Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows
Developer: Square Enix, Claytechworks
Publisher: Square Enix
Price: $59.99
Fans of old-school top-down Zelda games are eating well in 2026 with the next major aspirant, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, releasing just weeks after the stellar Mina The Hollower.
Elliot was first revealed in the July 2025 Nintendo Direct as the newest title by Team Asano, a team under Square Enix's Studio 5, that previously released franchises such as Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, and Bravely Default.
It immediately grabbed attention because it was described as an "HD-2D Action RPG" by a team known for turn-based games. Then, it featured what looked like a red mage evoking gameplay usually seen alongside a green-clad Hylian.
Top that off with time-traveling elements alongside the Square Enix name, and you get a lot of hype for what the game could potentially be.
While we found The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales to be a good game, we felt it fell a bit short of being a great one. Stick around for the rest of our review to dive into our highs, lows, and final scores.
Our review for The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales was conducted on the Nintendo Switch 2 version.
Highs
Charming Presentation
If you're drawn to The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales due to its aesthetic, it truly ranks among the best that HD-2D games have to offer.
The 3D background elements blend seamlessly with the 2D pixel art and character sprites. Animations and textures go the extra mile to immerse you in modern ways that impress while evoking nostalgia.
Colors are varied and vibrant, water glistens, and gusts of wind naturally ripple across plains. When matched with the excellent live-instrument soundtrack by composers Yuto Moritani and Tomohiro Nakamechi, you get one of the most magical worlds of 2026.
Excellent Game Feel
This game just feels good to play, and that's exactly what you want from an action RPG. As you jump, climb, push, and pull throughout your adventure, it always feels like you have just the right amount of control.
All seven weapons in your arsenal have a distinct weight, rhythm, and kinetic flow to their playstyle. It was incredibly satisfying being able to have two equipped at a time, on top of being able to swap them out whenever you'd like.
While you can easily play the entire game with your two favorite weapons, we found ourselves constantly changing them based on the enemies and biomes we were facing.
Outside of the well-executed micro feel, Elliot also has an enticing macro loop that always has something around the corner for you to do. Whether it's clearing out the map's fog of war or completing side quests, there was a constant pace of forward momentum throughout our playthrough.
The Magicite System Shines
As we mentioned above, there are seven weapons at your disposal in The Adventures of Elliot: a sword, spear, hammer, chain and sickle, bow, boomerang, and bomb.
Besides the great inherent feel they have, the weapons really become unleashed when you involve the Magicite system. To summarize, as you defeat enemies and explore, you'll collect Magicite Fragments. These can be traded into equippable power-ups that grant game-changing augments to your weapons.
This ranges from expected choices like improving crit chance and crit damage, but also creatively expands to everything from making your sickle launch fireballs while you spin it to making your bombs freeze enemies within their explosions.
The possibilities get even deeper when you enable choices that have "Weapon Shift", essentially a category of Magicite that triggers and grants benefits when you swap weapons at the right time.
Overall, the system provides welcome depth within a game that can be quite surface-level in its other aspects.
Lows
Leans Too Much on Inspirations
While The Adventures of Elliot is certainly beautiful and feels good to play, we felt that it ultimately played it really safe in its creative choices.
Its inspirations are incredibly obvious, but instead of building on them in a meaningful way, it felt more on the nose and derivative.
Did we really need him to have the exact combination of a sword and shield, boomerang, bow, and bomb? Even Elliot's grunts, gasps, and battle cries are basically interchangeable with Link's. And you guessed it, there's a magical princess involved.
Naturally, there are also nods to other franchises (like Mana and Chrono) to offer a bit of variety, but the Zelda DNA is dominant everywhere you look and listen.
Overall, the game stays within the lanes you'd expect and rarely attempts to innovate.
Really Likes To Hold Your Hand
You've likely heard by now that The Adventures of Elliot features an infamous companion fairy, named Faie. It's a bit unfortunate that she has this reputation because the magical abilities she provides are pretty fun. However, the criticisms around her are warranted.
If you're looking for an experience that provides "a-ha!" moments and times where you feel smart, this is not the game for you.
Faie is constantly in your ear, telling you to watch out for obvious dangers like "don't touch the cactus!" or to open up a chest that's right in front of you. Whenever you unlock a new ability, she'll immediately tell you to use it when you run into a nearby puzzle.
There is an option in the settings to turn Faie's dialogue down from the default "Talkative" to the lower "Reticent," but it honestly doesn't do much.
Even gathering collectibles, which is typically an activity reserved for more dedicated players, is made easy due to a Magic Compass and Needles that point out where they all are.
We realize that these choices might be an upside for gamers who are just looking to relax after a long day at work or for introducing a child to the genre, but it often made the "adventure" feel more like a curated expedition.
Time Traveling Aspects Are Disappointing
The titular "Millennium Tales" for Elliot's adventures is another disappointing facet that really should have been a strength in most realities. Without spoiling much, the game features "eras" that Elliot can travel between to progress and drive the main storyline forward.
Coming from the Square name that once created the likes of Chrono Trigger, and knowing that the devs were looking at the 2D Zeldas (which likely included the Oracle of Ages), the contrast to what Elliot ends up doing with that legacy is a bummer.
Rather than feeling like exciting locations that cohesively ebb and flow with your actions, they feel like segmented experiences that hardly interact with one another. Dungeons were only showcased in one era, while the others will be a watered-down version with one or two treasure chests.
There's a baffling lack of satisfying butterfly-effect payoffs or big macro-puzzle solutions to uncover. Instead, you get quest macguffins and story beats that predictably drive you from era to era.
Ultimately, the time-traveling makes the game feel repetitive and arbitrary rather than offering unique novelty and opportunities.
Our Score
7/10 (Solid, But Was Expecting More)
At a base cost of $59.99, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales really should have been much more than it was. On paper, it had the ingredients and pedigree to establish itself as a promising new IP and one of the best games of the year.
However, the more we played, the more we realized we had to lower our expectations and understand that Elliot is an easy-going, by-the-numbers adventure game. Rather than embracing the challenge of meeting the standards of the titles it was inspired by, it instead plays it safe at virtually every angle.
For some players, this may feel sanitized, but for others, it might be the perfect game to unwind with before bed.
There's enough meat on its bones to still warrant a sequel — one that we would surely play in hopes of it being a bit more ambitious. However, for this debut, don't feel bad waiting for a sale.
Main Reviewer: Agilio Macabasco (originally published June 25, 2026)
