REVIEW: ‘The Adventures Of Elliot: The Millennium Tales’ Embarks On An Epic Time Traveling Adventure

History is a long chain of cause-and-effect events that affect the future like ripples in a lake. Even the smallest disturbance can spread, making its influence undeniable given enough time. In publisher Claytechworks’ latest title, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, we see this play out several times throughout history, with the titular hero Elliot occasionally playing a key role in events that ripple across time. The Square Enix-published title marks the developer’s first foray into the real-time Action RPG genre, and the HD-2D world they created is the perfect setting for an epic time travel adventure about love and found family.

From the start, we understand Elliot’s motivations: he is an orphan, and he adventures to ensure the orphanage that raised him can keep its doors open. The younger orphans and the caretaker are family to him, and it’s this dedication that pushes him into the job that sets off the events of the game.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales shines a light on Elliot only occasionally, focusing instead on how he affects the people and world around him. Time and again, he and the game’s supporting cast prove the adage, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.’

Each side quest in The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is worthwhile.

Indeed, Elliot is never alone. At first, supported by the princess and later by a fairy named Faie, Elliot depends on their support to keep him going, oftentimes literally. Early in the story, the princess grants a powerful healing ability, giving players the sorely needed room to make mistakes as they learn to fight. Later, Faie joins Elliot, and her abilities grow, providing utility in many situations and creating several puzzle-solving scenarios for the more cerebral player.

A few dozen side quests dot the game’s landscapes, often telling more intimate stories about side characters, both obscure and more prominent. These quests begin simply, eventually spanning the various time periods Elliot travels through, but they’re always worth the time. Whether due to the quest reward or simply for the storytelling, they don’t feel like optional content, and I can’t imagine having gone through the game without completing all of them, especially given Elliot’s propensity for helpfulness.

Where The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales really shines is in its use of limited resources and its in-depth approach. The world is a good example; although initially limited, players will quickly find themselves exploring every corner of the map. There are a few story-related locations, but there are many more secret tunnels, shortcuts, and optional trials to find off the beaten trail, all allowing Elliot to grow stronger.

Everything from the different eras to explore to the choice of weapons adds depth. 

Furthermore, each of the four eras Elliot can visit has its own differences, allowing players to grow familiar with the world with every journey into the wilderness. There are a few zones, namely the forested areas, where a large field is needlessly divided into a maze, making exploration a hassle. Small fences or fallen branches are impossible to jump over and hard to see. Still, fast travel opportunities are plentiful, allowing players to avoid making that journey too many times.

Weapons are another great example of depth. Elliot can use seven weapons and a shield to fight, and players can find this full arsenal fairly early on, but there’s still room to improve. While each weapon Elliot finds is initially a simple one, he can find upgrades with more attack power and stronger special attacks, unleashed when players hold the attack button. Players can also use magicite fragments, most frequently dropped by defeated bosses, to craft magicite.

These gems augment Elliot’s weapons, allowing him to charge his attacks faster or to lunge at an enemy with each attack, increasing their effective range. These augments can also scale up, increasing the chance your bow sets an enemy on fire or splits its shots to multiple attacks from 20% up to 40% or higher, drastically increasing its strength. While Magicite production is initially random, players eventually unlock the ability to focus on one weapon, allowing them to pick favorites and still see results.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales excels with the combat. 

Combat is only as good as your weapons, and The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales shines in combat. With seven weapons, Elliot can handle any situation, whether it’s taking out enemies at range with a bow, parrying a powerful strike and countering with the sword, or even using the hammer to knock a crowd of enemies into each other, wiping them out.

The ability to swap weapons, Faie’s spell, or access your potions in an instant makes it easy to treat each new enemy as a unique challenge. There is a notable lack of variety in boss battles. Still, they are treated instead as a gradual ramp-up in difficulty or complexity, testing you before allowing you to unlock the next zone with harder enemies.

For as sprawling as The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales can be, it respects the player’s time. Side quests are tracked for the player, even alerting them if the main story is interfering with the characters needed to progress the side quest. All cutscenes are rewatchable, whether they’re part of the main story or any of the side quests.

Claytechworks’s latest channels charming optimism. 

One massive side quest requires players to find 50 cats scattered throughout time and space, but after finding a few felines, players receive a magical compass needle pointing out the location of the rest of the cats. This can be turned off if players feel it trivializes the quest, but when you’re down to the last handful of cats, it’s extremely useful. Other compass needles can be discovered, pointing players to weapon upgrades or a gas that allows Faie to temporarily use her magic repeatedly, but once again, these can be toggled on or off.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is thoughtful and optimistic. Its storytelling is charming, swaying between the larger world-saving beats and more personal stories. Elliot’s kind and earnest attitude is heart-warming, especially when dealing with some of the sadder side quests, where the voice acting really elevates the dialogue. The art style suits the game perfectly, and together they create an adventure worth coming back to time and time again.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is available for purchase on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2