VA-11 Hall-A Gets a Surprise Collab With an Indie Fighting Game

The world of indie fighting games continues to surprise, and this time not just in terms of innovative ideas, but also unexpected collaborations.

After all, who expected to see VA-11 Hall-A collaborating with any fighting game? But the time is now and the best boss Dana Zane can now tear things up in a game with one of the greatest titles of all time – Exploding Judo Federation.

Surprisingly enough, she's also a fairly complex character that has mechanics inspired by the original game. The chief among them is the ability to store up ingredients to sort of mix drinks by hitting and throwing people, here is a more thorough explanation from the game's store page:

Drinktionary

Every single one of Dana's strikes changes which ingredients she has at her disposal. Some strikes grant them and some strikes use them up. You can stockpile up to one charge of Karmotrine, Adelhyde, Powdered Delta, Bronson Extract and Flanergide each.

What do they do? Well, they give Dana access to a series of command grabs. The leftmost ingredient (discounting Karmotrine, which has a different use) dictates which move is performed by pressing forward + the grab button.

• Adelhyde: Grizzly Temple (red) -> this grab must be broken with the Grab button

• Powdered Delta: Grizzly Temple (blue) -> this grab must be broken with the Kick button

• Bronson Extract: Piledriver (yellow) -> this grab must be broken with the Punch button

• Flanergide: Piledriver (green) -> this grab must be broken with the Dash button

• None of the above: Dana loses access to her command grab

Karmotrine has a different effect: it grants her one use of Fringe Weaver, an unbreakable grab that stuns the opponent in place and can easily be comboed into.

On top of that, she has another mechanic inspired by the game.

White Knight Helmet

Her super has her fall to the ground and get her head stuck into Sei's helmet. While her helmet is up, she becomes immune to High grabs, her chops are replaces with headbutts and she gains access to Spiked Fringe Weaver (replacing the normal Fringe Weaver), which becomes a one-hit-kill move.

Using headbutts, missing Spiked Fringe Weaver or being hit reduces the Helmet Gauge until the helmet falls off. During this mode, she cannot gain super meter.

What's more the character comes with an arcade ending and 3 different palettes, with each having a variation that makes her look either like Stella Hoshii or Sei Asagiri.

The game is absolutely free on Steam, so if you're a fan of VA-11 Hall-A or simply found the game interesting, give it a try!