Elemental Master

In a time where people look for more and more bloated experiences

and companies try to design games to trap us for large periods of time

in hopes for consumers to keep giving them money, the quick and fun

games with easy replayability keep getting more desirable to my eye.

Those games are usually related to colorful, lighthearted visuals,

accompanied by charming music and comfortable difficulties.

...But it does not necessarily have to be like that.

The game I'll talk today is a short and fun ride, but it's also 

set in a dark-themed universe with a headbanging soundtrack,

things that would make it a fantastic cover for an 80's metal band.

Not to mention it can easily kick your sorry behind.

Let's talk about Elemental Master!

Developed and published by Technosoft in 1990 (released on North America in 1993), Elemental Master is a solid and challenging vertical Shoot'em Up with a handful of curious mechanics.

Technosoft whas a japanese game developing corporation that existed from 1980 to 2001, before it was absorbed by another one called Twenty-One Company, and since then it's a division of such organization under the name of Tweny-One Technosoft... That is, the people who stood in Technosoft by 2001, as some of the people working there left to form other studios, like Ganbarion, orArsys Software. A bit sad, to say the least.

While they were flying by themselves, though, they actually released a handful of great games for the Sega Mega Drive and a few for Play Station 1 and Saturn, the most lauded and famous being the Thunder Force series, a great, great line of Shoot'em Ups with amazing music, and the Herzog games, most notably Herzog Zwei, a mix of top down action and strategy game for SMD.

And of course, today's game, so let's get to it!

You have to wonder if the bad guy had no money for a few candles, or the pitch black environment is just for "spookyness".

Elemental Master takes place in a dark world of sword and sorcery, with our story occurring in the kingdom of Lorelei, a peaceful and nice city, where anyone was welcomed by its king. That good will, sadly, was abused by people with not so well-meant intentions, like thieves. In time, those visitors would turn to even worse, with a cult by the name of Harvesters of Gyra making Lorelei their center of operations. A young scholar named Junos challenged the followers of Gyra, and managed to seal them under the city with his elemental powers. Soon after, he left, believing the citizens of Lorelei would manage to be safe after that, and kept continuing with his schooling.

Many years later, a sorcerer appeared one night, and casted an spell to free the cult of Gyra. The current king attempted to contact with Junos, but word was he recently passed away. Turning to his own army, he sent them to fight the followers, and quickly they managed to contain them once more under the city. But it wouldn't last.

Among the responsible that contained the cult, there was a mysterious magic user. The king took a liking to him, and gave him a promotion, becoming a close person with the royal member. Here's when our protagonist, a sorcerer named Laden, advices the king to not trust a man he does not know so easily, as the victory against the cult was too easy to achieve. The king, waving away the advice, kept doing it. Laden was not wrong, as the magician took his chance and overthrew the king, liberating the cult once more and crowning himself ruler of Lorelei, making the citizens and the army kneel before him, in fear of the cult and the demons they were summoning.

Laden became the only capable of doing something, and he tried to confront the evil king directly. It's then when, by removing his helmet, that man reveals to be Roki, Laden's lost brother, consumed by Gyra itself. Plagued by doubt, Laden is asked to join him, and conquer the world, but he rejects. Without much of a reaction, Gyra calls his minions, and go away, not with laughing maniacally first, of course.

Laden is then left alone, and shortly thereafter he decides to follow the steps of Junos, the old hero of Lorelei, in order to learn the secrets of the Elementals, and with that knowledge take down Gyra and his cult.

...Isn't cool when you have a manual to read the full premise of an old game? 

I haven't talked about 10 games yet and I've already seen crabs in at least 5. Gaming will never let me forget Sony's 2006 E3.

In any case, let's get into gameplay.

You play as Laden, as you can imagine. He can move in eight directions, as it is to be expected, and he does at a decent speed. You can't change it, sadly, but he moves fast enough so it really doesn't matter much. Also, unlike many spaceships you may control in this genre, Laden here has a Life Bar! I find funny how the stereotypical squishy magician can withstand more hits than space vehicles. He starts with four Hit Points.

Now, that's cool and all, but what shapes Elemental Master into what it is (and is not named music) is the ability to quickly attack in front and behind you, each side mapped to a different button for extra-fast response. Enemies will appear from any side at any moment, so a big, big part of the game is getting used to know how to move it and to being able to react fast and attack the correct side. With the A Button you attack backwards, while with the B Button yo do it forward.

It might take a bit to get used, but at least for me, this design makes the game way more fun. You see, because you're able to change your attack trajectory, fast and precise movements and being a risky (and a bit greedy) player can let you do cool tricks, like positioning yourself inside enemy formations and attack them.

Look how daring I am, getting into that circle of wimpy bats, and easily attack them from the inside. Such a tactical genius!

As a rule of thumb with this genre, you can upgrade Laden's abilities. Through the stages you'll find numerous Magic Chests, which contain a variety of Power Ups:

• Crystal : These orbs will create a shield that surrounds Laden and will absorb three hits before disappearing. Incredibly useful as you can sometimes take damage without noticing.
• Grapes : These fruits will replenish two Hit Points from Laden. In the manual they're called "Magic Rocks", for some reason... I mean, they're so clearly a type of fruit.
• Mysterious Medicine : A chalice containing some liquid that will increase your Life Bar by two Hit Points. Don't waste time and get them as soon as you see them (if doing that does not kill you, of course).
• Mirror : This magical object will create two copies of yourself that will follow your each move. They also shoot basic projectiles at a fast rate. They're like Options in many Shmups.

Because you can rotate through them knowing when to use each Element will be part of a successful playthrough.

In the same way, after you finish a Stage, Laden will master a new Element, for a total of 5 different Elements. Each one is a different staple of the genre, and all of them can prove useful. These are:

• Light Element : The one Laden starts with. You shoot two quick beams of energy at a high rate of fire that do decent damage. While their horizontal range is not the best, they're great for concentrated damage, as it adds quickly.
• Wind Element : You shoot three streams of wind, with three gushes each. While all the projectiles shoot in a straight line, it has fantastic range, and you can hit many things at the same time, although damage is not the best. One of the most important for new players, most probably.
• Fire Element : You shoot three balls of fire, in a Spread Shot style. They do decent damage and has a very high rate of fire. Can be pretty useful in certain situations.
• Earth Element : You create a line of explosive magic. You only shot one projectile, and the range is limited, but what it lacks in that it covers with power, being the most damaging element, specially against normal enemies, bringing the most powerful down in seconds.
• Water Element : You shoot two types of projectiles, one straight shot of water, and six whirlpool-like attacks sideways (three each side). These last move along walls and damage whatever it touches. Can be very useful in hallways and closed spaces.

All five Elements are useful throughout the game, and you can rotate which one you're using with the C Button, so that means yes, you always have them, which I love in Shmups.

Now, if you look at the right side of the screen, you'll see your Life Bar, the Elements you have, the Score... And that yellow thingamajig. Well, that's a Charge Bar! Each Element can be charged for a powerful Special Attack, and each Element has its own (although you can use Light's Special Attack initially!).  It takes a few seconds to charge it up, which can be dangerous, but they can be pretty worthy of use, specially against bosses. 

...Hmm, I don't know which one to choose. I mean, all these locations sure do look charming and fun.

I mentioned that you get a new Element by beating a Stage, but what I didn't mention is that you can choose in which order you beat the first four! The game might be a lineal vertical Shmup, but this at least gives you some variety for repeated plays. 

These first four areas are thematic and each one holds the Element you expect it to have. The difficulty is more or less on the same level, but probably the fire area might be the easier one because you can see the dangers coming to you... Although for new players, maybe going for the wind area might be the key, as the Wind Element helps a lot with novice Elemental Masters.

Talking about difficulty... It can get pretty high.

Something is imperative to understand about Elemental Master is that you're a human walking. Might sound like a "well, of course you are, genius" comment, but think about it again. You, walking. On a Shoot'em Up.

Seriously, screw those wall-spikes. They're not too hard to avoid, but they're an absolutely brutal beginner's trap.

Stages themselves in Elemental Dungeon are as dangerous as the hordes of demonic beings you will fight off. Not only there are abundant things blocking your path, like walls, mountains or statues blocking your path, or trees making harder to see, but there's a huge amount of environmental dangers. Cracks in the ground with flames, falling rocks, protruding roots, thorny plants, breaking floors, pools of water that enemies use to hide, ice making you slide, strong winds restricting your movement, gigantic balls and chains rotating and more... 

Hell, even the walls themselves can move and try to screw with you sometimes, so they can be dangers too.

With many Shmups, Stages themselves are for the most part a background to look cool. In Elemental Master, I'd say learning their design is sometimes more important than learning enemy patterns, because at least you see those coming, while it's very easy to not see certain obstacles until they're already hitting you, because you're concentrated on what you're shooting.

Take for example the first level of the game (if you decide to play them in the order they're shown), the fire area. In that one alone you have fissures on the ground with fire coming out of them, volcanoes spewing rocks and lava limiting your movement.  And that's not to say that enemies are tame, because oh boy, they aren't. They appear in large numbers, with their own movements and projectiles making the difficulty ramp up. 

Really, even the mountain itself is against me? 

Of course, there are harder Shoot'em Ups out there, but I just want to stress that knowing where you're putting your feet is very important. Even more if you have in mind is that in this game you only have one Life. Yeah, it's one of those. 

In Normal difficulty, you have 5 Continues, but after that, you're on your own. One failure more and you're done, go back to start again. That's why is so important doing well on the first four Stages, and why is great o being able to choose and practice them from the get-go. Getting to a point where you can finish all four of them without dying once is key to make the second half of the game easier for yourself, as the difficulty rises sharply, and unlike the first half, it's completely lineal, and you can't choose Stages.

Buddy, you're way too big, and you move all over the place. I have no room to move like a headless chicken in fear!

With all that said, Stages themselves don't last too long (at least the first half), and in fact Elemental Master is a rather fast-paced and quick game to beat, with a smooth playthrough ranging from 30 to 40 minutes.  That is, of course, if the big bad bosses at the end of each area don't kick your ass. 

Bosses in this game are not huge walls of HP that take your shots for a long while. You can bring them down rather quickly if you know your way and use your magic well, in fact. But they surely can bring you down fast too and will waste no time trying to do so. All of them shoot a constant barrage of projectiles, and a big part of it is learning pattern and moving with precision, specially after the half-way point.

Charged Attacks are really powerful. but you can't spam them without putting yourself in danger. Play Smart.

Oh, by the way, you're not entirely alone in this quest. Once you beat your first Stage, you will not only master a new Element, you will free a little fairy called Neena. This lady will accompany you, flying around you. When enemies are on the screen she'll attack them on her own accord, giving you a bit of help, which is cool. She's actually part of the story, so I won't say more.

And well, that's the overall summary of Elemental Master's mechanics and gameplay, I suppose!

The game has an Options Screen, but unless you had the manual you wouldn't know about it. To get to it, on the Title Screen hold A and push Start. You're given access to a Music and Sound test (these things I really miss on modern games, don't you?), the possibility to change the controls around, and of course, change the difficulty. You can select between four Difficulty Levels, Practice, Normal, Difficult and Expert.

Practice is literally that, because it gives you all Elements and lets you choose one of the first four areas, and once you've beaten it, the game takes you back to the Title Screen. Thus, it is there so you can get the hang of the different powers and Charge Attacks. The two harder difficulties add more enemies to the mix complicating things even further, and they add to the replayability of the game.

One of my biggest gaming mysteries is... Is Laden sporting a mullet, or he just has your typical "long fantasy hair"?

Visually, the game holds decently. It's not a very complex looking game, but that's not to say it has its good points. The world of Elemental Master is a dark and gloomy one, being a land corrupted by Gyra and his cult, and it shows. Some of the Stages change as you advance through them, like, again, the first area, the fire one. It starts as a boring gray mountain, but as you progress its volcanoes erupt and turns into a red hellscape with lava flowing through the cracks and in the background. In the wind area, you can see leaves flying around, showing at which direction wind is blowing.

Enemies are also pretty great overall. They are well animated, and possess some neat details. Flying demons have nice wings animations, monsters lurking the water splash when going out and into it, and if a fish lands on the ground, it will bounce around, becoming useless for example. These demons are also highly choreographed, which adds to the Shmup charm a lot. There's also variety within enemy projectiles, so you won't see every enemy shoot the same stuff.

There's a lot of variety to the levels and enemies, which is great. Not to mention everything moves around the screen smoothly, which I always appreciate.

Oh, and how could I forget, nice touch with the cutscenes. While they're not strictly necessary, its little story and presentation makes the game feel more complete and rich, and while I'll agree that a game's story is not always important, I like to have an in-universe reason for doing what I'm going to do. Destroying demonic entities is fine and dandy, but's better when you know you're making the world of the game a better place. Getting Power Ups is great, but doing so under the guise that you're treading the same ground an hero of old times to do so makes it more interesting. But that's just me, I suppose.

Go back to the shadow! You shall not pass... As the developers didn't draw your lower body, leaving you stuck there!

Now, while visually the game works fine... But what also adds a lot of spirit to the game is the great soundtrack composed by Toshiharu Yamanishi. He's a bit known, as he worked on Technosoft's Thunder Force series, and even some of the Atelier series. I see he also worked on the strange game that was SeGaGaGa for the Dreamcast.

The soundtrack of Elemental Master makes a great use of the hardware, something it takes skill to do. Elemental Master is a rich and powerful sounding game that plays to the strengths of the Mega Drive, and if I had to categorize the music in the game, I would say that is between Synth Rock and Synth Metal, which, if you think about it for a second, makes way too much sense to use in a SMD soundtrack.

You know you're getting into one "badass" game when the introduction of the story unveils while this theme plays. Starts slow, but damn if it isn't one of the most pumping SMD themes I've ever heard, and plays perfectly with the cutscene. And there are some other fantastic tunes, like Dance of Flame, Like the Wind, Blood-Stained Lake or Until the End of the Earth, from the first four areas of the game.There's also numerous boss themes, and other cutscene themes.

Mr. Yamanishi also managed to do one, and I'm not exaggerating here, of the most memorable and uplifting Credits theme I've had the fortune to listen to. It's named Setting Out and the entire reason I'm writing this entry for the game is because it suddenly got back into my head looking for a game to play, and couldn't take it out of my head. It's my favourite music track in the game by far.

You know, I've always had the thought that the best way to finish a game is to leave on a note that makes you go "Hell Yeah!" and gives you a last "oomf", to make you wish playing that game again someday.

I don't know how it goes in other places of this world, but for example bars and pubs here often times close with a Queen song that makes the people still in the building get some energy and leave with a smile in the face until next time. I'm talking about something like that.

Some games do that, too! Think about it. Super Mario World has one of the best endings/credits ever, and I would bet so much love for that game comes also for that satisfying way to end. Other examples off the top of my head could be Double Dragon Neon, God Hand, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Games that made me almost want to replay them the moment the ending theme finished. Elemental Master also is in that group for me.

So yeah, the soundtrack is great, and has some fantastic tunes. Great job, Toshiharu Yamanishi, I'll talk more about you when I write about the also fantastic music on the Thunder Force games.

You can take listen to the soundtrack by clicking on DK here!
That link does not only have the original soundtrack, but also some extra remixes and even a couple of vocal tracks, including a vocal version of Setting Out!

And that's pretty much it.
Elemental Master is a quick and challenging game that has a great soundtrack and a unique flair and style, making for one damn enjoyable Mega Drive game!

Until next time, take care!