The adventures of hat guy and tutorial gal

Some people's names can hold up to being put in the title of a videogame or movie, but I'm not sure "Elliot" is one of them. The protagonist of Square Enix's next HD-2D game is introduced by one NPC as a man of good character, although they "will admit he has his quirks." I assume that's a reference to Elliot's red hat, which seems to be the the only notable part of his personality.

The Adventures Of Elliot: The Millennium Tales might be as bland as its main character, but I think I'm fully onboard anyway after playing its demo. 

Elliot is an adventurer in a fantasy world overrun by beastmen. The remaining human population are safe inside a medieval city's walls thanks to a magical shield maintained by the princess. Adventurers are those few who travel beyond the walls to explore and find supplies, and in Elliot's case to earn money he can use to care for the children in the orphanage in which he was raised. His name could have been called Hero McDogooder and the game name would have been better.

This has the same art style as Octopath Traveller, Bravely Default and some of the recent Dragon Quest remakes, but not their turn-based combat. Elliot is more like Zelda, with real-time scraps fought with a sword and a boomerang. The overworld zones are large and open, with characters to talk to and shops to buy potions from, and you'll enter dungeons to fight tougher enemies and solve some simple locked door puzzles. 

So far, so quirkless, but there are the beginnings in the demo of an interesting progression system. Certain enemies drop shards of Magicite, which when combined produce a random perk or buff for one of Elliot's weapons. Sometimes these are straightforward improvements to damage output or critical-hit rates, and other times they alter the rhythm of combat, letting you throw two boomerangs at once, for example, at the cost of the damage output of both, or incentivising chaining together sword attacks. This prologue demo is four hours long and there's enough here to suggest you'll be able to construct varied character builds by equipping different magicite in the limited available slots.

I think the main reason I'm convinced by this otherwise very traditional action RPG is how it feels in the hands.

Shortly before trying the Elliot demo, I played another Zelda-like, the recently released Mina The Hollower. Mina has been positively reviewed by everyone and is clearly a good game, but it's tough on first contact. The art style is retro to a fault and sometimes obscures the height and purpose of objects; combat is tricky and feels restrictive, at least initially; and death comes quick and frequently. This isn't substantial criticism - I played Mina The Hollower only briefly and decided it simply wasn't for me.

By comparison, Adventures Of Elliot falls over itself to make sure you're never overwhelmed and that everything in clear in its opening hours. The pixel sprites and 3D world with modern rendering techniques look great and your surroundings are always perfectly legible. 

Combat is fast and smooth and you quickly have both a close and long-range attack which, combined, make every early enemy a cinch. You're still encouraged to play skilfully by making use of character positioning to deliver crit attacks or to throw the boomerang such that it hovers in place and delivers extra damage, but these are acts of optional finesse to make you more efficient rather than necessities. If you do die, you'll be sent back to a checkpoint, but this is rare given there are plentiful health pickups and the princess has a healing ability.

That princess is a constant companion in the demo, talking to you via magic earrings that allow her to see what Elliot is doing. You'll discover a chest and the princess will immediately pipe up with something along the lines of, 'Hey! A chest! I wonder what could be inside it?'. By the time she's finished speaking, you've already opened the chest and Elliot is now talking over her with his own voice line about the item inside. You'll take a single hit of damage, your first in half an hour of fighting, and yet every time the princess will say: 'Hey, maybe you should use your shield instead?'. 

I might eventually commit regicide if this continues for the entire game, yet still I value the commitment to keeping the action moving. "The Millenium Tales" subtitle points to the 1000 years of history over which the game takes place, with a time travel plot that takes Elliot to four distinct eras of this fantasy land. That might eventually turn out to be a meaty or surprising story, but in these early hours when I'm not yet invested in the story, where every NPC feels like a stock character, and the world and game seem largely generic, I'm glad that it at least maintains momentum so I can keep slashing at chickenmen, ratmen and snail... snails.

The Adventures Of Elliot: The Millennium Tales has all the hallmarks of a game I wouldn't normally bother with, yet the demo won me over. I want to play more of it. If you decide to pick it up from Steam, your progress will carry over when the full thing releases on June 18th.