The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales - Digital Deluxe Edition (2026)

Went through the demo and I'm astounded at how much nothing this game seems to be. It feels like a game that was made purely for the sake of a game being made to make a buck with absolutely no passion behind it. Of course, why should I expect passion from the HD-2D engine that Square prides itself in so much despite being the very definition of passion-less. In fact, the short Steam description they provided makes zero mention of the actual game and instead writes "The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales combines stunning HD-2D visuals and exciting action-adventure gameplay for the first time!", as if they needed to really drive home the point of how much they have their head up their- let me stop there.

So what exactly is wrong with the game? That's the thing, there's nothing really wrong with it, but it offsets this by doing it's absolute best at providing nothing interesting of the sort to the genre, except the HD-2D graphics of course. Can't forget that. There's no character dynamics between anyone. Everyone is so incredibly polite to the point of it being unsettling. The plot is there only to remind you that a plot exists in the first place. And said plot purely amounts of the very obvious and comically evil guy doing the evil thing and literally everyone going "Oh no! I never though he would do this." It's actually a little funny how the villain happens to be the ONLY person who's not polite. As for the gameplay, it's... Fine. Probably the most lukewarm fine I could give. Enemies exist for you to beat around but rarely pose a threat of any sort. Bosses at least seem like they could be fun or interesting. The actual world leaves alot to be desired considering it shares the same open map across each Time Era you'll be traveling to. Literally the same map. Really, I should be way more critical of this because this genre has already been defined by countless other games like the Ys series. Or any of the action RPGs by Falcom. Or perhaps something more recent like Mina the Hollower, though not exactly the same genre but pretty close I'd say. But of course, this one has HD-2D so maybe you should give Square 60$.

That's the real kicker, a 60$ price point. At the very least they were kind enough to provide a 3-4 hour demo to encourage me to save that money. Anyway, I recommend people play Ys Origins instead. Or Xanadu Next. Any Falcom action rpg that strikes your fancy really. Unfortunately, they aren't HD-2D but I can vouch for them nonetheless.