Beware! A number of spoilers pertaining to the Big Bad's identity will be unmarked!
Enforcers
Anti-Virus units in general:
- Energy Beings: All of them are made of extradimensional energy.
- Knight Templar: Their methods of keeping the peace are very extreme, basically wiping out all opposition.
- La Résistance: Actually, they're The Empire.
- Light 'em Up: Pretty much all of them have light-based powers.
- No-Sell: Against Reality Warping as well as time-based powers. You gotta give them the old-fashioned beatdown to defeat them.
- Reality Warper: Some of them can do this. Then again, it's useless in Metaspace, as Metas are immune to reality warping itself.
- Space Police: Multi-domain Enforcer law enforcers who keep the peace.
- Sufficiently Advanced Alien: As metaspace beings that control and create the laws of physics themselves, they have this capability.
Arc Angle (your character)
- Achilles' Heel: Can't do jack against direct contact physical attacks. He also needs an enemy's projectiles or Instant Runes to be present in order to attack the enemy.
- Always Accurate Attack: Enemy bullets within the Angle of Light will "take damage" and get converted into Holy Bullets. These will then seek out opponents without fail, homing in on them with incredible accuracy that it's nearly impossible to avoid.
- Attack Reflector: Sort-of — The Angle of Light turns enemy bullets into Holy Bullets that return back to sender.
- Counter-Attack: This is Arc Angle's only method of harming his opponents, since it has no firepower. Fortunately, the Angle of Light turns all enemy projectiles against them.
- Deadpan Snarker: Puts out a lot of snark in his
- Defector from Decadence: He turns against his evil superior in the final stage.
- Energy Beings: Like the other Anti-virus units from Metaspace, he's made of energy.
- Fatal Flaw: Too naive and trusting of others. He becomes the Unwitting Pawn of Xero-Fin because of this.
- Glass Cannon: Can output severe damage via turning enemy bullets against them. Still dies in one hit.
- Holy Hand Grenade: The Angle of Light turns enemy fire into light-element projectiles that return to sender.
- Homing Projectile: His holy bullets, which seek the enemy they came from. It even affects enemies in the background.
- Light Is Good: Perhaps the only righteous character in the entire game.
- Light 'em Up: Several abilities of his are light-based, his Angle of Light and the subsequent Holy Bullets it turns enemy attacks into.
- Meaningful Name: He appears to be an arc-shaped being and has an angle of light extending from it.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Questions his own side's methods despite working for them. In the ending, he goes against Xero-Fin after having learned the truth about what really happened.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Against characters that use Instant Runes. He can also turn those into holy bullets.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Can only take one hit to die.
- One-Man Army: Fights against massive hordes of the Defiance, and comes out on top.
- Phlebotinum Rebel: He is the first unit to utilize the Angle of Light, a weapon that could counter enemy firepower. And he goes rogue at the end of the game. Unfortunately, the Enforcers already managed to replicate his ability, as seen in MESH.
- Unwitting Pawn: The Enforcers are using him to extend their rule.
Xero-Fin
- All Your Powers Combined: He uses attacks of the previous six bosses.
Fridge Brilliance when you realize that the sin of Pride is the source of the other six.- 1st attack: He sends his Vigil Lances to attack you while he slacks off, similar to the System Of Slumber.
- 2nd attack: He fires out a lot of blue and cyan shots, then turns them into "diamonds", like Aurum's "gold change" ability.
- 3rd attack: Sends out a lot of Combat Tentacles that home in on you, like Bio-Cardiac.
- 4th attack: Attempts to suck you in while firing out a load of projectiles, in the same vein as Void Warp.
- 5th attack: Goes into the background to sweep the screen with lasers, similar to Crabburn.
- 6th attack: Extends his own, lethal version of the Angle of Light around him, just like Fallen Angle's angle.
- Background Boss: During his Desperation Attack, he moves into the background to attack you. Doesn't help him against Arc Angle's homing bullets.
- BFS: Wields four large ones that circle him.
- Big Bad: He was behind all the terrorist attacks as he collaborated with the Defiance!
- Big Good: Or so he would like you to believe.
- The Chessmaster: Played Arc Angle like a pawn in his schemes.
- Dual Wielding: More like Quad Wielding — he has four floating lance-like objects called Vigil Lances which he uses to attack.
- Final Boss: He is the last boss in the game.
- Light Is Not Good: He wouldn't mind destroying millions of innocents just to rule over the domain.
- Meaningful Name: His name is taken from Seraphim.
- Mission Control: Acts as this for Arc Angle, giving him advice and stuff.
- Pillar of Light: His ultimate attack summons a lot of them.
- Power Floats: Constantly floats all the time.
- Pride: He represents the sin of Pride. To wit — Xero-Fin gets Defiance terrorists to terrorize much of the domain so that Arc Angle would destroy them, and Xero-Fin would get the glory and recognition!
- Storm of Blades: He uses his Vigil Lances in this manner.
- Sword Beam: Used as one of his Desperation Attacks where his four Vigil Lances begin firing out sword waves from the background.
Defiance
Defiance in general:
- Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Especially in Fury.
- Seven Deadly Sins: Six of them. See Enforcers for the last one.
Stage 1: Apathy
System of Slumber
- "WE PROTECT THE SLEEPING SPIRE. DEFILERS LIKE YOU SHALL BE SENT TO ETERNAL REST!"
- An Ice Person: Their primary attack is to fire ice meteors upwards/downwards, and then drop/rise from the top/bottom of the screen while leaving trails of shots.
- Background Boss: All three of them attack from the background, not that it helps them thanks to your ability to turn their attacks into Homing Projectiles.
- Crosshair Aware: A crosshair marks the area where their attacks will hit.
- Death from Above: Shoots icy meteors that rain from above. Or rise from below. Trouble is, said meteors leave a trail of icy shots.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: These things are essentially rectangular boxes of death.
- Mini-Boss: First miniboss of the game, setting things up for the later fights.
- Warm-Up Boss: All their attacks are easily telegraphed and show a warning crosshairs as to where they'll hit.
- Wolfpack Boss: The first Mini-Boss, and there's already three of them. No biggie.
Sleeping Spire
- "Look, just let me have my rest, ok? ...zzz"
- Background Boss: The entire fight.
- Dimension Lord
- Flunky Boss: He may not be able to attack, but he has friends that help him.
- Lazy Bum: Represents the sin of Sloth. All it wants to do is to stay in sleep mode.
- Reality Warper: He can't be bothered to use such powers, though.
- Stationary Boss
- Warm-Up Boss
Stage 2: Lucre
The Highwayman
- "Arr! Money's here, boys! Man the cannons!"
- Background Boss
- Bandit Mook: Has a credit-siphoning attack. Yep, a train just stole your money!
- Battleship Raid: The train's armor itself is made up of 8 different enemies.
- BFG: Four huge cannons on its side.
- Cool Train
- Crosshair Aware: Especially when it does its big cannon attack.
- Death In All Directions: One of the weapons on its side shoots a circle of giant shots around you that close in. And those shots fire out even more shots!
- The Highwayman: Like its namesake suggests. It attacks you alongside a highway leading out of the city.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Another of the weapons on its side shoots this out.
- Meaningful Name: A highwayman is a type of thief, the Highwayman is a bandit train.
- Mini-Boss
- Mook Maker / Enemy Summoner: Can spawn bandits to attack you. It doesn't do this often, so it doesn't count as Flunky Boss.
- More Dakka: The four rapid fire guns on the top will strafe the background, avoid this at all costs.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: What you get if you cross a train, handcar, and pirate ship. It's also an Energy Being from Cyberspace.
- Sequential Boss
- Shows Damage: Parts of it break off as it takes damage.
Aurum
- "Don't worry... I shall relieve you of your riches, before I relieve you of your life..."
- All Webbed Up: Can shoot a net-thing at you, which slows you down for a few seconds. He also has a yellow variant that steals your money too!
- Bandit Mook: Can steal you money via webs.
- Gemstone Assault: Throws the Hard Light equivalent of gold and jewels at you.
- Giant Spider
- Greed: Opens warpholes outside Metaspace to drag rich people in, kill them, and take their money. It also runs the corrupted city for the Defiance. In-game, it steals your money — as if being made of money wasn't enough.
- Improbable Weapon User: See Gemstone Assault.
- Kaizo Trap: Subverted. When defeated, it explodes into a near-impossible to avoid shower of bullets. However, you become invincible as soon as you beat a boss — too bad for him.
- Meaningful Name: Aurum is the Latin name for Gold.
- Sequential Boss: First half has it swinging from the ceiling, second form has it on the ground in a Spider Tank form.
- Shout-Out: Its first phase has two attack patterns that resembles the attacks of Morph Moth's coccoon form.
- Spider Tank: The second half of the fight.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Gilded Beam, used in both phases of the fight.
Stage 3: Seduction
Bio-Cardiac
- "You've come just in time. My tentacles need something to play with..."
- Beat Still, My Heart: It's a beating, dismembered heart-like being.
- Bloody Murder: Sends out heart-shaped blood cells that try to "molest" the player.
- Combat Tentacles: May double as tentacles for naughty purposes, given that it represents the sin of Lust.
- Eye Beams: Which look like a male's reproductive organ...
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: Appears as the miniboss, then runs away after you beat its four large tentacles. In the Boss battle against it, it will try to run away after its health gets low.
- Giant Eye of Doom
- Lust: Keeps stating about how it wants to have "fun" and "pleasure" with you. Then it attacks you with Combat Tentacles...
- Mini-Boss: He doubles as both the boss and miniboss of the stage.
- Mook Maker: Spawns out the enemies that you fight during the stage.
- Shout-Out: Could be one to the heart boss of Contra.
- The Virus: Has infected a section of Metaspace with an organic virus.
Stage 4: Hunger
Shoop Da Whoop
- "IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZOR!!! BLARRRRRRRR!!!"
- Breath Weapon: It's Shoop Da Whoop...
- Eye Beams: His eyes fire projectiles.
- Large Ham: IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZOR!!!
- Last Breath Bullet: Literally. He fires a final LAZOR when it goes down.
- Weapons That Suck: When he CHARGES HIS LAZOR, he tries to suck you into his mouth.
NullSquad
- "SURROUND HIM!!!"
- Attack Its Weak Point: Like the turret ring in R-Type, destroying the core defeats the entire Null Squad.
- Power of the Void: Summons a black hole as a Desperation Attack.
- Shout-Out: To the turret ring
enemy from R-Type. - The Walls Are Closing In: If left alive for too long, the circle starts to close inwards.
- Wave-Motion Gun: The middle core uses a large laser, while the side turrets fire their own laser as well.
- Wolfpack Boss: You fight 10 turrets along with the main core!
Void Warp
- Doomsday Device: Considering that it ate an entire dimension...
- Gravity Sucks: Attempts to suck the player in!
- Puzzle Boss: You defeat it by destroying the machines that "feed" it with bullets.
- Turns Red: Once two adjacent generators are destroyed, it starts chasing after you!
- Villainous Glutton: It ate up most of the dimension!
- Its ability also fits in with the "wasting" part of Gluttony — it eats the shots that the generators create, but spits them back out as hard-to-destroy black bullets!
- Yin-Yang Bomb: It normally sucks you in and fires out black bullets, but every now and then it turns into a white hole, pushes you away and fires out white bullets.
Stage 5: Fury
Wreckade
- Epic Flail: Has a giant wrecking ball which it uses to destroy the highway.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Its most dangerous attack.
- Mini-Boss
Crabburn
- "SCRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
- Attack Its Weak Point: Its mouth is vulnerable when it opens up.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The screen zooms out to show that it towers over all the skyscrapers in the city. It's the largest opponent that you will face in the entire game!
- Background Boss
- Breath Weapon
- Bubble Gun: Spits out bubbles... of a napalm-like substance.
- David Versus Goliath: One one corner... a floating ship about half the size of a human. On the other... a monster crab that towers over entire cities, and would probably make Godzilla, Giant Bowser, and any of the 16 Colossi shake in fear.
- Eye Beams: More like eye-flamethrowers.
- Fun with Acronyms: Its P.R.A.W.N. tactical nuke (Plasma Radiated Atomic War Nuke).
- Giant Enemy Crab: With the emphasis on Giant and Enemy. To wit: Crabburn's leg thickness is wider than the height of a skyscraper!
- Kaiju
- Macross Missile Massacre/Death from Above: Sends out a slew of missiles from the hatches on its head. Some of them will speed past you while firing out shots, others will hit the ground and erupt into a Pillar of Light.
- Meaningful Name: It's a Giant Enemy Crab that burns cities!
- Monster of the Week: Averted, it's a terrorist unit of the Defiance.
- Nuke 'em: Fires out a prawn-looking nuke from its head. If this hits the ground before you destroy it, you die regardless of position on the screen.
- Shout-Out: To the Atomic Bomber enemies from Heavy Weapon, whose nukes destroyed you if they touched the ground.
- Shout-Out: To the
- Playing with Fire
- Unstoppable Rage: This thing is rampaging through your home city, devastating it with destructive force and warheads. The only thing in its programing are rage and mindless destruction. Represents the sin of Wrath.
Stage 6: Spite
Fallen Angle
- Always Accurate Attack: If you get caught in his angle, he will fire out his dark bullets, which will home in on you and kill you if you do not counter them in time. Thankfully, the dark bullets can be countered.
- Defeat Means Friendship: In the final stage, he gives Arc Angle his shadow powers in order for AA to defeat Xero-Fin.
- Face–Heel Turn: Joins the Defiance just because he was jealous of your war efforts! ...And also because he found out Xero-Fin's true intentions.
- Good Bad Bugs: Due to a mistake in the programmer's coding, he only has 12 hp instead of 1250. Cue Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Green-Eyed Monster: He represents the sin of Envy in this game, and wishes to delete Arc Angle because Arc was treated so well by Xero-Fin.
- Light The Way: Throws his powers away for darkness.
- Redemption Equals Death: After his defeat, he gets impaled by Xero-Fin's Vigil Lance. Given that Vigil Lances are based off the Holy Lance of Longinus, he doesn't survive for long. But he manages to tell you Xero-Fin's true intentions before dying.
- Rush Boss: He has the lowest amount of health of all the bosses, but his attacks can drain away your lives pretty quickly. Plus, he teleports away if there are about 6 or so Holy Bullets on screen, making your holy bullets miss!
- Teleport Spam: If you counter too many of his bullets at one go, he teleports away, making all of them miss. Grr.
- The Rival
- Wave-Motion Gun: Of pure Darkness!
