The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales

October 12, 2026

A tale of a humble adventurer that taps into ancient magic to change the course of history for his kingdom. “The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales” is unique yet feels familiar enough to invoke nostalgia. In an effort to fix what was thought to be permanent, the belief in hope pushes the story forward with the use of time travel to go backwards. Artifacts, exploration, relationships, and hardship are just some of what is earned as the many eras in time are crossed. All throughout the travels await striking combat that is at the forefront of this experience. The combat is to an advantage due to how limitless it is to customize for slashing through enemy hoards. The exploration and combat is further uplifted by the wonderful graphics that please the eyes of the player with every glance they will take. 

Right off the rip the appearance and feel strongly resemble the “Octopath Traveler” series, which tracks considering both games were developed by Square Enix. I’ve always looked at Octopath and thought, wow, a game such as this with button mashing combat would be absolutely incredible. Fast forward to 2026 and that is pretty much the type of experience that we are getting with “The Adventures of Elliot”. The visuals of Elliot and Octopath lean into a pixel-art aesthetic where the characters are 2D sprites but exist in a 3D world. This design can resemble series such as “Paper Mario” but with the addition of camera blur, light refraction, and a whole lot of shimmer. For some people, the pixel art can seem like a turn off, but this is until you notice the elegant lively details that bring it all together. Simple touches such as wind that causes grass, pants, and leaves on the trees to sway. Coupled with the shadows from the clouds, a distant depth blur, and other effects make the world feel alive. Little details go a long way, especially when there are so many of them scattered across the world. One of my favorite details are the real-time light refractions from characters such as Elliot’s fairy companion “Faie”, as well as other overworld objects. These effects make the land feel responsive to the actions of the player. The stylistic choices make this title appear like a magic spell was granted to a game originally design for a Nintendo DS system. 

In this story you play as an adventurer that is reluctant to call himself a hero, going by the name Elliot. Elliot grew up in an orphanage within the Kingdom of Huther. His purpose in life resolves around helping folks that are in need. No matter the situation or the danger it brings, it is clear that he is a character that prioritizes the safekeeping of others. Elliot’s ambition is what lead him into the main plot of this game which stems from official duties by request of the king. Elliot’s friend, Euygene, is who recommended that Elliot assist with stopping the antagonist; which leads him to saving princess Heuria from doom. Euygene is a scientist who lives within the castle and conducts research for King Hichard in the age of safekeeping – the age where the story-line kicks off. One thing leads into another, and Elliot enters the time travel ruins that allow him to traverse time. King Hichard was originally hesitant to explore the ruins due to the potential to re-write certain events in history. This attitude is quickly changed as bad-actors had already broken the barrier to work towards their own nefarious goals. With the story truly kicking off at this point, the games sees Elliot preparing himself to restore power back to the kingdom. Throughout his travel between eras in time, Elliot will be traversing ancient dungeons for stronger weapons, talking to people from different millenniums, and much more. The very concept of utilizing time travel is naturally adventurous, considering the various ways that it can shake up a story. This title makes great use of it with its own unique set of strengths and weaknesses. 

The ability to explore a map, as well as different time periods of the land is one of the games most impressive mechanics. As more eras in time are discovered, Elliot has the ability to quickly warp between any age with the use of his fairy companion Faie. Time travel benefits the story the most by far, and how deep the story gets depends on the route that the player chooses. Early on into the game, the final boss is pin-pointed on the map and is available to be taken head on. This hilariously resembles the “Destroy Ganondorf” main quest in “Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” (TotK). After the tutorial is completed in TotK, the game grants the opportunity to march towards Hyrule castle to take on the Demon King himself, but where is the fun in that? The Adventures of Elliot takes this concept up a couple notches by having various endings to the story. Accomplishing the bare minimum is technically a valid route to one of the endings, even though it might be the least desirable in terms of feeling of completion. Having played this game and achieved all three endings, I can confidently say that the “true” ending is more than worth the extra several hours of gameplay. Throughout that endeavor there were many truths revealed about why certain aspects are the way that they are. Major details such as Elliot’s origin, nice-to-knows such as where the thaumata originate, and fleeting wonders like why there are so many adorable cats scattered all over the place. A bonus from the existence of time travel implies that there are many historical events that pre-date Elliot’s existence. Unlike games that rely on history passed-down by someone else, Elliot’s ability to get details right form the source is an aspect that the game relies on heavily to tell its story. Keeping this as spoiler free as possible, a lot of Elliot's adventure comes down to finding ways to undo the wrong-doings done by the people of previous. 

Even though I much prefer the path of the true ending, there is unfortunate realization that I had upon the completion. The events and prerequisites that need to occur in order to unlock this ending involve picking up on a lot of clues. Coupled with the fact that the games story is split between several different eras in time can prove difficult for players to keep track. This is especially the case for those who may take breaks from the adventure every so often. My concern is that the majority of folks might not reach the true ending, or even be aware of its presence which could lessen their takeaways. On the contrary, the digging makes the final experience a bit more satisfying, knowing that you have followed everything though to the end. This mechanic is very reminiscent of the “Persona” series which have you “reach out to the truth” to uncover why things are the way that they are. The motto in “The Adventures of Elliot” is “hope is always there” which encapsulates the story quite nicely. 

Within the several eras in time, the player is able to freely walk the entire world-map. This is quite a feat since each era requires a redesign of what characteristics define the point in time. Typically the largest differences are the look and feel of the 2D map, coupled with a wildly different kingdoms that govern the people and the land. Unfortunately not everything across the millennia vary enough in their own way as there are aspects that are lacking quantity (more on that later). Regardless, observing the differences between the kingdoms provides a rather interesting glimpse into the general lively hood within each era. There are interesting queues that can be picked up such as magic proving to back-fire against its originally intended use. As heavily as this world relies on magic in the Age of Safekeeping, the general attitude towards its use was not always the same. There are tons of other details to observe such as how the houses were built, to how the towns were organized in terms of their social hierarchy. One of my favorite side quests titled “Search of the Right Sound” shows this well as it involves discussing ideas for notes with musicians across various eras in time. Within the main pub, a musician in the current age is essentially facing a writers block, and requests Elliot for help with filling in the music sheet. Elliot comes across a musician who has lost their main instrument and requires it to be relocated for them to assist. Elliot then utilizing his ability to time travel, locates an underutilized instrument to give to the musician so that they could get their creativity flowing. Once the sheet is filled with various inputs, the band at the pub go on to request a couple more stylistic choices from Elliot and then kicks off their performance. This quest is not only very fun to trace down and complete, it also leaves a lasting impression on the player since they are able to accomplish a smaller, yet sweet goal with the tools granted by the game. 

As the maps are explored, the design relies on restrictions to keep the player going towards the main goal. The most successful way that this game handles this is based on which weapons or techniques have been uncovered thus far. These invisible barriers can be as simple a giant rusty nail that is in the way, only able to be smacked down with the hammer weapon. The game design coveys this well by using subtle environmental queues to get the point across. Faie also makes commentary such as “I wonder if we can blow these rocks up with a bomb”; so on and so forth. As good as this design is, I sometimes cant help but find myself feel annoyed with how rigid the map is. These restrictions persist even in the later part of the game when the player might want to go back and complete all of the left over dungeons or find more collectibles; prior to the final boss fight. The overall issue stems from the map remaining almost exactly the same throughout the game as you clear wild beast territory and break new ground. No matter what, the map requires that the user traverse the landscape in the same fashion as they first did which often ends up being tedious. This issue is further exemplified once the player realizes that this issue often spans across most eras in time. 

Since there are four ages for Elliot to time-travel to, there are naturally variations to the map across those ages. The bigger variations can be seen within the main kingdoms in the lower-right corner of the map. Past the gates of the kingdom is where the notable variations come to a close. This is probably one of my greatest critiques for “The Adventures of Elliot” by a long shot. An aspect that this is the most negatively impacted by this is exploration. With this in mind, lets say the player locates a hidden treasure chest in the Age of Safekeeping. This discovery effectively translates to the player needing to go back in time to the three other ages to traverse the same route to find treasure in about the same location. This occurs many times in areas that are restricted to items that you unlock throughout the story. Granted, there are generally some differences such as the type of treasure, as well as some added shortcuts or variations in certain ages. However, the maps do not shift around too drastically to support the counter-argument that the exploration is worth-while beyond the different unlockables such as more HP canisters or upgraded weapons. The lack of worthwhile incentive is something that plagues the dungeons in this game as well. Credit to the dungeons, they are probably the most varied aspects outside of the kingdoms, but not by much. This variation is still nothing to write home about considering one age might have an expanded version of a dungeon, but the other three ages are its standard ‘condensed’ version. The occasional mini boss fights that can be found within the dungeons are at least a nice reward for the player making it all the way through to the end. The boss fights are actually crafted very well and the monsters are fun takes on what beastly creatures would probably dwell within the layers. Without the beasts at the end of some of the dungeons, there would be very little incentive to want to explore these repetitive locations. 

No matter in which age, either in a dungeon or the overworld, the combat experience is a thrill everywhere you go. “The Adventures of Elliot” has an a very fine-tuned combat system with a lot going for it. Quite so, when the demo for this title released a couple months prior to its full release, this was the aspect that immediately stuck out to me the most. The combat system is comprised of seven main weapon types which the player can have two equipped at a time. Kind-of like installments such as “Monster Hunter”, each weapon type behaves massively different from the other. As the story is progresses and more dungeons are cleared, upgrades to weapon classes are attained which come with more significant damage output and additional tiers to their charge attacks. Beating a dungeon to upgrade your weapons is an fun perk to look forward to as it also comes with a cosmetic change and a new bizarre name for the tool. Beyond your favorites, figuring out new combinations is almost a necessity as certain enemies and bosses are easier dealt with specific layouts. Trying new combos is easy since weapons can freely be interchanged on the fly all throughout the game. This encourages experimentation as you are roaming the overworld or neck-deep in boss fight. My personal favorite combination is the hammer, paired with the chain & sickle. Charging and launching the chain will greatly extend the reach of the tool and pull enemies towards you. With a certain “magicite” equipped, the player can unlock a 65% chance to stun the enemy that was pulled using the tool. While stunned, the extra few seconds is usually enough to greatly charge and release the hammer tool, which outputs some of the highest damage in the game!  

It wouldn’t be a magic based adventure made by Square Enix without any magic stones to upgrade your gear. When “magicite” is equipped onto weapons, the player is granted special abilities that range greatly in use-case. Magicite can be crafted using magicite fragments which are dropped by slaying beasts or found can be found in treasure chests. There are plenty of different types of magicite such as the ‘Freezing Bomb’ bomb-magicite which freezes nearby enemies that touch the bomb item. The ‘Wide Blade’ sword-magicite increases the size of the slashes that are created from a charged sword attack. This weapon mechanic is extremely reminiscent of “materia” from "Final Fantasy VII”, or “plug-in-chips” in “NieR:Automata”. As more magicite is collected, it is rather fun to try new combinations of weapons and magicite to further your expertise in defeating monsters. A really fun one available is the ‘Blast’ hammer-magicite which generates an explosion from an enemies that is killed with the hammer. Using the chain to stun an enemy, and sending it flying to explode is a ridiculously fun way to clear a hoard of lower-level enemies. This setup in specific can help chain kills together and quickly clear a room. This is just one of the many different ways that magicite can breath new life into the handful of weapons the player is given to explore with. 

I am torn by the various shortcomings in this title as much as I am excited about its advantages. The time traveling mechanic is one of the best features due to its ability to tie so well into the story and simple little side quests. I think its very cool that Elliot uses it to tackle generational political issues throughout the main plot. On a smaller scale, time travel also allows the player to freely cross various ages to adventure at their own discretion. Despite the advantages, the variety within the landscape could have seen more craft and care, even if that would have came at the cost of the scope of the map. Another design decision that I wasn’t too keen on was the strong similarities to the “Zelda” series. The parallels were so strong that I kept feeling inclined to compare to games both old and new from that series. Saving princess Heuria, collecting legendary weapons and tools, the hack and slash combat; it all keeps this experience from achieving its own unique identity. On the bright side, the adventure is met with wonderful details such as vibrant graphics and fairly decent voice acting. Actually, every line between the main story and side quests are voiced which is a very impressive accomplishment. I believe that there are a group of people who can greatly appreciate the experience that “The Adventures of Elliot” is waiting to offer. 

Rating

6.0 / 10