Ever since the creation of the HD-2D engine, Square Enix has brought both new and old experiences for us to enjoy. We’ve had Octopath Traveler become an immensely popular title, the Erdrick trilogy step into the spotlight once again with the HD-2D remakes of Dragon Quest I, II, and III, and we also had LIVE-A-LIVE, a classic from the Super Famicom era, remade for a modern audience and localized for the first time.

When The Adventures of Elliot: Millennium Tales was announced last year, I will admit that I nearly thought Square Enix was finally going to give us a Chrono Trigger remaster. However, we all quickly realized that was not the case. But hey! That’s not necessarily a bad thing. What is interesting about Elliot in particular is that it’s our very first HD-2D action-based RPG. Each previous iteration so far was turn-based, which makes this game extra exciting. So, can HD-2D do the action genre justice? Or is this just an experiment that fails miserably?

A Tale Spanning Centuries

Our story begins in the continent of Philabieldia, home to various territorial beast tribes that are constantly at odds with each other. Humanity has mostly settled behind the protective walls of the Kingdom of Huther, thanks to the magic power that Princess Heuria possesses, and thanks to the valiant effort of all the adventurers who go on a journey beyond the kingdom… even if some of them never manage to come back. Our protagonist, Elliot, is one such adventurer, and he’s known for never shying away from helping people in need.

One day, mysterious ruins are located just near the Kingdom, and the scholar of the castle, Euygene, suggests that the King could rely on his adventurer friend Elliot to help explore and find out what sort of knowledge these ruins could hold, instead of sending his soldiers to do so. And so, after being granted an audience, Elliot happily accepts the task. After arriving at those ruins, he finds a strange door, and while he is unable to open it at first, he obtains a strange tome later, where, according to Euygene, the mysterious ruins hold something called the Doorway of Time. As its name implies, it holds the power of time travel.

Unfortunately, the minister of the kingdom, Kaifried, holds an insatiable obsession with power. And so, he decides to sneak away from the castle with the key and opens the door, proclaiming that he will rewrite history as he sees fit, because the royal family is simply too scared in his mind. The king immediately tasks Elliot to step into the Doorway and stop him before any irreparable harm is done to history. And believe me when I say that is just scratching the surface of everything.

This is a story that carries that classic Team Asano flair. I’ve said this many times in the past, but when you lose track of time with a game, that’s a surefire sign you’ve got a solid one in your hands. Personally, I do think the story can get rather predictable at times, but there are plenty of plot twists to discover. There are also many surprising moments that left me on the edge of my chair, curious to know what would happen next.

Slash and Defeat

When I initially tried the debut demo version for The Adventures of Elliot: Millennium Tales back in July of last year, I will admit that it felt very weird at first not to be thrust into a turn-based combat system, because all the HD-2D games thus far had such a system as a common factor. The action combat system in this game is easy to pick up but surprisingly deep. Elliot is capable of wielding all sorts of different weapons, such as spears, bows, and even bombs. You can equip those to either the X and Y buttons, and pressing ZR allows you to “pause” the game and quickly swap your weapons according to the situation.

In the overworld, enemy attacks can be blocked by holding R, though you must take care not to run out of your shield gauge, because it will leave you invulnerable for a while if you try to block too often. And finally, by pressing L, you’re able to use your companion’s magic to either heal or deal damage. Furthermore, the more enemies you defeat without taking damage, the more you will accumulate a combo, granting a drop rate bonus, and the more you can keep it up.

Elliot’s weapons can be further customized with peculiar gemstones called Magicite. By going to the mysterious Magicite merchant, you can spend your Magicite Shards to obtain various magicite types, and you can also find them in chests around the overworld. Equip them, and they’ll grant various buffs that can range from adding status effects to a weapon to increasing its power and critical rate. In the debut demo of the game, Magicite was shared between all of your weapons, but after collecting everyone’s feedback from the demo, Square Enix decided to change this in the full game. Each weapon has its own separate box where you can place magicite, and the cost between weapons isn’t shared. This is a really good change, because while you can upgrade your box by spending the in-game currency Tul, obtaining the required amount does take a while, so this makes it great for early game strategies.

Faie, Your Trustworthy Companion

Later in the story, you’ll meet a fairy companion known as Faie, who will join you on your adventure. In the overworld, she can be controlled with the right joystick, and any items she comes into contact with are automatically collected. She can even deal a little damage to enemies, but don’t count on her one-shotting an enemy. She’s also able to learn various magic spells, which can assist you in getting through the puzzles in the ruins. And if Elliot ever loses all of his HP, you can kindly ask her to revive you…by paying her a small fee. Amusingly, going to the System Settings of the main menu, you’ll find an option that makes her talk less often, so I thought at first that this meant she would be insanely annoying. While I do see why some people might not take too kindly to her voice, I personally did not have any issues with her chattiness.

There are four difficulty options that you can choose in Elliot, which are easy, normal, hard, and very hard. The main change that you’ll find is that Easy Mode will reduce the number of enemies in the overworld, and the damage they deal to you is also reduced. Items are also cheaper at shops, and Elliot’s health is fully healed when you touch one of the adventuring guideposts, which are normally just used for fast travel. I’ve played the game on Normal, and it provided a very balanced experience. I did have my fair share of close calls and even died a few times on some of the bosses in the later portions of the game, but it was a matter of understanding each enemy’s mechanics, equipping the appropriate weapons, and presto, you’re in business.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t curious about trying Very Hard for a quick second, though. And well, it does the name justice, I can tell you that. Enemies hit with an astounding force, so even one hit can prove fatal. The Very Hard difficulty also changes how Faie’s revival cost operates. She demands you pay 150 tul, the in-game currency, and this price increases the more you die. The idea is that if you touch one of the guideposts, the cost will reset back to 150, but on Very Hard mode, this number will never reset, and can get astronomically high very quickly, so better hope you’re confident in your skills, or have very deep pockets.

Ooh, What’s That Over There…?

A key point that kept me anchored to Elliot was just how free it feels. While the game will tell you “Go to this location to progress the story”, for most of the time, it doesn’t stop you from taking a detour or two. There’s practically nothing stopping you from just exploring around and finding the various secret passages or caves across the overworld. Of course, you’ll inevitably run into a dungeon or two that you won’t be able to progress due to one reason or another, but you will, at the very least, figure out why you can’t progress rather quickly. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the game is designed to entice the player to be curious, and even reward said curiosity.

The dungeon puzzles weren’t too difficult to solve, as most of them are pretty clear on what their solutions are supposed to be. Perhaps my only gripe with the game, if you can even say I had one, is the mini-map in the bottom right corner, which is more of a radar than a map. Instead of showing the map itself, it’s only got an arrow showing Elliot’s position and nearby objects. For a more detailed view, you have to press the Minus button. There were many times when I just had to keep pressing Minus because I needed to keep scrolling between floors to understand where I was properly.

For this review, I played it on my Nintendo Switch 2, where I mostly played the game docked. Personally, I do think the performance could use a few polishes. The gameplay itself doesn’t have any frame drops or stutters, which is great. But when you open up the map with Minus, you can definitely see a very noticeable stutter, possibly due to how the game renders everything in a sort of top-down 3D model. Furthermore, fast-travelling to guideposts that are far away from each other will cause the game to display a white screen for a few seconds. None of this makes the game unplayable, but this stutter was noticeable enough that I did feel like it was worth mentioning.

A Memorable Action RPG in the HD-2D Engine

As much as I dislike making the comparison, I just can’t help it. The Adventures of Elliot: Millennium Tales is perhaps the answer to a potential scenario of “What if Square Enix was tasked with creating a Zelda-like experience”? And honestly, I don’t mean that in a negative way, quite the contrary in fact! This is a game that holds its own unique charm that I feel only Team Asano could make, and it rekindled a sense of nostalgia that I probably haven’t felt in more than a decade.

Square Enix clearly meant for Elliot to be an experiment to see if the HD-2D engine could truly make an action RPG. And if you ask me, the studio absolutely succeeded in this. Intuitive puzzles, an interesting story that spans multiple eras… If this means we will see more of this engine in other genres, or if this opens the door for new remakes, then I’m all in for it.

Disclaimer: Square Enix provided a Nintendo Switch 2 copy of The Adventures of Elliot: Millennium Tales for review purposes.