Ballade

**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, although this mindset does make him a rather simplistic individual. He likes to be the best, often proving himself by fighting robots that he thinks look strong, and dislikes opponents who have no competitive spirit.

## CD Data

 **Dislike:** | Disappointing foe

## Official 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. 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 returns in *Mega Man V* as the fourth boss in the Wily Star. His battle is identical as that in *Mega Man IV*.

### *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.

## Trivia

* A "Ballade" is a one-movement musical piece with lyrical and dramatic narrative qualities, expanding the musical references that appear with many of the classic series characters.