A second chance at VA-11 HALL-A

VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action, which has sold more than 300,000 copies on Steam from Ysbryd Games and developer Sukeban Games, serves players on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 today.

This is great news for those of you who never had the joy of owning a Vita. You see, the proper way to enjoy this booze em’up about waifus, technology, and post-dystopia life is sitting in a dive bar with a fruity drink and and umbrella in one hand, and this game on a portable system in the other hand. Since I know from sales figures that a lot of you never got a Vita, but a lot of you own a Switch, this could be your first chance for this delightful experience.

What is VA-11 HALL-A you might ask? Short version is it’s a visual novel where mixing drinks replaces most dialogue choices as you interact with a wild array of customers ranging from sentient corgis to android pop-stars in a seedy bar set in a dystopian cyberpunk future. Need to know more? You’re a difficult customer aren’t you? Read on, I’ll pour you the full glass.

It’s 207X in Glitch City, a city boasting unparalleled technological advancements. However, residents suffer the effects of unethical nanomachine experiments and a corrupt government. To escape this sad reality, residents seek solace through android lovers, supersonic drone racing, or the bottom of a boozy glass.

Enter Jill, resident bartender at VA-11 HALL-A, Glitch City’s preeminent dive bar. She’ll pour drinks for a humanoid robot popstar, the editor-in-chief of a beloved magazine and his interns, law enforcement officials, and even a boy-crazy hacker. Meanwhile, they’ll pour out their souls.


We wanted the bar itself to be as memorable as the colorful cast of cyberpunk characters, a place where hope exists amid a daily struggle, VA-11 HALL-A serves a narrative-driven experience about steering intimate conversations with strangers, so it was important to give it the right vibe.


Christopher “Kiririn51” Ortiz, co-founder, Sukeban Games. “

VA-11 HALL-A mixes alcohol with a dash of simple syrup and a hefty pour of point-and-click adventures: characters react to drinks served, with customers’ level of inebriation affecting the flow of the story. Serving drinks that suit patrons’ tastes gets Jill tips to pay her bills, but dissatisfied patrons may leave her to drown in her own sorrows.

VA-11 HALL-A is available on Nintendo Switch for $14.99 It’s also now available on PlayStation 4, but get the Switch version so you can play it properly in a bar. It supports English and Japanese, with other localizations to be added to these versions later.

It supports English and Japanese, with other localizations to be added to these versions later.

Physical editions for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, as well as a special Collector’s Edition boxset for Nintendo Switch, will be available from Limited Run later this year.

Tim Bledsoe

Podcasts & Single-player games are his thing except on "Adventure Time Tuesdays"