VA-11 HALL-A revels in presenting tough philosophical questions in a calm and sometimes even comfortable environment. They’ll talk of loves, losses, lives – and even transhumanism and keeping brains in jars. As they become regulars at the bar, you can unravel their stories at your leisure. Something they didn’t know they needed? You better believe that’s a narrative paddlin’. Make them something they didn’t expect, it could go another way entirely. Give them what they want, and the narrative will go one way. But in VA-11 HALL-A’s frequent intervals, these characters will ask for a drink.
In other visual novels/RPGs, you’d pick a dialogue path some time or another to create a new story path. Most of the time, you’ll be scrolling through dialogue text that’s pretty damn well written. What sets VA-11 HALL-A apart from most other visual novels…games…narratives is how you affect the story: By mixing drinks. You play as Jill, a twenty-something woman who mixes drinks with her (best) boss Dana and her…friend (?) Gillian at a dingy bar designated as VA-11 HALL-A, or as they put it, Valhalla. In fact, you’re literally just there to serve drinks. While VA-11 HALL-A has these elements in the background, your role in them is incredibly small. Bodily augmentation is common, creating a new divide between cyborgs and those who retain their basic humanity. Brutal not-so-secret police control the population that aren’t oppressed by nanomachines. Human society has evolved to a point where corporations control entire cities, and privacy is a rare luxury. VA-11 HALL-A is set in a cyberpunk concrete jungle of a city, in an undisclosed year (although the game was “published” in 2068).
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