a bar with an eponymous name. Welcome to to Valhalla!

Sukeban Games and Ysbyrd Games developed and published VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (aka Valhalla) as a visual novel in June 2016 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux. It is an incredibly well-written game that’ll captivate you from start to finish.

Storyline and Gameplay Mechanics of Va-11 Hall-A

You start the game as Jill, a bartender in a bar called VA-11 Hall-A also fondly known as Valhalla. Customers come in, and you make them a drink according to their requests or moods. Jill’s shift starts in the evening with one break where you can safely save and continue before the night ends.

Right off the bat, Gil will give you a refresher on how to make drinks just to make sure you remember how to do it. The screen will change to the B.T.C recipe book with a tab for sorting the drinks by name, flavor, type, or bottled drinks.

Clicking on a drink’s name will give you the recipe. You can choose and mix the ingredients on the right side of the panel. You have to read the instructions properly. Failing to put the correct ingredients or overmixing will result to a failed drink. Your mistakes in mixing will result to a salary cut at the end of the shift. Mixing the drinks will only take 1-5 seconds while blending is 6-10.

The majority of your gameplay in Va-11 Hall-A is spent within the confines of the small cyberpunk bar where you serve an interesting array of clients that’ll keep your night entertaining. Occasional scenes of the player character Jill chilling at home after her shift refresh the eyes from the bar’s panel. The game has that 8-bit pixel-art charm that you can toggle on and off in the settings.

Customization and Other Features of Va-11 Hall-A

The customization app on Jill’s phone unlocks after a couple of shifts. However, you’ll be able to buy things from the shop to decorate her room when you get back to her apartment from the first shift. The Nanocamo app on Jill’s phone allows you to spend your hard-earned money on customization, which includes changing the color of her walls and the kotatsu’s cloth covering.

You’ll be able to customize the room with whatever palette that pleases your eyes. Your room will be littered with random items as time passes and you buy more things from the shop. There will be a prompt to guide you on the things Jill wants to buy to make her motivated to work.

Meet the Patrons

Aside from your boss/bouncer/friend, Dana, and the mysterious Gillian (Gil for short), you will meet a lot of different people throughout Va-11 Hall-A. Here are a few of the characters that’ll share with you their secrets if you get them drunk enough.

Mr. Donovan is the editor-in-chief of the infamous news outlet ‘The Augmented Eye’. He is your first costumer. He may look decent but you’ll soon find out why some of your patrons don’t like him much. Ingram is redhead who doesn’t have any filters. He share his thoughts with you and then some. Sei on the other hand is one of the sweetest clients you’ll meet at the bar. She’s a medical Valkyrie who helps people during riots. Spoiler: She’s one of them waifus that’ll give you a good ending.

Kim works for Mr. Donovan. She’s a little too anxious and jumps into conclusion too much. She’s also a little panicky and paranoid. Dorothy is one of the few Lilim (AI) you’ll meet in the bar. She’s a little too bubbly despite her profession.

These are some of the characters you’ll be encountering in your shift in Valhalla. Some of them you’ll be very fond of and some of them, you’ll want to punch in the face. Dialogs with your patrons will depend on how drunk they are, so try to give them as much alcohol as you can and see what happens.

Serve Some Drinks

Failing to pay the rent and getting evicted will result in one of the six endings of Va-11 Hall-A. All in all, Va-11 Hall-A is a well-written masterpiece that has gained a lot of accolades from players who have played and replayed it over the years. You’ll find yourself chuckling at its quick-witted and clever dialogues as well as relate to the many clients that visit the bar.

Some themes in the game may be suggestive, but you’ll soon find out that it’s a part of the game’s overall charm. The game is almost a decade old, but it still manages to charm its players year by year. If you want to experience mixing for the waifus, Va-11 Hall-A is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

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