Long ago in the world of Dir Lifyna, a war took place between two pantheons of gods. When the dust settled, the old order of the Ancient Gods was no more, leaving the victorious Present Gods to enjoy their newfound prominence. But though the war had ended, the conflict continued; even after an age has passed, the Present Gods work tirelessly to root out the remnants of Ancient God worship, surviving Ancient Gods nurse their resentment and hunger for vengeance, and the myriad demons and fiends seek to gain an advantage however they can.
Celica Sylphil, the immortal warrior known as the Godslayer, once battled the goddess Astraea and won, and now lives within her stolen body. While this grants him immense power, it has also made him the enemy of most of the continent; the Ancient Gods hate him for killing one of their own, the Present Gods see him as a threat to their dominance, and the demons now see Astraea's legacy as up for grabs to anyone with the strength to take it. Finding sanctuary in the kingdom of Rewinia - a nation whose list of foes rivals his own - Celica now stands against anyone and anything that would threaten his new home.
Battle Goddess (Ikusa Megami) is a series of hentai RPGs by the Japanese software company Eushully. There are currently four games in the series. Battle Goddess and Battle Goddess II are two of the company's oldest games, and concern the efforts of Celica and his allies to defend Rewinia from its enemies. The other two games are prequels: Battle Goddess ZERO tells the story of how Celica first became the Godslayer and the immediate aftermath, while Battle Goddess VERITA fills in the remaining space between Zero and the first game, while also crossing over with Eushully's Princess General series.
Battle Goddess provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Given that it's an H-game, the vast majority of the party members are female, making this trope automatic.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Celica is made to go through this by Valhart's followers in order to become their champion and kill Satia, who is actually the goddess Astraea, and die in the process.
- Blood Knight: Haishera, one of Celica's oldest allies, is a major antagonist for most of Zero. Why does she want Astraea's body? So she can pick fights with even stronger enemies.
- Chick Magnet: Celica.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Celica, before he became the renowned Godslayer. After that, he's more concerned with staying hidden and under everyone's radar.
- Coup de Grâce Cutscene: After losing a boss fight in Zero, there's a brief follow-up scene in which Celica's enemy finishes him off.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Celica is usually the one tasked with defeating gods, demon gods and other all-powerful beings. He kills Eidos, Astraea's corrupted sister, at the end of Zero; he fights a demonic dragon whose power came close to the gods in VERITA, and he had to fight off several demon gods in BG 2.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Taken to extremes in Zero and VERITA. There are a dozen different "elements" of weapon and armor in the game; all weapons do a certain percentage of their base damage based on the element of their target. The developers included a grid chart (accessible ingame) showing the hundred-odd possible combinations for easier reference. Of course, that doesn't factor in that there are different ranks of each element as well...
- Equippable Ally: Haishera is introduced as this; it isn't until Zero that we see much of her outside of the sword.
- Grand Theft Me: Basically the premise of the series. Inverted in Zero and the end of BG2, where we see that Astraea forced an unwilling Celica to take over her body, rather than the other way around.
- Played straight by Haishera in Zero.
- Heroic BSoD: Celica post-bodyswap in Zero, after he tears apart the temple he formerly served to rescue his sister, only to reach her just in time to hear her final words. This is also when it finally sinks in that Satia isn't coming back, depriving him of both the missions that had been keeping him going. When Haishera catches up to him a few minutes later, he's only too happy to let her have Astraea's body.
- Also Ekria at the beginning of VERITA. This takes place shortly after Princess General 2, where she was the main antagonist, and which ended with her being controlled by her family's hereditary curse and forced to kill her sister. For a while, the only reason she follows Celica around is the hope that he'll kill her.
- Celica, again, this time in VERITA, just after Marsterria's crazed believer Pleiades kills Luna=Clear and his unborn child; also after he brings death to Suri's village.
- Lady of War: Revia, although she's often not very ladylike around Celica.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Throughout Battle Goddess 1 and 2, Astraea is treated as a force resentful and possibly hostile towards Celica, given that he stole her body and must constantly fight to keep it from reverting to its original female form. It's only at the end of the second game that Celica remembers the circumstances of his becoming the Godslayer - that he and Astraea were actually lovers, and that she forced him to take over her body to prevent him from dying. Given the nature of H-gamers to gravitate towards newer titles, more people have played Zero, where this is how her character is first introduced.
- "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Satia tries this on Celica. It works only after he's impaled her on his sword, and both start being consumed by Satia/Astraea's holy flame of purification.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Celica. After certain key events, he forgets everything regarding who he is, who he's come into contact with, and what has transpired over the past x years. Though this is from the influence of the goddess body over Celica's soul - his periods of amnesia are usually after he exerts the goddess' power as far as he can, after which he loses brief control over the goddess' body which then proceeds to try to wipe Celica's soul.
- Ninja Maid: After establishing himself in Rewinia, Celica lives with his circle of loyal apostles. They're in charge of housekeeping, so they wear maid outfits... and then continue wearing them, even when venturing with Celica into monster-infested dungeons. Although Ekria, Suri, and Saria are magic-users without notable combat skills, the ex-thief Marinia uses metal claws to great effect.
- One-Man Army: In an attempt to retrace his steps and find out what happened to him, Celica effectively destroys the city and religion of Valhart before the neighboring villages could even blink.
- Rapid Aging: When he pushes himself too far trying to capture Celica, Abilus suffers a magical backlash which causes his skin to shrivel on his body. Actually less debilitating than it sounds; when he resurfaces over a century later, he's bulked up considerably, although he retains the mummy-like skin texture.
- Reincarnation Romance: Marsterrian priestess Roca Ruscourt is implied to be a reincarnation of Celica's deceased lover Luna Clear. They're instinctively drawn to one another from their very first meeting in BG1, and in BG2 Archbishop Pleiades comes right out and says that he expects her to follow in Luna's footsteps. Possibly averted in that Roca herself denies this.
- Also played with in that due to Celica being immortal, only one partner is dying and returning.
- Stalker with a Crush: Abirus. Who has been to hell and back, chasing "his goddess".
- The Lancer: Haishera, after the events of Zero.
- Token Mini-Moe: Naberius, Rifia, Suri (who was retconned into being a loli in VERITA).
- Tragic Hero: Celica's entire reason for wanting power is to protect those weaker than him. He gets that power, but at a severe price, and now everyone is trying to kill him, physically or otherwise.
- Tsundere: Revia. Justified in that it's hard to keep up appearances as a leader if you're constantly being saved.
- Ekria, for the first few chapters of VERITA.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Ekria.
- Also Satia.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: During Zero. While Haishera is using Astraea's power to wage demonic war across the northern countries, you're given the opportunity to take one nation's princess hostage. Your options range from treating her as an honored guest... to having her repeatedly raped by monsters until her will is broken, then turning her into stone. Yeesh.
