The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales – Demo Impressions

Capping off the July 2025 Nintendo Direct were two new games from Square Enix’s Team Asano for their ever-prolific HD-2D banner. After last year’s Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake and the forthcoming Dragon Quest I&II HD-2D Remake (both developed by Artdink instead), we again return to original projects with one being yet another Octopath Traveler game and the other being something completely original. The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales promises yet another genre shift for Team Asano, making the jump from command-based gameplay to a full-on sprawling Action RPG. Before its release in 2026, Square Enix has released a meaty demo for the game. Having recently completed it, I’d like to share my thoughts on what is shaping up to be one of the most compelling Square Enix outings in recent memory.

An Elliot to the Past

Straight away, the first thing you’ll notice about The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales are the number of quirks it derives from the Zelda series. A traveling swordsman with a fairy companion is innocuous enough, but then you get to the gameplay, and things start to become very familiar very quickly. Pots that you can pick up and throw at people? Check. Cracked walls that you can bomb to find secrets and hidden entrances? Check. Grass that you can manually cut down, and in fact, you’re even encouraged to do so? Check. Even the currency for this game comes in the form of differently colored gems. While it should be noted that Zelda didn’t necessarily invent any of these ideas, The Adventure of Elliot’s applications here are not exactly shy about what inspired them. It plays it rather closely to the mold of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in terms of map structure, progression, and overall interactivity. 

At the outset of this demo, Elliot comes with a basic sword attack, bombs to blow things up and cause big damage, and a bow to attack at range. If you explore for a while, you’ll also find the Scythe Chain item, which can attack at greater ranges but is slower than the sword. Elliot also has a shield, which can block a limited number of attacks or parry certain attacks with the right timing. His fairy companion Faie is controlled with the right stick, and she gives Elliot a quick dash and the ability to warp wherever she can reach. These are handy for both exploration and combat, with the warp skill being especially good for getting out of the way of enemies.

While I have many compliments for this title, I think the adventure elements are where it shines the brightest. Level design in the fields feels layered and inviting, while still keeping things hidden enough that I had to keep an eye out to find some good rewards. Treasure chests that expand inventory, items that make you stronger, and special challenges that test you in numerous ways kept my engagement steady in a way that felt rather effortless. Even though the space you can explore in the demo is technically quite small, I still felt like I had done and seen a lot in my mere 90 minutes of play. 

Dungeons are also off to a good start here, with puzzles focused mostly on navigation and beating down enemies that block your path. It’s perhaps closest to Zelda 1 in that sense, though they sprinkle in some nice challenges here and there to feel more varied. Of the two main dungeons found in the demo, one featured quicksand where you would need to fall in the right holes to progress, while the other featured timed puzzles where I hopped across lilypads and vacuum traps that try to suck you up. They’re on the shorter side, but they are plenty of fun while they last and have distinct aesthetics as well.

Fight It Out

One of the things that really struck me when playing this game was the enemy variety already put on display here. Even just the starting areas contain several different enemy types that all feel meaningfully different from each other. In the northern swamp, there are frogs who attack you with projectiles, drums, and one will even play music that shields their allies. In the southern desert, there are beastmen who plant remote bombs that detonate when you go near them, who burrow underground, and will try to flank you with knives. There are also automatons carrying spears who will revive if you don’t destroy their cores, balls of flame that shoot projectiles, and spider-like automatons that have shields but can be knocked on their backs. 

So yeah, there are a lot of different enemies to go around, but better still is that they’re thoughtfully arranged throughout the game world. Each enemy carries a sort of attribute that synergizes and plays well with each other. For example, the frogs I mentioned before will often try to flank you, forcing you to keep constant movement to dispatch them in the proper order. There are also Life Shrines, some of which are combat-oriented and feel like massive gauntlets. This is where combat truly shines, feeling sort of like an RPG-ified version of Pocky & Rocky, or a slower and more considered version of Ys. I especially praise Square Enix for not bucking to the usual trend of featuring a dodge roll just because that’s what’s expected. Enemy patterns really get to shine because of how I’m expected to learn and interact with them.

This extends to the boss battles, with both featured in the demo being the highlights of the whole experience. On Hard Mode, they hit hard and their patterns felt distinct and incredibly fun to master. They do contain some Zelda-isms like using a specific item in a way that’s obvious, but this is combined with some aggressive attack patterns that require a lot of foresight and intuition to dodge or block. The fish boss, The Lord of the Maw, feels like a supercharged version of a boss from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. While you do typical things like feeding it a bomb when it tries to suck you in, this is compounded by it summoning tornadoes, tidal waves, and rocks from the ceiling, as well as mooks to flank you when you’re trying to concentrate on dodging.

All of these excellent elements are enhanced by the Magicite feature, allowing you to buff up Elliot and Faie in ways that suit your playstyle. While you can only carry a limited number of them, you can at least switch between different sets of Magicite on the fly. There is the typical “deal a percentage more damage with [x] weapon type”, but there are also Magicites that change the fundamental functions behind your weapons. One Magicite might increase the range of a bomb’s explosions, which makes them more potent for enemies, but also more dangerous for you if you get hit by them. Another might enable ricochet fire or piercing fire for bows. Considering this demo doesn’t scratch the surface of build and weapon variety, I’m very eager to see what the final game has in store on this front.

Visuals and Performance 

The Adventures of Elliot looks quite nice. As the first HD-2D game to not be featured on the original Nintendo Switch, the developers were able to leverage the more modern hardware in some interesting ways. It mostly prioritizes smooth play at a steady 60FPS rather than enhancing the visuals, but what is here looks quite nice in either case. It carries a lot of the same compliments I usually have for HD-2D titles, in that it feels classic and large-scale, yet it doesn’t sacrifice an ornate quality. Every area I visited in the demo, save for the Life Shrines, felt distinct. The overall palette of the game is generally quite moody, like the Octopath titles and Triangle Strategy, and I think it works to great effect. 

There definitely is some more work left to be done as far as optimization is concerned, at least on the Nintendo Switch 2 version. In the grasslands outside of town especially, I noticed shimmering and lowered resolutions. While I would not say I am particularly sensitive to things like a few dropped frames or dynamic resolution, I think it’s clear that some more work needs to be done to get it fully where it ought to be. This also extends to load times, which I feel could stand to be a bit briefer, considering how areas around the map are still sectioned off from each other. It is a definite improvement over previous HD-2D games, but it can stand to become even better.

Wishlist for the Final Version

• I hope that Faie will speak somewhat less in the final game. I don’t mind companion characters in games and even the likes of Navi from Zelda or Ashley from Resident Evil 4 never really got on my nerves. Where companion characters start to intrude is when they spoil the fun of letting me figure things out for myself, which Faie undoubtedly does by mentioning nearby cracked walls or how to progress past a certain kind of challenge. I would prefer this become optional and only enabled by people who really do need it. I do think stuff like Faie gesturing to a nearby cat to play with her is very endearing, though, so I hope they find a good balance here.
  
• I would like it if Elliot’s primary sword attack is strengthened ever-so-slightly, but what’s really needed is a sword combo attack. It feels somewhat awkward to just stand in place and constantly swing, and it makes his default attack feel rather poor to use. It’s like I’m constantly bashing an enemy with a pool noodle rather than a blade. Even after finding the hidden upgrade, I still think it’s just too weak for how resilient even regular enemies can be.
  
• Some adjustments to make controls feel more seamless would be much appreciated. Mostly, I want the ability to be able to equip at least two of Faie’s abilities at once rather than have to constantly swap between them. I also want to be able to equip three of Elliot’s weapons and items at once, rather than just two. There’s no reason for the map to be mapped to the ZL button rather than the minus button (which is occupied by a controls guide, something that should be found in the pause menu instead), when ideally it could be used for one of Faie’s other powers. L3 is likewise not used for anything at all, when ideally it could be another method to streamline controls further.
  
• I would like to see that Elliot’s basic walking speed is increased. It should be noted that his being so slow is seemingly a deliberate quirk of the game’s design, as there is an accessory in town that increases his movement speed in exchange for lower defense. While I respect this by itself, when it comes to moving throughout towns or safe areas, I would like it if he had some kind of run button that wasn’t tied to Faie. On that note, I would also like to see the cooldown timer on Faie’s abilities become faster in areas that are purely puzzle-oriented, such as certain Shrines or caves.

So Far, So Good

I’m all in on The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales after completing the demo. It feels rich, confident, and different in a way that threw me for a loop for a while. It fully and completely demonstrates what makes a great action-adventure title, while splashing in plenty of Square Enix’s typicalisms to make things feel distinct from its inspirations. By the time I hit the “Thanks for playing!” screen, I really wanted to see what lied beyond that. I went from anticipating the full game to being downright ravenous for it; 2026 truly can’t come fast enough now. 

THE ADVENTURES OF ELLIOT: THE MILLENNIUM TALES IS PROMISING

Platforms: PlayStation 5, PC

A hobbyist who took up the pen to write about their favorite pastime: games. While a lover of many genres, Isaiah Parker specializes in Platformers, RPGs, and competitive multiplayer titles. The easiest way into his heart is to have great core gameplay mechanics. Self-proclaimed world’s biggest Sonic fan. Follow him @ZinogreVolt