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The Hidden Ones frames its combat around the source world's Eight Secret Arts, also called the Eight Arts. These are the legendary martial-arts traditions of the setting, and the game uses them as the organizing idea behind how its fighters move and fight. This page explains what the Eight Arts mean for the game, while being clear about which parts are confirmed for the game and which belong to the original series. For how the moves actually play, see Combat System.

What the Eight Arts Are

In the world the game adapts, the Eight Secret Arts are distinct schools of supernatural martial arts, each with its own philosophy and techniques. The powered people of that world, the so-called Hidden Ones, draw on these traditions to channel superhuman ability. The game uses the Eight Arts as the cultural and combat backbone of its roster, so a fighter's style reflects the art they practice rather than a generic move set shared by everyone.

Because the Arts are tied to the setting's mythology, the underlying ideas come straight from Eastern tradition. Styles draw on Kung Fu, Taoism, Yin-Yang Bagua, and qi, the internal energy at the heart of the setting's martial philosophy. You can read more about that world on World and Setting.

Motion Capture and Distinct Styles

A standout part of the game's development, reported in hands-on coverage, is how the Arts were brought to life. Each of the Eight Arts was motion-captured by a different real-life martial-arts master, with every master representing a distinct discipline. The stated goal was to make each Art feel as unique as possible, so that no two fighting styles blur together. The result is that the movesets are grounded in real martial movement rather than animated from a single template.

This emphasis on authenticity carries through to the fighters you control. Each character's style is presented as a unique expression of the martial and spiritual traditions of the setting, which is why the roster on Characters reads as a collection of clearly different fighters rather than reskins of one base.

Source Lore Versus In-Game Systems

An important caveat: the full canonical list of the Eight Arts comes from the original series, and not every Art has been confirmed as a distinct in-game system. The game uses the Eight Arts as a framing concept and has confirmed that its styles were built around them, but it has not published a definitive mapping of which named Art belongs to which fighter, or whether all eight are individually represented in the current builds. Where the series describes specifics that the game has not confirmed, treat them as background from the original series rather than verified game mechanics.

What is confirmed is the design intent: combat organized around the Eight Arts, with motion-captured, deliberately distinct styles rooted in Kung Fu, Taoism, Yin-Yang Bagua, and qi. The precise in-game breakdown of each Art has not been detailed, so this page describes the framework rather than a fixed list of eight playable schools.