‘Adventures of Elliot’ review: Zelda’s fun, frustrating gift

It’s frustrating when you see a better game within a game you enjoy. Case in point: Elliot’s Adventures: Millennium Tales.

Square Enix’s latest in a series of mini, throwback-focused “HD-2D” games (using the same technology and art style as games like Octopath Traveler 0) is clearly intended to appeal to old-school enthusiasts The Legend of Zelda games. It also has a high concentration of Chrono Trigger and other aspects of other RPGs such as the venerable, criminally underrated Ys series.

Those are all things I love, so naturally, I was very excited about this.

Unfortunately, Elliot’s AdventuresThe excellent qualities are not enough to cover how half-baked its structure is. Between that and a lackluster story that takes too long to reach its climax, it’s hard to call it the best 2D. Zelda respect, though it’s still fun and worth your time if you’re into this sort of thing.

Elliot’s AdventuresThe best moments feel like an arcade game

In Elliot’s Adventuresyou play an unknown immigrant. Elliot is wearing a cool hat. Elliot is a tough guy, known far and wide for his kindness and honesty. I would have a beer with him if I could.

Some typical video game stuff happens in the first few hours of the game, setting Elliot on a quest to save the princess. He is joined by a strange and annoying fairy named Faie. Both quickly gain the ability to travel through time, eventually unlocking four different timelines that the player can freely explore.

Elliot’s Adventures it wears its own Zelda inspiration up its sleeve. It’s all about running around an open (but not too big) world, using a combination of Elliot’s weapons and Faie’s legendary powers to explore a cornucopia of caves and dungeons.

Faie’s powers are one of the game’s new features, as you can control her separately with the right analog stick. The game will often ask you to guide him around obstacles that Elliot can jump over to light flashlights or carry items from one point to another.

This is one part of the Elliot’s Adventures that makes it stand out, and I appreciate it.

Mashable Top Stories

I found it fun to ignore the quest objectives and explore Elliot’s world idly, mostly because the simple and accessible real-time combat is the highlight of the adventure. Elliot quickly unlocks six different weapons, including a sword, spear, bow, and hammer, and can equip himself with both at once.

There aren’t any complex weapons themselves – but there is a cool upgrade system that allows you to add unique features to all of them, unlocking an impressive amount of flexibility. At the end of the game, my bow can do the following things, simultaneously:

1. Go into enemies with a charged gun

2. Bounce more arrows between enemies after the first hit

3. Light up any enemies that were hit with fire

4. It causes an explosion every time an arrow hits an enemy that was on fire

Every weapon has a different, ongoing set of upgrades like this, and it’s rocking. There’s also a simple, arcade-like combo meter that goes up when you get a kill and resets when you take damage (the higher the number, the better the loot you’ll get from enemies).

In short, combat is fast, fun, and generally a good time.

This time travel story does nothing short of its premise

Sadly, it’s a good fight and all Elliot’s Adventures he must give. There is something It’s a story with lots of cutscenes and voice acting, but most of it is forgettable kind of corny and overly sentimental.

There are worse sins for a fun action RPG to commit than an unpleasant scene, though. And I regret to inform that Elliot’s Adventures it has other bones in its closet.

The travel time mechanic adds nothing to the game, other than padding. There are four versions of the world map set throughout the years, a la Chrono Triggerbut they are different enough from each other. A volcanic area is always a volcanic area and a wetland is always a wetland.

There are many caves and dungeons to choose from, but most of them are Elliot’s Adventures which you have to offer, if you have extensive experience in testing all of them come in all of them time, an extra treasure chest or two.

Ultimately teh game fails to perform well in its place, both mechanically and narratively. Different stories at different times fail to interact meaningfully until very late in the game’s plot. Elliot’s Adventures it has multiple endings, and the path to the actual ending is the only time the game does anything compelling about this.

I’m fine with a game saving the best for last, but a 25 hour journey that’s only good for the first 20 hours is just not satisfying .

The fact that Elliot’s Adventures it’s fun to play only helps make the rest very disappointing. This would actually be a neat combination of Zelda again Chrono Triggerbut it is merely a fair imitation of the former and does not even approach the heights of the latter.

The Adventures of Elliot: Millennium Tales launches on June 18 for PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series consoles, and PC.