Don't mind my play time. I originally got this game from GOG because I had heard of the steam version not properly launching on Windows 11 due to Steam DRM. However, after finishing Baldr Sky and seeing it is on sale on Steam, I decided to buy it again anyway. Luckily there's a guide which has instructions on how to make the Steam version work.

To my surprise, GOG and Steam versions of Baldr Sky seem to share the progression so I am listening to Nano Universe in the music room while writing this review. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that song hits hard.

I don't usually write reviews because I feel I often don't have anything insightful to say about a piece of media, but I would be doing a disservice to Baldr Sky if I didn't review it, seeing as it has become my favorite game of all time.

Now to the actual review. This game is part visual novel and part a mecha beat-em-up. Seeing as the visual novel part is the main draw of the game, I think it should be covered first. The visual novel is structured in a way where you play through the routes in a pre-determined order. Clearing the first route's true ending unlocks the second route for your next playthrough. Third route unlocks after the second route and so on. I like this design choice as I hate having my reading sessions interrupted by choice boxes that force me to think and choose carefully unless I want to accidentally enter the route of the heroine I am the least interested in.

This game wouldn't work without the enforced reading order, though. Each route sheds light on the main mystery of the story, slowly making things click inside your brain. Each route also introduces new mysteries that make the game impossible to put down at times. I ended up having a lot of fun speculating the future events of the story based on the few clues we get. Most of my expectations were eventually completely subverted though, and the final, true route of the game where everything comes together was the most memorable part of the VN for me.

The story itself is set in a dystopian future where humanity is possibly living in its last moments. Crime, pollution and destroyed environment eat away people's hope for future. Internet has a major presence in the story, as that's the place people escape the hopeless real world to. Much time in the VN is spent in the Internet and discussing everything it entails. There are both people who despise the idea of humanity partly living in the Internet and people who have made the Internet their new home. Both sides have their own motivations and I think it would be dishonest to call either side to be in the wrong or right.

In fact, there's not much "good versus bad" juxtaposition in Baldr Sky. It is true that many villains in the story are undoubtedly evil but many themes in the story, for example internet addiction, nanomachines, transhumanism, AI etc., are not presented as black or white things. The game asks questions such as at what point does virtual reality become as real as the "real" world and how do we define intelligence? Should AIs have human rights? Is a being born on the Internet with the thought patterns of a human, human? Questions that might become relevant to us at some point in the future.

The AI focus in the game is especially interesting to me. I am aware that LLMs and generative AI do not really constitute as "Artifical Intelligences", but as those things progress and our society is handled more and more by computers, it is important not to only consider what we are gaining but what we are losing. Baldr Sky asks exactly these things. It is thought provoking and while Baldr Sky's main cast is largely pro-AI, I don't think the anti-AI side in the story is entirely in the wrong. Both sides have compelling arguments and the nuance is there. My favorite observation from the game is that we already possess Baldr machines in a way. You are reading this review from one right now. I cannot say if true AI will ever be implemented, especially as organic AI, but that was the next step from the Baldr machines in the Baldr universe. Whoever knows, maybe it is the next step for us too.

One complaint about Baldr Sky I hear a lot is its story being interrupted by slice of life fluff. I personally didn't have any issues with the pacing (in fact, I think the pacing is great) but I can see how going from a gritty and gloomy military story to a light-hearted school life could feel off-putting. I enjoyed the glimpses into the memories of the main character. The reminiscing is there to set up the character relations and motivations and foreshadow the events to come.

A much larger issue is that the school life of the characters unlocks as its own gamemode later on in the game (you could call it a bonus route). It is largely just replaying segments which are already told in the main story. There is new content which is especially relevant to the story, but you will mostly be reading through the same text you have already read previously. It is tiresome and it was the worst part of the game for me, as it was required reading to progress into some of the later routes in the VN. The issue was made worse by the fact that the skip button didn't work in this gamemode since it is technically "new text." The configuration menu has the option to skip over unread text but that would mean accidentally missing out on the new content. However, I think that in the context of the full game, this long forced rereading section isn't so bad since the rest of the game is so brilliant.

Before I go into the gameplay I need to shout out the presentation. I love the art style and the music. I have been listening to the OST while writing this review and I have already been replaying the remix of Easiness at Time many times. I don't really have anything to criticize about the presentation. When I first started playing, some of the characters' heads being very small compared to the rest of their bodies felt uncanny but I have grown to like it.

I have less to say about the gameplay than the story but that doesn't mean it is bad. In fact, I think it is great! The best part about it is possibly the customization. You can build your mech to suit your play style and needs and the build variety is ridiculously massive. There were multiple times I wanted to lab out a new combo and suddenly a whole hour had passed.

I think the difficulty of the game is well adjusted as well. I played on normal mode and I found it to be challenging enough that I couldn't just slack through it but forgiving enough that I didn't have to retry the fights too much and get frustrated at not being able to progress the story. It hit a great middle spot. The final boss of the game did absolutely beat my ass, although it was a very welcome beating. The ending would've felt undeserved otherwise.

I think Baldr Sky hits the balance of gameplay and story very well. There were couple times I felt I just wanted to progress the story and ignore the gameplay, but most of the time I didn't mind the story transitioning into a beat-em-up. The gameplay is just so good that it wasn't overshadowed by the already amazing story.

I think this game is absolutely worth getting. I love this game, and the currently playing Paradigm Shift is making me want to replay Baldr Sky ASAP. There's really no other story like this one and I would pay the 20 € on sale to enjoy a 80+ hour masterpiece like this one every given opportunity.

I would also like to shout out this line of dialogue: I wanna take this disgusting hunk of metal, crush it flat, tear off all its cables, douse it in water, coat it in salt, and turn it into a pile of useless scrap. Thank you, Gabriel Ultrakill Makoto.

To me, this is a near perfect videogame. Enjoyed the hell out of those 100 hours. Unforgettable characters, amazing gameplay that stands on its own, and a plot that, even though it's far from being revolutionary or unique, tries to do lots of things at the same time, and shockingly delivers without failing horribly, with a great ending that wraps things up nicely. It truly is one of, if not the peak of the vn medium, and a true masterpiece.