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

I have a confession to make - last month, when I was at Square Enix's Los Angeles Headquarters? That wasn't the only one, or even primary, reason I was there. It was to play a few more hours of The Adventures of Elliot: The Millenium Tales - including our first look at some elements of the story, the different eras, and some of the improvements made to the game following the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive demo last year.

Truth be told, much of what I relayed back then remains the same now - there's no use relitigating everything that the game already did right when I covered the demo last year. The dungeons, both those that were already present in the demo as well as a new one we had the chance to check out for the first time, rule. The level design continues to remain strong, and we even had the chance to check out how some dungeons might be slightly different, depending on the Age - various eras for the game world - you enter them in. Some new weapon types that weren't present in that demo, such as the Spear, we had the chance to use, and they held up well. The build we tested was running on a PlayStation 5, which obviously looked and ran considerably better than the Nintendo Switch 2 demo, though it's entirely possible - maybe even likely - that the final Switch 2 build will in turn look and run better, too.

Despite having far more of the game open to us to explore, I must admit that it was actually a bit more restrictive what we can cover. I can readily note a few Quality of Life changes, however - there's now button icons listed on the UI to showcase which of your equipped weapons are mapped to which button, as well as a reminded for which button will activate Faie's ability, or open the map. Overall movement speed feels a bit faster out of the box compared to that of the demo, comparable to buffed movement speed from the Switch 2 demo, as far as I can tell.

While I mentioned that Shrines with specific challenges can offer Elliot health upgrades, during the course of our preview I discovered that Shrines can also gatekeep more permanent upgrades to your kit - one, for example, had a short story moment revolving around Faie, and eventually culminated in a new ability for her. I'd half-expected that Shrines might offer rewards beyond just health, but the scope of the previous demo didn't make it clear if that would bear out in the end.

One element of the game that did exist in the demo, but I had missed, is that whenever you check your map you can actually verify whether caves or ruins are connected via the same network. While the demo only had one such example, these were actually fairly common in the build that we played. While I thought the overworld map was interesting enough from the demo, I suppose in practice the full game is shaping up to be considerably more in-depth when it comes to exploration, even outside of the game's expected dungeons. I never felt like I was in the danger of getting lost, at least, though I do wonder how things will shake out once I have more time to check out the various different states of the game world across the timeline.

Speaking of scope - considering how I was able to verify that dungeons do have slight changes depending on when they are entered, I am curious exactly how long Elliot will be to complete. Beyond the dungeons I already completed in the original demo, the new one I was at liberty to check out here, and at least a handful of additional ones I was already to spy on the map - I wonder just how long the game will be, once all is said and done. I wasn't able to ask for a projected runtime, though I expect however long it lasts it will be fairly substantial compared to its peers, especially if you're looking to fully complete it.

As for the story? Well, nothing much I can talk to, yet. The slice of the game that we got to play hardly touched on it much at all, assuredly by design. I remain curious about it, but I do find it interesting exactly how close they seem to be holding their cards to their chest - at least for now. We had a chance to ask the game's Producer Naofumi Matsushita a few questions about the game, and at least one of the answers we received raised an eyebrow. I'm excited to see exactly what the game's story has in store for us.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millenium Tales launches on June 18 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Steam, MS Store) and Switch 2. Stay tuned for our full review in the weeks ahead.