Space Warriors: The Legend of Souls

Space Warriors: The Legend of Souls is a 2D hack-n-slash title published by Sega and developed by Gamecom. Besides Dead World, Space Warriors is another installment out of the Gamecom history to appeal to more Western audiences than either Japanese or European audiences.

Plot
Space Warriors tells the story of Ian and Joshua (two high school friends) who discover all about a space organization known as Nimbasa. Nimbasa (named after Nimbasa City from Pokemon Black/White) is heavily known to have several soldier units who dispatch a renegade team precisely called the Vulcan Army, which is being led by Lord Skrall. Nimbasa immediately recruits the two and transforms them into genetic heroes; Ian becomes the almighty "Light Nova", while Josh turns into the powerful "Neo Elfin".

What goal these two individuals and the rest of Nimbasa have to do is a simple (albeit risky) task: end the reigning terror of the Vulcan Army and save Earth from any sort of demise it faces.

Main

 * Ian "Light Nova" Marrun: A 16-year-old high schooler who is childhood friends with Joshua and Meghan. Ian is noticeably bold, if not sometimes hot-headed. He finds himself to do most of the talking for the more level-headed and nonchalant Joshua. After joining with Nimbasa, Ian becomes a cybernetic warrior known as "Light Nova". Ian is voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi in Japanese and Greg Ayres in English; as Light Nova, he is voiced by Ryotaro Okiayu in Japanese and Travis Willingham in English.
 * Joshua "Neo Elfin" Blaskey: A 17-year-old high schooler who has been a long-time childhood friend with both Ian and Meghan. Calm and often nonchalant, Joshua doesn't seem to be very talkative; but he isn't exactly shy, either. After he joined the Nimbasa organization, Joshua becomes a cybernetic warrior known as "Neo Elfin". Joshua is voiced by Soichiro Hoshi in Japanese and Chris Patton in English; as Neo Elfin, he is voiced by Hideo Ishikawa in Japanese and J. Michael Tatum in English.
 * Nina Yeung: The head of Nimbasa. She is quite the persistent, yet calculative person, often thinking things through before taking action. Although only at the age of 12, it seems that the organization chose her for the child's supreme intellect and clever nature. Nina was responsible for transforming Ian and Joshua into what they are now; genetic warriors, to be exact. Nina is voiced by Fumiko Orikasa in Japanese and Carrie Savage in English.
 * Lord Skrall: This nefarious man is the leader of the treacherous Vulcan Army. Rather insane and dictative, Lord Skrall plans to rule the universe with an iron fist... and wants Nimbasa to not interrupt his objective. He also is currently thinking about creating mayhem around Earth sometime in the future. Lord Skrall is voiced by Akio Otsuka in Japanese and Christopher Sabat.

Side

 * Meghan Ouka: A 16-year-old high schooler who has been a childhood friend to both Joshua and Ian. By the looks of things, one is able to tell that Meghan is prone to spacing out and being generally optimistic; rumor has it that Meghan has never frowned in her life, either. She is the only one on Earth to know about Joshua and Ian's amends with Nimbasa. Meghan is voiced by Ayako Kawasumi in Japanese and Laura Bailey in English.

Gameplay
As either Light Nova (his melee weapon is a two-bladed sword, and his ranged weapon is a crossbow) or Neo Elfin (his melee weapon is a battle axe, and his ranged weapon is a taser), the player's main objective is to avoid any hazardous obstacles, kill approaching enemies, collect any weapon power-ups, nearby items that play a part as the story progresses, and get to the goal post; the goal post determines your final score or rank (very similar to the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog titles).

In every fourth stage of each planet (aside from the final area), there is a boss that the player will encounter and must defeat in order to advance to the next planet. Every boss has his/her own weakness, so let's hope this is exploited A LOT... because that's definitely going to be needed.

During every stage, the player can also come in contact with Files (they act like Red Rings from Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations). If a certain amount of collected, an extra is unlocked; say for instance, if you have obtained just about 20 Files, then a cutscene or two is now enabled for watch. When the entire game has been completed 100% (which actually isn't hard to do), that means everything has been unlocked; cutscenes, music test, the option to play the game using Japanese voices, and also game demos.

Other information

 * Style: 1-2 Player Action
 * Publisher: SEGA
 * Developer: Gamecom
 * Platform: GigaCom
 * Rating: Teen (ESRB; North America), 12+ (PEGI; Europe), B (CERO; Japan)

Trivia

 * Light Nova (Ian Marrun's transformation) has appeared in both Gamecom vs. Capcom and Gamecom vs. Capcom 2