🔴/🟢[2.5/5]︱Kamiko/Fairune Origins (2009) Review
※ Preamble
I was generously gifted several Steam games as a late Christmas present, including KAMIKO, an Action Adventure title developed by Skipmore. As an indie team with whom I am familiar, I have previously discussed their work, specifically their titles Drancia Saga and the more niche mobile game Planet Bom Bom. The small, miniature experiences they make are honestly quite splendid, perfectly suited for times when there is nothing else compelling to play or when one is only interested in a short burst of entertainment.
Initially, I had assumed KAMIKO would be a reasonably long game. However, after completing the base game as the character Yamato and dealing with one major issue we will discuss later, I finished the entire experience in under an hour. It seems that the playtime estimates on HowLongtoBeat were entirely accurate after all. By the end of my first playthrough, the game strongly evoked Drancia Saga vibes, a feeling that persists despite most of Skipmore's games sharing a similar overall feel. Interestingly, it turns out that both KAMIKO and Drancia were released around the same time in 2017: KAMIKO in April and Drancia in May. I got nothing else to say, so let's start talking about this game.
※ Story (2/5)
You either play as Yamato, Uzurme, and Hinome (fairune heroine/liana vibes) and, with the power of one of the Imperial Regalia of Japan, you are sent to fend off the demons and bring life to the world, breaking some seal gates along the way. That's all to the story, and environmental storytelling is nonexistent. Depressing, since games like KAMIKO look visually pleasing and one can wonder what the places that you enter are like, and the lore behind them. Then again, this is a mere action adventure game in it's bare minimum.
※ Gameplay/Replay Value (2.5/5)
Before I get into the gameplay, I do have to mention quickly that some of the aspects this game has towards Drancia Saga are noticeable. Seriously, both games:
- Have you mindlessly destroying enemies powering up something you have (KAMIKO has enemies dropping SP which you need to use throughout the stages both to unlock parts of the level and as a special attack when holding down the attack button and Drancia Saga has enemies dropping money which can be used to upgrade your stats such as defense, running speed, the width of your weapon, etc)
- Have three main characters you play as (Drancia Saga obviously has more, but the game advertises the Witch, the guy with the axe, and the Hero)
- Feature extremely similar graphics to each other both in the usage of shaders and pixel art alone (the final area in KAMIKO before tackling the final boss reminds me a hell of a lot of the final parts of Drancia Saga)
- Bosses that all have easy to predict patterns, can be beaten instantaneously, and have a final boss with two phases (Drancia Saga is a lot more simpler with its bosses on how they all but the final boss' second phase have three hits before death, but KAMIKO's bosses are inching close to that and thankfully more challenging but on repeat playthroughs aren't much of an issue)
These are just some of the similarities I've found within both games. Okay, Back to KAMIKO.
Depending on the character you play as, the goal of KAMIKO is to go through the four stages filled with demons and enemies that occupy the space, solving puzzles to initiate five stones breaking the seal of each specific stage. Some of the puzzles are timed while some of them are just button presses and delivering some items to some pedestals or keys to open specific doors. some areas within the stage lock you to defeat hordes of enemies, and that's about it.
As for the characters themselves, Yamato is a sword wielding character with her changing ability being the Zelda hurricane spin, Uzume is a ranger specializing in her arrow arsenal with her special ability being to shoot multiple arrows including some that home onto enemies and last but not least is the Fairune Heroine/Liana looking person Hinome that uses her shield to home in on enemies.. Other than that, that's pretty much all there is to say about the gameplay alone.
Now for that major issue.... In The Sunken Relics, there is a puzzle near the top part of the stage where you hit a lever to temporarily open up a bridge to the far right of the stage, and no matter what, even if you make near frame perfect inputs, you cannot clear the bridge, leaving you half a squares close to finishing the bridge, and for a while now, I've been trying to make the move since it would be too ridiculous to leave this obvious gameplay issue in the game for so long, and apparently, after talking to someone who knows Skipmore galore, they told me that it's a programming fault since the character's speed is tied to the monitors refresh rate.
This wouldn't be an issue for other players since this game is locked behind 60hz on other consoles, but for PC, if you have a monitor that's higher than it (for instance, mine was 180hz), then this puzzle is impossible, so for you to ensure you can get pass, you'll have to turn it down. And this did definitely do the trick. This definitely has an impact on my playthrough since normally, an oversight like this should've been a day one patch, but for this to be a recurring issue to this day in the big 2026 is just disappointing, and I can see some of the people who and reviews this game on Steam/PC talk about the issues there, too. There was another Puzzle in The Scorching Labyrinth that had you going through a bridge on a timer, but that thankfully wasn't as strict as The Sunken Relics, but to keep myself safe, I still kept the game to be at 60hz throughout the runtime. What a huge disappointment. The Sunken Relics is the exact reason I didn't bother finishing the game as the other characters since even with turning down the refresh rate, the gate puzzle is still extremely strict and for someone that just wants to go through the game, doing this puzzle two more times as Hinome and Uzume is just time consuming.
※ Graphics (3.5/5)
Upon booting the game for the first time, you get a small menu to configure how good the graphics are and the display resolution, snd IMHO, I don't think that there is a single difference between if the game is displaying fast graphics for Fantastic graphics cause for a game that's heavily into pixel art, this game didn't really seem to require the use of the fantastic shaders because the pixel art in this game is great. Skipmor-level of quality. It's stunning, and the environments have a lot of detail put into them. More of a reason as to why I wished more of their games had environmental storytelling to keep their games at least interesting to some that stick around for the narrative aspects of such. The Ruins of Yamataikoku before the final boss is my absolute most favorite one of the bunch where it looks like an old ruins but has enemies that seek to know about this area more and look like they are powered up by something within the area. the mix of old and new within this final stage is something I like to see more in video games.
※ Soundtrack (3.5/5)
While I didn't think much of the music for this game, after giving it a hear again, I do have to say that the way the first stage was composed reminds me a hell of a lot of the compositons found in Celeste despite Leina Raine not composing KAMIKO
※ Bonus Review: Fairune (2009)
Consideing that the discussion of Skipmore has entered the likes of me, I decided to question, "how long has this company have been making games for?" And little did I know that they were making games like these since the early 2000s. Some games like Drancia Saga- or should I say Mamono Slayer (the game is nothing like Drancia but the protagonist is an older looking swordsman from said game) had been featured from this part of Skipmore, and eventually down the road have seen better days on the Nintendo 3DS. Fairune included. in fact, before the Fairune we all know and love, there was one that was created from 2009 also called Fairune (but with an added Origin and graphic/soundtrack overhaul in the Fairune Collection) that is the most basic of the Fairune games. Since this game is incredibly short and that it doesn't have an IGDB page for it, I'm going to sneak this into my Yamato review.
You got a small area to explore, and your goal is to save the four fairies and use them to power yourself against the evil that took the fairies over and spread monsters across the land. It took me less than 30 minutes to play but for someone at never played the other Fairune games, this game doesn't tell you anything. I was stuck at many given points due to this alone, but if you look closely at your environment, then you'll be able to finish this in no time. I wouldn't want to play this again though since the other Fairune games are a lot more polished than this one.
※ Verdict/Other Thoughts (2.5/5)
KAMIKO isn't a bad game, but with the gameplay being incredibly simplistic in couple with the PC exclusive issue I've encountered throughout my playthrough, it unfortunately puts this game right next to Drancia Saga for it being one of the lowest Skipmore games I've played so far. It makes me a bit disappointed because I have a feeling that if it wasn't in the tight spot of development that it was with Pictonier being in development and the Nintendo Switch being around the corner, this game could've been something that was truly something big, but looking at other games such as Transibury and how there's a Yamato like being in that game, it seems to me that the legacy this game had has been expanded upon other Skipmore works, which does make me feel relieved. Maybe someday I should look into that game since Metroidvanias are one of my favorite platformer genres. Even if I rated this game a 2.5/5, I will admit that this is a very welcoming first game to review and complete in 2026.
Thanks for Reading!
i played this game last semester with my totally tubular cousin frank. rad guy. it was only 5 shmackeroonies down at the best buy. me and my compadre bought the game from this wicked shopkeeper. her name was roxanne. she was gnarly and totally fresh. we had to invite her to our place to chill and play