The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales (NS2) Review

Gameplay

Graphics

Audio

Narrative

Summary: An absorbing time hopping tale that wears its Triforce proudly on its sleeve.

4.1

Smoke me a kipper

HD-2D is probably the smartest design decision Square has ever made. A way to make and recreate the sprawling RPGs of old, sometimes quite literally, without having to break the bank or cut them into thirds for a modern audience. The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is the latest jaunt in what is fast becoming a hallmark for excellence in the RPG genre.

An action RPG that tips its big floppy hat to top-down Zelda, players step into the well-travelled boots and wide-brimmed red hat of seasoned adventurer Elliot. Not just his nature but also his job title. Elliot is an adventurer in the kingdom of Hither. Effectively an odd job man, happy to go out into the wilderness outside the magically protected walls where most humans dare not go, to do everything from picking herbs and corralling stray cats, to exploring ancient ruins, and travelling through time to save the world from the machinations of a dastardly royal advisor.

Like I said, no job is too big, and Elliot is certainly a hero. Well, everyone seems to think he is anyway. He’s effectively the action RPG equivalent of Ace Rimmer. There’s nothing he can’t do. Women love him; beastmen fear him. I swear at one point someone said: “What a guy!” as he left the room.

Though the map isn’t particularly big and feels even smaller thanks to it being littered with fast travel points, it’s offset by the fact that it is quite varied, featuring several different biomes within what feels like a few hundred feet from each other, from fields to a desert in the south, swamplands in the west, and a frozen tundra in the north.

There are also four versions of each biome, and the temples and ruins contained within, thanks to Elliot’s ability to travel to different ages in the kingdom’s development. In a welcome twist, an element of causality is also introduced in some quests.

There’s also plenty to see and do outside of the main quest to save Princess Heuria and the kingdom she is intrinsically bound to thanks to her ability to use the magic of safekeeping, which stops the encroaching beast tribes from entering the kingdom.

There are ruins to explore, heart pieces to find, and upgrades for your weapons and magical abilities to uncover. Though classic Zelda is an obvious inspiration, the way forward isn’t always as straightforward as going to the next dungeon, grabbing the new piece of equipment, and then moving on. Oftentimes, Elliot will need to revisit the same dungeon in different time periods, which opens new paths and rewards. Sometimes Elliot enters a temple, and his mouthy fairy companion Faie tells him he can only get so far at the moment.

This encourages the player to explore the environment, track down some new upgraded gear, complete a side quest, or return to the main campaign for a bit. What it does is make the experience feel more non-linear, sitting somewhere between A Link Between Worlds and Breath of the Wild with a dash of Chrono Trigger for good measure.

Your arsenal doesn’t necessarily help you unlock new areas in a dungeon either. Though your bombs will blow a hole in cracked walls, and your hammer will knock pegs into the ground, weapons like the spear and the chain sickle are more suited to causing mass amounts of damage to enemy mobs. What’s more, you’re not stuck using a sword as your main means of attack, although, admittedly, I did anyway.

Each weapon has a powerful charged attack that adds an element of risk and reward to proceedings. There are also two upgraded versions of each piece of equipment that are well worth tracking down for the substantial damage boost and unique special effects.

Combat is simple but satisfying. Your attacks all feel like they have a decent sense of heft to them, whether Elliot’s swinging his sword, thrusting with the spear or crushing enemies with a giant hammer. Watching foes explode into plumes of smoke as you steadily rack up a kill streak that nets you a steadily increasing amount of bonus loot once you’ve torn your way through a certain number of enemies without getting hit makes you want to annihilate every last snail, werewolf, and frogman you stumble upon.

Although it doesn’t happen very often, thanks to the myriad of healing options available from health found in breakable pots or dropped by vanquished foes to vials you can fill with healing medicine, if you do snuff it, Fae can revive you for a handful of coins. Although the price increases every time you die, until you hit a fast travel spot (which are plentiful) It allows you a way to stay in the fight, without the frustration of having to restart from the beginning, and also takes a little of the bite out of some of the game’s more difficult boss battles, which can hit like a truck at times.

Your weapons can also be augmented with magicite. Crystals with a variety of effects that allow you to tailor weapons to your playstyle or simply buff them. These are obtained either by finding them in chests or by visiting a merchant who refines shards found in the wild into useful crystals via a fun little gatcha mechanic. It’s well worth visiting him regularly to expand your collection, as equipping various combinations of the magical rocks can lead to devastating effects. For example. Equipping the magicite that increases the blast radius of your bombs with the ability to leave behind pools of lava results in enemies getting caught in a huge explosion and then stuck wading through huge pools of lava.

Throughout the world, you’ll also stumble upon temples that unlock new powers for Fae. These are used to solve various puzzles and help with the game’s simple platforming challenges. These include transporting Elliot to Faes’ location, immolating herself and lighting a series of torches, and making Elliot sprint at breakneck speed. These powers also come in handy during battles, especially the fire abilities, as they allow Fae to torch foes and cause burn damage.

You can also find and buy accessories that confer various abilities onto Elliott, including negating damage from falls and environmental hazards like lava, making it easier to parry, and not sliding on ice or getting bogged down in quicksand. The most useful accessory, though, is one you can grab early in the game that lets you float like Princess Peach. This makes most of the game’s rudimentary platforming sections an absolute doddle. This makes grabbing many of the extra heart pieces, accessories, and magicite crystals an absolute breeze.

To get the final boss is fairly quick by your average RPG standards (under 20 hours), however, to get the proper ending and several others in between requires you to complete a series of quests in each era, which reveal more story beats and eventually uncover the true ending, which also significantly extends the playtime and is well worth the time and effort.

There are also plenty of fully voice-acted side quests, which are a fantastic demonstration of one of The Millennium Tales’ strongest aspects. It’s writing. Although you won’t necessarily get anything particularly useful for completing them, the bittersweet nature of much of the writing, and the quests that are just heartwarming, like going back in time to investigate some rogue robots that ultimately change a family’s motto from I only think about profit to putting people first, or connecting musicians through the ages, or pssing a note from a dying soldier to his family are the kind of morality tales I eat right up.

The voice acting overall is pretty decent. Even if it is the kind you’d expect from your average fantasy JRPG, Even Fae, who could have been incredibly annoying, manages to swing it thanks to sounding more cute than grating.

The artwork and illustrations by Naoki Ikushima and Yukihiro Kajimoto used in Elliot’s conversations and cutscenes are also absolutely gorgeous. But it’s almost to be expected from the pair that brought the similarly beautiful Octopath Traveller series to life.

This is backed by those wonderful HD-2D style visuals, which have fast become a guarantee you’re in for a good time, and an exceptional soundtrack composed by Tomohiro Nakamachi and Yuto Moritani or Imagine.

It also looks and runs great for the best part on Switch 2, though admittedly you’ll get longer load times than the PS5, and I did notice the occasional framerate drop when things got hectic during battles in handheld mode. Still, it’s a perfectly reasonable tradeoff for being able to play it anywhere.

Final Thoughts

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a game that may wear its Triforce on its sleeve, but it understands the fundamentals of why Link’s adventures remain some of the most beloved in the whole of gaming.

Though the moment-to-moment gameplay of The Millennium Tales is solid, where it really excels is in its ability to spin a good yarn, and not just in the broader strokes. Its side quests in particular are well worth your time, and even though dungeon diving and working your way through its myriad temples is engaging enough, it’s the stories, characters, and quieter moments that kept me enthralled throughout Elliot’s 1,000-year adventure.

About the Author

Gareth Newnham

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales (NS2) Review