I've played Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales - get this game on your radar

One moment, you're looking at the clock, thinking 'I can squeeze in another half-an-hour playing this'.

The next, three hours have gone by without you realising and a profanity comes to mind - but you've had a heck of a good time playing the game that's unashamedly stolen your time.

That 'just one more game' or 'just 30 more minutes' feeling for me is the hallmark of a great title where you get so engrossed in playing something you completely lose track of time.

I had a similar experience when checking out The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, a HD-2D action role-playing game from Team Asano, which is part of Square Enix and has previously developed Octopath Traveler and the recent HD-2D remakes of early Dragon Quest games.

And the studio is once again cooking with The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales with the familiar HD-2D formula but in a refreshingly different way. I've been hands-on with the game for around an hour on a base PS5, playing 20 minutes in a dungeon before exploring the open world, having to be peeled away from my time with it.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a HD-2D action RPG / Sqaure Enix

When you see a HD-2D game, you may automatically think of it being turn-based or strategy. But The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales bucks that trend with its gameplay being action focused.

The controls for main character Elliot are fairly straightforward in that you move around using the left stick, along with the face buttons featuring an interact button, jump button and two weapon attacks that can be mapped to whichever weapons you have at your disposal. There are a range of swords, bows, hammers and more and I generally kept one for close quarters and another for ranged.

In the dungeon I played, I had to fight a number of foes and solve the puzzle presented which took the form of reflecting beams of light around rooms using mirrors with some light platforming. I played through the dungeon on normal difficulty and it was still a welcome challenge.

Puzzles will have you scratching your head at how to solve / Sqaure Enix

Combat is fast and fun. Elliot's movement is quick and snappy, making taking on enemies with your preferred weapons and creating openings feel fluid throughout.

A fairy companion called Faie joins Elliot and she has her own set of abilities, such as setting things on fire, enabling Elliot to sprint and even warping Elliot to previously unreachable places.

These abilities can be upgraded too and offer some satisfying ways to switch up combat. I loved being able to chain warp behind an enemy, becoming invisible and then hitting them with a sneak attack.

Faie's abilities are also key for exploring and traversal so you can navigate through the world and overcome obstacles that would otherwise stand in your way.

Boss fights are fun and engaging / Sqaure Enix

All of this together sounds quite straightforward but the challenges Team Asano present have you racking your brains and keeping you on your toes. The puzzle in this particular dungeon really had me thinking outside the box in order to solve it.

After completing this, I explored the open world and there are loads of trials and things to find off the beaten path that don't take up too much time. There are lots of small little things to discover and it makes you feel like you're truly exploring, organically finding things such as hidden caves for fruitful rewards without it ever deviating too much from the main objective, at least in this preview.

Playing for an hour, this helped to keep Elliot feel focused instead of going off on a tangent. I had such a blast just immersing myself in the world. To note, performance seemed to be running at a flawless 4K resolution at 60fps (frames per second) and the sound is absolutely incredible.

Exploration in The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a true standout / Sqaure Enix

So far, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales has been an unexpectedly welcome shift to Square Enix's renowned HD-2D games.

Its focus on action is realised incredibly well through fairly straightforward controls that keep gameplay feeling fluid and abilities from Elliot's fairy companion Faie are incredibly fun to play around with and upgrade.

The challenges this game seems to present come in the form of dungeons that will really get you thinking and fairly challenging combat encounters.

If The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales can keep this up over its duration, it will be among the very best HD-2D titles out there - and that's no mean feat.

Be sure to budget more time than you think to fully enjoy it too.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales releases on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC on 18 June.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• I've played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on Nintendo Switch 2 - it's very impressive but not yet perfect
• Dragon Quest VII Reimagined review: Bold, brave and brilliant

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