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The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales Review – Square Enix’s Best Original RPG in Years

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a fantastic time-travel RPG with deep combat, memorable bosses, and a heartfelt story.

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When The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales demo was first released in 2005, my initial impression was that it was a simple and quaint RPG. However, after beating it, I can confirm that Elliot quickly turns into one of Square Enix’s most complex and original games in years. It’s a perfect blend of classic Zelda and Final Fantasy Adventure that RPG fans won’t want to miss out on.

Note: I was able to play The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales in advanced for review purposes.

The Time-Travel Mechanic Is Brilliant

In the opening hours of The Adventures of Elliot, the story initially comes off as a classic adventure game. You’ve got a familiar kingdom setting, a princess who needs your help, and a dashing protagonist who rises from the shadows to become the hero. However, the game quickly shifts its perspective after the opening tutorial when it reveals its time-traveling mechanic.

The RPG essentially has a single map throughout the entire story. But because players are frequently traveling to the past, the overworld also constantly changes. Locations that were once blocked off in one time period will now become available in another. Enemies and challenges also change.

It isn’t just a visual gimmick, as The Adventures of Elliot requires you to use this mechanic to solve puzzles and progress important story moments. There are even a few side quests that require you to travel between the future and the past to find items needed to complete the storyline. Yeah, it’s mind-bending stuff.

Without getting into spoilers, The Adventures of Elliot has quite a lot of “Ages” that they can travel to as well. As a result, the game’s map, which initially seems small and simplistic, quickly becomes complex and layered in interesting ways.

Combat Gets Better the Longer You Play

One of the concerns some players had from the demo was the game’s difficulty being too easy. And yes, in the opening hours, combat at first feels pretty simple. However, like the game’s map, combat really starts to open up as you progress through the game. There are a total of six weapons in The Adventures of Elliot that you can equip in two slots. On your adventures you will unlock rarer variants of each weapon that have better stats. This can be done through side quests or by completing dungeons.

That said, what really changes combat is Magicite.........

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