The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales - Hands-on Preview
When The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales was announced last year, it immediately piqued my interest as someone who is always intrigued by the plethora of HD-2D titles, but who is also overwhelmed by the idea of jumping into a long-running series. This newest offering from the well-proven talents of Team Asano, best known for their work on Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default, is a new IP – a perfect entry point for those who have admired their work from afar, but found the technical nature of their deep turn-based systems to be a little too daunting, especially when coupled with now extensive lore to absorb.
After spending a little time with a preview build of The Adventures of Elliot thanks to Square Enix, it’s clear that this action-adventure title is offering a different experience – an homage to other classic adventures, wearing its inspirations on its sleeve but endearing players to it immediately in the process. ‘
Set across four time periods spanning over a thousand years, The Adventures of Elliot follows the titular protagonist and his fairy companion Faie as they explore the world of Philabieldia, encountering unique foes and challenges in each of the time periods they visit throughout their journey. It seems that you can swap freely between the time periods at will in order to take advantage of each world’s unique snapshot of society – what is a bustling city in one time may be a quaint farm town, or a site of destruction, in another. By swapping between these eras as needed, Elliot can gain information about the world and use it to help the people in it – there’s a whole lot of side questing to be done here alongside what I can only assume is a broader narrative.
While I didn’t get to spend a lot of time delving into the broader narrative in the preview, I did get a glimpse of some smaller quests – and they’re more diverse than I was expecting. From helping a blind man to tell the stories he longs to share to an intricate cat-befriending system that seems to require you to catalogue and collect the world’s felines, there’s plenty to keep you busy in Philabieldia. Some of it will require you to venture into dangerous areas and use the arsenal of weapons at your disposal to take on foes, but so much of this game seems like it will also just be about talking to people and learning their stories – it’s striking a compelling balance.
Despite their previous commitment to turn-based, party-focused games that drew inspiration from classics like Dragon Quest or Secret of Mana, Team Asano are clearly emulating something else here – early Zelda. If you’re a fan of 2D Zelda games, The Adventures of Elliot is here for you. From the fact that you use weapons like swords, boomerangs, bows, and hammers in combination with items like bombs that can be used equally in combat or to help you traverse the world and solve puzzles, to the way you can slash through grass and smash pots, the resemblance is uncanny. Controls are simple, with items and weapons mappable to basically two buttons – just as with the original Legend of Zelda. Upgrades and special items can be found in dungeons, which seem to be made up of puzzles and occasional boss fights – none of this is necessarily unique to Zelda, but it all feels very “Zelda-y” in the best possible way.
Using their now-familiar HD-2D style, it seems that Team Asano have created another beautiful world here that I can’t wait to explore. The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales releases on June 19th in Australia on PC, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, with a prologue demo available now if you want to begin the journey early – progress carries across to the full game on release, so there’s no reason not to get started now.
