Gameplay
After the first prologue level, you’ll arrive in the Enchanting Kingdom. This is your home, a lovely peaceful kingdom where everything is flourishing and everyone is happy. This will also serve as a tutorial area, which is a bit odd. Surely the first level at Thorn’s castle should have contained the tutorial? If you’ve made your way to this kingdom itself then you’ve partially mastered most of the basics anyway? I said ‘partially’ because there is still a lot to learn about various features of the game.
You’ll be introduced to the Wotnot book. This book contains all the information that Kameo requires to complete her quests, and there’s even an annoying wizard on its cover by the name of Ortho. He gives you advice throughout the game if you should encounter troublesome areas. Using the book, Kameo can also upgrade her elemental warriors to even more powerful versions via elemental fruit, as well as setup hotkeys to quickly choose between the 10 warriors. I found Ortho extremely annoying, he seems too helpful on the default settings, so in the options you can either switch him off or thankfully make his hints & tips less frequent, something which I do recommend as you will encounter some odd moments when his assistance is needed.
As Kameo ventures through the solo campaign, her main objective is to find the spirits of her Elemental Warrior’s. These are held captive by Evil Shadow Trolls who look amazing at first sight. Defeating said troll allows you free the elemental warrior held captive within. She’ll traverse through the outskirts of her kingdom known as the Badlands. There’s a huge murky swamp, an aquatic paradise, an icy treetop village, and finally Thorn’s airship.
Sadly for me, I was a bit annoyed with the 10 elemental warriors. Mainly because upon finishing the game I realised that I’d only really used 4 of them for most of the game. The other warriors will only be required to be used once in the game to overcome the odd obstacle and that’ll be the last you’ll see of them. You could use the other warriors in the combat sections of the game given that you have a wide variety of elemental warriors to choose from though. I never saw the need.
You’ll also encounter quests to help certain people during your adventures. For example there’s a chap who requires some dragon heads to be lit up. The only way to do this is to transform into Ash - a fiery cute red dragon. Ash can spit fireballs at such a distance that those heads will light up. Perfect! As a reward you’ll receive an elemental fruit. There are various items in the game which you can collect to assist your efforts. Throughout the game, lots of runes can be obtained by killing enemies, or smashing objects. Runes serve as raw currency throughout the lands. You can use them at various shops to purchase Hearts which refresh your health pool, small amounts of Elemental fruit as well as the Elixir of Life which extends your health pool.
Fighting off the trolls in Kameo is great fun. Your average troll is rather dumb and acts as cannon fodder for the various elementals in your posession. However there are some different trolls that can give you a serious headache and you’ll be required to transform into a specific elemental warrior to dispatch said foe. One nice addition to the game is the Frenzy mode. Kameo will enter this mode after she fills up a special meter that tracks your kill combos and rate of attack. Upon filling this meter, the game will enter a slow motion mode where you can kill enemies who are moving at a very slow pace while you’re not. This is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game as you can build up a colossal score in this mode which helps you get a better Ranking once you finish the level.
While exploring around the Enchanted Kingdom, you’ll eventually find the Chamber of Living Portraits. By accessing the Magic Mirror there, you can access all your previously played levels, and replay them for a better score thus attempting to get a better rank. A lovely feature this, but despite all my efforts, I just couldn’t get a higher rank then C on the very first level!
The solo campaign is immensely enjoyable while it lasts. Troll bashing is hugely fun and comical as they’re so stupid. Their animations are brilliant, detailed and very comical in places. It’s hard not to adore the little pesky buggers.