The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales Review: Effortlessly and Extraordinarily Delightful

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The Adventures of Elliot The Millennium Tales Review

Published Jun 23, 2026, 7:42 PM EDT

Murillo Zerbinatto is an Editor at DualShockers specializing in JRPGs, RPGs, reviews, guides, and lists. He has been writing professionally since 2018 and covering games since 2020, with previous work published at Xfire, RPGInformer, IndieGameCulture, and GameRant.

A longtime JRPG enthusiast, Murillo has played more than 250 JRPGs and earned over 100 platinum trophies, giving him deep hands-on experience with the genre’s progression systems, side content, collectibles, and completionist challenges. His coverage often focuses on franchises such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Trails, Tales of, and Star Ocean.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is Square Enix's first foray into the Action RPG genre using the HD-2D engine. While I had no doubt it would be a gorgeous game, I wondered how its mechanics would play out, whether they would integrate well with the engine, and whether the team could create a satisfying gameplay loop. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that both Square Enix and Claytechworks nailed it, delivering a mechanically delicious RPG and an effortlessly fun adventure that will hopefully open new doors for the HD-2D engine in future titles.

First, let's address the elephant in the room: yes, The Adventures of Elliot is quite Zelda-esque, even though the producer stated that the primary inspiration was actually Square's own Mana series, and that is about all I will say regarding Link's adventures. I won't keep drawing comparisons to describe Elliot as Square Enix's version of Zelda, because that won't mean a thing to those who haven't played those games. I will judge this title purely on what it aims to do and how it delivers on that promise.

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I have a few caveats with The Adventures of Elliot's story, especially when it involves time travel, but nothing that takes away from the impressive sense of adventure as we venture forth alongside Elliot and his chatty but loving fairy companion, Faie. Once I understood that the game treats time travel more as a tool for world-building than as a strict rulebook with consequences and paradoxes, I began to appreciate the narrative much more and ultimately had a wonderful experience.

I did absolutely everything I could in The Adventures of Elliot, including every sidequest, all collectibles, and saw all cutscenes, securing the platinum trophy after about 36 hours of playtime.

Adventuring Through Time

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The world of Philabieldia is constantly under threat from the beastmen, and the only shield protecting the Kingdom of Huther from their advance is a barrier of Safekeeping maintained by Princess Heuria. However, she must remain confined within the castle walls to uphold the spell and prevent the beastmen from invading the realm. In the meantime, a new set of ruins is discovered, and the king enlists the adventurer Elliot to scour them. Upon exploring the depths, Elliot uncovers secrets that lead to a Doorway of Time, a gateway allowing anyone who passes through to travel to the past.

This serves as the main driving force behind the narrative, kicking off subplot after subplot. Whenever an emergency arises, Elliot must journey into the past to find a solution. He succeeds and resolves the issue, only for a new complication to surface, forcing him to go even further down the timeline in search of another answer. This cycle repeats until players eventually witness all four distinct eras that The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales has to offer. If it sounds simple, that is because it initially is.

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that both Square Enix and Claytechworks nailed it, delivering a mechanically delicious RPG and an effortlessly fun adventure that will hopefully open new doors for the HD-2D engine in future titles.

Elliot is a bona fide do-gooder hero who loves helping absolutely everyone without ever questioning why. Don't expect any deep flaws from this protagonist, just an inexorable enthusiasm for doing good. It can be a bit uninteresting at first, but I quickly grew used to it because the core focus of this RPG is undoubtedly the adventure itself. Any call to action is reason enough to make me wander across Philabieldia, exploring ruins, entering caves, and defeating monsters.

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The story remains straightforward throughout the journey, and while it tries to throw in a few twists and turns here and there, especially if you aim for full completion, I found most of the plot to be quite predictable. I soon realized that The Adventures of Elliot is not tackling time travel in a scientific sense, where every tiny action in the past drastically alters the future or Elliot's present timeline. Time travel here is practically inconsequential, and aside from a few sidequests that alter NPC dialogue purely for flavor, it changes almost nothing across the different eras.

Once I accepted that the game's rules for time travel were loose at best, I started to enjoy the narrative much more. Traveling through the eras allowed me to witness firsthand everything I had read about in history books or heard mentioned by other characters. Journeying across time is an elegant way to flesh out the lore and world-building of the game, and for me, that was more than enough.

Whenever Square Enix releases a game, I look forward to impeccable storytelling. Although The Adventures of Elliot's plot is predictable, the script is incredibly polished, remains cohesive (setting aside the time-traveling shenanigans), and ties up every loose end and mystery presented along the way. Several outcomes truly warmed my heart, particularly those involving Faie, who becomes a wonderful ally throughout the journey. I know she can be quite chatty, but it is always in an innocent, youthful manner, filled with childlike wonder, that leaves me just as invested in our discoveries as she is.

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At a certain point, I realized I had spent only a fraction of my time on the main story, dedicating the rest to adventuring off the beaten path with Elliot, which is exactly what the game wants us to do. As a completionist, I find it impossible to move forward with the main story before checking every corner, exploring every dungeon, and gathering every item. The Adventures of Elliot places very few restrictions on the player and leaves almost the entire world wide open from the opening hours. I occasionally hit a roadblock because I lacked a specific tool, but the main story would soon grant me that exact resource, expanding the world even further.

Traveling across eras also significantly expanded the scope of my exploration, though it revealed the game to be a tad repetitive. The world of Philabieldia is almost a copy-paste of itself across the four different eras. Even though the atmosphere, the layout of certain areas, and enemy placements change, it still gives me the sensation of exploring the exact same maps multiple times. There is also a lack of enemy variety, so I quickly memorized their move sets and the best ways to defeat them, making exploration feel a bit mindless at times.

But it's mindless fun nonetheless. Elliot's movements translate beautifully into the HD-2D engine. The gameplay mechanics are heavenly, tweaked to absolute perfection, and every single command feels incredibly responsive, whether you are throwing a boomerang while charging a sword strike or pulling off a perfect block while waiting for a bomb to detonate. With seven distinct weapon types at our disposal, I had a blast swapping them on the fly, testing out new combos, and learning which enemies were weak against specific weapons or which they easily countered. This constant trial and error breathed new life into my adventuring, even as I navigated familiar regions in a new era.

The Adventures of Elliot The Millennium Tales Review (5)

Another way combat keeps itself fresh is through the use of Magicites, which can be slotted into each weapon. These range from basic stat boosts that increase attack or critical hit rate to modifiers that completely alter how a weapon functions. Normally, charging the boomerang lets us throw it so it spins in place, dealing continuous damage. Equipped with the Satellite Magicite, however, the charged attack changes entirely, causing the boomerang to orbit around Elliot like an active shield. Tons of unique Magicite combinations showcase the combat in a completely new light, making build experimentation incredibly appealing.

The absolute high point of The Adventures of Elliot is definitely the boss battles. Every single encounter is amusing and provides a challenge entirely tuned to our current progress (unless you explore too far and stumble into a high-level boss you shouldn't be tackling yet). Been there, died a lot, and triumphed in the end. The bosses' movesets start out straightforward, but as the game progresses, they become absurdly complex to the point where it can be hard to keep track of what is happening on screen. But whenever everything clicked, battles flowed beautifully like a choreographed dance. Bosses also possess specific weapon weaknesses, meaning experimentation constantly yields great rewards.

Explore, Adventurer

Square Enix categorizes The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales as an RPG. While the game lacks a traditional level-up progression system, your character's growth is intimately tied to exploration. Upon discovering a Shrine of Life, I had to complete a trial consisting of either combat challenges or environmental puzzles to earn a Shard of Life. Gathering four of these upgrades, Elliot's base health is increased until it reaches a maximum of 20.

While certain tools are mandatory to progress, other weapons are entirely optional, such as the boomerang, which must be purchased from a shop. Finding new upgraded version weapons is a direct reward for exploration, but if you simply make a beeline for the credits, you will miss out on the strongest variants of your arsenal. There's also my trusty sidekick Faie, who doesn't just contribute to the journey with her helpful, if sometimes overwhelming, advice, but she can also be controlled directly to cast a wide variety of spells, allowing you to set enemies ablaze, teleport Elliot across gaps, or even conjure a clone of him. There's even the possibility of playing co-op, with one player controlling Faie, but I never had the chance since my wife both dislikes and sucks at video games.

The gameplay mechanics are heavenly, tweaked to absolute perfection, and every single command feels incredibly responsive.

We uncover new magic spells for Faie by exploring Shrines, and while their base versions are mandatory, the advanced upgrades are strictly reserved for intrepid explorers. Overall, exploration is the true heart of The Adventures of Elliot, living up to its adventurous namesake. I naturally have a penchant for tracking down everything in an RPG, so I can't speak for what the experience would be like for someone who completely neglects the nooks and crannies of Philabieldia. However, the main story will inevitably guide you through every major region of the country, so if the exploration bug doesn't catch you by then, the game itself might not be for you.

I confess that I went a bit too hardcore with the exploration, spending hours on end just unlocking every area while forgetting about the main story entirely, to the point where I almost forgot what my current objective was. However, when I finally returned to the central conflict, I cleared the rest of the game in a single sitting because I had already unlocked fast-travel nodes for every major area the story sent me to. I feel that if I had balanced my experience better, alternating between the main story and exploration at a steady pace, I would have enjoyed it even more. However, it didn't taint my enjoyment in the slightest. If anything, my exploration addiction is just proof of how deeply invested I was.

HD-2D Works With Everything

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If there is one thing Square Enix keeps proving to the industry, it is that their HD-2D engine works flawlessly with any genre. It started with traditional turn-based combat, moved into tactical strategy, and has now successfully conquered the action RPG space. It is a timeless visual style that doesn't just trigger nostalgia and win over the hearts of industry veterans like myself; it also eliminates the reliance on hyperrealistic graphics that bloat development costs and production times. The output from Team Asano has been incredible, constantly reinforcing the idea that art direction is just as important as graphical fidelity, if not more so.

What impressed me most wasn't just seeing the HD-2D style in its most polished form yet, but the sheer precision and responsiveness the engine brought to fast-paced gameplay. I didn't experience any issues with bugs or frame drops. My control over Elliot was absolute, meaning I was fully responsible for my own actions, whether I was pulling off advanced maneuvers like using Faie's teleportation to cross platforms like a superhero or mistiming a block and getting launched off a ledge.

If there is one thing Square Enix keeps proving to the industry, it is that their HD-2D engine works flawlessly with any genre.

As expected from Square Enix, the soundtrack is spectacular. Each era features its own distinct background music, as does the capital city, perfectly capturing the vibe of the time period you are currently visiting and providing the ideal fantasy theme. The boss themes are a standout, though I was often so focused on staying alive and managing five mechanics at once that the music occasionally faded into the background.

I played through the game using the English dubbing, and the voice acting is impeccable across the board for every character. The entire main story is fully voiced, as are the sidequests, making it easy to just sit back, enjoy the cutscenes, and lose yourself in everything Philabieldia has to offer as you uncover the secrets of its world.

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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.