Not in the mood to read a long review? I'll tl;dr for you:
If you want to chill and enjoy a good but simple plot, buy it.
It's so good that I felt obliged to buy it on PC, the digital version for Switch, the physical limited run for Switch and an official plushie to top it off, not counting the many times I also gifted it to friends. This game is a 'hidden' diamond, and IMO it's worth double its price.

Yes, I took this opportunity to flex and show how irresponsible I am with my hard earned money.

Well, now to the full review...

Preface.
Hello. I'll try to be as incisive as I can about what I think are the main points of the game. So I'll focus more on the player experience side of things, like where the story takes place, the characters, the music and the emotions the game promotes, which is the main characteristic I think people look for in games with a lot of dialogue like VA-11 Hall-A.

Just to make sure, I'll make a disclaimer: Despite what this review's size suggests, its content is not a methodical analysis of VA-11 Hall-A. This review is HEAVILY biased towards my positive opinion of this game and my weeb nature. I genuinely love this game and while reviewing it I'll not try to be impartial. I suggest you read it like if I was talking your ear off by making some sort of love declaration for the game using you as a proxy.

There will be no major spoilers. Any minor spoilers will be hidden and you can read it if you want, but they're just me goofing around.
Be happy and have fun reading this review as I struggle with my non-english-speaking ass to convince you to play this game.


Intro.
I think you can categorize VA-11 Hall-A as a visual novel with minor interactive elements.
As soon as you open the game, it tells you should grab some snacks, lay back and enjoy, and boy oh boy, you should really do this. VA-11 Hall-A is the embodiment of chill vibes.
In my opinion, if it's your first playthrough and you find yourself rushing through the game, skipping texts and similar stuff, you're playing it wrong. A cool story with relatable characters and good dialogue is the best thing this game has to offer, and you'll completely miss out on that if you don't take your sweet time reading the dialogue. If you're in a hurry, you should take a break and return when you feel the urge to play it again, even if it means dropping the game for weeks or even months.
VA-11 HALL-A is a game where you can basically turn your brain off and watch people come and go as you slowly feel more and more engaged with its universe. I bet that at the end of the game you'll probably be emotionally attached to at least one character (like best girl Jill).


Story.
The game takes place on "Glitch City", a fictional metropolis in a dystopian future with flying cars, synthesized music and robots living as equals among humans, forming a completely different society from what we know today.
Paraphrasing the devs, it's "cyberpunk Venezuela."
Economically speaking, things are going from bad to worse. Corruption and crime is everywhere, society is an even bigger mess and megacorporations now rule the world.

With that setting, Jill and the player have a simple main objective: Do her job and pay her bills, rent, and preferrably have some spare money to afford things she wants (like a videogame, for instance) in order to keep her mental health in check.
Speaking of Jill, she's the protagonist, which means she's the character you'll be playing as. She's a bartender on the VA-11 Hall-A bar, or simply "Valhalla".

Valhalla is a small bar located a bit out of the way, but it's still close enough to a main street for it not to be empty all the time.
From the start, two more people will work with you: Dana Zane, your boss and owner of the bar, goofy tomboy in the spare time and forever 18 years old, and Gillian, a cool and helpful guy who you don't know much about at first.
As the nights come and go, different people will start to visit VA-11 Hall-A and some will even turn into regulars.


Gameplay.
There's two main places: Jill's house and the bar.
The house comes first. It's one of the first places you'll see when you boot up the game. There, Jill can play with a certain toy, browse her phone, read the news, play some music, read blogs or go outside and buy something.
She also has the option to go to work and start her shift, which is the only way to progress the story.

When in the bar, the main gameplay starts...

"Time to mix drinks and change lives."

As a bartender, your job is obviously to make drinks and chat with the customers. The game's main gimmick is that you can change the dialogue with your customers and the outcome of the night depending on the drinks you serve.

For the 'making drinks' part, you have a set of 5 main ingredients (that never run out) to mix and match:
- Karmotrine (the most iconic. Represents the amount of alcohol in the drink);
- Adelhyde (sweetness);
- Bronson Extract (represents strongness/bitterness of the drink. Usually used in drinks with a "punch");
- Flanergide (spiciness);
- Powdered Delta (sourness).

Those ingredients having strange and unrecognizable names is elaborated in the story.

You also have a menu with almost all possible drinks and its respective recipes.

This game is, by no means, a 'restaurant simulator' or something akin to one. When Jill's working, you'll not be playing Overcooked. Whenever you receive an order, the game will simply stop and wait for you to prepare the drink. Finishing it in five seconds or in one hour doesn't impact your night, so take your sweet time if necessary. If you don't like the outcome, you can simply reset and make a new drink over and over again until you get it right. The game wants and basically begs you to do everything at your own pace.

Sometimes the customers will order specifically something (like a beer, for instance) or ask something like "I want something sweet." It's up to you to make it a big or a small drink. You can put no alcohol in some drinks, or fill it up to the brim and get the customer drunk.

For the 'talking with the customers part', the player doesn't really have full control of Jill. Her personality is cemented. Differently from most other visual novel-ish games, Jill is talkative, acts by herself and has her own way to say things. She will, you liking it or not, express her own opinions and point of views about the topics brought up in the conversations, which means that the only way to make Jill say different things is to serve other drinks in that specific situation.

You earn your money based on your base salary plus some bonuses your boss gives to you depending on how well you've performed (didn't serve wrong drinks, etc).

You can also set your own 'game tone' by building your personal music playlist from a set of predefined synth music made by Garoad (bangers btw) and can swap songs in and out of it whenever Jill takes a break. Your playlist will play on the bar's jukebox for the entirety of the night. The songs range from chill vibes to others that are more dark and bassey. This game's OST is really good. I think even if you don't like synthesized music, it goes along so well with the game's story and setting that it may actually make you like it for once.


Wrapping it all up.
Mix all I said together and you'll have some chill nights and some fun and perhaps deep conversations with customers with good music playing on the background, in a visually appealing bar made of some actually surprisingly beautiful pixel art.
Everything this game offers go hand in hand with each other all the time. The experience is kinesthetic and immersive, even with the stylized visuals.

I personally didn't feel the time passing by while playing this game. I loved it. You more than earn what you pay for.
Even though it's a bit niche, it keeps every promise it makes.

Have fun!