The Girls’ Frontline English Twitter announced today that the collaboration with VA-11 Hall-A that adds in Jill, Alma, and Stella as playable limited units will begin in August 2019.
Here’s a look at Jill from a recent livestream [Thanks, @yung2333 on Twitter!]:
In related news, VA-11 Hall-A released on PS4 and Switch recently, and Sukeban Games talked about how Jill became the protagonist of the game:
During the production of VA-11 Hall-A’s Prologue demo, we toyed with the idea of the protagonist having no name and being referred to just as “bartender,” so as to make them a non-descript self-insert for the player. This idea would have made the game more similar to one of our original inspirations. In Araki Joh’s “Bartender” manga, the titular bartender is mysterious and non-descript for the most part, simply serving as a vehicle for the stories inside the bar to take place.
However, in the middle of the full game’s development, we decided to make a leap in a different direction. What if the main character gave a vibe like that of a mysterious bartender… but in reality was anything but? Not only that, with the scope we wanted to keep — one where the player only interacts with the world through serving drinks — we figured our audience would benefit more from interfacing with a protagonist whose character is properly established.
If I had to describe Jill as a character, she’s a lonelier version of myself (or indeed a self-deprecating image of myself that comes back to haunt me from time to time). Many elements of Jill’s story draw upon elements in my own life in an effort to make her whole story feel more intimate and grounded. Things like her growing up with no friends, staying at home with her grandfather, and so forth.
Girls’ Frontline is available on Android and iOS. VA-11 Hall-A is available on PC, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4.
