Cure Master

"Monsters born of Dark Gaia with exceptionally high intelligence can take on a humanoid appearance like these fiends. As masters of curative magic, these phantoms go around healing their cohorts. For whatever reason, it isn't able to heal its own wounds, though."

- Description, Sonic Unleashed

The Cure Master (キュアマスター) is a type of Dark Gaia's Minions that appears in the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 version of Sonic Unleashed. These wizard-like ghosts specialize in curative spells that can heal their allies. They only appear during the game's nighttime stages.

Overview
The Cure Masters and the rest of Dark Gaia's Minions were created when Dark Gaia broke into millions of fragments shortly after its premature awakening in the beginning of Sonic Unleashed. These fragments were then spread across the Earth and became Dark Gaia's Minions, with the Cure Masters some amongst them. They first appear in Dragon Road Night Act 1.

In gameplay, the Cure Masters are able to fully restore the health off all the nearby enemies that have taken damage by the player whenever they cast their spell, but they cannot restore their own health when they have taken damage. The Cure Masters always appear alongside other enemies in order to use their curative abilities, though there are never more than one of them in one group. They are usually paired up with a Power Master.

Upon the reconstruction of Dark Gaia by Dr. Eggman, all of the Cure Masters along with the other Dark Gaia minions were returned to the beast, who was later defeated and sealed within the planet's core.

Physical Appearance
The Cure Masters bear a striking resemblance to the Dark Masters in overall appearance. The Cure Master's basic appearance is that of a humanoid phantom-like wizard. They are dressed in dark purple clothes with a purplish tint which have a pointy hat and cape, and are decorated with yellow symbols. The only parts on their body that are shown are their yellow eyes and some of their back faces. They are also always carrying a cyan colored, hook-shaped staff with several thin spikes and a thread hanging from the top.

Powers and Abilities
The Cure Masters are able to move around by teleporting into an area in a puff of purple smoke. As a Dark Gaia minion, the Cure Masters can possess people by latching onto the deepest, darkest part of the heart and generate despair, negative emotions or even erratic behavior that are completely opposite to the person's personality.

The Cure Masters have the innate ability to levitate above ground and can move through mid-air rather quickly.

The Cure Masters are born with exceptionally high intelligence, allowing them to take on a near-perfect humanoid appearance and utilize Dark Gaia's power in a more refined way, similar to that of magical spells. In terms of spell casting, the Cure Masters are masters at casting curative spells that allows them to restore the health of their nearby allies. Their curative spells are not limited to only restoring biological damage on Dark Gaia's Minions, but also nonorganic system damage on robots, such as Eggman's robots. The Cure Masters can for unknown reasons, however, not use their spells to heal their own wounds. When casting their curative spells, the Cure Masters form a circular spell seal under them and send out purple orbs that will target all the surrounding allies and restore their health upon contact.

The Dark Masters possess as well  some skills in stick fighting, being able to use their staffs in close combat to hit their opponents using quick and swift movements. As a supplementary ability to their stick fighting, the Cure Masters can enlarge their staffs, giving them greater range and attack power.

Attack Patterns
In battle, the Cure Masters focus foremost on casting spells to restore their allies' health. When attacking the player, however, the Cure Masters will attack by hitting him/her with their staff, either by swinging the staff or by hammering it down on the player when enlarged.

When not attacking the player or healing their allies, the Cure Masters can move around in the air to avoid damage, making it somewhat difficult for the player to attack them.