Elemental Master replaces the usual spacecraft with a sorcerer running through a fantasy battlefield. The screen advances vertically, but the ground is real: rivers, walls, and other obstacles determine where you can stand and which side offers a safe approach.
Attacks can be directed forward or backward, making threats from behind part of the route rather than an automatic failure. Choosing among early stages leads to different elemental powers, which give later encounters additional answers. The music and rapidly changing scenery maintain a sense of urgency without removing the need to read the landscape. Survival depends on understanding both the incoming fire and the narrow patch of ground available to avoid it.
