The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales [Review]

There are many strengths in favor of The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, with its gorgeous art-style and a creative, surprisingly engaging battle system. But as the game progresses, the most enjoyable and expressive interactions aren't always enough to improve a dull story, questionable exploration and bad dialogue that gets in the way of a good game.

The world of Philabieldia sure is colorful, but it is packed with monsters of the "beast tribes". Fortunately, the Kingdom of Huther and its castle are protected by Princess Heuria's magic. Soon enough, this protection and the princess are in peril, and Elliot needs go to through time to save her and the realm.

I've always been a sucker for time travel stories, as I find them to be an easy tool to actually do some decent worldbuilding. Connecting the same place across time is a great way to actually show, and not tell. In these Millennium Tales, though, the characters are very prone to telling: stilted dialogues happen far too often, while being expository and bland, with core concepts of the game being delivered in a mediocre fashion that obfuscates an otherwise simple but beaten story.

Everyone repeat themselves for every plot point, and the companions are always blabbering even on the "reticent" configuration. Too many cutscenes are reserved for characters talking about things that are about to happen, and it is a problem in the first act of the game that drags a bit too much until it finally opens.

As each era presents its set of characters, the boring dialogue starts to get a bit better, but the main scenario never really escapes the dullness of it all. Fortunately, the side quests are colorful enough and elevate the world they're in, and, in all fairness, the very end of the main story was well earned.

Writing about the world and exploration is kinda bittersweet for me. Although the four eras are somewhat different in ambiance and music, the world itself definitely isn't. The environments, while fun and packed with a good variety of monsters, are not enough to be done four or more times. This is sad, because the little trials, dungeons and caverns scattered around the world were always fun, even if short. I'd rather have longer dungeons than repeat them with minor differences in different eras.

The Adventures of Elliot cleverly uses a wide array of weapons and equipment, and lots of puzzles and sections were solvable in different ways depending on what was equipped. The weapons can be customized with "Magicite". And while getting new magicite was a pain, because it is on a "gacha" (that uses non purchasable in game currencies), the system still works, because it empowered me to create unique play styles for my weapons. I really liked toying with the Magicites, as they can add elements, projectiles or change the way each weapon work altogether.

The puzzles and dungeons could be completed in different ways because equipment and magicite can sometimes change the way Elliot move or interact with the world. Equipping the fireball magicite can sometimes make a room full of bombs easier to interact, or having the floating cape as an accessory can come in clutch when trying to avoid a whole enemy group. The bosses were really a highlight, with most of the dungeons in the game having a big and bombastic fight in the end.

Another highlight of the gameplay is with Fae, a "second" character that can be controlled to do a series of different spells, like mimicking the player movement, warping to another place etc. She's controlled with the right thumbstick, and correctly using Fae's power can sometimes make the battle system extraordinary, mostly because of the cloning and movement options it opens to the player.

So while I adored playing most of the dungeons, doing them more than once wasn't that nice. Four times was a disaster. And it was the case for most of the game. Time travel should be a good excuse to reuse some of the maps with contrasting twists in others, but it is not the case here. Most of the world is reused for the biggest part of the game, and unfortunately, the exploration didn't work for me.

Undoubtedly there were very high highs on the visual and sound department. Every dungeon has a nice and unique song to it, and while the soundtrack can feel a bit over the top sometimes, it often works in unexpected ways, with catchy sections and a big variety of instruments and compositions between menu screens and gameplay. Clearly music was something important in this game, and one of the best side quests highlight just that.

The portraits are pristine even if the characters are all too samey. Also, they could think about 4 different eras but couldn't really add non-white characters, which makes the world feel smaller and less interesting. Everything is dubbed, so the otherwise dull dialogue is at least tolerable. The cutscene direction is great, with interesting shots and perspectives that enhance the HD-2D aspect of the world, so it is a gorgeous experience throughout. A big highlight were the seamless transitions between most of the houses and the world, as with the big city and the open areas.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a flawed good game, easy to play and recommend to people that are hungry for some top-down action adventuring. It is also a game that focused a lot of my time in a so-so, generic story with unremarkable characters. I liked playing it, but it is undeniably too safe and, sometimes, too repetitive.

7/10