Kameo: Elements of Power Retrospective and Review (Part 3 - Narrative and Gameplay cont)
This is the 3rd part of the retrospective and a continuation of an explanation of the narrative and gameplay throughout Kameo, thus, it’s vital that you read the previous parts to fully understand the retrospective. Thank you for reading.
As you are progressing towards Snow-Point Village, the siege on the water shrine has begun. A massive battleship armed to the teeth with cannons and Troll reinforcements is anchored just beyond the shore. Thankfully, the Shrine has cannon defences which have to be activated by the Elfin Soldiers which you have to defend. This siege is one of the few times when you may actually lose a siege as the soldiers are slow and the trolls are quick to surround and pick them off one by one, preventing them from activating the cannons. Once a cannon is activated, Ash can light the fuse and send a cannonball sailing into the enemy hull. After around 5 shots, the ship will sink beneath the waves and you can return to your quest and make your way to Snow-Point Village.
The village lies in the mountains atop a great tree. As a result, the layout of the village is more vertical than the other locations with 3 ‘main’ layers, which means it requires more extensive use of the warriors to navigate around the place. Major Ruin to use the ramps, Chinchilla to use the ice walls, Flex’s arms on the weird tongue things, and 40-below on the ice-paths. Whilst I understand the intention behind this to make you feel your warriors are becoming more and more useful within the world, but it ultimately has been implemented in a way that confuses. Had the area been more horizontal in design rather than vertical, then the traversal may not have been as disorientating.
Concerning the ice-paths, 40-Below (once you get him) becomes incredibly hard to control, and due to the lack of boundaries, you often find yourselves falling off the map like an icy brick. As a result of the layout, Snow-point village is the hardest to navigate yourself around. I constantly find myself getting lost in all 3 levels of the tree.
The first warriors to be found in this village is Flex, whom looks like he came out of one of H.P Lovecraft’s nicer dreams without the cosmic horrors. Flex is a strange and amorphous creature somewhat reminiscent of Corallis, but Flex gives you both reach and flexibility, and Flex can use this to attach to the weird tongue pillars found in the village and the Ice temple. Now, you can use Flex to reach 40-Below. But first, ANOTHER SIEGE. This siege is the most unacceptable of them all though, as it doesn’t occur whilst you are in the badlands, it starts whilst you are in the village. Sieges have gone from breaking the pacing to nuking it. Thankfully, this siege is one of the easiest and shortest, so it won’t be long before you can return to get 40-Below. Once you have returned and ascended your way to free 40-below from the clutches of his shadow troll, the way is open for you to enter the ice temple. 40-Below himself, as I mentioned earlier, is capable of freezing trolls making him good for crowd control as well as synergising with Major Ruin to shatter trolls into little green bits. However, one of his most effective attack is the ability to summon a wrecking ball that would make even Miley Cyrus blush. The giant spiky snowball is spun around at rapid speeds, keeping you mobile, and whacking trolls into the air as they come into contact with it. Incredibly useful for close-quarters AoE. To reach the Temple, you must descend an ice-path. After trying to not fall for several times, it makes sense as to why you never see the ice paths again. I presume that they did not rework these or find another means of world interactivity for 40-Below due to time constraints. Regardless, I am glad they realised the frustration these paths cause.
The Ice Temple is very reminiscent of Thorn’s Castle, but in the stead of fire and ash; Snow, Ice, and foreboding mists permeate the area. Queen Thyra, holding Kameo’s other Uncle, Yeros, knows you are here and she will be consistently trying to impede your progress as you traverse her domain. Your first challenge is an escort mission. I hear your sighs of resentment, but fear not, this escort mission is very short and will be over before you know it. You must free a giant bipedal walrus from its chains and escort it so it can break down a blockade. The main concerns are the new beyblading ice trolls as well as the jumping ice spiders summoned by Queen Thyra. Deal with them how you will; they are fragile but easy to miss, so it’s best to approach them at a reasonable distance to deal with them rather than getting up close and personal or waiting for them to come to you. Otherwise, they will most likely jump over you and hit the walrus. Once the path forwards is open, you can continue navigating up the temple and towards Thyra by mostly using Major Ruin and Chinchilla. Before reaching Thyra there is another short escort as well as one new enemy type. I call them the ‘Quivering Ice Trolls’ after their incessant shivering. They have impenetrable shields that can only be bypassed by stealing them using Flex whilst they are charging their attacks. I’m glad to see Flex has a particular use in combat as without these shivering icicles, Flex would’ve been (arguably) the worst Warrior for combat due to his limited mobility and damage. Flex could’ve been a lot more useful had there been some synergy between him and Deep Blue. Deep Blue could’ve used his spray ability to dampen foes and then Flex could deal dramatically increased damage using his shock ability. The tech and code was there in the Corallis fight, so I don’t see why this could’ve been an issue. Once the shivering bois have been killed, the arena wherein Queen Thyra and Yeros dwells has opened.
Her majesty is not the hardest boss fight in the game, but she certainly can be annoying. You need to jab her in the eyes with Chinchilla’s ice javelins and then knock off all of the unusually satisfying bouncing eyes that spawn on the ground to deal some royal damage. Using any other warrior other than 40-below and his wrecking ball for this task is widely inefficient, as you will need to knock the eyes off the arena and the wrecking ball is almost guaranteed to do this. However, the eyes seem to become smarter each time you do this, as the last eyes remaining seem to move away from you and actively avoid you, whilst the first ones sometimes seem to approach you, welcoming their destruction. The eyes moving away from you can get quite annoying considering the slippery floor of the arena as well as the clunky controls of 40-below whilst using his wrecking ball. Repeat the process until the Queen has nought but one large eye left. When you shove the ‘master’ eye out, the giant eye will need to be nudged off, but be careful of the retractable spikes. Upon the final eye’s destruction, Thyra will be blinded and in her distress, she will end her own life and free Yeros.
All of your family, other than Kameo’s mother have been freed. Yeros will have no answers as to Kameo’s questions about her origins, but he does gift you with the penultimate warrior, Snare. Snare has the ability to bite, spit, and eat trolls whole. He interacts with the environment by throwing trolls and spiders at them, of which will come in very handy in ensuing scenarios. As for eating trolls, it is incredibly funny seeing an armoured troll come up to you, blade in hand, just to be ensnared within your mouth, tossed into the air, and instantly killed as Snare’s gaping maw encloses around them.
One last warrior remains, Thermite. The bug with a volcano on his back. Thermite is back in the Autumnal Glade, within Shrek’s Swamp. However, to get into this area, you first need to speak to the warrior trainer and play his favourite tune on the jukebox to summon the magnetic/explosive spiders which are needed to open the way. The addition of the jukebox to the game may have been leftovers from some cut content such as minigames, as it’s very much a stand out feature within the game. but I digress, to unlock the swamp, you need to throw the spiders at the stone dart board using Snare’s spit ability. However, this is harder than it sounds, as the lack of a graphical interface indicating the angle and landing location of the spider makes it incredibly tricky to judge the location at which the spider will land. If there was something reminiscent of the indicators found in, say golf games, that would’ve been very much appreciated.
Once in the Swamp, to unlock the gate to the Shadow Well, you don’t have to use any of the warriors. All you need is Kameo to direct the ogre to charge into a tree with an opened pepper pod using the loud ‘wheezing’ plant, and plug the pods into vents to overheat the gate. Whilst, yes, you do need Snare to enter the swamp, I still find it highly peculiar that you don’t need to use any of your elemental warriors in the swamp, as it goes against the design principle of warrior interactivity behind the previous Shadow Well puzzles. They could’ve had you use all, or even half, of your warriors to unlock the well. This would’ve been much more climactic to celebrate you reaching the end of your warrior collection journey. Thermite himself is a troubling warrior. Whilst he is the ultimate warrior in Kameo in terms of Power fantasy, this also means he places the other warriors in a place of irrelevance, diminishing their value to your roster in terms of combat. Had Thermite been reworked with different abilities or had a much larger limit of how many bombs he could deploy at once, then that would’ve diminished the negative impact he has on the other warriors. For example, his bomb ability could diminish half of his spirit bar which means that after two bombs, he has no spirit and is vulnerable due to his slow movement.
Once Thermite is acquired, the means of blowing Thorn’s plans to oblivion are open to you. But first, your rescued family members and the Mystic appear before you, with the latter pleading for you to return to the Enchanted Kingdom with the Wotnot and Warriors in tow. Whatever her plans were, we may never know, as Kameo’s family give their blessing for her to assault Thorn’s castle and bring an end to his plans. Should you decide to return to the Mystic’s hut prior to entering Thorn’s Pass, you will be met with Yeros pondering as to where the Mystic has gone.
Kameo is now ready to assault the pass, take down Thorn and Kalus, and rescue her mother. Before attacking the gate to the pass, Thermite’s bombs will need to be launched at the Troll siege engines and the gate itself to open the way to Thorn’s Pass. When it comes to combat in this area, you will most likely won’t be using any warriors other than Thermite, due to his over-powered bombs, and Chinchilla because of his long-range icicle ability, which is incredibly disappointing. What’s the point of acquiring all these warriors if you’re not even required to use them all. Shortly after making your way across a bridge, the boss for this level is revealed; a giant mecha-Troll called Lord Drok. Drok is the manifestation of what kind of world the Trolls will create should they win the war. A world devoid of nature and instead ruled by mechanical tyranny. Once you get to the fight with Drok, Chinchilla and either Snare or Pummel Weed are the warriors needed. Freeze up his engine chest with icyicles and launch some explosive spiders onto him with either Snare’s spit or Pummel Weed’s uppercut. Detonate them with Chinchilla to deal the big boom damage. His defeat opens the way to Thorn’s airship. Ultimately, Thorn’s pass felt very quick and anti-climactic due to the lack of difficulty in comparison to the opener. Whilst the opener was also relatively easy, with Thermite and all of you warriors, you cut through this level like a very hot (and explosive) knife through butter. Furthermore, had the level involved forcing you to use all of your warriors, I would think better of it, but it doesn’t; making it a major let down.
Thorn’s Airship is the surprise last level of the game and the culmination of your quest. All the warriors, all the trials you have faced should be tested here. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The warriors that are only of specific use here are Thermite to blow up ships (cause why use another warrior); Major Ruin to scale ramps, Snare to spit trolls into fans, and Pummel Weed to creep under shutting doors. Once the Airship has been sufficiently damaged, the way to Kalus and Thorn will be opened.
Naturally, Thorn opens with a villainous monologue exclaiming some respect for Kameo’s endeavours and her spirit, whilst also demonstrating his intelligence. He makes a metaphor for Kameo being a candle burning brighter than most, and thus will be extinguished all the faster. However, the same could be said for Thorn, for he to is a Troll that’s stronger and smarter than all the other trolls, and thus will be put down all the faster. Additionally, in Thorn’s monologue, he insults King Solon, which hits a nerve with Kalus, whom responds with “Don’t disrespect my Father. He loved me”. This one line is indicative of hidden depth to the character of Kalus not found within the game. Unfortunately, much of the character depth in Kameo, Kalus, and their mother is found within ‘journals’ external the game which you can find here.
Within these journal entries, we learn that from a young age, Kalus was incredibly hard working and wanted to live up to her father’s memory as a strong and powerful ruler whom will use all of the power she can accumulate with the element of power for good. For the defence of the Enchanted Kingdom. She wanted to be loved, just like her father. Love that her mother was not giving her. Ever since King Solon disappeared and Kameo was brought the royal family’s doorstep, Queen Theena was reclusive and negligent of Kalus. Whilst Kalus endured this negligence, she was quite spiteful of the favouritism that her mother displayed towards Kameo. Regardless, at this point in her life, this spite was reserved for her mother, as Kalus did have plans for Kameo to have great jobs upon her ascension to the Throne. When Kameo was eventually chosen to have the Element of Power and ascend to the Throne despite Kalus having dedicated her life to the role due to it being her birthright, was it really any surprise she betrayed her family. In Kameo’s journal entries, Kameo displays no interest in being responsible or dedicating herself to a role of power, and this is demonstrated in the first level of the game when she abuses her power and loses all of the warriors she has. All Kalus wanted was to prove herself to her family, and ultimately her Father’s memory. It’s such a shame that we never learn this in-game as it adds so much depth to these people whom otherwise are bland and typical fantasy characters. I highly recommend you go read these journal entries for yourselves as they are incredibly insightful.
Back to the fight against Thorn, once again Thermite is the only warrior you’ll be using against Thorn as he attempts to slam, charge, and whack a flail at you. His fight, whilst somewhat exhilarating due to the damage and speed Thorn demonstrates, it’s still unremarkable and neglects the aspect of intelligence that Thorn is supposed to demonstrate in favour of sheer brutish power. However, you may choose to switch between other warriors to deal with elemental adds summoned by Kalus as you continue to fight Thorn, but ultimately you are able to avoid them or kill them with Thermite’s collateral damage. Once Thorn’s health bar is empty, Kalus will attempt to resurrect him and you have to use Chinchilla to stop her. Once her health is gone, a cinematic appears, and somehow Kameo seems to knocked some sense into her. We are shown a flashback of Kalus’ which reveals the truth. The Mystic pressured her into betraying her family, she pressured Kalus into resurrecting Thorn, the Mystic has been manipulating events this whole time. Unsurprising really.
After this realisation, Kalus becomes determined to right her wrongs and undo her actions; a feat which becomes confusing if you did not read the journals before hand. Kameo tries to stop her sister, knowing that she plans to sacrifice herself, but eventually they work together as Kameo provides an elemental shield for Kalus as she comes into physical contact with Thorn, she apologises to Kameo and their family, whilst petrifying both Thorn and herself. Thorn and his trolls are defeated, the war is over, and the warship collapses from the damage.
Kameo and the Queen are rescued by an airship commandeered by villagers that were rescued on the airship earlier, but unfortunately, we never get any interaction other than a smile from Theena towards Kameo, despite the fact her literal blood-related daughter just sacrificed herself for them!
During the credits, there is a chuckle from the Mystic’s silhouette and a post-credit scene of a petrified Thorn and Kalus sinking beneath the ocean. Perhaps this was supposed to be a potential plot thread in the sequel that was planned.
Evidently, the plot of Kameo was never the focus of the game, and instead took more of a backseat in favour of gameplay. The journal entries are evidence of perhaps some plans of greater story emphasis, but be it a design change, time constraints, or otherwise, we did not get this. However, what we can gather is that Kameo is about living up to your potential and being responsible. Kameo before the events of the game is not responsible and thinks little of it, whilst Kalus spends her life dedicating herself to fulfilling her potential. By the events of the game, Kameo begins to build herself up, but is reckless and squanders her responsibility, whilst Kalus abuses her power and responsibility to get revenge on her family. At the end of the game, Kameo has lived up to her potential and become responsible, and the same applies to Kalus. Kalus takes on the responsibility for her actions and lives (and dies) in accordance with her Father’s memory by locking Thorn away once again, rectifying her mistakes.
There was so much missed potential here that I wish Rare could’ve had the chance to rectify in the Sequel. Perhaps there is still a flicker of hope for a sequel, but there hasn’t even been any rumours, so I wouldn’t count on it.
As for the gameplay, it was fun exploring how different warriors could interact with the environment and each other, and the power fantasy was certainly fulfilling. However, this fantasy overstayed its welcome in areas it did not belong. Bosses should have been more difficult as they were placed on a pedestal as fearsome demons capable of great evil, but they ended up being as hard as fluffy kittens (apart from Corallis). Some tweaks to the damage and speed values would be an easy solution, but perhaps there could be some mechanics to spice things up a bit. If the bosses had mechanics that would be certain to hit and deal a great amount of damage unless you had the quick reaction time to transform into the only elemental warrior capable of defending yourself against that attack. I feel like mechanics like this add to the stakes of the fight and make it much more exhilarating and demanding on your attention.
Concerning puzzles in Kameo, they were an insult to the word puzzle. The puzzles that appear before a Shadow Well, or a secret, or within the Forest Temple are painfully easy. In the forest temple for example, there was no increasing complexity, it was the same ‘chip’ a stone into the mouth 3 times. As I said, had there been progression in the levels of difficulty of those puzzles, it would have been fine, but there wasn’t, and instead it felt like filler. Regardless of whether the game is for kids or not, even children would find this easy.
This concludes the narrative and gameplay section of the retrospective. Next up, I will be covering the planned sequel for Kameo before it was cancelled as well as Kameo in other media. Thank you very much for reading. I hope you enjoyed.