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VA-11 Hall-A (referred to as “Valhalla”) is a bar that is operated by Jill, the player-character, her boss, Dana, and her coworker, Gillian. You bartend at said bar and meet a plethora of characters where everybody lives in the dystopian city of Glitch City. Nanomachines have infected everybody, corporate entities rule over all, and an admonitory police force known as White Knights make sure everybody stays in line. However the games narrative isn’t about them but rather the people who live and put up with these conditions. As you bartend your clients, they will reveal more of their life to you.

Released: June 21st, 2016

Sekuban Games
Ysbryd Games, PLAYISM

Gameplay

Valhalla has a very casual play style. A majority of time is spent with reading narration and with bartending. The bartending mechanic is very simple and it is also how you steer conversations as there are no dialogue options.

Using the bartending as a means to influence dialogue is ingenious. The actual bartending is fairly simple. Receive an order, look up the name of the drink or a drink flavor/type. Then make the drink by following the recipe on the terminal. Simply drag and drop the required ingredients, then select whether the drink has ice or is aged, press mix and you’re done.

Jill will be more focused if you buy something she wants from JC Elton’s. It’s recommended you do buy what Jill wants as it can make the game slightly easier. It will also help you unlock extra dialogue with certain characters. The gameplay is very light and that doesn’t subtract from the experience.

Gameplay Score: A

Nice, simple and casual.

Difficulty

Needless to say the game is incredibly simple to play. That doesn’t mean its an un-enjoyable experience because it poses no challenge. Valhalla has its fair share of secrets and extras that only those with a sharp memory will be able to get without a guide. Knowing your clients is probably the “hardest” thing to do in the game. However, that knowledge of your clients does pay off in terms of getting more dialogue with them.

Difficulty Score: A

Valhalla has no skill entry barriers. It’s available to anyone.

Soundtrack

Probably what the game is best known for and how I became aware of the games existence. The soundtrack is peak future synth mixed with cyberpunk lo-fi. The game has a huge library of music at over 2 hours of music with 70+ tracks. You can select what music to listen in-game via the jukebox before you open up doors and bartend. You can also listen to music on your in-game phone before heading to work. The music is masterfully produced and each track is given a distinct identity. You can purchase bonus tracks at JC Elton’s. I just want to emphasize how great the soundtrack is. Garoad is smart with how he reuses motifs in other songs. It’s subtle but not indistinguishable. It makes the entire video game soundtrack cohesive. A very nice listening experience. If you don’t end up playing the game at the very least, listen to the soundtrack.

Check out Garoad’s discography here.

Soundtrack Score: S

Masterfully produced, matches the games atmosphere perfectly.

Story

Glitch City’s dystopian setting brings in a lot of diverse and interesting characters into the fray, ranging from “cat boomers” to sentient humanoid robots called Lilim. One thing Valhalla does great with is how deep it takes the characters narratives. The characters are incredibly fleshed out and each one tells a different story, no two personalities are the same. You can really perceive how each character lives their own lives with their own struggles and passions. Overall, the story is phenomenal. Jill listens to clients and their hardships and learns how to deal with her own adversities later on.

Spoilers

The story progresses through a passive nature and I think that helps with suspense and pacing. Nothing happens too fast. Whenever you are first entering the game, you are introduced to Dana, your boss, and Gillian, your coworker. Both have mysterious pasts, Gillian more than Dana. Dana is has a cheery, explosive, hyper attitude. Gillian is kinda just there. He’s fairly neutral in terms of his traits. He does however house some sort of secrets that appear to eat at him from the inside. These secrets are never revealed to us in the game. I won’t talk about all of the cast you meet just sort of give a basic overview of what transpires. Glitch City is one of the few regions in the world that allow Lilim to co-exist with humans. They are deemed sentient and every model is designed to be good in one field of work, however their personalities are molded by whoever “raises” them. Yeah, these sentient humanoid robots are “raised” by humans and according to the game, it takes around a year or so to do so. Basically, two of the same model Lilim can have very different personalities. I think this character type brings in a lot of insight unto what values humans uphold in this time and age. You will meet your fair share of Lilim, all with varying degrees of work. There are also “cat boomers”. It’s just cat people. However the game is reasonable in explaining their existance. Side effect to a cure to nano-machine rejection. Basically an auto-immune disorder caused by nano-machines. But it’s only available at a hefty price. And from there stems another important aspect of the world at this time, technological and medicinal breakthroughs are commonplace but unavailable to commoners. The game is clever in using these fictional character types to express what state the world is in. It also helps greatly with envisioning the world. All of the characters are well written, there are almost no fodder characters, (except in the prologue which serves more as a really long tutorial imo). The writers did a really good job making sure no two personalities we’re too similar and giving everyone their individuality. Now the player-character, Jill, also has repressed guilt and sadness. Her and her girlfriend had a “break-up” long ago. She never reached out to apologize and throughout the game, as she talks to more and more clients, the realization of why she never did apologize sets in. This is the climax of the story and it’s really well executed. It kinda brings it all together in some way. Bittersweet ending overall. Some final remarks, the writings really good, of course I have my nitpicks with some dialogue but those will not affect the final score.

Story Score: S

The main story and world narrative are well delivered and articulated. Characters are well-written and fleshed out.

art style

Let’s just get straight into it. The sprite work is exceptional. The background art has hues of neon, really bringing out the cyberpunk. The pixels are cohesive. It’s definitely an ode to older titles, according to the developers its directly inspired from “old Japanese adventure games for the PC-98.”

Art Style Score: S

The character sprites are lively and detailed. The background art has neon color schemes which help convey the cyberpunk setting.

performance

Should be able to run on nearly everything. Except for macOS. Has native Linux support. Does not have controller support. You will need to use controller to mouse layouts to play.

Performance Score: S

This game will run on almost anything.

FInal Score

S

Verdict

This is my first time playing a game of this genre (visual novel) but I must say I am very impressed with how the game is crafted. It does a lot of things well. Sure I have my nitpicks with some pieces of dialogue but it does not pollute my experience. I did go into this a bit skeptical, after all my only exposure to this game was the soundtrack. I am happy to say that I really ended up liking this game and I recommend it to those who are open to trying new genres. And I greatly recommend it to those who already enjoy this genre of games or really like storytelling. The game is $15 on Steam which is a fair price for this indie.

Anyways thanks for reading. Feel free to recommend me more games to try out and review in the comments below.
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