Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales review

I’ve put almost 30 hours into Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales on PlayStation 5. I’ve seen all three endings and there isn’t much left for me to do. In short, it’s Square Enix’s modern top-down Legend of Zelda-like, and it surprised me. I wasn’t really following it before release, and I ended up loving it.

A quick note on playtime: my save says 25 hours on Normal, but I also played about 5 hours of the demo beforehand and that save carried over.

Four ages, one map

You play as Elliot, an adventurer, with your fairy helper Faye, who you control with the right thumbstick. After the prologue (the part you can play in the demo), the princess you’ve been helping is captured and imprisoned, and the two of you set off to save her.

What makes this game unique is that it doesn’t happen in one timeline. Eventually you learn to travel through time across four ages, all on the same map but changed by time:

• The Age of Safekeeping: the present, where you start.
• The Age of Reconstruction: humans hiding from the beasts that have taken over the land.
• The Age of Magic: when humans discovered magic and pushed the beasts back.
• The earliest age, before all of that.

You can’t jump between them freely. You find doorways, and the story moves you back and forth. The best part is that what you do in one age affects the others. If you blow up boulders to reach a chest in the past, those boulders are gone when you return to that spot in a later age.

The map starts clouded over and reveals itself as you explore, filled with caves, ruins and dungeons that feel like the old Super Nintendo Zelda era, plus fast travel points and towns full of people to talk to.

Weapons, magic and upgrades

You can carry two weapons at a time from a set of seven that you find over the course of the game: sword, spear, hammer, chain and sickle, bow, boomerang and bombs. Every weapon has a hold-to-charge special move. If you played Zelda on the Super Nintendo, you’ll recognize the boomerang right away. I didn’t use the hammer much because it’s a little slow, but sword and hammer make a fun combination.

Weapons are upgraded with magicite, which you get by trading in crystals at a vendor. Each weapon has its own upgrade options. My sword, for example, had attack up, faster heavy charges and an extra slash.

Faye has five spells you can switch between at any time: a fire spell, a sprint, a vacuum, a warp that gets you behind walls and into places you couldn’t otherwise reach, and a copy spell that creates a second you. It’s not a lot of magic, but it’s the right amount for the situations the game throws at you.

Later you also learn to swim and dive, which opens up new parts of the map.

Side quests, accessories and collectibles

There are 33 side quests, and each one gives a reward:

• Charms and accessories that change your build. My favorite combination was Precise Guard, which widens the parry window, plus a brief float when jumping that helps in some dungeons.
• Empty vials you fill with potions to restore health or boost strength and defense.
• Items like the Discerning Monocle, which helps with parry timing for the game’s perfect-block system.

Temples around the world give extra hearts and magic. And there’s a character who asks you to find 50 cats. Tip: if you want the true ending, collect all of them.

Dungeons, puzzles and bosses

Dungeons have multiple levels and light puzzles. The combat is nothing groundbreaking, but it’s a lot of fun, and some of the bosses are wild. There’s real variety in them. The trials include a full boss rush and arena fights that end with a boss.

The world is big and open, but the game is fairly linear. Main-quest markers usually make it clear where to go next. The exception is the path to the true ending, which gets a bit hard to follow and has you going back over a few things.

Three endings

About halfway through, you can head for an ending early. Doing that gets you the bad ending. Reload your save, keep going, and you’ll reach the good ending, and then eventually the true ending. There’s also a New Game Plus, and after beating the game it drops you back before the final boss so you can keep exploring and collecting.

Lots of talking, and that’s fine

Some people complain about how much talking there is, and Faye does comment on almost everything. Some expected top-tier voice acting and didn’t get it. I didn’t mind the cheesiness at all. I think it helps the game. It’s clearly aimed at a younger audience, but as someone who played the original Zelda as a kid, it was really refreshing to play this style of game again.

Verdict: one of my favorite games of the year

If you love old-school Zelda but want it with modern controls, a lot of depth, a long adventure and some basic puzzling, check out Adventures of Elliot. I know some people are waiting for a sale because they felt it was overpriced. After playing it, I’d say it’s worth your time and possibly one of my favorite games of the year.