In-Indie - VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action 

In-Indie - VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

You know what’s a setting that indie developers really seem to like? The cyberpunk genre. I’m not complaining, I love that stuff too. But I have like three games played that are cyberpunk, and I am pretty sure I have more waiting to be played that are also taking place in that setting. And naturally, I thought I would review the one I played first on here before the others. And low and behold, it is one that many people have talked about before, VA-11 HALL-A, pronounced Valhalla.

VA-11 HALL-A is set in a cyberpunk world, where corporations decide the fate of humans, where everyone has nanomachines in their bodies, and where Red Shibas can talk and it is the most annoying thing in the world apparently. Rumors are going around about the corruption of the police force, a mysterious hacker group known as Alice_Rabbit, and a possible scam going on in the local media. Well, you shouldn’t care about that, cause you are not involved with that. You aren’t a police officer, a journalist or a rebel. You are Jill, a bartender who has clearly had a lot of problems in her life, who works at the small bar called VA-11 HALL-A. Here, you do what you can to mix drinks accordingly to the customers request, hear about their life stories, and try to get enough money to make it through the week and hopefully not end up evicted from the apartment you live in. A very simple game, but one that has a lot of great turns, and a lot of talk about sex. From breast size to prostitution to Jill remembering a time her girlfriend shoved a cucumber in her vagina, why the fuck am I playing this trash?

But seriously though, the perspective you take from this standpoint is interesting. Here you got all these interesting things going on in the world from hacking groups to corporate schemes to revolutions and such, and yet, you aren’t in the front row seat of it all. Instead, being a bartender, you only hear about it in conversations. The most you’ll get is hearing it on the news, but that’s about it. Just hearing it all in conversations with bar patrons. It’s pretty unique and is a fun way to tell the story in a way that could’ve gone real poorly, but VA-11 HALL-A manages to pull it off quite well. And speaking of the patrons, each character is unique in their own way. You got usual pricks like news reporter and horseblower Donovan and rude douche Ingram, oddball characters like the “poetic” Virgilio and the robotic android Kira Miki, Streaming-Chan can get the fuck out of my bar, and regulars like the robot prostitute Dorothy and the intelligent Alma. Alma is best girl. And each one of these characters always has a unique and interesting story to tell you. Alma’s issues with her older sister, Sei and Stella’s friendship despite their different circumstances, Streaming-Chan can get the fuck out of my bar, and Dorothy having to discuss things with her sorta mother/guardian. There’s even cameo appearances from characters from other games by the company, like characters for 2064, a game I have yet to play, and that one indie game nobody likes. You know, Yick.

The sprite work is also really good. Each character you meet always pops out with that stylish design to them. No two characters ever look the same and it is amazing. Speaking of amazing, that soundtrack. I think this can rival some of the best video game soundtracks out there. I even bought the soundtrack for it and listen to it on a regular basis. It’s just that funky. But music aside, if we can’t be rebels or get involved in secret conspiracies, what can we do in this games story? Well, around the halfway point, things start to take a serious turn for Jill, who is so riddled with guilt from her past due to just making simple mistakes that could easily be solved, only for them to kinda…. Not be so easy. I’d hate to spoil it for anyone who wants to play VA-11 HALL-A, just don’t expect this to be your usual Cyberpunk story. This game isn’t here to make you think about society. This game will make you laugh, make you cry, make you question your sexuality a few times, and then make you laugh and cry again with it’s tone.

It’s hard to talk about a visual novel that is all about mixing drinks. Shit, mixing drinks is the most gameplay you get from the game and I haven’t even talked about that. You got tons of variety with mixing drinks. Try not to fuck it up, and always remember what characters like and dislike, like how Dorothy likes Blue Fairies or how Donovan prefers his beer to be huge. Remembering that will grant you a good tip, and money will not only allow you to buy stuff in the games store for your house, but it will also allow you to pay rent so Jill doesn’t go homeless and prevents you from getting the good ending. Yeah, don’t do that.

I don’t know what more I can say about this game that isn’t, “I really love this game’s style.” And I really do love it. It’s just a fun time all around to get to know the characters, hear about the world of this town, and just mix drinks to make people’s lives in this shit hole less shit. If you are interested in a fun visual novel title, VA-11 HALL-A is one I cannot recommend enough. Get your hands on it if you have the chance.

Well, here comes a game even I wasn’t expecting to talk about till I played it. When I was surfing through the indie titles of the Nintendo Switch when I had little to no games for it, one game that caught my attention was The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa. I remember hearing there was a sort of River City Ransom esque game and I thought it was this. The trailers made it look that way. Little did I know that I was completely wrong. And despite that, I couldn’t be happier with what I had played.

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa follows… Ringo Ishikawa, a young Japanese high...

So YIIK was a hipster ridden game that people were very annoyed by and against. Well this time, it’s time for us to talk about a game that is hipster ridden that people are quite fond of. To an extent, of course. It does have it’s haters, but this game has far more support than it does hate. And I am referring to the indie adventure title, Night in the Woods. Or as many people like to call it, Life is Strange… But Good.

Night in the Woods takes place in the small town of Possum Springs, which has slowly been losing family businesses in place of larger businesses,...

Okay, so I know that I said before that the next review would be Night in the Woods but I feel as though this game needs to be discussed…. Boy, only the second article and I’ve already lied. In-Indie has a bright future. So I bought four, debatably five, other indie games last week. And one of those indie games was the interesting YIIK: A Postmodern RPG, pronounced Y2K, for some reason. I saw the trailer and the strange visuals already had me hooked. And just when I had purchased it, I read the comments, I saw the dislike bar, and I saw how there was not a soul on this planet who liked...

So remember when I started Corner of Horror and talked about Five Nights at Freddy’s, a horror game that I just cannot stand yet it managed to get a whole lot of publicity and popularity? Yeah, I still don’t like it. But if anything created an even bigger fandom, it had to be the indie game, Undertale. But unlike Five Nights at Freddy’s, I actually like Undertale. In fact, I love Undertale. Let’s talk about why I love Undertale so much.

Undertale takes place in a world filled with humans and monsters. After a war broke out, the monsters were forced underground and were separated...

Well... This is one hell of a way to make a positive impression for the new year. I want to start doing remakes of some old lists, because hey, some lists have gotten old or my opinions on a few of them have changed completely, so I think now would be a good time to change up my opinions on a few of them and give them a new light. So, with that out of the way, aren\'t some video game characters the worst ever? Weather these characters are just annoying, crude, or just straight piss you off, they are always there. Even in the best video games out there, there\'s always gotta be that one douchebag...

Remember my old Dead Rising psychopath ranking and how… Utterly awful it was? Well, I think now is a time to remake that list, and hopefully, make it better than the last one. So, in case you couldn’t tell, I am going to talk about the Dead Rising bosses, the psychopaths. Aside from the zombies, and the endless amount of survivors you need to escort, psychopaths are what make up the Dead Rising games. They the kinds of people you wouldn’t want to run into in real life and you definitely don’t want to run into when there is an outbreak. They are relentless, violent, and have no qualms...

Back during the sixth generation of gaming consoles, we got a game called Red Dead Revolver, the original, Red Dead Redemption, one of my favorite games of all time. Now, Red Dead Revolver wasn’t… Terrible. I liked it, in a way, but it was clearly not what everyone wanted. It had you go through linear missions, when everyone was hoping for GTA but with horses. Sure, it’s not a bad game, but everyone was hoping for an open world wild west game… But, little did they know, that there was a wild west open world game that was released… And still, little did they know, because no one I...

Windwakerguy430's Top 20 Favorite Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Stands (SPOILERS)

Hello, everyone, and after finally catching up with Jojo up until Jojolion, and with either an OVA or Vento Aureo being animated, as well as Diamond Records being released for mobile, and with the JOJO Great Festival that occurred on Sunday, I think now is a time to make at least one more Jojo related list. And what better list to make than a list of my favorite Stands in Jojo. And this time, I’m including them all, and that includes the main characters Stands, so I’m not holding back on anything. These will all be Stands from Jojo that I love and what makes them so great, as well as a...

Jojo-nuary: Ranking of Stands in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run

Steel Ball Run is said by many to be the greatest Jojo part in all of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure series. And I agree. It is definitely my most favorite part. It has some of the best story-telling of any of the parts, some great interactions between Johnny and Gyro, one of the most understandable villains in the entire series, some of the best Jojo side characters, and, of course, the topic of today’s article, some of the best Stands in the series. Are they all good, sadly no, but thankfully, the good definitely outweighs the bad when it comes to Stands of the Steel Ball Run universe....

Jojo-nuary: Ranking of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Jojos

Hello, everyone, and today on this article of Jojo-nuary, we will be ranking my own list of all of the Jojo’s. All eight of them. Now, before I start this off, I want to say right now that I enjoy all of the Jojo’s. Even the bad ones that you probably don’t like. They are all great in their own ways and they are all as wonderful as the last. So, today, I am going to rank the eight Jojo’s from my least favorite to my most favorite. Some of them may be different. Some of you may have a different Jojo that you see as your favorite, or maybe you may not like a Jojo as much as I do. Just...

Jojo-nuary: Ranking of Stands in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo

On January 1st, 1987, the world was graced with the first edition of the Japanese manga, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood. 30 years later, in 2017, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is still going strong. In fact, it’s even stronger today than it has ever been, and I am happy for that. So, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, I am going to make the month of January an event known only as Jojo-nuary, where I will be making many lists associated with Jojo. And to start this event off, I am going to introduce you all to the ranking of Stands from the fifth edition...

Windwakerguy430's Ranking of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable Stands

Well, everyone, it seems that Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable is coming to a close soon, with the last few episodes just left before the series finale. All that’s left is to wait for Bites the Dust, and hopefully a Vento Aureo anime in the coming future. So, before we all say goodbye to Diamond is Unbreakable forever, I want us to take a look at the multiple enemy Stands that appeared in the series. Unlike Stardust Crusaders, the Stands in this part were a little more creative. Not as impressive in some skills and strategies, but still pretty creative. Not to mention, the...

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another top ten list for the Halloween season. Today, we will be looking at another set of spooky structures, except, instead of the haunted house, will be looking at a large castle. Castles are large structures made long ago, which housed rich and royal people. While they are an amazing piece of history, there is no doubt that there is something creepy about walking into an old castle in the middle of the night. So, today, we’ll be looking at the abundance of castles from a multitude of things. First, some rules. FIRST, only castles from what I have seen....

What's Your Take - Article 160 - Lily's AWFUL Side

Okay, so…. I have not seen the Alpha and Omega movies. So, I have no clue what they are about…. Thankfully, you don’t need to know the movie to understand this piece of shit. This is known only as Lilly’s Opposite Side.

From what I can gather, Lily is a silly, innocent, fun-loving character, but, in this fanfic, she is a slut……. OH BOY! Were in good fucking hands. Well…. lets start…….. Even though I really don’t want to. So, it starts with Lily waking up. And the first word to come out of her mouth is simply “Fuck”. Only five seconds in and I’m regretting this decision....

Windwakerguy430's Top Fifteen OTHER Hated Cartoon Characters

Hey, everyone. Windwakerguy430 here… and I did some looking around. After my Top Ten Hated Characters in Cartoons and my Top Ten Hated Characters in Anime lists, I noticed that there are a LOT more hated characters in cartoons and anime. So, I decided to make another list. The rules are simple. Rule 1, The characters have to be from shows I watched. Rule 2, only one character per show. Rule 3, I will try to add as little anime characters as I can. And Rule 4, no characters from past lists. With that, lets start.

#15: Scrappy Doo fro, Scooby Doo - Wow, the most hated character on other peoples...

Sean's Spectacular Saturday of Stories Episode 21 Part 3/3

Sonic: I will be once On The Block begins season 2.

Sean: *Blows his horn as he passes Thomas, and Sonic*

Captain Jefferson: Gran Turismo is over. Let me go home.

Sean The Hedgehog: *Waves hello to Sonic, and Thomas*

Tom: Who cares?!?! Let\'s get those back to back episodes started!

This is a parody of My Little Pony. The voice actors for the mane 6 are..

Hello, everyone. And welcome to Hidden Gems, where we take a look at games that have fallen into obscurity that no one has heard of, and see if those games deserved to be forgotten of it they should be more well known. And for the first episode of Hidden Gems, I want to talk about one of the best and most beloved obscure games out there. We all known Ubisoft for making games such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and a bunch of very buggy and untested games. But when less popular games, they seem to be less buggy and more fun, such as games like No More Heroes, Red Steel, and today’s game,...