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"I know, Mega Man. After our battle, I realized that I was wrong. This is all I can do for you now. Goodbye..."
―Ballade, Mega Man IV

Ballade (バラード Barādo) is the third and last "Mega Man Killer" robot built by Dr. Wily. Ballade has great pride and believes he is the strongest robot. Ballade attacks with a powerful explosive called the Ballade Cracker, and has a second form that increases his strength.

Ballade's greatest strength is his love for taking on challenges, making him seem like a simplistic individual, though it is shown that he is capable of deeper thought. He often likes to boast about being the best, often proving himself by fighting robots that he thinks look strong, and dislikes opponents who have no competitive or fighting spirit.

Video game appearances[]

Mega Man IV[]

Ballade debuts as this game's Mega Man Killer, and becomes available to fight in the Wily Station after the first wave Robot Masters (the ones from Mega Man 4) are defeated. In a cutscene, Mega Man catches up with Dr. Wily, though the latter walks offscreen. Mega Man tries to give chase, but before Mega Man can enter right away, Ballade throws two Ballade Crackers as a surprise attack before retreating. Mega Man dodges them and enters to fight Ballade for the first time. Ballade escapes when he has 1 HP left.

He is fought again when Mega Man re-enters the Wily Station, but this time, Ballade takes on a new form for battle, and his attacks change slightly. He is defeated for real afterwards, and Mega Man earns his weapon, the Ballade Cracker.

Attack Pattern: First Form[]

Ballade's main movement is to jump to Mega Man's position, and all of his jumps follow this trajectory. He can do 1 to 4 jumps, and the height of these jumps is variable, either being a shorter hop or a much higher jump that reaches the ceiling. Regardless, after any of these jumps, he may instead run to Mega Man's position, stopping once he gets there. His run is telegraphed by the poses he takes: if he continues to crouch after landing, he will keep jumping, but if he stands up after landing, he will then run to Mega Man. After stopping close to the center, there is a chance he may do another run, though most of the time he will start another set of jumps. If Ballade stops at the corners of the room, he will then attack by shooting two small Ballade Crackers from his wrist-cannons: they fly forward and diagonally up (similar to Shadow Man's Shadow Blades), and they can be simply destroyed with a buster shot. Ballade may fire 1-3 sets of Ballade Crackers before he does another set of jumping.

Attack Pattern: Second Form[]

Ballade's second form is only slightly different: his yellow horns point upwards and he wears a visor over his eyes like Proto Man does. Ballade's base pattern remains the same in this form, but it has been modified to be harder, mainly from his Ballade Crackers being bigger than before and exploding to cover a wide radius. When Ballade first jumps for each set, he deploys a Ballade Cracker right underneath him, which hovers for several seconds before exploding on its own, though it can still be shot down. Ballade's landing timings has been drastically shortened, resulting in him being harder to anticipate and dodge during his jump sets, especially when he decides to run at Mega Man. Instead of throwing two small Ballade Crackers at the corners of the room, Ballade throws a bigger Ballade Cracker forward. It is much faster in speed and it has a shorter wind-up before Ballade actually shoots it. After shooting one Ballade Cracker, Ballade does take 2 seconds of downtime standing in place before he does another set of jumps.

Weakness[]

Unlike the previous Mega Man Killers, Ballade can be damaged by all weapons. However, the Mega Buster is still the best choice, as the charged buster does 3 damage. A charged Pharaoh Shot also does 3 damage, but it does cost ammo and the player will want to reserve that ammo for future stages. Ballade also has a secondary weakness to Power Stone, which does 2 damage and can easily hit him as he's jumping.

Both forms share the same weakness table.

Aftermath[]

Ballade appears at the very last cutscene where Mega Man is trying to break out of the exploding Wily Battleship after defeating the game's final boss, the Wily Robo Iron Golem. When Mega Man can't get past the final barrier (not even a charged buster shot can destroy it), Ballade shows up. Badly damaged from both fights, he tells Mega Man after their battle, he realized he was wrong. To make it up for him, he sacrifices his life by self-destructing, destroying the final barrier and launching Mega Man into space before the Wily Battleship fully gets destroyed.

Mega Man V[]

Ballade is fought inside the Wily Star as the last of four bosses coming from previous Game Boy titles. He fights in his regular form and does not change to his alternate form.

Attack pattern[]

Ballade seems to combine tactics from both of his fights in Mega Man IV. His movement and speed is 1-to-1 with the speed of his first fight, being on the slower side and allowing Mega Man to jump over him if he reacts correctly. However, instead of throwing small Ballade Crackers, he instead a big Ballade Cracker straight forward, the same way he did in his second fight. He also takes some downtime before doing his jumps again, like in his second fight.

Weaknesses[]

Ballade is weak to two weapons: Bubble Bomb and Photon Missile, both of which defeat him in 7 hits. They are both best used up close while Ballade is jumping around, making it easy to damage him with it. He also has secondary weaknesses to Salt Water and Break Dash. which do 2 damage. As with most bosses, Ballade takes 3 damage from the Mega Arm.

Mega Man 10[]

Ballade is the boss of the downloadable Special Stage 3. He usually appears in his original form, although it may be a random chance of seeing him change to his alternate form. There doesn't appear to be any difference between his two forms, however. Because of this being rendered in NES-style graphics, this is also his first color appearance in a video game (not counting his database bio in Mega Man & Bass).

Other appearances[]

Damage data chart[]

Displays the amount of damage in units that Ballade will receive from each Special Weapon in Mega Man IV, Mega Man V, and Mega Man 10.

Mega Man IV
Mega Buster Flash Stopper Rain Flush Pharaoh Shot Ring Boomerang Power Stone Charge Kick Napalm Bomb Crystal Eye Ballade Cracker
1:1:3 1 1 1:2:3 1 2 1 1 1 --
Mega Man V
Mega Buster/Arm Grab Buster Bubble Bomb Photon Missile Electric Shock Black Hole Deep Digger Break Dash Salt Water Spark Chaser Tango
1:2:3 0 3 3 1 0 -- 2 1 1 1
Mega Man 10
Mega Buster Triple Blade Water Shield Commando Bomb Chill Spike Thunder Wool Rebound Striker Wheel Cutter Solar Blaze Mirror Buster Screw Crusher Ballade Cracker
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0

Data[]

Mega Man & Bass CD data[]

CDData-68-Ballade


Other media[]

Mega Man (Archie Comics)[]

Ballade has a cameo appearance in issue 20, where the Mega Man Killers and the Genesis Unit invade the Chronos Institute.

He also appears in Worlds Collide, alongside the rest of the Mega Man Killers, to stop Mega Man, Sonic, Tails, and Rush from attacking Drs. Eggman and Wily. Mega Man's interactions with Ballade indicate that he had previously encountered Ballade and sacrificed himself similar to in Mega Man IV, although he soon realized the "Ballade" that is attacking him was from a prior timeline when Ballade expressed ignorance of saving Mega Man's life. Tails, Sonic, and Mega Man managed to finish him off, although not before he managed to significantly injure Tails with one of his Ballade Crackers.

Rockman & Forte[]

Ballade appears in the three small side-stories of the Rockman & Forte manga. In one of them, Rockman Burning Shot, he fights against Bass to decide who will face Mega Man, and he is defeated.[1] In the other two stories, Arigatou Rockman and Onore Rockman, Ballade is depicted as a rascal that tries to cause trouble for Mega Man, but all his attempts end in failure. He also causes trouble for Wily's other robots.[2]

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Trivia[]

  • "Ballade" is a one-movement musical piece with lyrical and dramatic narrative qualities, expanding the musical references so rife in the names of the classic series characters.
  • Ballade is the only one of the Mega Man Killers to be fought twice in his debut game.
  • Going by the character data given in Mega Man & Bass, Ballade is similar to Bass; they both have the same competitive mentality to be number 1, and dislike weak foes.
  • Ballade and Buster Rod G are the only two Robot Masters whose second battle is as a level's boss instead of part of a rematch boss rush.
  • Ballade and Sunstar share similarities in terms of their character development. They were both combat robots who realized the error of their ways after their respective battles with Mega Man and helped the Blue Bomber escape from life-threatening situations as a final act of redemption.

References[]


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