Quadrant Model of Reality

THE FOUR ELEMENTS IN VIDEO GAMES

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourElementEnsemble

Battle Realms: The 4 clans can be seen as this, the Dragon clan are water, as they are about meditation and discipline, the Serpent clan are fire, as they freely use gunpowder, and fire, the Wolf clan are earth, as they have a close connection with nature, and use stone and shale as weapons and armor, and the Lotus clan are wind, as their warlocks cast bolts of lightning, and are quick on their feet.

Boktai gives you access to earth, fire, water, and wind type elements each with their own propertiesnote . You also get solar as the default attack, lunar which expends no energy but inflicts no damage, and dark which is reserved for the New Game+. It only gets more complicated in the sequels.

In Brave Frontier, four of the six elements (Fire, Water, Earth and Thunder), forms a variant of this ensemble, where they form an elemental wheel.

Breath of Fire IV kind of does this. Nina uses wind, Cray uses earth, Scias uses water, and Ursula uses fire. There are, however, two more characters in the party, with Ershin getting the most powerful spells of all elements but have little mana to use them regularly, and Ryu's dragon forms focusing on fire but also having access to wind and earth.

In Brütal Legend, the elements of the world of Heavy Metal are Fire, Noise, Blood and Metal.

Dragon Quest VII has the heroes awaken and round up the four Elemental Spirits. They're also Bonus Bosses.

Final Fantasy frequently has four elemental crystals - Fire, Water, Air and Earth. Often there's the Four Fiends to go with them. Both pop up in Final Fantasy I, Final Fantasy IV, and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. Final Fantasy IX brought the Four Fiends back but not the crystals, and Final Fantasy III has the crystals but not the Fiends.

Final Fantasy IV has the Fire/Ice/Lightning trio of Ifrit, Shiva and Ramuh, with the Earth-elemental Titan as slightly stronger, but remakes and the sequel bump Titan down to their level of power and importance for a four-summon ensemble.

Near the beginning of Final Fantasy V, each of the four protagonists is associated with one of the four elemental crystals along with a personality trait associated with said element. Bartz gets wind and quest, Lenna gets water and kindness, Galuf gets earth and hope, and Faris gets fire and courage.

Like the four main characters of V, the four main characters of Final Fantasy VII's party all correspond far too closely to a cardinal element for it to be coincidental, although unlike V it is never relevant to the plot or highlighted:

Cloud - Wind. Wind-related name, uses a sword (associated with Air in tarot), wind-themed attacks, compelled to wander, introspective and strategic, acts detached and looks down on others.

Aerith - Earth. Earth-related name ("I, Earth"), gardener, grew up in an underground slum, her magic is drawn from the Planet, practical, stubborn, nurturing, sensual. Cloud and Aeris's first meeting even involves him falling down from the sky and landing in her flowerbed.

Tifa - Water. Dolphin-themed hairstyle, uses water-themed attacks (well, Dolphin Kick), bartender who pours drinks for the rest of the cast, giving and kind, fluid and accommodating, likes to act as group peacemaker. Her Journey To The Center Of Cloud's Mind, where she gets him to see things her way, is caused when they both fall into (Lifestream-filled) sea. She is also associated with a Hearts motif (her surname is Lockhart, her ultimate weapon is the Premium Heart), the card suit analogous to the tarotic Cups/Water.

Barret - Fire. Fire-themed tattoo, fire-themed attacks, associated with firearms, terrorist, Hot-Blooded, hot temper, impulsive, passionate, powerful.

Final Fantasy X actually reduces the traditional series of elements down to just four (there had always been about eight or nine in previous games). Lightning and Ice replace Earth and Air. It also mixes up the strengths/weaknesses a little, with lightning and water being opposed to each other, and the same with fire and ice. There's also the fifth Holy element (Which is good against most things, but especially undead), but it's very rare and hardly ever used.

In both Golden Sun games, each of your party members maps to a specific element, and they characters of each element in the original and the sequel even look alike. But when you get access to the first game's characters in the sequel, you can put together parties of whatever you like.

Continued in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, where you eventually end up with two party members for each element as in The Lost Age.

Kingdom Hearts coded has Fire, Ice, Wind and Thunder variants for a lot of commands, and each of the four elements go beyond the usual third-tier of spells into advanced commands that each parallel each other.

The Legend Of Zelda Ocarinaof Time has the Spiritual Stones: The Kokiri Emerald, spiriual stone of the Forest (Air/Earth), the Goron Ruby, spiritual stone of Fire, and the Zora Sapphire, spiritual stone of Water.

Obsidian features Air, Fire, Metal and Oil as part of an alternate universe where machines thrive instead of humans, described in one of the dream worlds. 4 different mini-worlds each utilize these elements within an enormous mechanical spider, and with the puzzles in each one solved, the spider gains these elements one by one until it fully comes to life when complete... which may not be a good thing for a human.

Used throughout the Quest for Glory series, especially in the second game, where Shapeir is threatened by four Elementals representing the four elements. Four of the five games in the series (discounting III, which was made at the last minute and thus is the Odd Name Out) also represent the four elements, with I representing earth, II fire, IV air and V water. There is a fifth "pizza" element, used mostly as a joke, though the AGD Fan Remake of II includes a Pizza Elemental as a Bonus Boss.

Romancing SaGa has 4 Elemental Lords; beings that embody the elements: Pyrix (Fire), Adyllis (Earth), Strom (Water), and Avi (Air). Fighting them is optional; however, failing their Ecology Quests forces you to fight a corrupted yet stronger version of them.

Shounen Kininden Tsumuji has the five dark ninjas represented by an element in their boss fights. (Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Metal).

The four Vibes in Super Princess Peach: Calm=Earth, Gloom=Water, Joy=Wind, Rage=Fire.

The Elemental Lords/Masou Kishin robots in the Super Robot Wars series uses the classic formation of Earth-Wind-Water-Fire. There's Cybuster (Wind), Granveil (Fire), Goddess (Water) and Zamzeed (Earth). These are the highest order of the elemental robots, there's tons more lesser robots corresponding to those elements too.

The four Space Pirate leader bosses in Super Metroid are associated with the four elements. They are the following; Draygon (water), Kraid (earth), Phantoon (air), and Ridley (fire). Draygon is fought underwater, Kraid is the only of them who is fighting from the ground, plus he spits rocks at you, and while both Phantoon and Ridley are airborne and attacks with fireballs, Phantoon can turn invisible, and Ridley has his lair inside the fiery Norfair.

Total Annihilation: Kingdoms: The four factions and their monarch are base on the four elements they have control over. Elsin of Aramon-earth, Kirenna of Veruna-water, Lokken of Taros-fire, Thirsha of Zhon-air.

Wrath Unleashed: The four factions and their leaders Aenna water demigoddess, Epothos fire demigod, Durlock earth demigod, and Helamis air demigoddess.

In Bayonetta there are the Auditio, also known as The Cardinal Virtues, which are angelic physical representations of Divine Will, but also are each associated with one of the four Western elements. They act as major antagonists in the game, working in ensemble with the Big Bad, and include; Fortitudo, Cardinal Virtue of Fortitude and the Bringer of Flame, Temperantia, Cardinal Virtue of Temperance and Manipulator of Wind, Sapientia, Cardinal Virtue of Prudence and Controller of Seas, and Iustitia, Cardinal Virtue of Justice and Giver of Life (who represents Earth).

In Luxaren Allure, there are the Fire, Ice, Bolt, and Nature elements.

Ori and the Blind Forest has the Elements of Waters, Winds, and Warmth, plus the Spirit Tree serving as the Earth element.