Ultrafast DirectX 3D Game Five Elements Masters Ultrafish

Experience an adventure with intense martial arts fury!
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Five Elements Masters is a supernatural martial arts action adventure set in late Tang dynasty China. The player, though still a novice in the world of martial arts, finds himself charged with the care of an ancient relic of immense power. The province is embroiled in chaos by the efforts of the five major martial clans to posses the holy idol and seize ultimate control. The player's mission is to infiltrate the secret fortresses of the clans to find the location of the fabled 'City in the Clouds' and return the golden idol to its sacred resting place. This is the only way that the balance between Earth and Heaven can be restored. Empowered by the strange metaphysical energies of the statue, and stalked relentlessly by assassins, swordsmen, and mystics who seek to use it for their own ends, the player must continually train himself in ever more powerful fighting styles to have any chance of completing his quest.

For thousands of years the Chinese have used the five elements of Wood, Water, Earth, Metal and Fire as the basis for their theories of medicine, magic, alchemy, and kung fu. The elements represent the essential building blocks of nature and their interplay produces the Eight Trigrams and the whole complex universe that we experience. The five elements are such that each creates another in a generative cycle while also destroying yet another in a destructive cycle.

Destructive Cycle

Generative Cycle

Each of the kung fu styles, clans, and environments of Five Elements Masters are based upon one of the elements. As he advances through the game, the player learns the increasingly deadly techniques of whichever styles he chooses, customizing his skills as he sees fit.

Water: Crab Style

historical basis: Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Chi Chuan, Ninjutsu

clan: Scorpion Clan

environments: lakes and rivers, deep caves

specialties: defense, night vision, water-borne attacks

mastery: immunity to hand attacks when motionless, shape shift

weapons: darts, 9-ring broadsabre

environmental mastery: underwater passages, tight spaces

Crab Style emphasizes defensive technique and destructive hand-to-hand strikes, kicks, and holds. An advanced Crab fighter can seal the vital points and meridians of his energy body rendering him virtually invulnerable to normal attacks. This style allows practitioners to breathe underwater, see in the dark, and change shape into a variety creatures and objects. Adepts may even assume a liquid state allowing them to ooze through the tiniest cracks.

Wood: Mantis Fist

historical basis: Seven Star Praying Mantis, Tantra Yoga, Ninjutsu

clan: Red Eye Sect

environments: jungle canyons, shallow caves

specialties: stealth, footwork, offensive attacks, climbing

mastery: partial invisibility when motionless, choking vines

weapons: spear, tiger claws, stars, poison

environmental mastery: chasms, tangled vines

Lightning fast movements, accuracy, and stealth are the hallmarks of this system. Expert climbers, Mantis fighters can cling unseen to ceilings or walls waiting to ambush unsuspecting victims from above. When saturated with wood energy, masters can project writhing masses of vines which entangle and constrict opponents.

Fire: Essence Absorbing Kung Fu

historical basis: Taoist alchemy, Tibetan Buddhism

clan: Black Lama Sect

environments: volcanic caves, plateaus, and cliffs

specialties: magic, necromancy, summoning, telepathy

mastery: energy drain, soul migration, conjure creatures, create zombie

weapons: jade amulet, snake staff, bone trumpet

environmental mastery: lava, flaming pools

Essence Absorbing Kung Fu is an unorthodox system that utilizes the dark forces of the Taoist shadow realm, allowing its fighters to steal the life force of opponents or even possess their bodies to use as they please. Its adherents gain unearthly talents, such as the ability to unleash streams of lava, or collapse ceilings and walls. The most powerful Essence Absorbing sorcerers can call upon the fearsome demons of the nine hell-realms to fight for them.

Earth: 8 Trigrams Boxing

historical basis: Pa Kua Chang (8 Trigrams Palms), Iron Palm techniques

clan: Wu Tang Sect

environments: mountains, dungeons

specialties: jumping, secret doors, moving earth

mastery: tunneling, destroy weapons

weapons: tai chi sword, steel whip

environmental mastery: steep inclines, narrow ledges

Eight Trigrams Boxing is an extremely advanced system that combines the deadly hand-to-hand Iron Palm system with the ability to direct devastating blasts of internal energy from a distance. Its practitioners are able to jump incredible heights and distances. They are also masters of Fong Shuei, which enables them to sense hidden doors, mechanisms, and passages that would go unnoticed by others.

Metal: Mind Harmony Boxing

historical basis: Mi-Tzong Chuan (Lost Path Boxing ), Dim Mak (poison hands)

clan: Tien Shan (Heaven Mountain Cult)

environments: floating city, temple of heaven

specialties: traps, illusions, smoke and wind, weapons disarming

mastery: illusory fighting double, mantra spells

weapons: throwing stars, explosives, sword

environmental mastery: astral barriers, poison gas

Mind Harmony fighters are master tricksters, employing deception and illusions to outwit opponents. They specialize in precise close range attacks to an opponent's energy meridians, stunning or even paralyzing them. When cornered, they may escape by conjuring smoke or dissolving their physical form and reappearing safely elsewhere. Adepts can use powerful mantras that allow them to shed their physical body and travel on the astral winds.

Environments
Five Elements Masters takes place in the legendary region known as Seven Immortals Mountain. Five unique terrain types are arranged in a roughly spiral manner around a deep isolated central valley. Each terrain is dominated by one of the five elements and controlled by the appropriate clan. A unique environmental barrier is also associated with each element. Though the corresponding barrier for each terrian dominates that area, a few of the other barriers can usually be found scattered around as well.

Water: Subterranean Lake
Directly below the Mountain Fortress is a vast cave with a lake that is fed by the numerous streams and waterfalls that emerge from passages in its walls. The lake cavern opens onto the central valley floor and sustains a hidden oasis filled with giant boulders, lush ferns, and towering pines.

Water barriers can be in the form of boiling geothermic pools, swift rapids, or deep murky passages. Only a Crab Style master can freely move through all forms.

Wood: Cave Shrine Complex
Cut into the mountain walls that surround the central valley are the many rooms and passages that form the Cave Shrine Complex. Many are ancient temples which have been taken over by the martial clans. Secret passages interconnect the numerous altars, mausoleums, and rock carvings which echo of a former age. Cave Shrine is covered by tangles of overgrown vegetation and looks like the ruins of an Indian or Cambodian temple.

Vines are the obstacle of the wood element and require the nimble Mantis style to cross. Others can only move through them with difficulty, if at all. Some deadly vines can entangle and constrict players who stumble into them.

Fire: Volcanic Plateau/Caverns
This terrain starts out as lava tubes and caverns which originate in the Mountain Fortress area. These underground spaces evenually give way to a series of volcanic plateaus dotted with Tibetan style temples, palaces, and cliff dwellings.

The fire element's barriers are lava flows. Lava is the most deadly barrier in the game, and only masters of Essence Absorbing Kung Fu can escape death if they enter it. Essence Absorbing adepts that are highly charged with the fire element can briefly harness this barrier to shoot devastating blasts of molten rock at opponents.

Earth: Mountain Fortress
This area is almost entirely underground and consists of an elaborate network of dungeons and passageways which work their way deep into the mountainside. It connects to the Volcanic Plateau and to the deepest regions of the Cave Shrines area. The look of the Mountain Fortress has strong Japanese influences.

Quicksand is the barrier of the earth element. It comes in normal and flaming varieties, and it can be mastered only by 8 Trigrams practitioners. Other fighters will sink to their deaths or become stuck and left vulnerable to attack.

Metal: Floating City
Finding the fantastic Floating City in the Clouds is the crucial to completing the game. Built of steel, bronze, and gold, its gleaming structures are at once solid and etheral. It is rumored to be the abode of the Gods and at that much of it exists only on the astral plane.

Metal embodies the qualities of air, so the barriers associated with it are fierce winds, poisonous fogs, and astral fields.

Water: Crab Style
historical basis:	Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Chi Chuan, Ninjutsu
clan:	Scorpion Clan
environments:	lakes and rivers, deep caves
specialties:	defense, night vision, water-borne attacks
mastery:	immunity to hand attacks when motionless, shape shift
weapons:	darts, 9-ring broadsabre
environmental mastery:	underwater passages, tight spaces
Crab Style emphasizes defensive technique and destructive hand-to-hand strikes, kicks, and holds. An advanced Crab fighter can seal the vital points and meridians of his energy body rendering him virtually invulnerable to normal attacks. This style allows practitioners to breathe underwater, see in the dark, and change shape into a variety creatures and objects. Adepts may even assume a liquid state allowing them to ooze through the tiniest cracks.

Wood: Mantis Fist
historical basis:	Seven Star Praying Mantis, Tantra Yoga, Ninjutsu
clan:	Red Eye Sect
environments:	jungle canyons, shallow caves
specialties:	stealth, footwork, offensive attacks, climbing
mastery:	partial invisibility when motionless, choking vines
weapons:	spear, tiger claws, stars, poison
environmental mastery:	chasms, tangled vines
Lightning fast movements, accuracy, and stealth are the hallmarks of this system. Expert climbers, Mantis fighters can cling unseen to ceilings or walls waiting to ambush unsuspecting victims from above. When saturated with wood energy, masters can project writhing masses of vines which entangle and constrict opponents.

Fire: Essence Absorbing Kung Fu
historical basis:	Taoist alchemy, Tibetan Buddhism
clan:	Black Lama Sect
environments:	volcanic caves, plateaus, and cliffs
specialties:	magic, necromancy, summoning, telepathy
mastery:	energy drain, soul migration, conjure creatures, create zombie
weapons:	jade amulet, snake staff, bone trumpet
environmental mastery:	lava, flaming pools
Essence Absorbing Kung Fu is an unorthodox system that utilizes the dark forces of the Taoist shadow realm, allowing its fighters to steal the life force of opponents or even possess their bodies to use as they please. Its adherents gain unearthly talents, such as the ability to unleash streams of lava, or collapse ceilings and walls. The most powerful Essence Absorbing sorcerers can call upon the fearsome demons of the nine hell-realms to fight for them.

Earth: 8 Trigrams Boxing
historical basis:	Pa Kua Chang (8 Trigrams Palms), Iron Palm techniques
clan:	Wu Tang Sect
environments:	mountains, dungeons
specialties:	jumping, secret doors, moving earth
mastery:	tunneling, destroy weapons
weapons:	tai chi sword, steel whip
environmental mastery:	steep inclines, narrow ledges
Eight Trigrams Boxing is an extremely advanced system that combines the deadly hand-to-hand Iron Palm system with the ability to direct devastating blasts of internal energy from a distance. Its practitioners are able to jump incredible heights and distances. They are also masters of Fong Shuei, which enables them to sense hidden doors, mechanisms, and passages that would go unnoticed by others.

Metal: Mind Harmony Boxing
historical basis:	Mi-Tzong Chuan (Lost Path Boxing ), Dim Mak (poison hands)
clan:	Tien Shan (Heaven Mountain Cult)
environments:	floating city, temple of heaven
specialties:	traps, illusions, smoke and wind, weapons disarming
mastery:	illusory fighting double, mantra spells
weapons:	throwing stars, explosives, sword
environmental mastery:	astral barriers, poison gas
Mind Harmony fighters are master tricksters, employing deception and illusions to outwit opponents. They specialize in precise close range attacks to an opponent's energy meridians, stunning or even paralyzing them. When cornered, they may escape by conjuring smoke or dissolving their physical form and reappearing safely elsewhere. Adepts can use powerful mantras that allow them to shed their physical body and travel on the astral winds.