The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is an excellent game that could be a great start to a new Square Enix action-adventure series. Though I think the tools are given out a bit too quickly, the exploration, combat, and narrative all succeed at what they set out to do, crafting a breezy and exciting title that’s certainly worth your time. I hope Elliot gets to take part in more adventures going forward, as I’d be there day one.

Square Enix's first foray into the action RPG scene with the HD-2D engine is a majestic success. The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales delivers an effortlessly fun and mechanically satisfying experience, making it an ideal pick for anyone who prefers games where pure gameplay reigns supreme over all other elements. That doesn't mean The Adventures of Elliot slacks in its narrative. Even though the time-travel mechanics are largely inconsequential to the plot, it still tells a cohesive story that beautifully showcases its world through the eyes of the ever-helpful Elliot. Square Enix clearly knows they have struck gold with the HD-2D engine, and I hope they continue to let it shine in many projects to come.

Square Enix’s love letter to old-school adventure games is a genuine delight to play, especially for players with a soft spot for the older days of the Legend of Zelda franchise. There’s an impressive mix of natural worldbuilding, impressive art design, and tight gameplay that encourages exploration – both with actually checking out the overworld for secrets and playing with the wide array of weapons and magic made available to the player. While the story may not be as impressive as the rest of the product, Adventures of Elliot is a genuine accomplishment by Square Enix that makes for one of the year’s most enjoyable adventures yet.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales demonstrates that the HD-2D style isn't confined to the traditional JRPG genre but can also successfully adapt to the adventure genre. This new IP can be summed up in one word: exploration. It features a single continent spanning four eras, an emotional narrative, and a progression system based on various weapons and gems that allow for skill development with significant room for growth. With its balanced difficulty and solid length, this title shines without needing hyper-realistic graphics.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a treat for fans of action RPGs such as The Legend of Zelda and Alundra, with plenty of exploration to be done, dungeons to conquer, and weapons and spells to acquire. Some may find it a little simplistic in ways, but those who get engrossed in the adventure it provides will undoubtedly love it.

Featuring time travel, a narrative structure influenced by Mana, and the combat and exploration characteristic of Zelda, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales demonstrates that the HD-2D style still has a lot of life left in it, including in other genres, and that it has matured significantly in recent games. After years of refining the formula in smaller-scale games, Square Enix seems to have finally found a Zelda to call its own.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is one of Square Enix’s best original IPs in years. It’s a perfect blend of classic Zelda and Final Fantasy Adventure, mixed with a unique time-traveling mechanic. While the game initially starts out deceptively simple, it quickly turns into a mind-bending adventure story with complex mechanics and exploration.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is an excellent action RPG that clearly demonstrates its influences, but uses them to deliver a unique game. It shines in its combat, exploration, and a good story that makes every hour worthwhile.

Every once in a while there’s a game where I put off completing my review because I'm busy trying to grab the Platinum trophy. The Adventures of Elliot is one of those games. I found entire evenings and weekends disappearing, and even when repetition threatened to set in, I found new ways to shake up the game. Look past the odd pacing foible and this is an excellent action adventure to sink into.

While a few flaws make The Adventures of Elliot fall slightly short of a perfect experience for me, it’s still a bold experiment. It is filled with characters that, although sometimes lacking in complexity, win you over with sheer heart, especially Casper and his companion Mao, a troubled woman from a feline beast tribe. It’s never less than a good time, and it doesn’t outstay its welcome.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is proof that Team Asano can move with surprising confidence even outside its comfort zone. Exploration is excellent, the game world constantly inspires a sense of wonder, and the system built around different time periods adds depth to every discovery.

No matter how many times it's been said, it doesn't make it any less true: the core essence of Zelda is present from the very first second of this adventure starring Elliot—who aims for greatness without quite becoming an icon. Yet, it possesses the sheer consistency of being a great ARPG under the pedigree of Team Asano and Square Enix.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales has turned out to be a very entertaining game where, especially towards the end, you may sometimes need to spend a little longer searching for solutions to quests. With a playtime of just over thirty hours and multiple endings that build on previously achieved endings, it hasn't become an extremely long game. Still, the beautiful visuals, accessible gameplay, and interesting story are absolutely worth giving the game a try.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a game that grows tremendously as you progress through its story and challenges, finishing at its very best — delivering one of the best narratives of the year. Although it stumbles with a confusing navigation map and occasionally fails to clearly communicate what it wants you to do, if you give it a chance, you'll find an excellent game here.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millenium Tales becomes one of the most charming titles of the year, evoking the greats of the 16-bit adventure genre. Despite the clear inspirations and somewhat predictable narrative elements, the game comes with some ideas of its own that make it stand out in its own right. Its great dungeon design, variety of weapons, and the Magicite system make it an enjoyable experience for fans of Legend of Zelda-style adventures.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is an adventure that wins players over with its old-school gameplay, but above all with the strength of its story, which becomes increasingly engaging before bursting into a twist-filled second half and culminating in a truly epic finale. The stunning HD-2D presentation, an intelligent combat system, the highly successful Ages mechanic, and several memorable boss battles all contribute to making the journey consistently rewarding. It's a shame, however, that the game suffers from a lack of enemy variety, an approach that at times feels a little too derivative of the great classics of the past, and side quests and optional dungeons that fall noticeably short of the quality of the main adventure. That said, there's no denying that this is one of the most fascinating and surprising adventures that Square Enix has delivered in recent years.

Reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda in its exploration, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales shines with Square Enix's gorgeous HD-2D visuals, a beautiful soundtrack, and deeply rewarding character customization. Despite a predictable narrative, it is a thoroughly delightful experience that cleverly blends classic JRPG nostalgia with engaging modern action RPG mechanics.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales captures the charm of classic PS2-era action RPGs with engaging real-time combat, rewarding character progression, and a stunning HD-2D presentation. While its slow-paced opening and repetitive environments can affect the overall pacing, the game shines through its flexible customization systems, memorable soundtrack, and charming cast, delivering a fun and heartfelt adventure from start to finish.

The Adventures Of Elliot: The Millenium Tales is not without its small faults, but there are so many excellent plotlines and systems to the game that are begging to be explored by the player.

I had a great deal of fun playing through The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales with its rewarding gameplay and delightful presentation.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a successful genre hop for the 2DHD formula, giving players a familiar but fun adventure that evokes the whimsy of the 16-bit era.

Team Asano steps into new territory with an action RPG that blends elements of classic Zelda titles and the Mana series. The result is a confident and enjoyable adventure that showcases the studio's versatility. While the team is best known for its turn based RPGs, this project proves that it can successfully tackle a different genre without losing the level of quality fans have come to expect.

The Adventures of Elliot is not especially ambitious. It is a comforting balm during turbulent times. If you can stomach its occasionally nauseating earnestness, this rich fantasy world is a cosy one to retreat to. And despite my instinctive reaction to the off-puttingly cheesy dialogue, this charming world eventually began to warm even my cold, cynical English heart, thanks to some inspired dungeons and rewarding, customisable combat.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales certainly lives up to its name, offering an enchanting interlude—reminiscent of the finest fairy tales—amidst the myriad titles released this year. Once again, Square Enix proves it has a gold mine in the HD-2D style, an art direction that stands as one of the most influential creations of recent years. Here, the ever-helpful Elliot takes center stage in an adventure that is both classic and nostalgic, yet above all, remarkably executed and told. Certain moments truly stand out, thanks primarily to the high quality of the writing—whether in the main storyline or the side quests. This is precisely where the Square Enix title might surprise and move you, just as it did me, from start to finish.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a rewarding HD-2D action-adventure that slowly reveals its depth. Initially simple, the game blossoms into a challenging experience with a surprising plot as time travel mechanics are introduced. Combat, reminiscent of Zelda, offers real-time action with various weapons, though lacking combo variety. Optional content, including engaging labyrinths and boss fights, provides satisfying progression and upgrades. While the constant companion dialogue and lack of Brazilian Portuguese translation are drawbacks, the agile gameplay and interesting world make it a fun and honest title, despite not being groundbreaking.

The strengths of The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales are quite evident; while it is a heavily derivative work, it immediately evokes the unique style that Team Asano and its associated studios have firmly established in their other successful titles from recent years. Although it falls short of the excellence of Bravely Default or the high points seen in Octopath or Triangle Strategy, Square Enix’s new project demonstrates great character and solidity—though reaching the very top in the future will require avoiding complacency.

The Adventures of Elliot borrows heavily from the core gameplay mechanics of the classic 2D Zelda titles, channeling them into an enjoyable action RPG featuring a narrative with a distinctly Square Enix feel. While the plot starts off a bit flat, it picks up momentum and delivers quite a few surprises. The limited enemy variety and rather basic mission design are partially offset by a solid cast of characters, some interesting puzzles, and entertaining boss battles.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales proves HD-2D works brilliantly as the foundation for an action-adventure game. Its engaging combat, rewarding exploration, clever customization systems, and gorgeous visual presentation combine to create one of Square Enix’s strongest action-adventure games in recent years. The story may be predictable, and the enemy variety is rather lacking, but neither issue detracts from an experience that consistently rewards exploration. The Adventures of Elliot shows the HD-2D formula can thrive well beyond the realm of turn-based RPGs. If this is where the style is headed next, the future looks incredibly promising.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a solid Zelda like adventure, provided you are willing to overlook its story and a few issues with narrative logic. It captures the polished feel and straightforward fun often associated with Nintendo games, while its moderately challenging puzzles provide a welcome change of pace throughout the journey. At the same time, there is no single aspect where it truly stands above the competition or leaves a lasting impression.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a really fun game that captures the spirit of classic Zelda and brings it into a modern setting. It does feel like it’s missing a strong identity of its own, and its more excessive design choices can be a bit divisive—this likely would’ve worked better with a more restrained approach. Still, the combat, dungeons, and exploration are all engaging and hard to put down.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a charming and fun title whose greatest merits lie in its world-building, the charisma of its cast, and its strong focus on dungeon exploration and puzzle-solving. Despite some reservations regarding the depth of its customization systems, the journey through the different eras of Philabieldia is quite satisfying.

Square Enix has another successful JRPG on its hands with The Adventures of Elliot: The Millenium Tales. This charming HD-2D time-travel adventure may not reinvent the genre, but its entertaining story, beautiful visuals, and rewarding exploration make for a cozy and enjoyable journey. The action-based combat is somewhat simplistic and occasionally imprecise, yet players who can overlook those flaws will find a highly recommendable adventure.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales proves that the HD-2D style can work perfectly well outside of turn-based RPGs. With solid exploration, entertaining dungeons, and an engaging time-travel mechanic, Square Enix delivers a highly recommended adventure. Although the story and music don’t quite measure up, the gameplay and visuals more than make up for it.

The Adventures of Elliot promises an adventure and delivers just that. It’s not groundbreaking in its story, but it offers an absolute wealth of content. A kingdom-saving quest proves a solid excuse to get players exploring a massive world across multiple eras, navigating puzzles and dungeons, and fighting battles with a bevy of weapons and abilities to employ. It’s a fantastic action RPG for veterans and newcomers alike.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a solid and captivating action RPG, combining the charm of 2D HD with an adventure structure clearly inspired by the classic Legend of Zelda games. The exploration works, the bosses are well-crafted, and the relationship between Elliot and Faie gives the journey personality. The experience is held back by a certain repetitiveness related to time travel, uninspired side quests, and inconsistent inventory management. However, it remains an enjoyable, well-crafted adventure, recommended for fans of classic action RPGs.

The Adventures of Elliot is an enjoyable ARPG with beautiful HD-2D visuals, although there is a lack of depth in some of the core mechanics.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales draws inspiration from the classic Zelda games and reimagines their formula in a compelling way. Dungeons, exploration, and combat are the game’s strongest points. It’s a shame, though, that the game reuses settings and enemies, which prevents it from fully realizing its potential.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millenium Tales stumbles at times on the journey it sets out to take, but following Elliot and Faie on their adventure through the ages is still a great idea for any fan of classic RPGs.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales could've been the next big action RPG, instead, it feels like a lesser version of a game you've played before.

Despite a disappointing ending, The Adventures of Elliot knows how to explore the nuances of a good end game and makes great use of its HD-2D graphics. The game has a unique, nostalgic feel, with likable characters, great boss battles and combat, as well as decent exploration that keeps you entertained. Unfortunately, the progression can be a bit tedious and the side quests are uninspiring, but even so, the game is a great adventure for fans of Zelda and similar games.

A disappointing hotchpotch of borrowed ideas that pays homage to some of the best games of the 16-bit era but forgets to add anything of its own.