How many times can Square Enix cast the HD-2D formula out and still make it seem fresh? At least one more, so it seems. Cool pixel art aside, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales comes from a strong pedigree at Square Enix and fans of top-down Legend of Zelda games should really feel at home. Is this just another Zelda clone, though?
Announced during the July 2025 Nintendo Direct, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales launched a demo on the same day to collate player opinions and feedback, something that Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy did with Project Octopath Traveler and Project Triangle. Feedback has already been applied to the build for this preview, such as Elliot’s move speed being noticeably faster. Although Square Enix has on occasion made these HD-2D games launch exclusives on Nintendo platforms, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is also coming to Xbox Series X|S, PC and PlayStation 5. It was the PlayStation 5 build that Cubed3 got to experience for this preview.
Unlike other titles in the HD-2D genre, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is not a turn-based RPG, but rather an action adventure RPG that really borrows from the Legend of Zelda series’ top-down classics. Nintendo has certainly dabbled in top-down Zelda games as of late, but for many, their latest outings haven’t quite scratched the itch for those yearning for the classics.
The demo kicked off inside a dungeon, which allowed Elliot to really flex his combat capabilities, but also to showcase platforming, puzzles and gorgeous visuals. Accompanied with a fairy called Faie, the player is able to utilise a number of abilities, with control of Faie mapped to the right stick, essentially making this a twin-stick action adventure RPG.
Faie is able to attack enemies just by sheer proximity, but other skills allow her to set enemies on fire with her ignite power, or to enable Elliot to run fast (à la the Pegasus Boots). Faie can help sweep up any enemy drops just by flying over to them, and as the demo progressed it was clear that learning to control her abilities was essential to progression.
This is evidenced in the combat difficulty, where it really is dangerous to go alone. Faie allows for strategical attacks, and more will likely be added to Faie’s arsenal in the final release. Elliot, on the other hand, has a pretty stacked set of weapons himself. He can map any two attacks to the face buttons on the controller, ranging from a boomerang, spear, heavy hammer, scythe chain, bow and arrow, sword, or a set of bombs. Each weapon has their advantages and it was fun to rotate through them during the demo to find out their effectiveness during each enemy encounter.
Equippable items for both Faie and Elliot can be changed in a pause screen, mapping items from a roundel selection, similar to what is found in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. If Elliot does happen to fall in battle, then Faie can revive him for a cost, which only increases each time that he is revived. The cost implication is reset once a checkpoint is found, but nonetheless this should be used sparingly if the player wants to hold on to some of their money.
Exploration offers a lot of freedom. Even in the demo, the dungeon didn’t have to be tackled first; it was just recommended. To aid in Elliot’s exploration abilities, Faie can help warm him to wherever she is, meaning that this expands upon where he would normally be able to traverse with his small hop jump. Faie can get Elliot past other obstacles this way, too, such as through fire. However, there is a limit to Faie’s abilities as she can only perform the equipped ability twice before she needs to recover.
Exploring through forests, mountains and caves all came with combat and mild platforming challenges. Faie’s ignite ability can be used not just in combat but also to light up dark caves. Outside of this there are other challenges that can be found within the menu that allow for learning new abilities or honing the ones that are already available. They represent themselves as mini score- and time-based challenges that rely on collecting various items and making it through the challenge alive.
