Cyberpunk bartending sim VA-11 Hall-A devs’ first game in 10 years finally launches this summer

VA-11 Hall-A developer Sukeban Games unveiled a new trailer for its second game, .45 Parabellum Bloodhound, last week. We got a few more story and gameplay snippets from the anime-style action game, as well as a release window of this summer, just in time for VA-11 Hall-A’s 10-year anniversary on June 21.

The explosively popular VA-11 Hall-A was a cyberpunk visual novel where you interacted with the patrons of a dive bar, its somewhat lighthearted presentation belying an extremely dark, dystopic setting.

By contrast, .45 Parabellum Bloodhound feels like a love letter to 2000s anime, Madhouse Death Note era. It’s all gaunt, pale characters and desaturated, industrial environments, plus liberal use of flashing, cryptic messages in serif fonts. Let me be clear: I dig it.

It promises an “Active Time Action” combat system, and don’t look at me: I don’t know what that means either. It feels beautifully true to .45 PbBh’s clear inspirations, though: What could be more “Japanese PS2 action game” than a really official-sounding name for some kind of cockamamie, one-of-a-kind, JRPG-adjacent battle system with a crazy UI?

Once upon a time, Sukeban was set to capitalize on VA-11 Hall-A’s success in the way you would have expected: A similar-looking, similarly named sequel called NIRV Ann-A.

That game was initially set to come out all the way back in 2020, but was delayed indefinitely by the studio due to creative burnout and other development difficulties⁠—though Sukeban dev Christopher Ortiz said in a 2024 interview with TouchArcade that the team will return to NIRV Ann-A after Bloodhound is done and dusted.

I’ve always wanted to check out VA-11 Hall-A, but .45 Parabellum Bloodhound is way more my speed, genre-wise. Here’s hoping it can live up to the long wait Sukeban’s fans have had, but I’m looking forward to diving in with almost no prior baggage like I was born yesterday⁠—I recommend it, in most things. You can wishlist .45 Parabellum Bloodhound over on Steam.