In upcoming role-playing game (RPG) The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, players step into the shoes of the titular hero and his fairy companion Faie as they travel the beast-ravaged continent of Philabieldia.
The last remnants of humanity live there and are led by Princess Heuria, who tasks Elliot with uncovering a mysterious artifact known as the Doorway of Time, This leads to a story where our hero and Faie travel between four distinct time periods.
Blast from the past
Announced last Summer alongside a free 90-minute gameplay demo for Nintendo Switch 2, there was much to appreciate about the direction Square Enix was going in with The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales.
That trademark HD-2D style felt more alive than ever with beautiful environments, sprites and effects, while the gameplay itself felt steeped in nostalgia. The developers also used the demo to actively request feedback from players in order to improve the experience. It looks like Square Enix heard those criticisms loud and clear after a hands-on event at their El Segundo, California office.
The demo’s combat was exceptionally easy. Making things even less challenging was allowing players to either start from the last checkpoint or spend currency to instantly revive Elliot if he died in combat. This gave death a low-stakes consequence during battles against simple enemies or bosses. They addressed this by creating four difficulty options, including Easy, Medium, Hard and Extra Hard.
Another change was in Faie herself. In the game, the fairy serves as a companion to provide advice, environmental commentary and more. This problem is that Faie talked a bit too much. That created a sliding scale of annoyance for enough players to become an issue. To remedy that, there is a setting in the options menu to lessen how often she speaks.
This new hands-on starts outside of a dungeon built around various mirror reflection puzzles. Some mirror puzzles stretched across an entire room and required Elliot to move things around. The goal was to get a large boss key, which led to a boss fight against two mechanical enemies. One had a large sword, while the other one had a large crossbow. Fighting both of them wasn’t difficult thanks to a mix of Elliot’s weaponry and Faie’s abilities.
After that, the demo concluded at the Age of Time that allows our hero to travel to different time periods in the story. We were prevented from going any further, but the world of Philabieldia has plenty of things to do in the meantime.
That includes a few outside dungeons to get special weapons and abilities for Faie. One new ability showcased in the demo was an Ignite ability. Not only could it serve as a way to light torches for light and various puzzles, but had some usages in combat. This joins other abilities that the fairy can use, like a flight ability that lets Elliot move faster and a warp ability that places our hero anywhere Faie is.
While exploring another dungeon, I also came across the Catala Bow. This bow is not only more powerful than the standard bow but also has a charge ability. This serves as a great addition to the arsenal of weapons Elliot has in the new demo. Joining the sword (and Dusk Sword upgrade), shield, bow and bomb weapons from the original demos are several other weapons. This includes the Sapling Spear, Hammer and Scythe Cain which serve many purposes depending on the enemy.
Another ranged weapon addition is the boomerang that comes in pretty handy against enemies who are at a distance. These weapons are easily swappable via a press of the shoulder button. The same thing also works for Faie’s abilities. There is an ability to upgrade weapons through the Magicite system, but that wasn’t available for me to try out.
Making my way around Philabieldia I found myself in a Grandtree dungeon which featured a forest setting filled with bouncy lily pads and a cat companion that could be collected. However, I could only go so far as Faie suggested I come back during another time period. This definitely opens up the possibilities of time period-based puzzles.
There was also a desert cave with quick sand puzzles that I was able to play around in for a moment. Faie even suggested I leave one dungeon entrance alone as it might be beyond what Elliot could do in the game at the moment.
Playing the new build on a base PlayStation 5, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales visually looks on par with the Switch 2 demo with a tad bit more sharpness. The HD-2D graphics look better than previous Square Enix games that have utilized that style thanks to the faster real-time action.
Plus, the art direction is pretty cool as well. On the audio side, the music is already sounding epic with a beautiful orchestral soundtrack (cleverly stripping down to piano when in menus) alongside some convincing voice acting.
After playing for an hour, I was left wanting to dive more into Elliot’s adventures with Faie when it launches on June 18, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.
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