Baldr Sky



""The story moves violently in the interstice of the memory.""

Baldr Sky is a Cyberpunk Visual Novel that takes place in a world where nanotechnology has advanced greatly and that the newer generation people have brain chips, making it easy for them to connect to the virtual space net. Baldr Sky is part of Team Baldrhead’s long running series (along with Baldr Force, Baldr Bullet and Baldr Fist). The visual novel contains elements of action gameplay with Kou piloting his simulacrum to fight. Unlike the majority of visual novels, every single character in the story is fully voiced.

Kou Kadokura wakes up and finds himself in a cyberspace battlefield controlling a giant simulacrum. He faintly recalls going to sleep in his bed at the school dormitory, but now swarms of viruses are attacking him. He later realizes that he had just suffered a brain injury and lost his memories of the past few years. His subordinate Rain Kirishima informs him that he is a lieutenant in a mercenary group and that they were chasing after the Drexler Organization, a group believed to be responsible for the tragedy "Gray Christmas" that changed Kou’s life.

The first game is named Baldr Sky: "Lost Memory" Dive1 and the second one is named Baldr Sky "Recordare" Dive2. The two games together form the complete story. If both games are installed at the same time, Dive2 will carry over saved data and also play the routes in Dive1. There is also a fandisk named Baldr Sky DiveX "Dream World", which contains several short side stories including the period that Kou spent training as a mercenary. The fandisk also includes different battle modes where you can use any mecha that appears in the story.

Baldr Sky provides examples of:

 * Accidental Pervert: Kou tends to be a victim of this.
 * Action Girl: Rain, Chinatsu, Makoto, Shizel.
 * AI Is a Crapshoot
 * Amnesiac Hero: Kou
 * Apocalypse How: Class 3 Human Extinction
 * Artificial Human: The human cloning process.
 * Artificial Intelligence: A major theme in the story with an AI faction and anti-AI faction having a conflict with each other.
 * Artificial Limbs:
 * Attempted Rape: Gilberto and his group are guilty of trying to rape the heroine in several routes. It’s up to Kou to stop him before he succeeds.
 * When Rain was caught by Gilberto in her route, she was planning to kill herself but Kou persuades her to wait for her rescue.
 * Giberto’s group breaks into Noi’s clinic and was going to rape Nanoha, Makoto helps Kou in defeating Gilberto and Noi releases her killer robot on the group.
 * Aki was kidnapped by Gilberto so she tries mentally escaping into the virtual net as Gilberto hunts for her. Kou saves Aki in cyberspace and Mohawk saves her in the physical world.
 * Rain also experiences this right after Gray Christmas but she kills her assaulters.
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence:
 * Battle in the Center of the Mind:
 * Beam Spam: The attacks of Makoto’s simulacrum tend to be this.
 * Big Bad:
 * BFG: Weapons that Kou can use include several of these.
 * The Big Guy: Mohawk
 * Bittersweet Ending: Majority of the endings are this, even including the character’s "good" endings.
 * Rain’s ending has
 * Nanoha’s ending has
 * Chinatsu’s ending has
 * Aki’s ending has
 * Bizarrchitecture: Aki’s personal room in cyberspace is surreal with things such as melting clocks.
 * Body Horror:
 * Brain Uploading:
 * Brain In a Jar:
 * Broken Bird: Chinatsu became bitter after Gray Christmas, believing that Kurihara betrayed her and that the AI faction is hiding the truth from everyone.
 * The Cameo: DiveX has cameo characters for battle including Kageaki Minato from Full Metal Daemon Muramasa and Yukie Mayuzumi from Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai.
 * Can't Live Without You: Kuu is connected to Sora and when Sora died, Kuu was supposed to disappear also. This confused Kou since Agent possesses the same ID signature as Kuu.
 * Chainsaw Good:
 * Father Gregory can transform his hands into chainsaws in cyberspace and his simulacrum carries this ability.
 * The "Iron-file" virus uses it.
 * Kou may use chainsaw as an attack if he has the weapon and limit break.
 * In DiveX,  also uses them.
 * Chekhov's Gunman:
 * Chick Magnet: Kou. He already had six girls in love with him before the story begins.
 * Childhood Friends: Kou and Nanoha.
 * Child Prodigy: Aki
 * Clothing Damage: Due to an incorrect setting, after Kou beats Rain and Chinatsu in a simulacrum fight, their clothes are almost completely destroyed. If Kou loses the battle, the same thing happens to him.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Aki
 * Cloning Blues
 * Collapsing Lair: In DiveX,
 * Cuteness Proximity: Rain can’t stop herself when she sees the kittens in Aki’s cyberspace. When the others find her in this state, she quickly blames that she was under a mental attack from the I.C.E.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Not actually true but
 * Cyberpunk
 * Cyberspace
 * A Day At the Bizarro: The joke story in DiveX where Kou's and Sora's first meeting was a Crash Into Hello in a high school comedy setting. Gregory is the school director, while Anan is a student and Isao's son. The cyberspace settings is replaced with a Sentai parody with robot transformation.
 * Death By Origin Story: Sora’s death on Gray Christmas was what triggers Kou to become a mercenary.
 * Delayed Reaction: Sora had one when she first met Kuu. It took her a while to realize that Kuu has the same appearance as her.
 * Deus Est Machina:
 * Died in Your Arms Tonight:
 * Dirty Coward: Gilberto. Other characters have mentioned that he is best at running away.
 * Ditzy Genius: Aki
 * Diving Save:
 * Doomed Hometown: On Gray Christmas, Gungrir destroyed Kou’s hometown and school in order to stop Assembler’s damage from spreading.
 * Doppelganger Attack:
 * In the last route, Father Gregory’s simulacrum can make two doppelgangers in battle. Killing a fake will just cause him to resurrect it at full health.
 * Downer Ending
 * Driven to Suicide:
 * Electronic Telepathy: Since all characters have a brain chip implanted in their body, they can communicate long distances without anyone listening to them.
 * Embarrassing Cover Up: Kou’s excuse to Nanoha about his investigation of an illegal NPC sex club is that he is a healthy man that has needs.
 * The End of the World as We Know It
 * Enemy Detecting Radar: There's a map on the upper right corner that shows where all the enemies are.
 * Eroge
 * External Combustion: Nanoha’s parents died from a car bomb.
 * Evil Mentor: Kurihara is this to Kou as he was in charge of Assembler when Gray Christmas occurs and somehow was able to escape despite being in center of the incident.
 * Evolving Attack: Attacking gives the specific weapon some EXP and that makes it better as it use less of the Overheating Meter. Use some weapons enough times also unlocks even better attacks to use.
 * Faking the Dead: Rain fakes Kou’s and her own death since the entire mercenary group they were part of was wiped out.
 * Fan Translation: A translator originally associated with a.f.k. had started a project, but it seems to be stalled. A new project has started up on The Imageboard That Must Not Be Named.
 * Flash Back: A main part of the story is told in flashbacks. Since Kou is recovering his memories, he has random flashbacks of when he was still in school.
 * Fragile Flower: Nanoha tends to cry at every emotional moment.
 * Gamer Chick: Seira, who can micromanage hundreds of world civilizations at once.
 * Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Rain delivers this to Kou when he enters a Heroic BSOD from Father Gregory’s Mind Rape and whenever he gives up on living.
 * Genki Girl: Chinatsu and Sora.
 * Girlish Pigtails: Sora and by extension Kuu.
 * Hair Decorations
 * Sora wears two bell-shaped decorations that hold up her twin pigtails.
 * Makoto has the hairband that appears to give her bunny ears.
 * Nanoha has a hair elastic band that gives her the side ponytail.
 * Aki also has a hairband.
 * Harder Than Hard:The game has a difficulty level going from Very Easy to Very Hard. This can simply be adjusted in the configuration menu between each battle.
 * In DiveX, there is the "Hell System" mode where the first 79 stages has a Rank Inflation that goes from F to SSS. Stage 80 has a difficulty rank of INFINITY.
 * Heroic BSOD: Kou suffered from one when he remembers Gray Christmas and that he saw Sora slowly being dissolved by Assembler.
 * He Who Must Not Be Seen: Neunzehn
 * Hold the Line: Several times in the story but especially in the mind hack moments where Kou has to prevent an invasion by a swarm of viruses from destroying several layers of protective gates.
 * Hologram: Appears frequently along with Holographic Terminal.
 * Kou used to have a hologram picture of Sora in his room.
 * Seira projects herself a few times as a hologram.
 * Humongous Mecha: The large simulacra and viruses in cyberspace are treated as these.
 * Hyperspace Arsenal: Justified since all weapons are simply programs.
 * Inside a Computer System
 * Interrupted Suicide:
 * Isao in Makoto’s route. Makoto just wants some information from him though.
 * Rain in  route.
 * It's All My Fault
 * Joke Character: Since DiveX allows the player to use every single mecha that appears in the game, that includes all the weak viruses. The weakest joke mecha is that one Nanoha uses, which is really slow and two of the her three normal "attacks" involves her tripping on the ground.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Kurihara dual wields it, both in this simulacrum and in real world. Kou also has a move where he uses iaido and in Dive X a force crash version of it.
 * Kill Sat: Gungnir
 * Knowledge Broker: Eddie
 * Legal Jailbait: Noi
 * Lethal Chef: Sora and Rain.
 * Limit Break: All characters and bosses have multiple limit breaks. In Dive1, they can charge up one limit break bar. In Dive2, there are two bars so the characters can use two limit breaks consecutively. Kou has over a dozen of them.
 * Logic Bomb: Can prove to be fatal in cyberspace. Kou’s brain chip was damaged from one and that caused to him to suffer amnesia.
 * Lotus Eater Machine: Dominion believes that the entire world is a fake and that they have to return back to the real world.
 * Love Potion: A virtual drug can be designed to have this effect. Kou has to use it to bypass security in the illegal sex NPC rooms.
 * Mad Scientist:
 * Kurihara and the members of Drexler organization are called this.
 * Neunzehn is known as the greatest mad scientist of the century.
 * Madness Mantra:
 * I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you.
 * : Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate.
 * Matchmaker Crush: Sora originally tried to get Kou and Rain together, but she and Kou fell in love instead.
 * Matrix Raining Code: Used in the game’s opening and ending credit.
 * Mayor Pain: Anan, who has been doing illegal activities and working with Dominion.
 * Meido: All the heroines (except Aki) wear one a scene in DiveX.
 * Miko: Dominion has a miko that directly acts under Father Gregory.
 * Mind Rape: Father Gregory uses the characters most emotional moments against them.
 * For Kou, he uses NPCs of Sora.
 * For Rain, he uses NPC of her mother.
 * Gregory also uses a mental trap program "Enchanter" that shows the person the illusion of their worst nightmares.
 * Memento MacGuffin:
 * The pendant Rain has is In virtual space, the pendant acts as a self destruct mechanism.
 * The pendant Sora got from Kou
 * Multiple Endings: There are different endings depending on choices Kou makes, on time it takes for specific battle and the victory/defeat outcome of major boss fight. The titles of the good endings are the heroine’s name.
 * Rain has a good ending and "Ghost" ending that depends on the choice of whether
 * Nanoha has a time specified battle when Kou has to rush to save Nanoha. Taking more than three minutes in the battle will lock out the good ending and lead to the "Dreamland" ending. Taking more than five minutes causes a Nonstandard Game Over. Finally, losing the final battle gives the "Embrace" ending.
 * Chinatsu has one divergence path choice that leads to "Departure" ending . Choosing the other path leads to the good ending or "Connected Machine" ending depending of if Kou wins the last battle.
 * Aki has a good, "Ark" and "Nirvana" ending. Good ending occurs if Kou fights a time specific battle as fast as possible before  and an important choice of  . Otherwise it leads to the "Ark" ending. "Nirvana" ending occurs if.
 * Makoto only has a good ending and "Object Lost" ending that depend on the final battle.
 * The Multiverse:
 * Mysterious Waif: Agent.
 * Nanomachines: The technology is advanced enough to that it can accomplish things ranging from human cloning and slow body repairing.
 * Naughty Tentacles: Gilberto releases this on Rain and Kou has to rush through several battles to save her.
 * Neural Implanting: Having a brain chip in the human body allows characters to transfer documents and programs. There are even virtual drugs that simulate the effects of being drunk and being in love.
 * New Game+: Beating one route carries over all the weapons levels, force and plug-ins that the player acquired.
 * Non-Player Character
 * Kuu is a NPC that took the appearance of Sora. Her data was later used by Ark to mass produce other NPCs.
 * No Social Skills: Aki
 * Not Blood Siblings: Kou and Aki
 * "No Warping" Zone: In cyberspace, characters can instantly "move" to any location they want unless there is a restriction placed in that area.
 * The Nudifier: Father Gregory drops Aki into a mysterious pool of liquid that dissolves clothing.
 * Oedipus Complex:
 * Official Couple: Kou and Sora. The problem is that Sora is dead.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Eiji takes down an entire platoon during the illegal NPC sex club raid.
 * Older Than They Look: None of the characters look any older than they did in the flashback of during the school days but the worst cases are Noi and Makoto.
 * Ominous Pipe Organ: Used for Father Gregory and Dominion.
 * Omnicidal Maniac:
 * One-Man Army:
 * Eiji Kadokura is said to be this.
 * Kou also qualifies as he personally takes down numerous viruses by himself in several battles.
 * One Game for the Price of Two: Dive1 contains the first three routes of the story, while Dive2 contains the last three. To be fair, Dive1 and Dive2 are very long and each takes more time to complete than a typical visual novel.
 * Our Souls Are Different: Humans have wired ghosts that separate them from NPC in cyberspace.
 * Overheating: Kou’s simulacrum can continue to use different weapons in a combo until his Overheat Meter is filled up. Then he has to wait for the meter to fall back to zero. Limit Breaks can go over the meter and there is one limit break that allows Kou to continue using weapons even pass the meter.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: It is clearly obvious that Makoto is Dominion’s miko, but Kou doesn’t figure it out until her route when she is unmasked.
 * Parental Abandonment:
 * Kou’s father stopped visiting him after his mother died.
 * Rain thought that her mother was killed by her father Isao and their relation has been strained ever since.
 * Nanoha’s parents died from a car bomb.
 * Parental Incest:
 * Piggyback Cute:
 * Kou gave one to Rain (whom he thought was Sora) when she injured her leg after Gray Christmas. He couldn’t see so Rain used neurojack for him to look through her eyes.
 * In Rain’s good ending, their positions are reversed where Kou injured his legs and Rain used his eyes to see.
 * In DiveX, Kou gives one to Rain
 * Playful Hacker: Rain is a great hacker, but Makoto is even better as she can easily break in any location due to her Electronic Brain Syndrome.
 * Point Build System: The "Force" credits that you get from battle lets you buy weapons and plug-ins such as higher health.
 * Porn with Plot
 * Power Trio: Kou, Chinatsu and Masa in the flashbacks. They participated as a team in a simulacrum tournament.
 * Pretty Little Headshots: The US Assembly member will die from this kind of headshot even if Kou saves him from the mind hack.
 * Psychic Link:
 * In DiveX, it shows that Sora also has this link with Kuu when she can feel where Kuu exactly is.
 * Religion of Evil: Dominion
 * Reflective Eyes:
 * Repetitive Name: Gilbert Gilberto
 * Replacement Goldfish:
 * After Gray Christmas, Kou suffers a head injury, causing him to be unable to use his eyes and ears. He mistook Rain for Sora when Rain used neurojack to help him.
 * Retraux: Aki’s personal level in cyberspace resembles old 8-bit games.
 * Say My Name: Soraaa!
 * Schrodinger's Butterfly: Mentioned a few times in the story. Several places in the virtual net resemble real life so much that some characters question if the their world is real.
 * Sealed with a Kiss:
 * Rain’s "Ghost" ending, doubling up as a
 * Second Love: Since Kou’s first true love is Sora, any other girl he ends up with is this.
 * Shrinking Violet: Makoto as a result of her Cybernetics Ego Boundary Disorder. She is more talkative in cyberspace.
 * Sinister Minister: Father Gregory
 * Sinister Scythe:
 * The "Sentence" virus use one.
 * One of Kou’s weapon and limit break.
 * Skippable Boss: All battles can be skipped in the game.
 * Sleepyhead: Aki, who can fall asleep while even standing.
 * Spider Tank: Tranquilizer
 * Spin Attack:
 * The "Clown" virus uses this attack.
 * Kou has a limit break where he swings around a laser sword.
 * Split Personality: Kurihara
 * Star-Crossed Lovers:
 * Stealth Hi Bye: Agent, who randomly appears and disappears in front of Kou.
 * Subordinate Excuse: Rain is following Kou because she loves him.
 * Sex Bot: The pirate NPCs that were illegally created from Kuu’s data. Therefore this annoys Kou since they look like Sora.
 * Taking the Bullet: In DiveX, Marcus who was mercenary in Kou’s group took the hit for Kou and died instead. This caused Kou to realize he was too soft in battle and he stopped showing mercy.
 * Talking to Themself:
 * Time Stands Still: Occurs several times on the virtual net where every single AI freezes up.
 * Title Drop: "Baldr Sky" is
 * These Hands Have Killed: In DiveX, Kou was depressed since the first person he ever killed was a girl younger than him.
 * Three Quarters View: The gameplay part of the visual novel is from this perspective.
 * Timed Mission: Some missions have a hidden timer that might trigger a game over if the limit is passed. Taking too long on specific important battles will result in the normal ending instead of the good ending for Nanoha’s and Aki’s route.
 * Tomato in the Mirror:
 * Tomato Surprise:
 * Undercover As Lovers: Depending on route, Kou goes undercover with Rain, Chinatsu or Aki during the illegal NPC sex club to infiltrate without being noticed.
 * The Virus:
 * Visions of Another Self: "Howlings" are visions of other worlds in the form of dreams.
 * Wave Motion Gun: Tranquilizer’s signature attack.
 * What Is This Thing You Call Love?:
 * Why Am I Ticking?:
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Nanoha has natural green hair and Makoto has purple hair.
 * Your Mind Makes It Real: Dying in cyberspace without a limiter will most likely cause brain death from the feedback.
 * Spider Tank: Tranquilizer
 * Spin Attack:
 * The "Clown" virus uses this attack.
 * Kou has a limit break where he swings around a laser sword.
 * Split Personality: Kurihara
 * Star-Crossed Lovers:
 * Stealth Hi Bye: Agent, who randomly appears and disappears in front of Kou.
 * Subordinate Excuse: Rain is following Kou because she loves him.
 * Sex Bot: The pirate NPCs that were illegally created from Kuu’s data. Therefore this annoys Kou since they look like Sora.
 * Taking the Bullet: In DiveX, Marcus who was mercenary in Kou’s group took the hit for Kou and died instead. This caused Kou to realize he was too soft in battle and he stopped showing mercy.
 * Talking to Themself:
 * Time Stands Still: Occurs several times on the virtual net where every single AI freezes up.
 * Title Drop: "Baldr Sky" is
 * These Hands Have Killed: In DiveX, Kou was depressed since the first person he ever killed was a girl younger than him.
 * Three Quarters View: The gameplay part of the visual novel is from this perspective.
 * Timed Mission: Some missions have a hidden timer that might trigger a game over if the limit is passed. Taking too long on specific important battles will result in the normal ending instead of the good ending for Nanoha’s and Aki’s route.
 * Tomato in the Mirror:
 * Tomato Surprise:
 * Undercover As Lovers: Depending on route, Kou goes undercover with Rain, Chinatsu or Aki during the illegal NPC sex club to infiltrate without being noticed.
 * The Virus:
 * Visions of Another Self: "Howlings" are visions of other worlds in the form of dreams.
 * Wave Motion Gun: Tranquilizer’s signature attack.
 * What Is This Thing You Call Love?:
 * Why Am I Ticking?:
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Nanoha has natural green hair and Makoto has purple hair.
 * Your Mind Makes It Real: Dying in cyberspace without a limiter will most likely cause brain death from the feedback.
 * Your Mind Makes It Real: Dying in cyberspace without a limiter will most likely cause brain death from the feedback.