The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales sees Square Enix and Claytechworks stepping away from turn-based traditions to deliver an action RPG that proudly wears its inspirations on its sleeve. Set across a thousand-year journey through multiple eras, the adventure follows the earnest orphan Elliot and his fairy companion Faie as they attempt to uncover the truth behind a curse threatening the kingdom of Huther. While the opening hours lean heavily on familiar fantasy tropes and a straightforward battle between good and evil, the time-travel premise gradually adds more intrigue, allowing the story to explore how actions ripple across generations. The result is a narrative that starts conventionally but gains momentum as new eras, characters and mysteries emerge, helped by a cast that remains consistently likable throughout the adventure.
The strongest aspect of the game is arguably its sense of adventure. Exploring the kingdom across four different time periods constantly encourages curiosity, whether through optional shrines, hidden treasures, side quests or previously inaccessible routes. The world manages to feel familiar and fresh at the same time as locations evolve across the centuries, and the game does an excellent job of rewarding players who wander off the main path. Side quests are particularly noteworthy because they often contribute meaningful world-building and character development instead of feeling like simple busywork. That said, the time-travel concept does not always reach its full potential. Although there are meaningful differences between eras, some areas, dungeons and environments can feel more iterative than transformative, occasionally reducing the impact of what should have been one of the game’s most exciting mechanics.
Combat adopts a real-time approach reminiscent of classic action adventures, allowing Elliot to switch between two equipped weapons while making use of shields, charged attacks and Faie’s magical abilities. The variety offered by the seven weapon types keeps encounters engaging for much of the campaign, especially once players begin experimenting with different combinations and situational tools. Boss fights are a particular highlight, often demanding more thought and adaptation than standard encounters. Yet the combat system is not without flaws. Despite the impressive arsenal, individual weapons have fairly limited movesets, and after many hours of play the action can begin to feel repetitive. The game successfully compensates through enemy mechanics, weapon synergy and encounter design, but there remains a lingering sense that a deeper combo system or additional unlockable abilities could have elevated the combat even further.
A major contributor to the game’s flexibility is the Magicite system, which effectively replaces traditional leveling mechanics. Rather than grinding experience points, players customize weapons through a wide range of modifiers that alter damage types, attack properties and utility effects. This system encourages experimentation and helps create distinct playstyles throughout the adventure. However, some aspects of acquiring and upgrading these enhancements can feel more random than necessary, occasionally making progression less satisfying for completionists who prefer a greater degree of control over their builds. Even so, the system remains one of the game’s most successful RPG elements and adds welcome depth to exploration and combat alike.
Visually, The Adventures of Elliot is another showcase for Team Asano’s mastery of HD-2D presentation. The blend of expressive pixel-art characters and richly detailed 3D environments creates a world that feels both nostalgic and contemporary. Dynamic camera work, atmospheric lighting and impressive environmental variety ensure that nearly every region leaves a lasting impression. The art direction consistently captures the wonder of classic adventure games while still feeling modern. Audio work is similarly strong, with orchestral compositions that complement the game’s fantasy setting beautifully. While the soundtrack may not quite reach the instantly iconic status of genre-defining classics, it consistently enhances the journey, and the English and Japanese voice performances bring additional personality to the cast, even if certain characters occasionally sound slightly exaggerated in the Japanese dub.
On PlayStation 5, the game delivers a polished experience with strong performance and few technical concerns. Load times are minimal, combat remains responsive, and the overall presentation benefits from a stable framerate. The DualSense features are largely underutilized, but that omission never feels particularly damaging given the type of experience being offered. More noticeable are a few small interface quirks and occasional signs of repetition in enemy variety and dungeon design, issues that become increasingly apparent during the latter half of the campaign.
Even with those shortcomings, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales succeeds because it understands exactly what kind of adventure it wants to be. Rather than reinventing the action RPG, it refines and celebrates many of the ideas that made the genre’s classics so beloved in the first place. Its heartfelt characters, rewarding exploration, satisfying progression systems and beautiful presentation outweigh the occasional lack of originality and repetition. For fans of classic Zelda-style adventures and action RPGs with a strong sense of discovery, Elliot’s first outing feels less like a nostalgic imitation and more like the beginning of a promising new Square Enix franchise.
Score: 8.0/10