The Adventures of Elliot: The Millenium Tales feels set to be a winner for Square Enix

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I need to share something – my trip to Square Enix’s Los Angeles office last month wasn’t just for the stated reason. I also got to play several more hours of The Adventures of Elliot: The Millenium Tales. I experienced new story elements, explored different time periods within the game, and saw the improvements made after the Nintendo Switch 2 demo was released last year.

To be honest, a lot of what I said about the game before still holds true. There’s no need to rehash everything the game already does well, as I covered in my demo impressions last year. The dungeons are fantastic, both the ones I saw before and a brand new one I recently tried. The level design is consistently strong, and it’s interesting to see how dungeons change depending on which era of the game you’re in. We also got to try out some new weapons, like the Spear, which felt great. We played the game on PlayStation 5, and it looked and ran much better than the Nintendo Switch 2 demo. However, the final Switch 2 version will likely be improved as well.

Even though the game world is much larger now, it felt surprisingly a little more limited in what we could actually experience. On the plus side, there are some helpful improvements – the user interface now shows which buttons control your equipped weapons and reminds you how to use Faie’s ability or open the map. Also, the character moves noticeably faster than in the original demo, feeling similar to how fast you could move with a speed boost in the Switch 2 demo.

I previously noted that Shrines can improve Elliot’s health, but during my hands-on preview, I found they do much more. Some Shrines unlock lasting upgrades to your abilities – I encountered one with a story about Faie that ultimately gave her a brand new skill. I suspected Shrines might offer rewards beyond health, but the earlier demo didn’t confirm this.

I recently noticed a cool feature in the game demo that wasn’t immediately obvious: the map shows how caves and ruins connect to each other. The demo only had one example of this, but the full game has many more. I thought the overworld map was neat in the demo, but it’s actually much more detailed and offers a lot more to explore, even beyond the traditional dungeons. I didn’t feel lost at any point, though I’m curious to see how navigation feels as I explore the game world at different points in the timeline.

I’ve noticed the dungeons change slightly depending on when you visit them, which makes me wonder how long the game will take to finish. I’ve played through several dungeons – the ones from the original demo, a new one I previewed, and a few others I saw on the map – and I’m curious about the overall game length. While I didn’t get a specific estimate, I expect it will be a pretty long experience, especially if you aim to complete everything, likely longer than similar games.

I can’t say much about the story just yet. The demo we played only showed a small part of it, and that seems intentional. I’m definitely intrigued, but the developers are being very secretive – at least for now. We asked the game’s producer, Naofumi Matsushita, some questions, and one of his answers was particularly surprising. I’m really looking forward to discovering what the full story holds.

Get ready to explore ‘The Adventures of Elliot: The Millenium Tales’ when it arrives on June 18th! You’ll be able to play it on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (through Steam and the Microsoft Store), and Switch 2. We’ll share our complete review soon, so keep an eye out!

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2026-05-18 17:27