Kameo was a bit disappointing.
Kameo has alot in common with Star Fox Adventures. Well, for one, they're both Rare games. The other big connection is they were both in production with previous gen-systems and they were both released early in their new gen systems lifespan. They're also both inspired by the Legend of Zelda in a way.
I think I had more fun with Star Fox Adventures. It had it's share of problems too, but I just wasn't feeling it with Kameo. The dungeons were extremely lame, boss fights were to easy, the story did nothing for me. I wasn't a fan of the controls either. I liked how you can summon elemental spirits for puzzle solving, but there was little variation on the puzzles.
I think Kameo could have used more polish.
----------Battle System----------
Kameo is an action game not to far removed from the Legend of Zelda or at the very least Summoner 2. I'm not a big fan of the control scheme this game had, but you do get use to it. Basically, you control Kameo, and you have 3 hotkeys with the Y X, and B buttons. These hotkeys will summon up your Elemental Spirits. Each Elemental Spirit has a few attacks and abilities. To use these attacks you have to use the L and R trigger. While this is not as frustrating as Enclave was, it's still not fun to use.
Each Elemental Spirit has 4 optional abilities they can learn. To learn them, you have to find Elemental Fruit and use those to buy the new skills. Kameo doesn't learn any skills in the game, actually she barely starts off with any to begin with. All Kameo can do is float and kick, that's the extent of her abilities. Kameo is nearly useless. You can boost your Max HP by finding Elixirs. Besides that, you can equip 4 different accessories that can boost your strength or defense, but they often make another stat weaken.
The dungeons are extremely linear, so that makes the puzzles extremely easy. When you know you can't leave a room and that you will always have to trek forward, it's not hard to figure out puzzle. You use your Elemental Spirits to figure out puzzles. They have their own unique abilities.
Boss fights are basically puzzles too. They're kinda similar to a Zelda boss fight. You have to wait for an opening before you can make your attack, but unlike a Zelda game, you rarely attack them melee style. Boss fights are actually stupid amounts of easy too. In a Zelda boss fight, the boss has a weakness, and it's easy to figure out too, but the bosses rarely SHOW you the weakness. In all the Kameo bosses, they basically show you in plain sight what to do. For example, I fought a giant Robot, and he basically lifts open a flap exposes his weakness. Why would he do that? It's just dumb and frustrating.
The controls are ok at best. The only annoying part in the game happens to be the underwater levels. You can't control yourself underwater very well.
I HATE how you can't save your own game. You have to wait until you enter a new area or find an item for the game to save automatically for you. This is frustrating when I want to quit the game, but can't because I can't remember the last time the game saved for me.
----------Characters / Story----------
You play as Kameo. You are an elf woman, whose family is kidnapped by an evil troll king, while all the Elemental Spirits of the world are captured by demons. It's your duty to regain these Elemental Spirits, so you can fight against the evil Troll.
Yeah that's practically the storyline. It's not that interest, and quite franking, I hated most of the characters.
----------Graphics----------
The graphics look like a high-res Xbox original game. There are some parts that look impressive, mostly the few cutscenes, large areas and massive amounts of characters on screen at once. The rest just looks last gen, especially the textures on the main field in the game, you can see every repeat texture.
I mostly hate the dialog scenes between the characters. This is something that Western developers rarely get right. When the characters talk, they NEVER make eye contact, they just stand there doing their random arm waving and head twitching. It drives me nuts watching to characters waggle around while trying to talk.
----------Sound----------
The music is a standard Lord of the Rings inspired orchestra affair with other generic electronica scraps slapped in for good measure. The music is totally forgettable. The voice work is also pretty generic and annoying.
----------World Map----------
The map is pretty similar to Ocarina of Time. You have a main field, which links to about 4 or 5 towns. There aren't many secrets or things to do on the actual field, besides a few abandoned huts which contain minigames or items. Each town (excluding your original starting town) has a dungeon, and the game ends with two dungeons. So it's not a massive game by any means. You can ride on horse back between towns, which is another big similarity to Ocarina of Time.
----------Time to Complete Game----------
12:27
Despite the lame and predictable storyline, the ending sequence was rather cool. The game saves for you after it is all said and done, and you can go back into the world to find the rest of the secrets if you want. Which is nice.
