The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is an exploration of Square Enix, taking the opportunity to play with their now well-established 2DHD formula, going from a more traditional, turn-based JRPG approach to the classic 16-bit adventure genre, made famous with games like The Legend of Zelda and even the Ys series from Falcom fame.
Featuring the same gorgeous blend of pixel-perfect sprite work juxtaposed against 3D environments, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, as the name may allude to, is a bold but ultimately safe new step within the action-adventure genre, giving players a top-down action title that evokes the best of the genre from the 16-bit era.
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales follows the exploits of the titular hero in a time-bending journey across different eras. Elliot is in pursuit of a dastardly friend of the kingdom turned foe, hellbent on machinations of glory and control. After a fairly lengthy opening act, players find themselves at death’s door, only to be given another chance after meeting the bubbly fairy character, Faie. Faie quickly becomes Elliot’s trusted confidant, aiding him in battle via resurrection magic. Dying on the battlefield, Faie can revive the player, but every additional death will cost a greater portion of Tul, the primary currency of the game.
“The Adventures of Elliot delivers an action RPG experience that evokes the best of Square Enix’s ability to tell a story, in a genre that typically is lighter on story elements.”
Additionally, Faie acts as a pseudo 2-player character, allowing a friend to pick up the controller and navigate the world alongside Elliot. Faie gradually learns various spells, such as a fire DPS and a warp move, elements that are largely meant for environmental puzzles, but can be used for some additional, albeit weak, damage to enemies. Solo players can simply use the right stick to control Faie, which can feel a bit cumbersome, but is a nice touch for those with the dexterity to get in a few more hits with the companion character.
As far as the character herself, Faie is unfortunately a healthy mix of endearing and grating in equal measure, thanks in part to her high-pitched voice, which often makes the experience feel like it is catering towards a younger audience.
Thankfully, overall, the endearing elements of the game take precedence, as The Adventures of Elliot delivers an action RPG experience that evokes the best of Square Enix’s ability to tell a story, in a genre that typically is lighter on story elements (specifically, games like A Link to the Past).
As The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales uses time travel as its central crux, the game allows players to explore maps in different ages, a clever mechanic that allows the otherwise handful of biomes and maps to feel much larger in scope. With the different eras in flux as players go back and forth in time, levels gradually open up new areas in the process, similar to the dark world in Zelda, but on a much grander scale.
Outside of the main quest, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales features a decent amount of side content, including optional quests and mini dungeons strewn across its expansive game world. These challenge dungeons come in two flavours: shrine-style puzzle rooms, in which players must guide Elliot to the exit, where treasure awaits, and multi-stage time trial gauntlets, which offer multiple rewards and bonuses.
“The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales features a decent amount of side content, including optional quests and mini dungeons strewn across its expansive game world.”
The smaller of the dungeon styles usually rewards Elliot with a fragment of health, similar to the heart pieces in Zelda. In contrast, the larger, time-trial stages generally reward the player with charms that augment their kit, in addition to extra tul per level cleared. On the topic of charms and rewards, Elliot has access to a fairly robust set of weapons, including both primary and secondary armaments, including swords, spears, hammers, bows, boomerangs, and bombs, amongst others.
Combat is fast and frenetic, although not quite as crazy as something like Ys; instead, the game finds a middle ground between the former and Zelda. Consecutive kills, or combos, are rewarded with better drops, while certain charms can grant Elliot an extra hit before ending the combo chain. Gear can also be augmented with a deep gem system, something that allows players to really experiment and try different augmented weapons against specific kinds of enemies.
A good example of this can be found early on, during one of the first optional gauntlet dungeons, with the end boss being a reskinned ice variant of a previous boss. Taking it out is a straightforward ordeal; however, to get the best time, augmenting your weapon with fire or using Faie’s fire ability can stun-lock and drastically reduce the time, netting the player more loot at the end.
Ultimately, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is an admirable first effort in exploring a new genre for the 2DHD formula beyond turn-based combat or tactics, offering players a solid adventure that wears its inspiration on its sleeve. Saying that, the game can feel a little too safe at times, although never uninspired, making it a worthwhile adventure for fans to embark on.
