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 Every now and then a game comes along that sounds like it has hit the jackpot of everything I like, so when a cyberpunk game comes out that promises to tell the small stories of everyday life in a neon chrome dystopia, this gets my attention. Even more so when the gameplay is supposed to be reminiscent of Papers Please, a game in which the mundane act of stamping a page becomes a life and death thriller, except now you get to be a bartender and serve drinks to you technologically augmented clientele? So what happened!? Anime happened. Anime mixed with terrible, terrible people, but don’t take my word for it, take a look at some of these reviews from actual game reviewers! Mike Cosimano from Destructoid posted:A Hallmark of excellence. 9/10 Er, hang on Elias Blondeau From CGM posted:VA-11 Hall-A is a funny, thought-provoking, and sometimes tragic work of art Wait what? Rishi Alwani from Gadgets 360 posted:Simply put, if CD Projekt RED were to ever explore a game set in The Witcher universe that has you as an innkeeper instead of Geralt, well this would be the cyberpunk equivalent of it. 9/10 Is it just me? Or just me and everyone I’ve personally talked to about this game that thinks is actually completely terrible. Cringe along with us as we explore this most disappointing game, full of the worst the internet has to offer. We all appear to be lost to whatever it was that lead to such rave reviews, so please feel free to explain what it is we're missing. LPers Me: I paid money for this game. You probably shouldn’t listen to me Pavlov: Cultural anthropologist of animated crimes against humanity. Language nerd. Nasally lightweight Shibbotech the Mic-Slammer: You can make him commentate, but you can't make him do it sober. Sazero got called into Va-11 Hall-a by Shibbotech and is now questioning his friend making decisions. Miz Kriss, who fell asleep during the first episode. Wait, so what is this game? Story based game with the gameplay consisting mainly of serving drinks, with some of these drink choices opening different paths. For example, you can choose how much alcohol to put in drinks, stuff up orders, give them something other than what they ask for etc. Please consider this LP  . While it seems to have avoided getting any kind of rating on Steam or any other platform (my country has outright banned games for less  ), it contains a vast amount of topics which could get you in trouble. Below is a spoiler tagged list of things that may offend you that are contained in this game.Sexual references Reference to sexual violence/rape Scatological humour Sexualised underage-looking characters Misogyny Spoiler Policy: No spoilers thanks. Participation: If you want to join in for this LP you are very welcome, all you need is a microphone setup, Skype, and Audacity. Episodes Day One - [ASK] me about my sex tourism Day Two - Stalkers aren't that bad Day Three - Nanomachines, son! Day Four - Sign up now, and recieve my body free of charge! Day Five- Maximizing Password Code Depth Day Six -Best Boss for child abuse memes Day Seven - An LPers response to justified criticism Day Eight - Such Rad, Much Doge Day Nine - Are You Happy? Day Ten - Red Oni, Blue Oh No Day Eleven - Cherished Day Twelve - Kanyevania Mega Christmas Day Fourteen - It wasn't weird enough so this one has an ASMR reference Day Fifteen - Philosophy101 Day Sixteen - A Cyberpunk Bromance Day Seventeen - Exotic Alcohol Day Eighteen - Paper Cut Zenithe fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Jan 3, 2017 |
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Jul 17, 2016 05:34
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10/10
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Reserved
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Jul 17, 2016 05:35
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.png) Day One
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Jul 17, 2016 05:37
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Dareon posted:So is there an actual game element to this? Is the rest of the game 98% lousy visual novel and 2% following a recipe? Is there any time pressure in the bartending or even reason to succeed beyond a nebulous mention of an 800 cyber-dollar subscription fee to an anime reference? As far as I'm aware, no. I have yet to get particularly far through the game, and other aspects may be introduced later but I seriously doubt it though. What is the reference by the way?
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Jul 17, 2016 07:32
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Augus posted:Why would you make a video LP of a visual novel? If anyone actually wants to basically experience this game as is without commentary, I would suggest putting the video on mute, opening another tab with the game's soundtrack set to shuffle and going through it that way. The soundtrack to the game I think is really well done by the way. There have been several comments regarding why this is a VLP rather than a SSLP, and I feel showing this to people who have mixed amounts of experience with this game to be the most interesting, and that can't really be captured as well through screenshots I feel. As we continue through, this may change. NeruVolpi posted:All the orders you need to follow on the drinks stay so you can make them correctly. Does it really matter to search for small tips in the customers babbling? This does get a little more complicated, coupled with a slight risk/reward mechanic which you will see in episode 2 which will be up shortly.
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Jul 20, 2016 02:24
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.png) Day Two
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Jul 20, 2016 05:38
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HR12345 posted:I hope you realize you made me want to buy this game now. Kinda like how The Dark Id got people buying Nier. Have you watched the second episode by any chance?
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Jul 23, 2016 07:58
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Sazero posted:There are zero dialogue options and the only player interaction is "make the right drink" or "don't" You are not giving this game enough credit because your biggest agency is deciding for your clients how drunk you think they should get
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Jul 23, 2016 08:58
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YOTC posted:I came here to talk about how I actually enjoyed this game. What about this game did you like? I am clearly a minority of people who didn't enjoy it.
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Jul 24, 2016 07:02
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.png) Day Three
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Jul 24, 2016 09:59
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Niggurath posted:I'd go with the soundtracks, the visual aesthetic, and the way it is able to tell a story without necessarily needing to see the story. It's an interesting medium where you're getting an idea of the world outside and the world going on around you without having an omnipotent view of it. People come to your character as a means of verbal and tension release, like cyberpunk Cheers and instead of disgruntled mailmen or lecherous hillbillies, you've got whatever fits into the world's setting. I mean in the case of most visual novels they are built around solving murders, making dialogue choices to seduce a busty waifu, or re-working your way through your favorite anime. So yeah, this game ain't so bad. I'm on board for the first two, and there are certain aspects to the setting I find interesting, like most cyberpunk settings. The thing is, if what you described was the actual game then I would be fully on board. Particularly with the start of the game though, the story has so much forced exposition as your "regulars" turn up and need to basically introduce themselves from scratch, and it seems super awkward to me. Added with the fact that a lot of the themes touched on are super creepy and (as far as I've played) not really justified artistically, and the conversation for almost all characters doesn't flow. Maybe this comes from the need to talk about different things depending on inebriation status, but you can basically hear the game shift gears every time there is a new topic brought up.
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Jul 24, 2016 10:05
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Niggurath posted:The difference to me is that this game deals a lot of with parody and that I don't assume this is intended as some outlet for the author's sexual inclinations. What exactly do you feel this game is a parody of in that case?
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Jul 24, 2016 11:03
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Niggurath posted:You seriously have never heard the tired trope of "Oh she may look like a sexualized 12 year old but she's really a 5,000 year old demon...so it's cool!". I mean that's pretty much a main stay in Disgaea's character roster. Ok, so they used a convention that has been used before. Why is this particular case a parody, as opposed to the numerous examples of this "tired trope" that presumably aren't?
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Jul 24, 2016 11:17
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Zenithe posted:There have been several comments regarding why this is a VLP rather than a SSLP, and I feel showing this to people who have mixed amounts of experience with this game to be the most interesting, and that can't really be captured as well through screenshots I feel. As we continue through, this may change.
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Jul 24, 2016 22:05
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Really Pants posted:does VA-11 HALL-A ever have...you know, a plot, or even just a scene change Yes! stay tuned
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Jul 26, 2016 00:20
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.png) Day Four
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Jul 28, 2016 00:00
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Like Clockwork posted:At this point we should have seen something of that depth you claim anyway, even in a longer game. Instead, we have a gratingly anime cast of deviantArt OC paper dolls that we're feeding booze to and a protagonist whose biggest concern thus far seems to be her porn subscription and music. Having played more of the game for recording purposes, I will indeed say that certain parts further along do get better, mostly as you get to know your PC. Maybe introducing your PCs depth after say, discussing the intricacies of how your universes AI bone was not the correct order?
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Jul 28, 2016 05:00
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dmboogie posted:the crux of her character development has literally nothing to do with the sex stuff anyway. So what you are saying is that they could have made her anything else and not affected her story in any way. I'm not sure this is a point in it's favour?
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Jul 28, 2016 15:24
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Alavaria posted:And is the list you start with the total sum of drinks the game has? No! we have gained one more so far
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Jul 28, 2016 23:18
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Wait, I'm confused, is it more like Michael Bay or Vladimir Nabokov?
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Jul 29, 2016 00:50
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Lord_Magmar posted:I'm pretty sure she's just a robot, she chooses to be a sex worker. Which has it's own issues. But she isn't programmed this way she grew to become this way if I understand how the Lilim mentally/emotionally evolve in universe. Not a big spoiler, but it hasn't been mentioned yet Lilim apparently get "positive reinforcement straight from their bodies if they're fulfilling their main purpose", and Dorothy is built for "social interactions" e. typo 
Zenithe fucked around with this message at 09:46 on Jul 29, 2016 |
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Jul 29, 2016 09:38
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e. beaten like Shibbotech's microphone
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Jul 29, 2016 23:24
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.png) Day Five
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Jul 31, 2016 00:45
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Seiren posted:I don't know anything about hacking, but Decker might be something to look at for "hacking games". Oh yeah, the one I started mentioning is called Else Heart.Break() I've only played a bit, but the game runs off a simple code system which you can manipulate if you know what to look for. It's pretty amazing what you can end up doing. It's not hacking though.
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Jul 31, 2016 07:25
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Y-Hat posted:I just noticed that there's a VN thread in Games and six posts in there is a Dorothy avatar. Excellent stuff. It's also the devs twitter picture, and a quick browse through their feed (don't do this) reveals that a significant part of it is them retweeting Dorothy fanart. That and someone who does ASMR streams of this game a bunch?
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Aug 2, 2016 21:12
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.png) Day Six -Best Boss for child abuse memes
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Aug 5, 2016 06:52
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EclecticTastes posted:Good to see Dana isn't just a boring collage of "total baddass over here" traits, but is also about as creepy as the rest of the people we've met so far. Three. 1/3 done  I looked a lot more favourably on this day than the others until Shibbotech lowered my opinion of the internet again.
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Aug 5, 2016 08:24
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Dire Lemming posted:It's not a 9/10 game so far but it's better than I thought. Some of my complaints still stand but it's certainly true that if you go into a story wanting to dislike it, you will. Just a reminder I bought this game with my own money because I thought the premise sounded really interesting.
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Aug 5, 2016 23:06
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EclecticTastes posted:But yeah that means the vast majority of the cast have been sober as judges this whole time. I'm almost afraid to see what they'd look like drunk. Depends how you feel about hearing stories of repressed middle school teachers and whichever obvious direction I'm going with this but not going to write down
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Aug 5, 2016 23:14
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EclecticTastes posted:The issue with this game comes with the way the conversations don't even move between topics smoothly, like, I don't think they would have looked quite right in any language. I've realised that this is in part due to the fact that conversation branch literally in two depending on character states. It's basically conversation 1, if drunk conversation 2, if sober conversation 3. So far from what I've seen the conversation topics aren't related in any way so you can pretty easily tell when you've changed gears.
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Aug 6, 2016 07:53
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EponymousMrYar posted:
I know it's not what you mean, but do you seriously see this as a positive thing? I haven't seen enough to know where her character arc goes, but if it is 100% unrelated to her being established as a sex worker then it goes from "OK, this creepiness may be artistically justified as the story develops" to "OK, they included a 10 year old looking sex worker for no credible reason whatsoever".
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Aug 7, 2016 05:46
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.png) Day Seven
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Aug 13, 2016 22:41
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Anoia posted:Doesn't this take more time? Yes. Yes. Mraagvpeine posted:Is "MI-6 Hall-C" a reference to something? Yeah, I dunno. Maybe it's some reference the British Security Services, maybe it's a deconstruction of how quickly things break down when you try and make cute anagrams of chain businesses like va-11 hall-a and nirv-an-A Zenithe fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Aug 14, 2016 |
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Aug 14, 2016 06:51
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.png) Day Eight
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Aug 23, 2016 06:33
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Stephen9001 posted:Uh... Fore is actually totally capable of speech, he just seems to stay quiet around people who aren't Jill. You can see this in the beginning of the video in the part at Jill's home, look in the textbox at the bottom right when a newspaper article is opened, and you can see Jill and Fore briefly talking to each other. Easy to miss though, I'll give you that. Are you sure that is supposed to literal speech? I assumed it was Jill's imagination.
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Aug 23, 2016 10:46
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WickedHate posted:What's the penalty for being distracted anyway? I never let that happen in my game. You don't get a clue while you are making the drink order. If you are paying attention it doesn't really matter too much.
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Aug 24, 2016 07:03
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.png) Day Nine
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Aug 30, 2016 03:57
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EclecticTastes posted:Wait a minute hold the loving phone. You guys again stepped over one of the worst parts of that entire episode. Dorothy said that because she doesn't show tons of skin when working (euggggh it does not feel good to type that), some of her clients feel comfortable enough to take her to dinner or a movie before they, eh, "conduct business". But think about that for just a second. Think about what that implies. I noticed that, and decided not to steer the discussion that way. Stay tuned for the next chapter, where this tactic does not work nearly as well.
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Aug 30, 2016 06:38
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EponymousMrYar posted:Pretty sure most people would cotton on that she's a robot at a glance and while they would think her appearance weird they wouldn't think anything sketchy or bad was going on. The thing is that in this thread many people defended her character by saying that she is an outcast and what she is doing is clearly not the norm. Except now it explicitly says that it is.
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Aug 30, 2016 08:29
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Lacedaemonius posted:For some reason the more goons that hate a game, the more likely I'll end up enjoying it. How do you feel about this game then, seeing as a lot of goons seem to love it?
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Sep 3, 2016 21:18
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