Let’s be real: There’s no shortage of Zelda-style games to play right now. That’s true even if you’ve exhausted all there is to see in Tears of the Kingdom or Echoes of Wisdom. Indie developers keep finding new ways to refresh the formula, whether it’s fusing it with a Soulslike, making it cozier, or simply shrinking it down into something more manageable. Now we have Square Enix and The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, a curiously named RPG that mixes the classic Zelda structure with something that resembles Final Fantasy. And it’s a combination I can’t seem to get enough of.
The Adventures of Elliot is the latest in Square Enix’s “HD-2D” line of games, a loosely collected series defined largely by their visuals, which reimagine pixel art for modern audiences. The other defining trait is every game has an incredibly weird name, so Elliot fits right in. Many are more traditional JRPGs, like the Octopath Traveler series, some Dragon Quest remakes, and an actual Final Fantasy game. But Square Enix has also grown the HD-2D style to encompass more genres, like Triangle Strategy’s, well, strategy, and now an action-adventure game.
As you can probably guess, Elliot stars an adventurer named Elliot in a world of magic and monsters. In Elliot’s time, most of the land is a dangerous place, with only a single city free from the beast tribes, as it’s under the magical protection of a young princess. That makes adventurers like Elliot an integral part of society: They’re the ones who go out into the world and complete tasks that are otherwise too risky for normal citizens. Soon enough he gets pulled into a larger adventure with the fate of the kingdom at stake, at first involving one of the king’s advisers with a thirst for power and eventually spanning multiple timelines across a thousand years.
There are many clear similarities to Zelda. You cut down grass and jewels appear; you collect pieces of heart to increase your health; you slowly unlock an arsenal that includes bombs and a boomerang; you heal yourself with magic elixirs collected in empty bottles. Eventually you even get a fairy companion who is extremely annoying. The structure also feels very Zelda. There are smaller dungeons where you unlock new powers and abilities, and then larger ones where you have to use those powers and abilities to solve puzzles, find a big red boss key, and then take on the bosses themselves.
I’m making The Adventures of Elliot sound like a Zelda clone with an HD-2D sheen, but it’s much more than that, thanks in large part to the roleplaying elements and worldbuilding. While you don’t earn experience and level up like in a typical RPG, there are a number of elements reminiscent of games like Final Fantasy. Most notable is a collectible substance called magicite, which lets you customize Elliot’s various weapons to better suit your playstyle. Similarly, there are a number of different magical spells your fairy can learn, which lets you do things like light enemies on fire or warp out of danger. And like in a traditional JRPG, you spend a lot of time talking to folks in towns and watching cutscenes, poring over dialogue as the story unfolds. Elliot is a very chatty game, and its main character will give you a good idea of what Link would be like if he ever spoke. (Nice but kind of boring.)
What really pulled me into this world, though, is how detailed and expansive it is. You’re essentially exploring the same map across four different time periods, and as you go back you learn more about how the world was, and thus how it came to be the way it is in Elliot’s time. There’s a highly advanced era where magic is prevalent and has led to new technologies, and one that lives in the ruins of that society, as humanity struggles to survive amid the growing monster threat. You might see a beautiful building in one era that’s nothing but a wreck in the next, or empty fields that eventually give way to a sprawling kingdom. The game lets you freely jump around between the time periods, as many quests involve going backward or forward in time to learn some vital piece of information or collect an important item.
Image: Square Enix
It’s all very Chrono Trigger, and it makes the world of Elliot feel like a real, lived-in place with centuries of history to discover. The layout of the world remains largely unchanged from one era to the next, but there are important differences: cities that are larger and more elaborate in one time period, or bridges that haven’t been built yet, forcing you to find a different path. The same goes for caves and dungeons, which are like remixed versions of themselves as you explore them across eras. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention just how important cats are in this game; they’re everywhere in the world, and finding and befriending them unlocks some very important items.
Elliot is also streamlined in a way that makes it approachable without being overly easy. The game is very generous with save points and fast travel. For instance, I’d often complete a dungeon right up until the final boss, and then fast travel to a town to refresh my resources before jumping into the main fight. Your fairy companion can revive you in a boss battle for a price that increases with each revival, so if you’re struggling with a particular enemy, you can always grind for cash to make things a little easier. The game still rewards skill: You can build up a combo for every enemy you defeat without taking damage, and the higher the combo, the better the item drops you get.
Like the rest of the HD-2D games, The Adventures of Elliot takes something that looks and feels very familiar, but adds just the right amount of modern touches and ingenuity to make it stand on its own. There may be a lot of Zelda-style games — and more coming — but few as polished, creative, and expansive as Elliot. Don’t let the goofy name scare you off.
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales launches on the Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox, and Steam on June 18th.
