Trivia / Kameo: Elements of Power

• Creator Backlash: George Andreas, Rare's former creative director, said in a 2010 interview with Edge magazine that he had come to believe that Kameo should have been scrapped and started over from scratch instead of being revamped as an Xbox 360 launch title, even though production on it was nearly complete. He also remarked that the game's attempt to rework Kameo from a fairy to an elf failed and that the game's low sales was due to them pushing a game starring a cute fairy to an Xbox install base who were best known for loving gritty shooter titles.
• Development Hell: Kameo's early conceptual work began on the Nintendo 64 but actual production began on the GameCube. The game was even featured on the back of the GameCube's box for its first year. After Microsoft purchased Rare, production was shifted over to the Xbox. Due to the game revamping its story and gameplay, production went on for a few more years and was reportedly nearly finished when Microsoft executives offered to give the development team an extra year if they moved to the Xbox 360 as a launch title.
• Fake American: British Emma Tate uses an American accent to perform the role of Kameo.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • A lot of lore and backstory is only covered in character journal entries, character interviews and podcasts that were originally hosted on the game's now defunct website. Thankfully, almost all of them were preserved and can easily be found on sites like YouTube and the Kameo wiki.
  • The first and only volume of the Kameo manga has long since gone out of print.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: The game was originally inspired by Pokémon and going to center around Kameo capturing baby monsters through various means and feeding them until they evolved into more powerful forms that she could send into battle. This could be seen in the Rare's trailer where they officially announce their move to Xbox, in which Kameo grabs Conker and forces him into her pouch. However, as time went on, the developers realized that the monster collecting and raising aspects were dull and tedious and it was much more fun to play as the monsters rather than direct them on the sidelines. By the time the game made it to the Xbox 360, the game had changed to an action adventure title where Kameo gained fully formed monsters to transform into automatically throughout the story. The Elemental Sprites transforming into Elemental Warriors after being rescued is a relic of the earlier build as the team didn't want the assets they made to go to waste.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The game was supposed to be much more cutesy in tone and design but development shifting to the Xbox caused the creative team to decide to try and make the story and aesthetics more mature though they were limited by time and budget in how much they could change. Kameo was originally a fairy that wore a sleek, white and purple outfit before being changed to a winged elf that wore a green tribal outfit. She also had a tiny and wacky dragon companion named Meepo who was cut from the final version of the game. Meepo had been turned into a stone statue by Theena in the past for having failed to stop trolls from kidnapping her infant son but released by Kameo to help in her adventures.
  • The game was supposed to be a monster catching game with sixty to a hundred monsters to collect and raise before being changed into an action adventure where Kameo could change into ten Elemental Warriors she automatically gained throughout the main story. Early gameplay footage from E3 2001 showed that the team had initially tried to salvage the monster capturing aspect, with Kameo transforming into monsters like she does in the final game but gained new monsters by magically wrangling them into her pouch and matured them into stronger forms by feeding on wildlife. She could also send out up to two monsters to fight alongside her.
  • There were two wind-based Elemental Warriors, a comically overweight bird and a cyclone dragon, that would have the ability to fly but this was scrapped to avoid players abusing the mechanic to fly over large portions of the game rather than fighting through them as intended. The team briefly considered repurposing the bird into an enemy character but decided against it.
  • The GameCube version of the game would have seemingly covered Kameo receiving the Element of Power and an angry Kalus freeing Thorn and kidnapping her family in response to being disinherited rather than the final game's choice of quickly summarizing the event in favor of starting off with Kameo storming Thorn's castle so that the player could be immediately thrown into the action.
  • Kameo was originally Theena's actual daughter rather than being adopted.
  • Kalus was supposed to be a more active threat to Kameo, attacking her every time a warp gate was unlocked. She also would have had her own small pet dragon named Kreepo whom she would have transformed into a powerful monster at one point so that she could make a getaway from the heroes. Unused dialogue from the Xbox build also suggests that she would have tried and failed to usurp control of Thorn's forces at some point.
  • The GameCube version of the game wouldn't have been fully voiced acted. FMV cutscenes from that build remain in finished product and are either unvoiced or have characters talking over them.
  • The ending of the Xbox build of the game would have had a defeated Thorn reveal that King Solus had sacrificed himself to turn Thorn to stone and the troll would have mocked Kalus for undoing her father's final work. An enraged Kalus would have sacrificed herself to turn Thorn back to stone like she did in the final version of the game.
  • Farron, the mysterious masked knight who leads the Elven armies, was repurposed from the models of a cut character named Cailem, who was Kameo's twin brother who had been kidnapped by trolls as a baby and raised to think he was a deformed member of their race. Farron's design is nearly identical to Cailem aside from the latter having a different, more bestial helm than the former.
  • The Mystic was originally not a villain but instead a loyal though sarcastic supporter who was actually married to Ortho.
  • There would have been a stronger moral about responsibility, with Thorn mocking Kameo for obsessing over hunting down Kalus when the villages of her kingdom needed her help.
  • A movie adaptation was also planned, but didn't get beyond production outside of a single piece of concept art.
  • The Kameo manga was originally planned to have six volumes but only the first one was completed and released.
  • A sequel was concepted for about three months before being shot down by Microsoft. In it, Kameo's world would have become significantly more Darker and Edgier, losing its cartoony aesthetics completely. Kameo and the Elemental Warriors would have received more intimidating redesigns and Kameo's gameplay would have been redesigned to be much more stealth and ambush based. Kameo also would have had some form of dark magic power she could use against enemies as well. The Mystic would have been the main villain of the sequel and the leader of a force evil Sargothans like her. The trolls also would have returned as well, determined to continue their technological conquest of the land.