The Balaur (三首竜 Three Head Dragon) is a major antagonist in Blue Dragon Plus. It is a large 3 headed dragon shadow apparently created by the atomic cube out of the darkness of Nene.
Appearance[]
Biography[]
Nene wielding the Balaur shadow
The Balaur first appears in the game's opening, where it emerges from the Atomic Cube and seemingly 'calls out' to the others before disappearing. It is noticed by King Jibral and Zola, who make it their mission to investigate the cube.
It is not encountered again until the party reaches the Cortex. There, it appears as a "Chaotic shadow" which is immune to all damage until Nene can weaken it. After it is defeated, it attempts to control Nene, but is held off with help from Himiko. It then vanishes once again.
Once the party reaches the Neocortex, they encounter the evil side of Nene. Evil Nene explains the cube was created to restore Nene to full power after he awoke from his sleep and that he and the Balaur are presumably the end result of the cube's stored energy. He criticizes his other for instead giving the Human's the ability to wield shadows and believes he has been weakened as a result. The party then faces off against many "Shadow Nene" clones.
The clones are defeated, but Evil Nene insists he will take back 'his' body and merges with Nene. He is no longer able to control his darker self and reverts to his cold, evil personality, stating how he will now rule the world. He then summons the Balaur shadow and challenges the party. After a short battle, Himiko begins to collapse from weakness, shocking Nene and allowing him to throw off the Balaur's influence. He ultimately separates the dark shadow from himself, giving the Balaur a corporeal form. He then joins the party in battling the darkness of his heart.
The Balaur is defeated and, once again, vanishes. Nene insists that it is not over and that the party should travel to the deepest part of the cube, The Abyss, to finish it off once and for all. Nene remains behind to care for a dying Himiko.
In the Abyss, the party finds the Balaur protecting the core of the Neocortex, surrounded by many powerful Bomb Mechas and Destroys. After defeating the Balaur and destroying the core, the party believe they are victorious. However, the Shadow still manages to regenerate even without the Cortex, leaving the party in a state of hopelessness. Just then, Nene arrives and informs the party that because the shadow was born of his will and hatred, it cannot be destroyed as long as he himself exists. He demands the party defeat him one final time so that he may be with the now deceased Himiko and stop the Balaur once and for all. Left with no other options, the party defeats Nene as he struggles to contain the rampaging shadow, allowing both him, Himiko and the Balaur to fade from existence.
Abilities[]
The shadow itself is very powerful, having been created from all the energies of the Atomic Cube. It is usually impervious to all attacks when it is encountered by the party and can only have its defenses lowered by Nene each time. Its corporeal form it commonly uses a long range, 3-way energy beam presumably fired from each of its heads. It will also occasionally charge up an attack called Kronos, which unleashes a random magic attack at its max power, although it is usually shadows.
Once the player has completed the final side quest mission for the Mecha Town, they are awarded the Balaur Prism, which allows them to equip the shadow to one of their party members. It is classified as the 'Charge' class. Stat wise, it is the strongest shadow in the game, although it is somewhat hampered by having only 1 offensive move based primarily on luck. It grants the following abilities to whoever wields it:
- Quick Charge: This ability is constantly activated, and halves the time needed to wait until a character can attack with magic again.
- All Charge: This ability is constantly activated. It allows the wielder to always cast magic at its highest power level (e.g: Flarus, Regenerus)
- Kronos: The wielder casts one random magic spell at its highest level, this can make it somewhat unreliable because there is no way of telling what the magic will be until it is cast.