So I Tried... The Adventures of Elliot: The Millenium Tales Demo

Each edition of So I Tried… sees me trying a game that I have never played before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I'll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. A while back, I saw the trailer for the new title from Square Enix called The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, and it looked beautiful and reminded me of Secret of Mana on the Super Nintendo. Will playing the demo make me want to pick up the full game?

What I thought it was

Based on the footage shown in the trailer, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is an action role-playing title with beautiful pixel visuals and a great soundtrack. It reminded me of games like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past that were released in the 90s. I figured this would be along the same vein as other action RPGs and Square Enix titles that had a deep story, magic, and a lot of exploration.

What it actually is

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is kind of what I had originally expected, but it ended up being so much more. Gameplay-wise, it reminded me a lot of A Link to the Past, as Elliot has multiple ways to attack with a primary and secondary weapon, along with bombs. You can also cut grass and bushes, as well as throw pots and barrels. Elliot can jump, which you will use in some platforming sections, along with a fairy named Faie accompanying him on his journey.

The cool thing is that you can use the right thumbstick to control Faie. She attacks enemies on her own, and she also has special abilities that you can equip, like Sprint, where she creates a strong breeze that pushes her and Elliot forward at high speed, or Warp, which transports Elliot to where she is.

I was originally expecting the game to have magic attacks, especially when you see that you collect Magicite, but instead of learning spells, this is used to give your weapons various effects, like increasing the amount of damage they deal. It's worth experimenting to find the combo that fits your playstyle best.

The most surprising thing is that when you run out of health and die in battle, you can pay to request resurrection. It costs you Tul (the in-game currency), but you start exactly where you died, even if you were in the middle of a boss battle. Instead of making you start the fight from the beginning, you continue from where you left off, so all the damage you dealt before dying is still there. Because of this, I am sure that the boss fights are made that much harder, but it was nice not losing all the progress I had made before I died.

Will I keep playing?

Originally, I was only supposed to try out the game for half an hour for this article, but it was so good that I kept playing until I reached the end of the demo which took about an hour and a half. The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales demo has everything I loved from earlier Square Enix titles, along with a lot of extras like a locator map on the screen to show you where to go, along with a variety of quality-of-life improvements. There is also the opportunity to play co-operatively, with one player controlling Elliot and the other playing as Faie.

This is definitely a game that I am going to pick up, and at this point it is my most anticipated title of the year. It is so good!