So this is a bit of a surprise, isn't it? I haven't done a game review in...quite literally years. By in large the Blog has been predominantly Toku reviews. But that's finally going to change- at least for a bit. I actually had originally intended to review River City Girls- and in fact, I have it completed, but there was a patch announced just before I published my review so I figured it's best if I wait on that. Instead, this little game was gifted to me this past Christmas by my friend Rhys and it ended up becoming something I really wanted to spotlight.
By the way, I'm going to avoid spoilers as much as I can but there will still be some, even a couple of major ones.
Also yes I was loosely familiar with the game beforehand and through the Girls' Frontline event.
Also, I'm going to be calling it Valhalla. Before this sounds any more like a goddamn recipe site, let's get to the point.
Platform: PC/Steam version.
Gameplay.
The basic premise of Valhalla is that you take on the role of Jill, a bartender at the VA-11-Ha-1A bar which resides in Glitch City; a cesspit of corruption and inflation. Your role is simply to serve drinks and listen to stories of patrons, maybe even offer up some advice.
From there, the gameplay is pretty straightforward as it is a visual novel and largely based around clicking and dragging. Surprisingly there are no dialogue options, the only major interaction is in the bar menu preparing drinks. Customers will request a drink specifically by name or vaguely, such as wanting something sweet, bitter, strong, classy, etc.
You have a recipe book with all the various drinks where you can search by type. flavor or name.
Making the drinks is fairly simple, you just drag the appropriate amount of the select ingredients to the shaker and when you're ready click to shake, and again stop and then one more to serve. Sometimes you have to let the shaker keep going which blends the drink, sometimes you have to add ice or age it, etc. You don't have a time limit and if you mess up you can reset with no ill effect, it's generally a laid back gameplay experience despite being about a service industry job.
Where the challenge comes in is that you can influence the story with what you serve. There are key moments where serving the right item will result in triggering a good ending for that particular character later down the road, or maybe even just a simple change in conversation. It's not always outright told to you, but hinted at. Maybe a character that normally orders sweet bubbly drinks comes in looking depressed and all of a sudden wants something bitter. You could serve them that, but maybe serving them their favorite sweet drink that they talked about several chapters back would be for the better. Or maybe some guy's being a shit head and asking for something strong and manly, so you give him the girliest sweet thing only to unlock some dialogue you otherwise wouldn't have.
It's stuff like that, how well you know your customers or even how much you want to be a dick to someone.
The other somewhat challenging aspect is money management. Jill has to have enough money in her bank account to pay major bills while also having a desire to buy goofy nerd shit. Before and after each day starts you'll be given a result screen on your job performance and can gain a bonus for flawless service.
(so yeah maybe don't be a dick even to the asshole customers)
You will then be in Jill's apartment on her phone where you can browse websites, leave to go shopping and of course head to work.
Jill will also always have a specific desire for some silly product like a poster or a piece of furniture, with an exception on days bills are due/paid.
If you don't buy the item in question or you don't pay the bill, she won't be able to focus at work and won't recall orders while making drinks or pick up on certain things. Which- fuck is that a mood right there while also having some commentary on consumerism and how buying dumb shit is sometimes the only brief enjoyment people get.
Honestly, I never had too much trouble balancing this. I was never in too much danger of not having the money needed even when buying all the stuff Jill wanted, despite cutting it close near the end of my first playthrough. But that's probably because I never bought anything that wasn't needed/desired and again: I always sold expensive drinks when given the chance. All in all, it's a fairly easy enough game to handle as long as you aren't reckless.
Gameplay-wise I don't have many complaints but I do have a few. When you're on the job you can't load your game... at least until about halfway through your first play. I really do not understand why this is, but you're prevented from clicking the load option in the corner for a very long time, which is very annoying. A scenario that happened to me was a character requesting Tea, which is an item you can buy at the shop and it gets added to the Valhalla menu. Well, I didn't have it but it's actually needed if you want that particular character's ending. The game only allows you to save at certain times: in Jill's apartment or when you're on a break, same with loading until it's unlocked on the proper menu. So I realized I fucked up and from there I just skipped all the dialogue, made the drinks, skipped some dialog again, repeat until I was in Jill's apartment where I thankfully had more than one save file and was able to load to the prior day where I could buy the tea, then skip all the dialog I had already read, make the drinks again, finally get to where I left off, serve the tea and finally read what I had originally skipped. That was tedious and unnecessary-- all because I couldn't load right then and there from the menu when I realized I messed up.
There's also a secondary part of this which is that I clicked like freaking crazy to skip all that text, but I recently found out you can fast forward dialogue, but the game never tells you how: it's the ctrl button. In fact, there's an entire array of keyboard shortcuts the game just straight-up never informs you of, ranging from using QWERTY for adding ingredients and even removing them one at a time, or pressing v to turn off the text sound. The settings section in the menu only gives you options for volume, scan lines and window size there's absolutely zero info within the game itself to indicate these shortcuts exist.
Additionally, there's no chapter select, you can't pick a day or even week to replay. So if you fuck up and you get way too far in the game, you basically have to restart/do New Game+ from the get-go. Valhalla isn't like most visual novels where you have to trigger a multitude of flags from day one for a certain ending- it really comes down to just doing the right thing at the right time on one particular day for a character that might only show up twice over the 19 days the game takes place.
I'm really hoping that the sequel N1RV Ann-A address these qualities of life issues. They're not game-breaking by any means, but they are little annoyances worth dealing with and a lot of them feel like they're there just so you'll do a second playthrough. Which I like the game well enough to do, but being incentivized like this kinda has the opposite effect and is completely needless when there are things like secret conversations that can occur if you get characters drunk, extra music tracks that unlock, all your stuff carries over in NG+ so you can afford to mess about. There's enough reason to do a second run without restricting things like the ability to load on your first play or what have you.
Story.
This is really the bread and butter of the game, it is, after all, a visual novel first and foremost.
However, the real focus isn't on your fellow employees, but on the patrons.
The game starts off simple enough with Jill's nightly routine of serving customers and listening to their stories. Over the course of the game, more patrons appear, some becoming regulars and others making more infrequent visits. Each has their own unique personalities, backstory and ongoing story that we learn about over the days and weeks. Some customers are rude ass hats and that's all there is to it, other times they're more nuanced and are suffering from some tragedy they can't seem to escape. Others are just dealing with mundane work and need to let off steam. Some lead into larger stories, others you barely get to know and are left wondering what that person's life is like.
Conversations with these individuals also do a lot to develop the setting the game takes place in, expanding upon the bleak atmosphere of the city.
One of my favorite conversations is with Donovan D. Dawson, the CEO of the main News network: The Augmented Eye.
He's not a particularly pleasant character. He's rude, cynical, obsessed with money and exploiting other people for his own gain. But one of the more insightful aspects is he's aware of how screwed up his industry is. The clickbait, the fluff stories, half-truths. Even something as cynical as profiting off bad news is a hard sell when people are so jaded and desensitized to the daily horror.
Furthermore, it's not enough to just report on the news and even make a profit, it has to be more and more profit or it's a failure in the eyes of investors. There's no satisfaction, no end.
Suffice to say if you were worried that maybe the game would be all cyberpunk style and no substance, then I'm happy to say that's not the case at fucking all. It lays it on thick with many of the conversations had between characters.
This is more punk than anything CD ProjectRed has done thus far.
Dawson and his terrible news aside, many of the patrons- at least for my part- I became quite invested in their stories and well being.
Perhaps the most notable of these is Sei. She's a White Knight, a sorta corporate police force that's rumored to be corrupt and known for their excessive violence and harassment of civilians (So just like regular cops, but with Robo suits). Sei's unit is dedicated solely to rescue and she's one of the few truly good Knights. A kind-hearted person through and through, downright adorable even due to her absent-minded nature.
Over several days and weeks, a story unfolds of a bank's security going haywire and locking people inside and out-- Sei being part of a unit running security at the bank. A few days later a lot of info about the Knights is leaked by a notorious Hacker. The info reveals the corruption and results in many Knights being lynched by angry civilians. I had become so invested in Sei as a character that I found myself checking the in-game news site for just any update on the situation.
When there finally is a development, poor Sei is injured to hell and back and suffering from PTSD, resulting in a simultaneous mixture of relief and more anxiety of her well being.
Sei is one of the most focused on patrons, and in fact of the five major regulars, two are directly connected to Sei.
One of those is Stella, her best friend since childhood. Stella has her own story, but that of course also ties in with a lot more background info regarding Sei. Stella's a rich socialite a world apart from Sei, but the two met at a park by happenstance after Stella begged to get out of the rich neighborhood she was accustomed to and visit a "real" park. The two have remained close ever since through thick and thin. Stella's life largely involves dealing with a lot of businessmen all with fake personas, Stella herself doing much of the same in turn. But Sei is the one person she can just be herself around.
That's, of course, a larger more serious matter. Others are small, such as with Alma, who is a security consultant with a particularly picky and fickle nature about relationships, which is mostly what her conversations revolve around and eventually her family issues with one of her sisters.
Then there's Virgilio, who is literally just a Jim Sterling character. Like seriously the name and appearance are the same as a Sterling character waaaay back on the escapist. It's certainly unoriginal but I'd be lying if I didn't say Virgilio was one of the more outstanding characters within the title. Primarily it's because they did such a good job mimicking Sterling's style of humor and dialogue of a crazed man speaking utter philosophical nonsense.
I read his lines in Sterling's exaggerated speech pattern and it works perfectly. Like shit, I hope Duke Amiel du H'ardcore appears next game. Or you know, maybe someone could wrestle Dana...
There's also quite a bit more nuance to him but I won't spoil that.
There are plenty more minor patrons with infrequent visitations. I will, however, say that despite being minor and some even derivative, they are memorable and often have things of interest to discuss for their brief roles, such as the detective Art Vondelay[sic] and the surprisingly friendly hitman Jamie who is good friends with Gillian. Art, in particular, stuck out to me because for one despite his appearance (Which we'll get to) and his initial impression, what little we do find out about his life and how he got started as a detective is intriguing. I also have a soft spot because I always wanted to be a private detective when I was growing up.
The characters are also shockingly diverse and varied when it comes to representation. Jill is bi, Dana is Pan, one of the customers is a semi-closeted gay biker named Mario and there's even a non-binary brain in a jar, which has gotta take androgynous appearances to a whole other level.
Alma has a couple slip-ups where she accidentally reveals that her brother is trans.
There's also mention by Stella that indicates Sei is likely Atypical, which certainly explains some obvious behavioral quirks.
While all of that is good and all of the characters have great merits, there is one that fittingly stands above the rest for me and that is Jill herself.
Jill is fairly basic when you get down to her. She doesn't exactly love her job but she doesn't outright hate it either. After all, her boss is pretty cool (and buff) and Jill's getting by. But she feels directionless at 27. For a large portion of the game, you're sorta focused on everyone else that Jill seems like she's going to remain a mystery beyond a few tidbits revealing what a giant nerd she is. At least until her past creeps in and hits like a fucking truck.
Her backstory is largely concerned with a past event involving her ex, Lenore. The two were madly in love and Lenore was incredibly supportive of Jill through their College years, Jill herself saying Lenore was the only reason she was able to push through. However, Lenore had a tendency to be pushy and perhaps even jealous. Good as her intentions were on the surface, she was- in retrospect- living vicariously through Jill. After four years of college, Jill received a massive job offer which Lenore accepted on her behalf without even consulting. The anxiety and pressure became too much for Jill to bare and she let it all out at once.
The writing concerning Jill's story is very good and nuanced as the player gains an understanding of where both people were coming from. Jill hardly seemed to have any control or agency in her life, she had a huge offer and it scared her. What would happen if in 20-30 years she was in a position she hated and couldn't escape? There was no time or even opportunity to think it over before decisions were being made for her.
At the same time, Lenore isn't made out to be necessarily toxic in the guise of love, she was doing something she thought was right. Flawed certainly, but no more than Jill. The situation between the two can only be described as human. Lenore was being selfish pushing her own wants upon Jill, while Jill for once in her life was spurred to finally take control for herself and show some degree of control by no one's hand but her own, but did so in a tactless and blunt way.
How this information comes up and the fallout of it is a story in itself that I won't spoil, but suffice to say this part is the reason I found Jill to be such an intriguing character.
I can be here all day and type up fucking Wiki profiles on the characters and their stories, sexuality or neurological status. But even more so than usual, it's not the same as seeing it play out yourself. Valhalla is a title where how the story affects you on a visceral level is another matter entirely and not something I think I can do justice, no matter how long-winded and detailed I attempt to convey the emotion that the story managed to bring out of me- so I'm not going to bother. It hit in such a hard way both good and harsh reality sense that I've not felt probably since I read Scott Pilgrim a decade ago but cranked to 11. More specifically what I mean by that isn't that the characters or even story are reminiscent of that series per se, but rather its shares a general feeling of anxiety and existential dread. A feeling of being adrift, uncertain, worried about the well being of those you've become attached to. Will those bonds still be there tomorrow or next week, and what does the future hold when there's so much chaos in the world? If there is a stronger theme between the two it comes down to regret and being haunted by past mistakes. Jill isn't a dipshit like Scott who blocked out the bad stuff and needed to learn a lesson- again her situation is far more dynamic. But the past does bother her and she feels regret and has to come to terms with that.
Her backstory with Lenore is something I find depressingly relatable. I've never been in that exact situation, but I'm all too familiar with the emotions she goes through wondering if even what you're doing now is a good thing and what if one could have handled the past differently. I do not want to oversell the game and your own mileage may vary. My own experiences help heighten the story on a personal level no doubt and that's obviously not going to be universal.
Beyond my own personal ties, the team behind this did something you don't see very often and that is creating a narrative where the player character's effect on the world is limited- not necessarily unimportant but you are little more than a bystander in this world. You're almost a side character in a sense while still being interesting because Jill does have a well-developed story, it's just one that's comparatively small along with everyone else. Yet you still get invested and care in the same way you would in real life. Pulling that off in fiction is hard. Shit, there's big visual novels out there that do have world cataclysmic stakes for the main cast but still have boring as fuck MCs. (Hi Type-Moon and your one good protagonist) You're not some rebel fighting the fascist Government and White Knights, you're not the hacker revealing all the corruption. You're just a bartender dealing with very human problems listening to other people's issues. But you're still important, the people around you matter. This is a game about folks just trying to get by and they made it work.
All that being said, as somber of a tone the game sets, they remember to balance things out with frankly great humor. They do such a good job of being goofballs without undermining the serious nature that certain situations need. Sure the world is hell, but there are semi-intelligent talking dogs.
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I've heard some people criticize some of the dialogue as being a bit unnatural sound and yeah, there are a couple of lines that don't sound right...
But by in large I didn't have any issue. Honestly, some of the shit that comes out of Jill's mouth reminded me of how I and my friends talk. In particular a bit about a cucumber that I won't spoil.
However, if there is one roadblock or big bump to all this enjoyment, it's a certain character I've yet to talk about it. That character is Dorothy Haze.
Now let me say first and foremost that Dorothy is actually one of my favorite characters in the game. She's charming, perky, bubbly, and has some of the most hilarious goddamn upfront lines in the game.
She's also a sex worker which the writing treats very well. It goes into how she has to watch out for dangerous clients, how she has modifications to protect herself since it can be so harrowing. Still, she enjoys her job and that's largely where a lot of her charm and humor come from.
It's frankly surprising and even commendable to have this outlook on sex work. There's just one little problem. Dorothy is a liliam, an umbrella term in the game's setting for a race androids/gynoids. Dorothy is explicitly mentioned to be a model that appears between 10 and 13 in age.
Yeah... This is awkward. I'm very much against the "Looks like x age but is really x age" in anything that uses it in such a way as to be sexualized. It's creepy no matter how you cut it and more often is a bullshit excuse. Now in the case of Dorothy, she's at least robotic and there is one aspect I'm willing to view this where I can sorta see this working, and that is it actually just being intentionally creepy and weird. Valhalla is a Cyberpunk setting and that means the most disgusting depraved shit is often commonplace because the most disgusting depraved people are in control. None of the other characters even bat an eye that Dorothy is a sex worker that looks underage, the world is just that far gone. Dorothy even mentions that Liliam can undergo an upgrade after a certain point to a more mature appearance and she qualifies but says she gets more clientèle in her current state. Ew.
Still, there is this argument to be made on just because you can write something that doesn't mean you should. It's not something that has to be brought up. It's ugliness vs. toothlessness. And... I can't even say that the concept of something like Dorthy wouldn't totally be a thing in the real world. There are absolutely weirdos out there that would build and use something like her if given the chance. Hell, Dorothy is honestly a more tame version of a very real thing. Perhaps it says more about our own fucked up world than one would like.
Regardless, I wouldn't blame anybody for being put off by this. It's a shame too because I do feel there is a great story in Valhalla and I even like Dorothy, but goddamn if that isn't a hard pill to swallow. Even with my attempts at contextualizing the setting and implications, I found myself simultaneously enjoying Dorthy's company and dialogue--
But maybe that was the intent all along.
On the subject of weirdly gross, this also happens:
Boy, that aged like milk in the hot sun.
Also, does anyone else find that implication unintentionally funny? That only a terrible shithole dystopia is where something like that is a thing. I know that wasn't the intent at all, but that's how it reads now.
Music.
Musically the game is really good and is certainly a huge highlight. It's very heavy on not just typical synth but various electronic instruments while boasting some good variety of tone and mood. We've got some slow and smooth tracks, some upbeat stuff, moody and somber, even a couple of high energy/speed. Nothing too hard, though. Don't expect Carpenter Brut or Dance with the Dead, it's largely a chill and laid back soundtrack. Think music akin to that in Wicked City, Snatcher, and Patlabor. I'm almost certain that's the vibe they were intending to invoke and Michael Kelly did a fantastic job in doing so while not exactly delving too deep into the 80s/early 90s vibe.There's a lot of tracks, 50 in all. But I'll list a few of my favorites here to give a listen.
A Neon Glow Lights the Way.
Snow Fall.
Everyday is Night.
Dawn Approaches.
Your Love is a Drug.
All Systems Go.
Karmotrine Dream
A City That Never Sleeps
Showtime!
Neon District.
Now it's worth mentioning not every track in the game is unlocked from the get-go. Some unlock as you progress- others when you complete certain requirements. You also get to choose what music you listen to and what order at the beginning of your shift and after the break. You select 12 tracks to play. A shuffle and full player control are also available in the menu during gameplay even when mixing drinks.
I do sorta wish there was an arranged mode option where the Jukebox would auto-play music during certain scenes, mainly so you wouldn't have the awkwardness of a very somber and tragic story being relayed as happy pop music blares. There's a lot of good sad tunes like "Where do I go from here?" that could have been utilized to great effect during those decidedly depressing moments. There's even one scene in particular outside the bar where they do this and it works really well.
On a footnote, the full soundtrack isn't available for purchase. Of the two released there are still 10 tracks missing, including a couple listed above. Still, you should check out the OST if nothing else and maybe pick up the two soundtracks cause they are really fantastic.
Graphics.
Nearly the entire game is nicely tinted in a pink and purple neon glow. The pixel art is very unique- or at least uncommon in my eyes. I don't see many NEC PC styled games and this is clearly invoking a very Police Naughts and of course, Snatcher-Esque vibe but is still very much its own as the art design doesn't have that late 80s anime character design usually associated with such titles.
Speaking of, everyone generally has a very distinct and varied appearance and style to them and some of the expressions on characters are very over the top, like Dorothy, as you've already seen.
But with a few exceptions, most of the expressions and movements are kept very minimal. Sweat drops, eyebrows furled, mouth movement, maybe a hand movement or flappy ears, etc.
There are some nice details I like with a few of the characters. One with Sei is after the whole incident in the bank she returns visually injured, but the aspect that sticks out more to me most is her default smile. Compared to when you see Sei prior to the injuries, the smile was more chipper. Afterwards it's still there as her default, but more sorrowful, her one visible eye is sullen.
A few characters also reference various pop culture personalities much like Virgilio does. The gay biker Mario is largely based on Kaneda from Akira.
Doesn't BozoRobo make a sticker of you?
Another is detective Art Vondelay who is is literally George Costanza, they really didn't even change anything.
The game is frankly chock-full of references, both visually and in the names. We'd be here all day if I went through all of them. I will point out that one of the minor characters, Betty, is said to have had a girlfriend named Veronica. That's something even the wiki doesn't list as a reference, somehow.
Environmentally I do love the colors used and the detail put into the craft. But I will admit that most of the game is spent on the other side of the bar or on the menu and even though it does make sense, it does still get a bit tiresome even if the characters change. About the only other difference is what's available on the TV channels. Again, I get it, it's not like I expect the Bar to suddenly shift locations for visual appeal and jobs like that do become overly familiar environments. But I do wish there was just a bit more to look at, maybe just a different end of the bar with some slightly different background elements, or even just the posters changing.
Jill's apartment is one of the few times we see a more chibi like representation of a character, but there are a couple times when things are changed up. The most common is conversions outside/in the back alley while Jill is on a smoke break.
These are represented by codec call like visuals and little more.
There's also one instance where Dana takes Jill home and the two have a beer. This is the only other time where the visuals shift to those seen in Jill's apartment and I really wish all the interactions outside the bar looked like this. I'm gonna guess that they didn't want to spend too much time rendering out an alleyway and several characters for all of four scenes in the game and I can understand that. I mean sure, the balcony area with Jill and Dana only appears once, but that was during a pivotal scene embellishing on Jill's personal history so it's more important, plus they only have to render one other character sprite in that scenario.
Final thoughts.
VA-11 Ha-lla was such a nice surprise for me to play. I believe it's something I very much needed and will stick with me. I can't say it's the most emotionally invested I've been in a visual novel, that honor still belongs to Katawa Shoujo. But they did a damn fine job and I'm looking forward to the sequel. The team behind this clearly put a lot of love and effort into this and they deserve a lot of recognition for it. It's $15 on steam normally, but with the second game coming out sometime this year there might be a sale so keep an eye out, but I do suggest supporting the game even now. I got a good 18 hours out of it on my first go, not to mention the bonus content that I didn't cover for this particular review, so it's well worth the price. But hey, if they have a sale, put what you save for the next game.
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