Balian Christian

Balian Christian (バリアン・クリスチャン) is a recurring and the playable character in Kagihime Monogatari Eikyū Alice Musou and he is an original character created specifically for Eikyū Alice Musou. He is a crusader with an self-proclaimed general and founder of the kingdom of heaven. He was known to have been an ambitious and charismatic leader who had the affable power to draw people to him.

Simon Arc
Balian is a righteous and virtuous leader who fights for the power of Christ. During the invasion of Army of Darkness, he meets Simon and he joins him to fight the Army of Darkness. He admires the strength of the Christianity and joins the coalition. However, there is one final chance to bring the end of war of undead dominance - is a aided with the mightiest warriors from the light.

Appearance
Balian is a elder man of 26 years old with a short neck-length black hair and yellow eyes. He only wears a half-knight's armor consist of metal knight body armor without leg parts and helment (with chest plate and shoulder plate), a long blue cape on his back, a brown pants and dark brown boots.

Personality
Balian is a highly accomplished strategist and leader in battle. Despite his royal lineage and high expectation of his officers, Balian is very amiable especially to those who show courage and righteousness. Due to his righteous nature, he is respectful to his opponents and kind to the innocents caught up in war.

Gameplay
Stats (without accessories and/or armors and default weapon equipped)

Main Stat: STR (Physical ATK)

Movesets
Ground Moveset

, , , , , : Inward right slash, bashing left outward slash, forward sword jab, inward strike slash, outward waving slash, then a diagonally-downward finishing outward slash. Launches the enemy at last hit.

undefined: Balian sweeps the ground with his sword upwards to sends forth a diagonal earth wave at the distance of 5 meter range.

, undefined: Balian slash his sword upwards to knocks opponent airborne with an upward scooping swing after a turn.

, , undefined: Balian punches the enemy with a left fist, forming a grapple. When he connects, he stabs and rapidly skewers his sword in front of himself 5 times, then followed by a horizontal stunning turn swipe. Based on the attack from the opening movie Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War and was used to break the enemy's sword and its helmet.

, , , undefined, (undefined): Balian does a strong horizontal slash to the right. Inflicts crashing knockback. The second input does a second slash to send forth a horizontal earth wave over 3 meter range.

, , , , undefined: Balian jumps and plants his sword onto the ground with a single-handed strike, creating a ripple launch with the earth element. Launches the enemies up the air.

, , , , , undefined, (undefined): Balian rapidly skewers his sword in front of himself per input, followed by an overhead backwards launch (and thus can also hit behind himself). Followed by a strong horizontal slash to the right that inflicts crashing knockback via spiral knockdown. (This input requires Balian Christian is Level 15)

Direction, undefined: Balian does a shoulder tackle at the said direction of 5 meters. Spiral launches the enemies away from him when they hit.

Step Slash( during dash): Balian does a sliding low-sweeping slash to his left.

Aerial/Air Combo Moveset

, , , , , , : Balian swipes the sword in mid-air and can be followed up by a basic air combo by slashing up or down.

, undefined: Balian flips in midair and falls straight down with a sword slam to cause a AoE quake. Launches the enemies up the air.

,, undefined: Balian flips and does a hard vertical slash at the air juggled enemies down to the ground that can cause ground bounce.

, , , undefined: After two air combo slashes, Balian does a midair horizontal slash that spiral launches the air juggled enemy away.

, , , , undefined, (undefined): After three air combo slashes, Balian does a midair 360° slash multiple times per input. Spiral launches the air juggled enemies away.

, , , , , undefined: After four air combo slashes, Balian does a four slash air combo and a reaping meteor slash finisher that slams the air juggled enemies to the ground.

, , , , , , undefined, (undefined): After five air combo slashes, Balian does a five slash air combo and he rapidly skewers his sword in front of himself per input in the air, followed by an midair horizontal slash that spiral launches the air juggled enemy away. (This input requires Balian Christian is Level 15)

Counterattacking Moveset

While blocking the attack with L1 Button : Balian counters the attacking enemy with C4-1.

While blocking the attack with L1 Button undefined: Balian counters by launching a wide sweeping slash. Spiral launches the enemies away from him when they hit.

Skill Attacks
These skills can be follow up from normal, Charge attacks or from other active skills are performed.

Smiting Blow: Balian bash and stuns the enemy with his claymore's hilt. When the enemy is stunned, he swings the stunned enemy forward like a baseball bat to slam other enemies that inflicts crashing knockback via spiral knockdown. (This skill is learned from the start of Balian Christian’s Level).


 * MP cost: 500
 * Cooldown: 20 seconds

Zeal Rush: Balian does a diagonal slash repeatedly several times while running at the 20 meters, causing them to forced flinch state and stun them afterward when hit (This skill requires Balian Christian is Level 10).


 * MP cost: 500
 * Cooldown: 30 seconds

Slashing Stance: (Acts like the Storm Rush mechanics from Dynasty Warriors 8, execute this skill by pressing  and undefined at the same time) Balian stands a ready position. Pressing the  button to slashes wildly from left to right continuously. Pressing the undefined button or let the storm rush stance is over to swing at the upper right to launches the enemy away. (This skill requires Balian Christian is Level 20).

During Storm Rush stance, it can move forward via directional pad (not analog stick) during his Storm Rush ready position.

Storm Rush Stance effect last for 6 seconds.


 * MP cost: 700
 * Cooldown: 40 seconds

Jousting Impact: (chargeable) Balian charges and gathers a burst of energy, and then he charges up to 10m forward as his sword is in stabbing position. Upon hit the enemies with the Jousting Impact, they launch enemies into the air. However the longer he charged, the more powerful will be, but Balian cannot be move while charging. Longer charged version can rush charge up to 20m forward to inflict more hits and damage (This skill requires Balian Christian is Level 30).


 * MP cost: 1000 (uncharged), 2000 (charged)
 * Cooldown: 40 seconds (uncharged), 80 seconds (charged)

Earthquake Rave: Balian draws another sword and gathers a earth energy into his second sword, then stabs to the ground and explodes the earth energy to deal great damage to the surrounding enemies (This skill requires Balian Christian is Level 30).


 * MP cost: 1000
 * Cooldown: 80 seconds

Musou Attacks
(Zeal Combo) (Requires 1 Musou bar): Balian does a multiple powerful horizontal slashes left or right and ending a clearing spin. This Musou Attack is learned from the start of Balian Christian’s Level.

, (Earthly Blade) (Requires 1 Musou bar): Balian flips and stab his sword to the ground and explodes the earth energy to deal great damage to the surrounding enemies and spiral launches the enemies away from him. This Musou Attack is requires to learn when Balian Christian is Level 10 and is usable in mid air.

Direction buttons (not Analog Stick), (Orbit Slasher) (Requires 1 Musou bar): Balian does a series of revolving swings that start from a low sweeping orientation ending a clearing spin. This Musou Attack is requires to learn when Balian Christian is Level 20 and is usable with the Direction buttons.

Alternate Musou Attack - R1 +  (Conviction Stab) (Requires 1 Musou bar): Balian tackles the enemy with his shoulders. When he connects, he draws another sword, then he stabs and rapidly skewers his sword in front of himself multiple times and proceeds to 360° slash that inflict massive damage and spiral launches the enemies away. This Musou Attack is requires to learn when Balian Christian is Level 30 and is usable with the R1 button.

(Bladestorm Slasher) (Requires 2 Musou bars and instead of Zeal Combo): Balian draws another sword and gathers a earth energy into his swords, then he spins around several times to hit all enemies around him at 30 meter AoE and ending with a multiple powerful slashes that inflict massive damage and spiral launches the enemies away from him into the air after hit. Also spiraled enemies are hit from Bladestorm Slasher can also slam other enemies that inflicts crashing knockback via spiral knockdown and damage. This Musou Attack is requires to learn when Balian Christian is Level 40.

(Heavenly Earthquake) (Requires all 3 Musou bars and instead of Bladestorm Slasher): Balian draws another sword and gathers a earth energy into his swords, then stabs both his swords to unleash a massive earthquake over 30 meter AoE to inflict multiple hits several times, spiral launches the enemies up into the air. Holding the  button much longer up for 10 seconds. Then he slashes his swords upward to create a massive earth explosion that spiral launches the enemy into great heights in the sky as they hit by the last created explosion. K.Oed enemies from Heavenly Earthquake explosion will blast violently into low earth orbit and left out from the battlefield. This Musou Attack is requires to learn when Balian Christian is Level 50 along with Blades of Heaven.

Burst Attack
(Blades of Heaven) (Burst Mode required and instead of Heavenly Earthquake): Balian draws another sword and gathers a earth energy into his swords upon startup. He bombards the enemies with a barrage of powerful slashes horizontally left or right, then he proceeds with a cross-shaped cuts in front while moving at a fast pace. At his Burst Attack continues, he does a continuous spinning attack with weapon now enchanted with earth before inflicting several horizontal strikes back and forth. On the final blow and the burst attack is over, he leaps into the air he does a final explosion of Heavenly Earthquake which can spiral launches the enemy into great heights in the sky as they hit by the last created explosion. K.Oed enemies from Balian’s Burst Attack Infinity Edge explosion will blast violently into low earth orbit and left out from the battlefield. This Burst Attack is requires to learn when Balian Christian is Level 50 along with Heavenly Earthquake.

Special Features
All characters use a Burst Mode.

Burst Mode: Temporally doubles the characters’ movement speed, stats and gain unlimited MP, also able to use Burst Attack.

Burst Mode last for 30 seconds.

All characters use can Dash skill.

Dash: This ability allows the characters to move with increased movement speed.

Fighting Style
Balian Christian is another swordsman which is similar to Joseph's longsword movesets. He focuses on slower attacks with better crowd control; his broad swings can cover a huge range and are also useful in boss fights. His C3 allows him daze his opponent to give him more room for attacking. His C4 is a good move to control the crowds by scattering riots, and his C6 performs a stab that is good against enemy officers and bosses.

Unlike most of characters, Balian has no ranged projectile attacks; meaning all of his moves, skills and musou attacks are physical.

On the downside, his attack and movement speed are slower than Joseph because he is a slow slashing speed for high damage output like Duke Artorius. To counter this weakness by increasing attack speed via accessories, weapons with higher attack speed or consumable item with speed boost. Another downsides of Balian is lack of ranged projectiles for pokes, very low intellect rating and high cooldown times for skills attack, meaning all of his skill attacks are powerful but very long cooldown time between use.

Unlock requirements
Active from beginning of the game in Free Mode (As the player plays Balian Christian in Story Mode in Simon Arc, the player must clear Stage 5 "Balian's Sword").

Trivia

 * Balian Christian is the only character in Kagihime Monogatari: Eikyuu Alice Musou and while he is not appear in Kagihime Monogatari: Eikyuu Alice Rondo.
 * His name is loosely based on the crusader noble of the Kingdom of Jerusalem "Balian of Ibelin". Also his surname is based on the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point of the Christian faith.
 * His appearance and personality are loosely similar to Balian from Kingdom of Heaven despite being a commander in chief.
 * Balian's movesets are unique and which is similar to Duke's movesets except has no range projectiles and slower attack speed than Duke's.