Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (version reviewed), PC, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch 2
Genre: Action Adventure, 2D, Zeldalike

It could just be me, but 2026 seems like a year where top-down 2D Zelda-like action-adventure games rule the roost. First with Mina The Hollower, which takes a Dark Souls step to the challenging while looking like The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening but with a burrowing rat, and now with Square Enix and Team Asano’s HD-2D hat in the ring. And just like that aforementioned indie title, it’s also a lovely grab-bag of nostalgic-yet-familiar fun that thankfully isn’t going to bust your balls too much.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a mouthful of a title, but wears its influence on its sleeves loud and proud: top-down overworld hack-and-slash with various weapons like swords, giant hammers, and bow-and-arrows, parry enemy attacks with shields, blow up cracked walls with bombs, go through plethora of dungeons with secrets and puzzles aplenty, and a big boss usually to cap that off.

Age of Calamity

After doing a ton of turn-based role-playing games, the team opt to do a real-time action adventure title but with their own spin on things. Namely, time-traveling and optional quests & endings. As the titular hero Elliot the adventurer, your job is to save the kingdom from impending doom but you have the added benefit of traveling through doorways that bring you back to different eras of the kingdom of Philabieldia (which I’m only mentioning once because it’s a pain to spell and say).

Elliot’s current era is the Age of Safekeeping where magic is limited to the princess protecting the kingdom. But after an hour getting to know the game’s other heroes and obvious antagonist advisor character you see coming a mile away, you get to go back to the past in the Age of Reconstruction (where the world losts its magic), Age of Magic (when it’s working on said magic), and Age of Budding (when it’s discovering magic for the first time). Add to the fact that you gain an invisible-to-everyone-else-but-Elliot-companion named Faie who uses magic like it’s no big deal, and slowly you realize that the game’s plot does feature a ton of layers underneath its seemingly predictable route. Granted, there’s a ton of whimsy going on with its revelations, but it’s all done earnestly and not forced down your throat, with even some previously villainised characters also getting some depth added to their earlier stock portrayals. Also, solving quests by going to different eras collecting objects that were meant to be long gone from another time period just reminds me a lot of the time I had fun time-jumping in JRPGs like Chrono Trigger.

I do wish that Elliot’s fairy friend could shut the f*** up completely. Much like the Zelda games that inspired it, The Adventures of Elliot has our hero travelling solo with support from his fairy friend. She is helpful, as she can cast spells and can be controlled manually with the right analog stick when needed for precise aiming and spellcasting. But yes, she is incredibly chatty. Even with the option to tone down the party chattiness option, she still runs her mouth time and again ad nauseam to the point where some phrases will just stick to your head. You won’t be getting barks like “All set? Then let’s go!” and “Maybe you should use your shield more.” out of your head once you’re done with 30-or-so hours of the game.

Thankfully that’s the only bad thing I can say about the game, because The Adventures of Elliot is a joy to play. The aforementioned top-down gameplay is fun due to the game’s spot-on and flexible controls. Switching between spells, weapons, and equipment is a breeze and gives you time to breathe as it stops the game. Platforming and puzzle-solving is snappy and intuitive, while also not being completely taxing to the brain. While not the most brainteaser-heavy of these types of games and the fact that all eras of the world has tons of powerups ready to be discovered and acquired (extra hit points, upgraded spells, new weapons, and so forth), everything about Elliot’s escapades just feels good and wholesome to play. If you rather spice it up, you can crank up the difficulty so you can only take less hits from enemies before you buy the farm.

Top Down Hoe-Down

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is good comfort food top-down adventuring, bolstered by its stellar presentation and simple-to-play-yet-challenging-to-master gameplay. While the story does go through some predictable routes at the start, and one of its characters earning the dubious award for “most chatty companion” even with that dialed down in the in-game options, this HD-2D jaunt has layers worth uncovering and may just surprise you. Plus, there’s lots to do after getting the first ending, so the game’s replay value and completionist’s route bolsters its value a bit. And besides, with aesthetics as classy and iconic as Team Asano’s HD-2D art style and epic fantasy music that’s just as noteworthy as the Octopath Traveler series, this is one adventure that won’t be getting out of your mind anytime soon.

Pros

• Lovely art style and music.
• Spot-on 2D controls and action with good amount of spells and tools.
• Fun-if-familiar story that makes full use of its time-travelling element.
• Adjustable difficulty for extra challenge levels.
• Loads to discover within all four different time periods.

Cons

• Companion barks get old after a few hours of longplay.
• Doesn’t innovate much of the top-down action adventure formula.

Final Score: 90/100

Review copy provided by publisher.