The Start of a Timeless Adventure

Team Asano’s gorgeous HD-2D series of games has won many admirers since the release of the original Octopath Traveler. While the majority of them have been turn-based RPGs, Team Asano has shown their aptitude to try something different with Triangle Strategy, their take on a strategy RPG.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is the latest attempt to transfer the striking visuals of HD-2D to a different style, this time on the Action RPG genre. While there’s no doubt about how the game will look visually, many questions remain about how it feels to play. Fortunately, I recently got the chance to go hands-on with the game, and I couldn’t wrestle myself away from the controller. Team Asano looks to have another hit on their hands!

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The visuals in The Adventures of Elliot are stunning.

Braving the Dungeons

As you may expect from the title of the game, The Adventures of Elliot is a tale about time, where you’ll get the ability to visit many different Ages of the world. My gameplay session picked up in Doorway Ruins, a major dungeon in one of these Ages, where I got a taste of what to expect here. I immediately opened my map to get my bearings and was delighted to see that it was both easy to read and full of helpful information. I could see how many chests can be found in the dungeon, for example, although not their exact placements and the map uncovers as you progress through it.

The dungeon was also full of lots of little puzzles, something that wouldn’t be remiss in some of the older The Legend of Zelda games, such as rotating mirrors to bounce light off them and hitting switches. There is also, of course, lots of platforming, and I needed to make special use of Faie’s (Elliot’s fairy companion) powers. The previous debut demo introduced me to the Sprint and Warp powers, but this time around, I also got access to a Flame power that allowed me to set light sources alight.

Compound this with enemies that posed a threat and provided me with ample opportunities to put the various weapons to use, and chests that had useful rewards, such as upgraded equipment, and my first experience with a major dungeon in The Adventures of Elliot only got me even more excited for the full release. This all culminated in a boss fight that, even on the default Normal difficulty (of which there are four), I died at first before I could get to grips with all of the various tools I had between Elliot and Faie.

Fortunately, when you do fall in battle, you have the option of paying some Tul (the game’s currency) to revive on the spot. The caveat to this system is that each time you use it, it will cost more to use until you next touch a Save Point to reset it. This becomes even more crucial to balance on the game’s toughest difficulty, as this cost will never be reset. It’s a great balance of giving players a choice on how they want to proceed rather than giving checkpoints in the battle itself or sending you back to the last Save Point (which is still an option anyway).

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Dungeons will require you to solve puzzles to proceed.

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Even on the default difficulty, the bosses still prove a challenge.

There’s a great variety in how you approach battle, too, with the newly added weapon wheel allowing you to switch weapons on the fly. With seven to choose from, where you can equip two at a time, it allows you to create some interesting dynamics in combat, especially on the boss encounter where I changed my approach to great effect.

Timeless Potential

After triumphing over the boss at the end of the Doorway Ruins, I got the chance to warp around two of the Ages I had access to, so that I could see what some of the non-dungeon gameplay was like. The first thing I noticed was that I was able to freely travel to any save points at any time, across both of the current two Ages available to me. Taking a look at the maps of both, I could see that the topography changed slightly, and even more subtle changes, which I learned after visiting the same area in both Ages.

This was especially true in the settlements I visited, which were full of people with interesting things to say and quests to accept, all of which were fully voiced. Beyond just picking up Quests in the settlements, you can also find a mysterious cat who you can speak to, and upon finding a certain number of hidden cats out in the world, you’ll receive useful rewards. You can also use your Magicite to create new skills, opening up even more flexibility in combat and there are also files you can find hidden around town that give you a bit more lore on the current Age and its inhabitants, encouraging you to explore these areas fully.

While the outside world itself features similar gameplay to that of the dungeons, there are lots of hidden goodies to locate. You can learn new powers for Faie at Shrines dotted around the world, and some will even allow you to upgrade your existing powers, adding new effects, such as Warp being upgraded to make you invulnerable briefly after executing. Visit the menu, and you can even undertake training on Faie’s powers, where you will run an obstacle course using that power, and you can obtain music tracks as rewards.

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Faie can learn new powers or upgrade her existing ones by finding Shrines in the overworld.

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Hidden caves are dotted all over the world in every age, encouraging exploration.

Getting around the world, then, requires you to make effective use of Faie’s powers and the weapons you hold. It’s not uncommon to find walls you can bomb or braziers that can be lit. These will often lead to larger red chests that can include anything from an upgrade to your weapons or Magicite with new skills. The Adventures of Elliot does a great job of rewarding your ability to go out of your way and truly explore the world around you. Throughout my entire time with the game, I was constantly impressed at everything I could do and find and knowing that this is only two of the Ages has made me excited for what’s to come still.

My only real gripe (and it’s a very small one, at that) is that I’m still not overly enthused about how talkative Faie can be in general exploration, and this is with the setting to have her talk less often. Her constant quips can get a bit tiring after a while, although I do enjoy her company in the more story-related scenes; she complements Elliot suitably, and the pair make a great duo of adventurers in a world begging to be explored.

With only a small slice of the game available to me, I’ve seen enough to know that Team Asano has another hit on their hands, be it the gorgeous HD-2D visuals as always, an interesting premise, and gameplay that is fun and rewards exploration, meaning that the end of my session came too soon. Fortunately, I won’t have to wait too long to get stuck into the full game, if only I could pass the time as easily as Elliot can.