4:30 Matthew, the Jukebox mainly became a thing because their composer literally made too many great tracks and they wanted a way to include all of them into the game.
Also one of the songs is called "Umemoto", a reference to the famous PC98 composer who did music for such stunning VN classics as "YU-NO: Girl Who Chants Love at The Bounds of Time" (an incredible soundtrack I encourage you to look up).
It's interesting that you mention that it's disappointing that the game doesn't have a time limit for making drinks since the game's prototype, the "Prologue" actually has a time limit. Since you don't get paid in the prologue the game rewards you with points with points differing on accuracy of the drink you served and how fast you can serve the drink (I think bonus points stop after 45 seconds). So somewhere along the line, the devs removed the time limit for what ever reason.
The introduction where the music and the menu of Papers Please shoves that of VA-11 Hall-A out of the way perfectly sums up his thoughts between the two games.
As usual a super interesting video about two games that I really enjoyed my time with in both cases, so it was a treat to watch and hear your thoughts. However... I do have a major disappointment - you mentioned the multiple endings and secret scenes of Papers Please, but not of VA-11 Hall-A, which has plenty of it's own. If I didn't know you thoroughly research your stuff before making your videos I would have thought you never even discovered them and didn't realise they existed. While VA-11 Hall-A only has one "main" ending, and as you say the game is quick to correct the course of the story towards that, there's multiple hidden scenes that flesh out character backstories that can only be triggered by serving them in a particular way. Pretty much every single one of these major secret scenes makes you look at the related characters in a completely different light, which I loved. Collecting these scenes also results in the end sequence being extended to include additional "conclusions" for all these smaller storylines. Regarding the drinks that have to be made to uncover these, it seems like you either didn't realise they were puzzles or completely forgot about them, because there were a fair few more examples of what you said you were hoping for than what you mentioned. Virgilio's nonsensical orders are literally puzzles to work out the solution for, and while Jill will justify an incorrect answer as conforming to what he asked, there is in fact, a correct choice for each one. Dorothy mentions very early on in the game that a particular drink cheers her up when she's down, and days and days later comes in feeling down and doesn't order anything, leaving the player to try and come up with something she might like (remembering said drink is of course, part of what triggers her secret scene/ending). I found this example particularly jarring because it's pretty much EXACTLY what you said you wanted when showing the late-game interaction between Ingram and Jamie, yet you chose to focus on that instance where it doesn't happen rather than the one where it does. Now granted, frankly I found some of these puzzles WAY too vague, though I also concede that after I gave in and looked up spoiler-free guides to just know exactly what to serve, in pretty much every case I realised that all the clues required WERE there. I also agree that the game rarely encourages experimentation. When I STARTED my second playthrough to get all endings, I decided to do it legit old-school and take down notes of anything that seemed relevant to each character's story or ordering habits etc, but I still had to rely on reloading save games a fair amount as I took gambles and shot unusual orders based off of my research into the blue to see if they had an effect. Just to close my comment, I'd say overall I enjoyed my time with VA-11 Hall-A more. Papers Please was significantly stressful to play and the atmosphere was overwhelmingly negative, whereas VA-11 Hall-A is perfectly the opposite. Of course, that's exactly what both games are supposed to be, but I'm just not good at stomaching that kind of realistic dystopian atmosphere. Of course, VA-11 Hall-A is also set in dystopia and has grim events and backstories, but I found them just right in terms of moderation between those tense points and the more casual stuff. EDIT: Oh just one more thing, I do feel your critique of the bartending mechanics were a bit pedantic and your suggestions of expanding them would have just majorly overcomplicated the action of making drinks (which for me, only became tedious on my above mentioned second playthrough where, at first, I was reloading and experimenting a whole bunch). On the flipside I have nothing but agreement for your thoughts on the jukebox feature, it really did work great.
Tom Fitz Their dialogue still changes in the lead-up to that ending though, and you have the 1-to-1 conversation with them (or a related character) that almost always reveals something that totally changes how you see them. Most players, unless they are actively noting stuff down, are not gonna remember favourite drinks and such on a first playthrough. I don't really see how the endings being tacked on is a criticism either, VA-11 HALL-A is a game where the ultimate goal is to make as many people happy as you can, and they decided to make that pretty much possible (there are a few tiny exceptions, mainly involving the secret cameos of Read Only Memories characters being impossible to get at the same time as an all-endings playthrough). It certainly makes sense to prefer a Visual Novel type experience that has endings that differ from one another, but I don't think it's inherently bad to make a game that sets out to tell one story and rewards the player with more of it if they pay attention and work out some simple puzzles etc.
JezMM "Most players, unless they are actively noting stuff down, are not gonna remember favourite drinks and such on a first playthrough" That sounds pretty bad to me, I would like to have the tools to do that withing the game, like a character sheet or something. I'll probably buy the game anyway, liked the demo so much.
"Of course, VA-11 Hall-A is also set in dystopia and has grim events and backstories" Indeed, but a primary theme and driving charm of Va11-Hall-A is the nihilism and uncaring attitude to the world and its troubles that the characters, particularly Jill, exhibit, which is a very real outlook common in modern-day big cities. Despite the bleak and distopian atmosphere blanketing the entire setting, it manages to be a comfy and upbeat day-to-day life story, because the characters care far more about the intricate details of their own lives and those around them than the larger problems that society faces. I'm just elaborating on what you said though, and the main point is that Va11-Hall-A and Papers, Please are two extremely different games with only surface-level similarities in their gameplay, so a comparison such as this video seems rather unfair, especially when the conclusion Matthew is pushing is that one should become more like the other, despite their goals being very dissimilar.
Seems to me MM wanted something out of Valhalla it wasn't going for to begin with. Which doesn't make what he's saying wrong, I actually thought to myself as well that the drink mixing should have more of an effect (though it does have more of an effect than portrayed in this video). Obviously the game could be better in a variety of ways. But the comparison to PP seems kind of, like he said, superficial.
I really don't see how you compare these two games (though I highly recommend to anyone reading, you play both. Both are amazing in their own ways). One is a visual novel with a drink thing mixed on top. The other isn't. Valhalla is way more dialogue focused. Papers is way more mechanical focused. Of course you did bring up some fair criticisms (such as them not really noting the wrong drinks), but I just feel comparing the two is silly. And I think if you're going to critique the game, you should focus on all of its aspects rather than just the issues you have with it, and somehow make it seem like the game is complete shit. Not once did you really bring up the story (as you pointed out), when that was really the main aspect of the entire game. It'd be like focusing on Call of Duty for it's campaign writing rather than the multiplayer. Either way, an interesting opinion. It's just one I happen to disagree with.
"Not once did you really bring up the story" Congratulations, you missed the point of the video. It wasn't specifically focused on the overall quality of the game at all. It was pointing out shortcomings/disappointments in the gameplay and how vall halla could of taken influence from papers please.
I acknowledged that though. And I clearly said I just found it odd how you could compare the two games, since they're not going for the same thing at all.
I did. They're not similar if you've been paying attention to them, especially before Va's release (which I've been doing; I've had eyes on this game since before even the demo like a year ago).
They're similar in interface, but the genre of their content is very different. One is cyberpunk covered in a veneer of 4chan's weebshit-based culture (and it is; don't pretend that's not what is implied with "cyberpunk waifu bartending"), and the other is a grimdark recounting of the embellished life of a hypothetical "citizen" under a caricatured "socialist" regime. One of them has a small cast of characters (despite taking place in a world where the "individual" isn't really valued); the other has a nearly-limitless flow of nobodies moving through it (of which you are one) One is colorful and really whimsical at times; the other is drab and cold. One is high-tech; the other is low-tech. One puts you on a strict time limit; the other is laissez-faire. I'm just saying they're so different that I question what made Matthew even think that it was appropriate to make a whole video comparing the two. I listened to the whole video, but nothing he says really makes it make sense to me. It's like making a comparison on the difference between Danganronpa and Ace Attourney, which are, once you take a good look, very hard to compare, instead of a good comparison (like, say, comparing Sonic CD to Freedom Planet or something like that).
The problem with this comparison is that, even if MM doesn't try to make Va11 Hall A look bad, he does. The main problem is that Vallhalla is just a chill game where the actual gameplay (bartending) is secondary and just used as a way to make dialogue choices (even if the player doesn't know). It focussed on giving a story where, like irl, there's not a menu where you can select the dialogue branch. PP on the other hand focussed on using it's gameplay to tell as story. Vallhalla would not work if the gameplay was primary, just as PP wouldn't work if it was a visual novel. That's why the comparison between both is stupid, and ends up with people not wanting to play Vallhalla because this comparison implies that "why play Vallhalla when you can play PP?". The reality is that both games are amazing, and are definitely worth playing.
I don't understand how people fail to grasp the comparison Matt is making. He established it in the video at 00:45 - "At a glance the two have a lot in common... [starts by highlighting that they're both sims where the player is a worker serving clients, they have almost identical interfaces, and they share the same workday-to-workday structure with the end day objective of making enough money to survive between those workdays]." That's enough in common that it's fair to say these games occupy very similar genres mechanically even if they have polar opposite stories and atmospheres. While Papers, Please has its narrative interwoven with increasingly complex gameplay mechanics, Vallhalla uses simple, static mechanics that feel superficial to its narrative. Matt is suggesting that, had Vallhalla made similar mechanical choices to Papers Please, it could have felt like a more cohesive experience rather than two unrelated things stuck together. Last thing: I really enjoyed Valhalla! I think it's characters are charming and the experience was a simple, unchallenging balm for me while real life was difficult and complicated. ALL THAT SAID, I think Valhalla could have been even better if it had looked to games like Papers Please for lessons on how to more meaningfully incorporate story with gameplay. You can like a thing and still acknowledge its faults and consider how it could be improved.
Yeah, probably. The two games are at best superficially similar and the comparison just kind of falls flat to me. I wonder why Matt decided to compare the two, given the wildly different scope and style of each game.
Matt's criticism of Valhalla was mostly fair but I felt like it missed the point of the game entirely. The gameplay of Papers Please is meant to be difficult and stressful. The story and setting were built specifically to enable and support that gameplay, and consequently the overall feeling. The point of Valhalla is the setting and the atmosphere. The bartending gameplay isn't really supposed to be more than a distraction, a form of work while you get to know the people, because that's what it is to Jill. But in that respect, it plays into the story really well. You can get certain endings by paying attention to characters' favorite drinks throughout the game and by getting characters drunk at certain times. It served the purpose of the game, and likening it to Papers Please isn't a fair comparison. All of that being said, I do agree that Papers Please is the better overall package. I think they're both great games in their own ways though, in no way does Valhalla fail at doing anything it set out to do.
"you missed the point of the setting and atmosphere!' No, he didn't. The crux of what he's saying is how "setting and atmosphere" don't make for a good game. It's part of a good game, but if that's literally all there is to one then it comes off as lazy and bad. The gameplay in Valhalla is incredibly shallow and uninteresting, and never gets better. And like Matt said, if "setting and atmosphere" is your argument, then just make it an outright visual novel.
@@_ArsNova it is a visual novel, the bartending stuff is what’s building the mood and atmosphere, it’s not supposed to be focused on it’s there for atmosphere.
You didn't mention the sense of physical interaction Papers Please gives you by letting you move documents with the mouse, making you align the seals, etc. with all those satisfying clicky and papery sound effects.
There are parts of the game where you need to remember special drinks though? Donovan's usual drink, Alma's favorite drink, what Dorothy likes when she feels down, figuring out Virgillo's riddles. Getting these right rewards you with special dialogue and bonus endings and they don't remind you what they are, you need to remember.
4 years late but they're still very few and far between that they don't feel significant. they don't do enough to justify the mixing minigame and why shouldn't it just have been a visual novel with the minigame scrapped and the extra time put into writing instead.
I largely agree with the critique in this video, although I still really enjoyed Va-11 Hall-A. Like most visual novels, it feels like it just has a nominal amount of gameplay to occasionally provide a break from clicking through dialogue. That being said, Matt didn't touch on how adding extra alcohol to clients' drinks in Va-11 Hall-A can unlock different dialogue paths, or how you have to remember the preferences of various characters to know what drinks to give them when they don't ask for something specific or when they're in a certain mood. All of these features were sadly underutilised in Va-11 Hall-A but I'd like to think that was an intentional decision from the devs to create a laid-back kind of game, as opposed to them just being lazy. The story is where Va-11 Hall-A really shines though, especially with how it continually subverts your expectations by leaving all the grand stories of conspiracies and societal breakdown in the background.
I think it comes down to the fact that the atmosphere which VA-11 Hall-A attempts to establish is the direct opposite of Papers Please. I've never played Papers Please, but from what I can gather, it's a game that aims to make you feel stressed and uncomfortable. VA-11 Hall-A aims to be laid back and comfortable. This can even be seen in the jobs they choose to emulate (immigration officer vs. bartender.) Don't get me wrong, Papers Please is definitely objectively better as a game, I can see that even as someone who's never played Papers Please, and yes I do feel like VA-11 Hall-A's drink mechanics should affect the story in more ways (it does a few times, but there are only two times in the whole game where it's made obvious, plus there does need to be a lot more times when it affects the story.) However, the suggestions you make in terms of making it harder or more stressful just wouldn't work with the game's atmosphere.
Pretty fair points across the board but I will disagree on one thing. The game definitely penalizes the players for serving the "wrong" drinks. If you only give customers what they ask for, you're only seeing at best 40% of what the game's story has to offer. Donovan, Ingram, Sei, Stella, Miki, and Dorothy all have storylines that hinge on serving what they need and not what they ask you for.
I like the game but I do agree with this video entirely. The lack of reactivity and depth to the drink serving was a pretty big disappointment when the game finally came out.
Essentially what I felt about the game when I reviewed it last year. I liked the premise and the theme, but the main difference between Papers, Please and VA-11 Hall-A was that one of these games wrapped the theme around a compelling set of gameplay mechanics, the other didn't.
I never even considered Papers Please being an influence when i played Va-11 Hall-a. Even though i guess the latter also depicts life in a dystopian society, its take on that universe is much, much less heavy than Papers Please's. We're talking about a game that jokingly calls itself waifu bartending. Basically what i'm trying to say is i don't know how relevant comparing those two games really is, it feels like comparing Gurren Lagann and Evangelion because both had mechs, if that makes any sense. however some of the gripes you had with Va-11 Hall-a i found to be justified and if its developers ever make another game in the same vein i hope they add some depth to the game mechanics.
That was the whole point of the comparison; the use of gameplay mechanics. You can compare any two games depending on what you're comparing. I could compare Silent Hill 3 and Professor Layton if the topic of discussion was puzzles, for instance.
The critiques are absolutely valid, but I'd still say that people should give VA-11 Hall-A a shot, if only because I like explorations of fun characters and this gives an interesting set of them.
James Downs I know. And thats no problem, since Vallhalla never advertised itself as a action packed game, IIRC? I mean, Visual Novels are supposed to be calming, shouldnt they?
Mike L'Angelo I've heard of nothing to suggest that they should. I believe that Symphonic Rain can pose at least some challenge on the hardest difficulty.
Everything about the tone, music and vibe of VA11-HALL-A is my jam, but when i see the gameplay i just feel like i would be better suited playing Policenauts with a translation patch. Still the waifus tho.
Great video as always. Although I agree with pretty much everything you said I do think maybe you were a little bit hard on VA-11 Hall-A. There are more than a few instances where you need to remember things about recurring customers in order to choose the correct drink and possibly change the story route for somebody. As much as I think there should be more consequences for failure, the game's difficulty really matches the relaxing feel-good tone it has. Papers Please can be a very stressful game to play (At least I know it was for me), but VA-11 Hall-A is so much slower and lets you go at whatever pace you want. I guess mostly that's the experience I was looking for in the first place. Maybe I'm biased, Va-11 Hall-A was the first game I've enjoyed so much in a long time and stands up as my favourite this entire year.
"Maybe they didn't intend to be like Papers Please." Because they're NOTHING ALIKE! Your comparisons are contrived as hell, like the screen being obscured by "bartender's interface", because that's the player's job.
I think Va-11 Hall-A knew what it wanted to be, and mostly did what it wanted to be. Looking at Sukeban the developers and the resources they probably had it came out pretty well. One element of the drink mixing I liked that you completely glossed over was with the alcohol content of the drinks. It's not called alcohol exactly but one of the ingredients is what gives the drinks the alcoholic effect, and certain drinks basically let you use as much of it as you want after a minimum. Now if you just do around the minimum for everyone they wont get absurdly drunk or anything, but if you give them a lot (like max every opportunity you get) there's different dialogue and animations as the characters can get pretty drunk. It's not deep or anything, but really what the game was trying to be was a cozy experience you could drink along side. hard to get cozy with extremely hard moral choices, and a drink mixing system that penalizes you for a mistake. This Comparison is apples to oranges considering the focus on papers is very much on the gameplay while Va-11 Hall-A's was more on the characters and the mood. That said Va-11 Hall-A is getting a sequel N1RV Ann-A and since Sukeban did have a hit, understand the engine their working with better, and have learned a lot of lessons I will be disappointed if the gameplay hasn't evolved a little bit. I could imagine some suggestions you put out implemented, but considering the drinks were basically the meaningful choices you make I feel like adding drinks that could help sober someone up instead of just drunken them would be interesting along with just more events that could happen if you make just the right drink at just the right time that you would know about by paying attention to your customers.
This is too much of an apples and oranges games to make a fair comparison, you are comparing a visual novel with heavy driven and very good storie, against a unique game, both games only have in common the fact that you work in a everyday cicle.
I just love how excited Matthew gets whenever he starts talking about the drinks. It's subtle, but you're a through and through Irishman, Matty. 'Grats.
Seeing a lot of mad Valhalla fans saying: "The game is meant to just be relaxing and not have you do anything! That's the point!" And to that I say: Sounds like a lazy excuse to have basically zero mechanical depth or gameplay at all in your game. It barely even qualifies as a "game" as it stands. If your goal to "make people relax" and not have them do anything, then just write a book.
@@arieelberian7614 Just seems like a lazy excuse to justify calling an almost completely uninteractive piece of visual media a "video game". Everything you do in Valhalla is so mindless and inconsequential, barring a handful of extremely esoteric drinks, it's almost farcical. This "game" and anything like it are not video games.
@@_ArsNovaalright then, let's go back. What is a video game? From what you're saying, visual novels aren't video game because it's "just clicking buttons" but most people can agree that they're still video games
I mean being a bartender vs at border control is so different it's barely comparable, while vallhalla has influence from papers please, the story they're trying to present is so different from each other the comparison isn't fair. Vallhalla is a much more relaxing experience about a person's story and nothing else. I didn't play paper please but I assume that paper please is trying to accomplish much much more. Vallhalla just want to tell a story and be done with it. That's why it's a visual *novel* and not much of a game.
I played both and you nailed it, even if I disliked Valhalla. Maybe people with great analytical skills are not so good at considering other perspectives.
At the end you brushed off the fact that the devs were clearly trying to make it a completely separate game to Papers Please. I liked some of your comparisons, but found the review to be flawed in the sense that you had expectations for VA-11 to be something it wasn't and was disappointed that it was not what you expected.
I feel this is one of the most opinionated videos you've put out, not that that's especially bad or good, just interesting. I know it's not labeled review or anything, and you specifically bring it up, but I do definitely think that for VA11 Hall-A, their primary goal was that PC88 style VN first, and a game about being a bartender second. And I think it does a good job of the former, but I definitely see why you'd say you see easy room for improvement and some disappointment in mechanics. Much like those old VNs, it's just a simple progression gate.
I think it's worth noting that Matt does point out this isn't supposed to be some kind of comprehensive review; It may do the former well, but that's not what this video was focusing on. Matt may not disagree with you entirely here.
TheGermandude2 That is also totally true. I guess I'm just paranoid people who watch this will dismiss the game when it does actually do what it wanted to do. But yeah I guess I'm just being a thinly veiled apologist.
I enjoyed it immensely as a guy who practically despises anime as a genre. Also this review is utter crap, I doubt he was ever paying attention and a lot of things he says aren't in the game actually are.
Funnily enough i wouldn't even pay attention to the dialog and just rather have a drink-mixing game instead. If you removed that element and it actually became a visual novel, i'd say the dialog littered with "American youth speak" would have driven me up a wall. In some sense it's a perfect representation of the average intellect of a west coaster, but on the other hand i can't treat it as a "chill escapist" fantasy anymore because of that. I'm pretty sure a cyberpunk utopia with cat girls would have developed different turns of phrases than, for instance, adding -y or -ish to adjectives, which is annoying and redundant. I also think it's fair to criticize the dialog more harshly, because if the developers and their fans are to be believed, this is what the game is all about. And if the visual novel aspect is brought down by its overly contemporary dialog and the bartender gameplay doesn't matter, what am i left with?
1. You're describing a different game. VA-11 Hall-A was never meant to be about the drinks; that's just a way for you to move the story forward. 2. Cyberpunk *utopia*??? Did you even play the game??
Hey man, you should put the link to your Patreon page in your video descriptions. Makes it a little easier for people to donate, and they may feel more compelled to donate if they have they link to your Patreon page right in front of them.
Am I the only who doesn't understand the sheer amount of praise Papers, Please! gets? I mean, sure, it was an interesting and unique game, but that's about it. I didn't care about any of the characters because I only talked to them for about 10 seconds, so why should I? While this may be the point, it still doesn't change the fact that PP! left no emotional impact on me, and moral choices didn't seem to be that different from any moral choices in other games. And beside all that PP! looks plain repulsive, and again, no matter whether or not it's intentional, it doesn't change the fact that looking at this is not how I want to spend my free time. On the other hand, while I wouldn't call VA-11 Hall-A the best game ever, it was cozy and enjoyable enough for me to make me want to keep playing it.
I don't want him to review it because I like the game. I don't like the game, and while I can explain why, I don't have the perfect articulation. Matthewmatosis, no matter if he likes it or not, will take the game apart and view it from multiple perspectives. Also I seem to be in the minority, most people seem to like it a lot.
Crowbar ...again, I highly suggest Joseph Anderson's video on The Witness, which is named "The Witness - A Great Game You Shouldn't Play." If you don't think my recommendation was what you were looking for, please let me know so that I can understand why.
This is a pretty superficial comparison. It's very obvious that VA-11 HALL-A is going for something completely different compared to Papers Please. They are superficially similiar in concept but that's it. All this video does is drag VA-11 HALL-A into the dirt. Bit of a step down in quality on this one lad
He literally talks about va11halla going for something different and it having dofferent merits to papers please. He never calls it bad he just calls its brewing mechanics into question
I mean, I get it. His criticism against VA-11 HALL-A can just bold down to "I wish VA-11 HALL-A is more like Papers, Please" which is just disingenuous.
Talking about serving a tough-guy drink with a little umbrella made me imagine a game where you influenced characters' lives primarily by messing with their drink orders. There'd probably need to be more meat to it, but...could be interesting.
From what I remember from dev blogs it seems that this game was going to have more features but problems came up and they took a lot of them out. I guess when the game got to a decent state they made the decision to release it so they had something. Even its sequel is having development hell issues to the point that they had to start over.
using a superficial gameplay gimmick in vn is a common trope of the genre, it's mostly used to theme the game more than anything else in any case i can see how from a non weeb prospective this comparison whould make sense
I mean this is like comparing Koihime Musou to Total War: Three Kingdoms, both have strategy elements and are even set in the same time period but in reality they aren’t even comparable
These games are nothing alike. I would've never compared this to Papers Please. Valhalla is basically a novel while Papers Please actually has some gameplay elements.
@@zokya6822 Va-11 Hall-A is a Visual Novel with minor gameplay (which is akin to a Visual Novel's choice mechanic) while Papers Please is a game with a minor focus on story. Papers Please comes at you with moral dilemmas in a dystopian Cold War-esque setting, and Va11-Hall-A is trying to tell a story about a bartender serving drinks in a beaten down city to some beaten down people. Their atmospheres are completely different, and it was like he wanted some moral dilemmas in Va11-Hall-A when that's not the kind of story it is.
I think that while paper please tries to stress you and make you anxious, vallhalla is more like a book with pictures that allows you to make choices. They didn't get too focused on the actual bartender game element because you should be playing it for the story not to be a bartender (there are games for what vallahalla is nothing). So, in my opinion, it should be played like a book should be read and that's why you have all the calm in the world there. In fact the only difficulty is to make sure that the game is going towards the ending you have chosen because (it happened to me) always doing perfect services to two different characters I chose the one I hadn't chosen -_- I think this
Yeah, comparing the two games that way is a bit inappropriate imo. After all the very first thing you see when opening the game is a message telling you to go get a drink to enjoy your experience. The developers obviously had a vision for their game, and despite the superficial dystopian ressemblance, I don't think VA 11 HALL A aimed for the moral choices. That said, I think it is good to hear criticism for what could have been improved on, it doesn't mean the game is bad, just that it could have been even better.
4:31 If i remember correctly, Sei said something about liking the music first time she vissited since i was playing a pro white knight song :o. Other than that good video ^_^
Maybe make the bartending a little harder with having a Repeat customer just order "The Usual" so you would have to remember what exactly they wanted perhaps?, oh yeah maybe the screen glitches up due to a plot related incident but no I guess the games not really about that and more absorbing the world and it's characters instead, not a bad thing of course.
This review really makes me not want to play this, but some comments here and on steam makes me want to try it at the same time, it has overwhelming positive score on steam
The problem is that the game shouldn’t be compared to Papers Please, they’re completely different games and there isn’t a point in comparing them. VA-11 Hall-A is meant to be a relaxing experience and the gameplay isn’t the point of the game, the story is.
I think its a bit unfair comparing a visual novel with an experimental user input to an experimental game. They are fundamentally different genres of games. You wouldn't compare Myst to Mario world for example. There are quite a few moments where remembering someones favorite drink will give you different special dialogue. Not to mention the hidden drinks not on the menu.
While I don't really agree with the comparison, I do like the fact that you're addressing the issues VA-11 had. I mean, I enjoyed the game, but that's mostly because of the characters and (somewhat weirdly paced) story giving me a real good time. In terms of *gameplay*, it's probably one of the more decent/okish ones because there isn't a whole lot of difference in it, either in difficulty or in an actual change towards the character I'm serving the drink to. It also doesn't help the fact that it's pretty easy to get the money necessary to help pay for bills and items that Jill the MC wants because of this really easy system. If the developers for the game make another VA-11 title, or just a new game in a similar vein as Papers Please or VA-11, then i at least hope that there will be actual depth and reactions to what I do instead of just getting a half-assed "you mixed up the drink" statement.
I'll tell you what Matthew, if I ever visit your house, I'll ask you to mix me a drink I hate on purpose and throw it out the window in responce to this video.
i mean, they're both really good games. i like va-11 hall-a a bit more, but they're both really good. the whole 'waifu' part of the game is just a joke from the developers, lol
Cool video but Va-11 Hall-A was more immediately appealing to me and I finished it super quickly, thanks to the humorous writing and likeable characters. It drew me into the world. I can't really say the same for Papers Please... Or at least not after the first hour or two of gameplay... It seems more like a straight-up GAME, not a narrative experience like Va-11 Hall-A, which immerses you via the writing. And yes, for me that's a negative, in this particular scenario. I still need to go back and finish Papers Please. (Also I find it funny how many pedantic critiques about the graphics and style were made, when at the end of the day, none of that really matters if the writing is good)
This Is The Police is a pretty good take on Papers, Please, albeit a little long. You quickly have to decide whether you're going to be a hardworking policeman, suck up to city hall for everything or take payoffs from the mob
"just tastes watered down" OOOOOOOHOOOHOHOHOHO BURRRRN BURNT GET BURNT VA-11 HALL-A GET FUKIN BURNT OWAAAAAAAAAAY GET BURNT YOU FUKING HENTAI GET BURNT
