03 Sep 2026 - digitalily

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales* is a game I learned about by accident a couple of weeks before its release, and that immediately caught me eye as a new HD-2D game. Having greatly enjoyed both Octopath Traveler games and Triangle Strategy, I was eager to check out something with different gameplay utilizing the style, and while I wouldn't say the narratives of any of those games were outstanding, they were generally enjoyable and other aspects more than made up for it. Elliot took my a bit longer than initially anticipated to get through though, as I started it late due to wrapping up Higurashi, and ended up decently busy afterward. However, time can be made for things that are particularly captivating. Elliot, to my dismay, was mostly not that.

I never really pictured Elliot as the sort of game I'd write anything about here to begin with, and it was solidified after my first few sessions, but it did something I thought was kind of neat during the game's finale that made me think well, I think it deserves something.

If there's one thing I think The Adventures of Elliot excels at, it is probably the flow of combat. Admittedly, it took a while for me to gain an appreciation for it, as it isn't exactly my style and it can be a bit punishing at times, but in hindsight it's hard to say it's bad. What I think makes it good is how it generally rewards considered play. If you try and spam attacks over and over on most enemies, you will end up getting hit, as whatever hitstun there is is minimal and/or quickly diminishing. The game gives you a shield though, and it's a big part of gameplay, so understanding enemy attack and movement patterns to weave blocks between your attacks is key. When this is executed on, your kill-streak is maintained and increased, ultimately giving you more money from drops, as well as just feeling smooth. For me the epitome of this was when I had upgraded weapons with the correct magicite and really started to abuse the Scythe Chain. Unfortunately because I was using a Steam Controller, sometimes pressing the backpaddles would cause unintentional strikes or blocks which often felt awkward, but that's thoroughly on me. I did find the default block button a little rough at times, but I think it's serviceable (right shoulder). One other thing that could be awkward at times was that you have 8 directional movement or yourself and enemies, and diagonals in particular were very easy to misjudge, leading to hits and loss of your streak. I am glad that movement is as free as it is, but accidentally running into enemies and barely missing a strike because of micro positioning issues definitely isn't the best.

Boss fights were interesting for the most part, though at times enemy damage did feel a little brutal compared to what you'd be able to do during safe windows, but it is what it is. Again, shooting myself in the foot here especially late game as I was lacking a lot of health upgrades. I think having those would have helped a good deal, but ultimately boss fights are 1) understand the pattern 2) hit when safe 3) adapt during enrage phase. There's a group of mechanical bosses of different types that you begin with by fighting one of a particular type on its own, then the other, then the other, and then you start getting fights where you have to deal with multiple at once, which was an enjoyable bit of difficulty progression. I probably missed out on a fair few bosses though, as I ended up skipping a lot of side content because...

The Map

Elliot is a game where you go back and forth between various eras of the main continent you play on. However, in order to make the game too overwhelming when the available area is multiplied by 4 times in size, the actual continent is very small and claustrophobic. Crossing the map takes very little time apart from loading screens when necessary and using dungeon connections to get between areas, and at least for me, there comes a point when I've been in a dungeon a couple times in different eras that I just, really couldn't be bothered. What was also wild was how many teleportation points there ended up being in an already small map. It takes hardly any time to get anywhere, but you still get unlimited free teleports everywhere.

Often times, the cross-era variety did not really warrant using the same maps and enemies and it felt very chore-like to explore too much. I was already not super motivated to explore a bunch, but what you can explore is so limited and samey that that motivation fell even lower. Which is a shame, because when a big part of your game is crossing vast amounts of time and the actual changes are mostly limited to the main town and a couple of other locations- things too which you only really come to appreciate when going for the 'true' ending- you'd think there would be more to pull you in.

Time Stuff

I think time travel is something that is known to be difficult to execute on properly. While in the end I think the way this story resolves ends up justifying a lot of things that feel questionable in the moment, it's sometimes not very satisfactory. The little things, such as seeing the ancestors of characters you're familiar is often cool, even if it feels very one dimensional at times, but the way the first antagonist unfolds ends up coming across as very.. blah? It could be a (very reasonable) limitation to not have someone going to the past change a bunch of stuff suddenly in the future, as it could be a difficult thing to do properly, but to have nothing really happen at all does feel odd, even if you can argue that 'well of course it didn't change anything, because you beat them before then!' I think some of this would be improved if the game didn't drag its feet regarding the overall narrative, by which I mean having two fakeout endings does not feel very deserved. Both of these endings are intended to convey that something was missed, which if you thoroughly explored and encountered certain events may just come across as unnecessary, and if you didn't, doesn't feel great because building up to a climax and then going 'but wait there's more go back in' is, well, anticlimactic. I do however appreciate the game going beyond that first ending certainly, as it really would not have been much of a story if that was where it stopped. The steps needed to keep going also serve to motivate you more to keep going, as you get more important character interactions and it isn't just 'save the princess you met at the beginning of the game that you don't really have all that much connection to.'

And now some spoilers!

Still though, most of all that is just fine, nothing GOTY worthy, and things were wearing on as the tasks leading up to the true ending path kept on coming. Eventually though, everything was completed and the final fight was all that was left. The first stage of the fight is kind of cool in concept, but (and if you know you know), the small map really diminishes the impact, and the controls are just super awkward. That first stage is required though, and fortunately isn't too difficult to get through near perfectly, but the second stage is where my heart sank as I saw that the final boss had three health bars. Knowing how long other bosses could take, this was not motivating. Fortunately most of the patterns were fairly simple, and you can be quite greedy with attacks at times, so even though it took a few total retries, it didn't feel that unfair.
For me, however, having only ~half the total HP I probably should, and very few empty potion vials, I was staring down a hefty task, and I really was ready to be done with the game. And then it happened:

The game overall is very earnest as far as its characters and world go. Nothing is ever really all too complex, Elliot begins and stays as probably one of the most 'good guy' good guys to ever exist, and a central theme is bridging differences, working together, and maintaining hope in the face of despair. I think the final moments of the game manage to really take all that and cash it in all at once, and all of the sudden a lot of what made the game boring, or not all too outstanding kind of diminishes. One complaint I saw early was that this game had Navi syndrome pretty bad- a companion character that would rather not stop interrupting. I was quite surprised when I found it this wasn't Heuria people were complaining about, but the second character to fill that role a fairish bit into the game. But honestly, while Faie was talkative, it never felt too overbearing for me, which I think says a lot regarding the atmosphere or message the game is trying to convey. Faie always has hope and is always eager to help out (and genuinely in a couple moments points things out that I don't think are immediately obvious the way many other comments can be regarding certain puzzles), and this makes her Elliot's perfect traveling companion, as well as just making it feel like you're in good company.

Very much YMMV, and I gotta be honest in that I don't think I would come back to replay this anytime soon if ever, but I think it is impressive that, even if this game isn't breaking new ground really anywhere, and isn't really my style in other ways, that it can still pull what would have overall been a leaning disappointing experience from the brink. I am happy to say that in the end, I can walk away from Elliot with a positive impression. Most reviews I've seen tend to be more wholly positive about the whole thing, and I think it' critical reception has been pretty good. So I think if this style of game is more your speed, you really can't go wrong.

Until next time, Hope is always there.

25 Aug 2026 - digitalily

This marks the second year of attending Anime Magic, and try though those of us who attended last year might, we weren't able to pull anyone else along this time, firmly cementing us as the Anime Magic squad I guess? Something which I mind a lot less as I had a much nicer time this year compared to last.

03 Aug 2026 - digitalily

At some point last year, not more than a few weeks prior to Gen Con 2025, a friend posed the question (paraphrasing) 'do we want to try going to Gen Con even though it is imminent?' And we definitely tried, but the exorbitant hotel cost, lack of hotel space nearby in general, and dubious ideas of transportation meant that it wasn't to be, almost certainly for the better. This year however, with others also interested, we chose one day to attend the con, booked an AirBnB a couple months in advance, and after a bit of a whirlwind of a couple days, have successfully completed Gen Con 2026 with an eye for a full Gen Con 2027 weekend.