Over the last few years, Square Enix mostly played it pretty safe. New Final Fantasy games. Dragon Quest remakes, entries, and spin-offs. Even a little return to the Mana and SaGa series. But if you’ve followed the developer and publisher for years, you know sometimes it is capable of unusual things and fun experiments! The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales feels like that to me, being a Mana or The Legend of Zelda style action-RPG. I think it comes closer to the more unexpected risks like Harvestella, Nanashi no Game, Sigma Harmonics and Voice of Cards than other titles we’ve seen in the last few years. So even though there are times when it feels slightly awkward, the I find the ideas and concepts employed exciting. The Adventures of Elliot begins in Huther during the Age of Safekeeping. Elliot is an orphan who grew up to be an adventurer in order to support the orphanage that raised him and its residents. When mysterious ruins are discovered, his friend Euygene recommends him to the king and Princess Heuria as someone who can be trusted to explore them. After journeying through two ruins near the kingdom, Elliot uncovers the Doorway of Time and meets a fairy companion named Faie. As a result, he can travel to different ages and take on quests in all of them to potentially change the course of history. As I mentioned earlier, The Adventures of Elliot feels like a bit the elements of the Mana and The Legend of Zelda action-RPG series, specifically Oracle of Ages and Ocarina of Time. Elliot can wield different types of weapons, with ones like swords, spears, and hammers as melee types of options and bows or boomerangs offering ranged attacks. He can also use a shield to guard against hits and equip Magicite for passive buffs and magical, elemental effects. You can dual equip weapons for building up combos and quick attacks, and likewise certain Magicite pairings can really help with damage. So the starting sword and shield pairing are very good, and I imagine you could rely on just that if you wanted for many situations. However, I also liked making him use a bow with the chains and sickles and try to focus on picking off enemies from afar. The combat honestly feels incredibly smooth. It’s very easy to swap between weapons with the wheel, and both the melee and ranged attacks feel satisfyingly strong. It’s also easy to build up combos, counter, and guard, and the increased drop rates we get from continually besting foes without taking a hit feels like a tangible reward. Since weapons like the bomb and hammer can also serve as means to destroy environmental elements for access to new areas, even ones someone might not be fond of can feel useful. Because we’re going through different ages, this means we’re seeing different spaces around Philabieldia during different ages. This means different main and side quests, as well as affecting the environment or situations in earlier ages to change the future. This incentivizes returning to different periods of time, not only for the obvious campaign missions and side quests, but to see what chests or areas are now accessible. Now, this does mean that we do see a lot of the same biomes and areas repeating. But this makes sense given the nature of things. And since we do see things like shrines in different spots. Couple that with a fast travel system that exists at the set adventurer waypoints both in the overworld and in the major dungeon ruins, and that helps with avoiding too much retreading. Images via Square Enix Since The Adventures of Elliot is a The Legend of Zelda and Manastyle adventure, that means there are also abilities that eventually unlock in the form of new Faie fairy powers. Some of these feel like convenience features. So like Sprinting is hugely helpful for clearing, as is the Tornado to use winds to pull things to a center. All of them felt pretty practical as I used them, however! Like they genuinely helped with exploring the world and making travel easier. The Adventures of Elliot also, as expected, looks fantastic. Square Enix and its teams really are making the most of the HD-2D style. It is really quite gorgeous on the Switch 2. I also appreciated that there are automatic transparency effects to keep my view from being impeded in, say, a forested area. The design direction is great. The viewpoint means it’s very easy to see opponents in dungeons and manage boss fights. It also made platforming very manageable, which is something I was concerned about. However, the Age of Safekeeping shop that also sold a cape that lets you flutter and one that negated pit damage were also quite helpful for that. Screenshots by Siliconera Of course, by this point you probably realize I haven’t mentioned too much about The Adventures of Elliot’s narrative. Feedback after the demo appeared is that folks like Princess Heuria and Faie could be incredibly talkative when Elliot is exploring the world. So much so that there are a lot of comparisons of Faie in The Adventure of Elliot to Navi in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. While his supports do tend to provide running commentary, I didn’t find it all that bad and think those who are concerned will find that choosing the “reticent” option in settings to make them less chatty will be fine. Like I get why the team did it. Elliot is on his own a lot, and there was probably some concern about not enough dialogue given it feels like it is still meant to be a story-heavy experience. Overall, I do think there have been Mana and The Legend of Zelda games with much stronger narratives. Some ages’ characters and plot points seemed more engaging than others. But I liked the story of The Adventures of Elliot a lot. Especially since I did get the “true” ending that helped tie things together. The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales feels different and like an example of Square Enix taking a chance, and that’s why I loved this action-RPG. There are some minor issues, but I really found the combat satisfying and concept intriguing. Not to mention it’s great to see an HD-2D game that experiments with a different genre rather than another turn-based RPG. Square Enix took a shot here, and I think it should be commended for it. The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is available for the Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.