YMMV / Kameo: Elements of Power

• Breather Boss:
  • Lord Drok isn't necessarily a pushover, since you need to use Snare to throw Magmites at him, but he's significantly easier then Queen Thyra and Thorn, who he's sandwiched in between.
  • Despite having the most health, the final Shadow Troll is easier than the preceding two.
• Cult Classic: It is far from Rare's most well-known or beloved works, but it has managed to earn a fanbase for its charms and gameplay.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Thermite the thermonuclear termite is basically all you need in the game after you acquire him (to be fair, he's the last Warrior you get). He can also shoot napalm and an upgrade lets him shoot trolls out of his cannon, which for some reason explode on impact. He can also turn invincible on top of that. He can even be used to completely break the final battle with Thorn.
  • Ash and Thermite are healed by fire. Spend 3 Elemental fruit for Ash's "Incinerator", and stand in it to Heal Thyself without boxes.
  • Deep Blue's water jets are very adept at knocking enemies into pits and water, which is instant death for them. It's also a great way to get combo points, particularly against Fire Imps since it's almost a guaranteed Brutal.
  • The Eye of Regeneration, which is available as soon as you unlock Pummel Weed again (the first Warrior), basically removes your ability to die. You can't be too careless, but it slices the difficulty down substantially.
• Jerkass Woobie: Kalus. Her beloved father disappeared when was only three and her mother neglected her in favor of her adopted sister. In-game dialogue from her other family members suggest that they didn't care much about her either. Kalus tried to remain dignified and stoic and worked hard to prove herself as a dutiful royal but she still felt resentment for this treatment. Later, just a few days before she was to inherit the Elemental Warriors, she and Kameo almost damaged the Element of Power and their mother blamed Kalus for the whole incident even though Kameo was just as, if not more responsible. Her mother uses this as a flimsy pretext to immediately disinherit her and to quickly declare Kameo as the new heir. This was the last straw for Kalus who then frees Thorn and helps him kidnap her whole family out of revenge. Its later revealed that she was manipulated by the Mystic into doing this and she chooses to redeem herself by returning Thorn to stone, sacrificing herself in the process.
• Obvious Judas: The Mystic is a creepy lizard woman who from her very first scene acts shady, manipulative and almost every other line that comes out of her mouth is a Freudian Slip or an offhand comment betrays her evil intentions.
• One-Scene Wonder: Thorn only has one scene where he speaks, but Richard Ridings provides the threat level he almost certainly needs after spending the entire game out of Kameo’s grasp.
• Presumed Flop: Kameo was not a massive success but it sold well for a new IP being positioned launching on a new console. However, it sales were well below the high expectations of Microsoft executives and helped contribute to the reputation that Rare were in a slump.
• Tear Jerker: Kalus's Heroic Sacrifice.
• That One Boss:
  • The various Shadow Trolls, depending on their attack patterns, can be this. The ones from the Snow Point Village in particular are quite nasty.
  • Queen Thyra, the demon of the Snow Temple. Taking out her small eyes is easy enough, and her icicles give you hearts when they're destroyed, which you can do so easily enough with 40 Below while taking the small eyes out. The big eye, on the other hand, is a gigantic pain in the ass to knock down with 40 Below since it almost seems to be magnetized to Thyra and has a nasty habit of jumping on top of 40 Below while he's spinning and going in completely the undesired direction.
• That One Level:
  • The Snow Point Village, which features extensive platforming. In particular, reaching the Snow Temple can be rather aggravating since the controls for steering 40 Below on the ice pathways that *don't* have edges can be iffy.
  • The Snow Temple itself is a pain as well, with even more platforming (and thus edges to fall off), two relentless Escort Missions that can catch an unwary player off guard, and That One Boss herself Queen Thyra raining icicles or spiders on you the entire level.
• Uncertain Audience: A game starring a cute elf girl with fairy wings trying to find success on the Xbox 360 in 2005. As George Andreas put it: "It was a game with a fairy for an audience that likes shooting and killing things."
• Underused Game Mechanic: The ability to quickly shapeshift into another Warrior to chain their skills only really has two combined applications; launching with Major Ruin and then turning into Chilla to latch onto ice walls, and oiling enemies with Deep Blue and then turning into Ash to incinerate them even faster.
• Vanilla Protagonist: IGN and GameSpot's reviews of the game criticized Kameo's design and personality as being boring and generic in comparison to the rest of the game's more colorful cast.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: At the time of its release, Kameo's graphics were quite the upgrade from the PS2, particularly when combined with its vivid colour palette.