An exellent example of an action adventure game done well on a next gen system.
You play as Kameo, an elven princess (although she appears to have wings, I have a hard time not calling her a fairy), who can control the elemental warriors in hopes of defeating the evil Troll King Thorn. Thorn is revived by her evil elder sister Kalus and the two imprison the royal family and other characters.
Via help from various characters who are somewhat blandly named, such as the Mystic for example, Kameo learns how to fight and use her powers that she has to recover.
The game has 10 different elemental spirits, a few of which I will describe.
Pummel Weed: I'd call this one the standard fighter type. It is a huge plant with spiked hands and razor sharp leaves. It does as the name suggests, pummels the enemies. It can also bury underground and do a flying uppercut used to knock objects over or onto other things.
Ash : A huge red dragon that spits fireballs or just breaths jets of fire to toast enemies.
Chilla : A giant yeti/gorilla/thing that is the master of ice. It has spikes sticking out of its back, which you can impale orcs with and use later to beat other enemies with or just throw over a cliff. It can also climb walls and throw ice spears.
These are just 3 of the 10 elemental forms you can gain control over. They each have basic abilities which one must expand by using Elemental Fruit to expand the elemental spirits powers. These make new abilities appear, or just increase the overall power of the spirits.
Kameo herself can hover and jump and do a flip kick but other than that, she is rather defenseless. Life is regained via killing enemies or smashing boxes/crates/other objects to gain hearts. Additionally, elixirs can be consumed refilling life completely and increasing the maximum life of Kameo. Also, magic refills over time.
However, sometimes Kameo has a problem in responsiveness, namely with Pummel Weed in particular. By having to alternate between the L and R triggers to sucessfully punch, the game mistakes fast input as the burying command, rather than attack. This makes it hard to unleash the combos.
Also, switching between elemental powers takes a bit of time, and sometimes the powers must be used in conjunction, and it takes quite a while to get the hang of it, particularly in one level where you must launch over a ramp and then change into Chilla in mid air.
While that adds variety and complexity to the gameplay, sometimes these sensitivities detract from the gameplay.
Kameo's world is brilliantly created with vibrant colors with flowers, flying butterflies, trees, grass, sunshine, water with reflections intricate architecture and more. Kameo herself looks rather sharp, although up close, we can still see some angularity and polygonal features. Also, she runs very awkwardly, almost as if she was on the moon landing mission, a bit too bouncy, yet stiff. Personally, hovering removes this problem for me, as she flies very gracefully with her wings humming at a rapid rate.
The enemies themselves are appropriatedly rendered as vicious trolls or giant bugs or skeleton monsters with swirling vortices of dark energy engulfing them. Particularly in one miniboss fight, where you take over the light soul's energy, the graphics become inverted, I.E. like a photo negative, as if you are seeing the world from a different plane of existence.
Smashing boxes results in busted wood pieces flying in all directions, as well as smashing bugs or pumpkins in particular. Juices will land on the camera, as if you had the spray landing in your field of vision, and at times this can impede your vision, much like if your face was covered in a goo, needing time to wipe off. I find this to be an interesting addition to the graphics and gameplay.
Mind you I haven't completed the game yet, but the cutscenes are well animated along with the main gameplay. Barring Kameo's awkward movement and some upclose polygonal features, this game has excellent graphics.
The sound effects and voice acting are top notch. The voice actor for Joanna Dark in Perfect Dark Zero does the voice for Kameo, although with a bit more of an accent, but none of the youthful exuberance is lost. The wise sage inhabiting the Wotnot book has a perfectly fitting faux-english accent. All spoken text is also spoken with voice acting. The dialogue is witty, with my favorite example "Stop being such a witch... you witch". We all know what the speaker REALLY meant.
Besides the top notch voice acting, the sound effects, such as running water or crackling fire are very noticeable... but one must listen, they are not deafening unless you are standing in the stream or beside the fire. Kameo's wings beat and you can hear their humming. Just the little intricacies are hard to pick out without listening closely. With surround sound this is more evident.
The soundtrack is straight out of the music books of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Imagine a whimsical and magical sound track, and you have it in a nutshell.
My biggest gripe is even though I have not completed the game, it is supposedly extremely short, most reported completions take 10 hours or less on the first go. However there are two bonuses at this point and time.
1.) Cooperative gameplay having completed certain missions/quests. You can play 2 player coop. I haven't done this although I am told it is a nice addition, although not a complete game experience. Still nice though.
2.) The game is 29.99$ brand new now I believe, I however picked it up used for slightly over 20$ with taxes. This game is certainly worth it at that price, but at the ful 50 or 60$ it might be a bit expensive for the length of the game. This is why such a low value score, although coop + low price allowed me to give it a 7 for value.
Overall, this is an excellent game with great graphics and sound and overall gameplay. The concept of switching abilities and powers on the fly between a whole legion of elemental spirits is intriguing and the game is very well made, and most of all fun.
Overall Fun : 9/10, not perfect can't ever set it down fun, but very fun and well worth your time.
Pros
+ Excellent Graphics and Sounds
+ Intriguing Elemental Powers and changing abilities
+ As of 8-2-2006 the game is very inexpensive, worth picking up
Cons
- Very short, replay is somewhat small
- Quirky controls, namely with Pummel Weed
- Some polygonal graphics upclose, a no-no for next gen games.