The Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase was closed out by a pair of announcements from Square Enix: Octopath Traveler 0, and an all-new action RPG called The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales.
This is yet another HD-2D joint, which will see you playing as 'Elliot, the Adventurer' (badass name, that), who sets out across the fantasy land of Philabieldia to keep his kingdom safe.
Action seems to really be at the heart of this one, with seven weapon types at Elliot's disposal to take on foes and safely make it through the environment. You can even team up with a pal in co-op mode, and split your combat duties between the titular hero and his fairy companion, Faie.
We still don't have a precise release date for this one just yet outside of the '2026' window, though Square Enix did announce that a free demo will be available later today, with a player feedback survey coming shortly after.
What do you make of this one? Have you also forgotten the title already? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 94
Switching between Elliot and Faie has me intrigued. An eventual purchase.
Anyone else hoping that when it talked about time travel that it was going to be a new Chrono Trigger title?
It looks very good, but that name is absolutely awful. What were they thinking?
Elliot of Philadelphia looks quite promising, even if I'm kind of over this art style but I am more excited for this than another Octopath game
@GamingFan4Lyf Honestly I thought that this would be a live a live game when they brought up stuff like time and centuries. 😅
This is going to be Square Enix' Zelda.
Name is kinda dumb, but game itself looks cool! I bet it will also come to other platforms because of Square Enix's new multiplatform strategy.
The first Philadelphia-type game
@KoopaTheGamer Haha, their names are always... interesting. We now have 3 "Octopath Traveler" games, for instance.
I'm downloading it now. The HD-2D games are usually fun and this one looks to be decent.
@SplatRay001 I thought that, as well. Lol
they've got a real obsession with this style, don't they.
Thought this was Octopath Traveler 3 at first, and then we got hit with a prequel game in the second Square announcement.
And his companion fae who is a fairy “my name is fae and I am a fairy”. If this the quality to be expected of the dialogue then im quite sad. Game looks great but I am tired of cringey dialogue in jrpgs.
The game looks great, but I think SE is wearing out the welcome for its HD 2D artistic style. Don’t me wrong, it’s absolutely stunning, but they are starting to become over saturated, to the point where if I didn’t have any knowledge I would say all of the games are just a singular unit instead of multiple titles. Nevertheless, I’ll probably pick this up.
Looks lovely and gameplay seems nice. The name is a bit silly and the voice actor that fairy sounds awful, but still interested. Haven't played an Octopath game before either and the previous two have been on my wishlist forever so may well grab that if the reviews are good.
I'm glad we got four HD-2D RPGs coming, I'm just disappointed that one of them wasn't Chrono Trigger.
Us HD2D fans are eating good.
I’ve enjoyed these HD2D games in the past, but there is a point where they can go to the well once too often.
is the demo out yet?
I know I don't like Unreal Engine at the best of times but jesus christ Square Enix, it CAN do other things.
Hi Elliot, nice to meet you. Shame your game looks the same as Octopath, Octopath the Second, Octopath the First but not the first one, Octopath but from the SNES, Dragon Quest 3, Dragon Qeest 1 and 2 coming out after 3.....
Did I forget any?
Square, please, learn how to name your games. I'm begging you.
@Kraven the big problem with this art style is that none of the games that use it have their own identity and just blend into one another
More game key cards from SE ? No thanks.
The point where “HD-2D” overstayed its welcome was already about 3 games ago. They’re completely mailing in art direction and trying nothing new.
They spelled Philadelphia wrong
Title prediction for the next HD2D release:
Chronicles of Ian: A eunuch’s plight.
@KoopaTheGamer yeah it sounds like title of a show you'd watch in kindergarten lol
Doesn't really invoke the feelings of an epic fantasy adventure
Game looks great, but that title is a bit awkward
Eh I think it looks pretty cool, I'll take a Red Mage game.
@carlos82 dragon quest 3hd stands out the most I'd say
@carlos82 This exactly. It almost looks like they’re reusing assets, like it’s made in “HD-2D RPG Maker”.
Happy to see a 2D pixel action-RPG though!
@illmatic20xx Honestly don't understand the HD2D hate, it just reminds me of old Playstation RPGs like Dragon Quest 7, Final Fantasy Tactics, Breath of Fire, Vandal Hearts with sprites against polygons except better and way higher resolution, did people complain back then about the graphical style being repetitive? E: In Vandal Hearts 2 for example two characters are talking in a room, camera shifts to show someone else is standing outside eavesdropping. That cinematic camera movement is literally impossible with purely sprite-based graphics.
And yet it looks exactly like the 400 other exact same 2D rpg's
The only really potentially interesting thing in the entire Direct. And no, that is not a ringing endorsement, but at least it's a new game, it's an original and it's for Switch 2.
I might be somewhat interested in MH Stories 3 as well, as the trailer looked neat, if I had played one of the prior games ... and I would have played them, if they hadn't been presented as vanilla turn-based combat games ... which makes me think part 3 is going to follow suit. Nothing wrong with that, but I have about 30'ish more mechanically more interesting tactics games lined up in my Steam backlog right now, so it has to be a pass. But maybe I am wrong and they'll do something interesting with it?
Being a Philly native, that town name struck fear into my heart. I expect one of Elliot's skills to be named "GO BIRDS!".
Overall, I am disappointed in the SE offerings. I'm not "over" the art style, but most of the games using this engine feel like chapters of the same game. Yes, I had hopes of a Bahamut Lagoon temaster and overly hopeful Chrono Trigger would reap some of the art style.
And those game titles. Shivers
@Hapless No, Triangle Strategy was "terrible". This is just one of those should-have-brainstormed-with-ChatGPT-instead titles
I noticed the more Square Enix chooses stupid names for their games, the better they end up being.
Nothing can quite beat Triangle Strategy of course, but this one is shapping up to be incredible
Looks like mana. Looks good.
@Haruki_NLI Would you have said this about the six sprite-based Final Fantasies on NES and SNES, maybe you were one of the people in marketing back then who said people in the west don't get all the games because reasons.
There was a time where this would have excited me, but the HD-2D games all look so similar that I've grown kind of tired of this visual style, especially since it's most of what SE is willing to give us, regarding new original games for specifically Nintendo platforms.
I'm glad with the support, but, eh. I'll try the demo though. See if they can win me over!
@Fiergala I wouldn't have no, because while they all released over 7 years, they were across two different hardware generations, with changes to how they looked as each progressed.
As for why people in the West didnt get the games, I dunno. We here in the UK didn't get Final Fantasy until 7, so work that one out.
Having a character who likes like worthless Edward from FFIV, sharing a name with that jerkhole from Secret of Mana, and having what looks like an annoying won't shut up fairy partner would have killed my interest had the increasingly generic 2DHD style not already done the job.
I thought this looked so cool. I am excited to hear more and I hope it is good when it launches!
The Adventures of Elliot from Accounting: The Spreadsheet of Time. A clueless department manager introduces a new cloud based business solution and sends all client data to the twilight realm, Chicagolandia. Team up with Seth and Andy from System Operations and journey to the five server farms before the file gems get devoured by the time traveling encryption beasts.
@Haruki_NLI Eh haven't the HD2D games released across two gens at this point, and admittedly they're subtle but there have been graphical and art style improvements imo. Pretty sure the exact reason those RPGs didn't get released is that western execs thought they looked too samey and repetitive, so your logic basically, there's a reason polygon-based FF7 was the first released worldwide.
Come on, Square. Where's your usual bonkers-naming-guy? Call it, "Vallient Stopwatch Unhinged" or something.
This was my favourite trailer of the Direct. I think HD-2D is a timeless art style and a traditional ARPG is a good call.
What will fail this game is marketing. Name is awful and I don't have faith in SE to move past that and push this game as s9mething special.
I mean it uses a similar naming convention to the Legend of Zelda series so I don't get why people are hating the name for. 🤷♂️
The only thing I didn't like about it was the 'available 2026' but it's not that long a wait.
@KoopaTheGamer game partly made by AI I think. And so is the title.
I still can’t get over the title ‘various daylife’. I mean wtf.
@Friendly Various Daylife is indeed a ridiculous title. I will fight for Triangle Strategy and Octopath Traveler, because at least those make sense.
This game is going to be so good. I love 2D-HD, and this looks like it plays like an Ys game. Hell yeah.
Casual observers will mistake this for an Octopath spinoff, the game will be delightful but underperformed S-E's expectations, and they publicly resolve to start no project budgeted less than a billion dollars with the NFT features their fans have been clamoring for.
Seriously tho, I'm pretty excited, but I do expect uneven scripting and more uneven voice acting.
@GamingFan4Lyf Nah. It looks like ys. They're doing us with Elliot and maybe suikoden with OP0. Which both are cool. Don't know what 0 is, but they briefly showed a shot of six player battles where the characters move at once. That's suikoden.
@Medic_alert that wasn't the main thing so I don't know why they picked this and not OP0. That was supposed to be the last second good news Nintendo does. And it was. I mean, I said it just now but it looks like they're trying to make suikoden. Suikoden is sick. The writing in the octopath games is good. The bad part about the worst suikoden games was the writing. Checking my math,I m hyped as hell
I said in a comment yesterday I was hoping for a fire emblem remake because Fe is maybe my favorite franchise overall, but suikoden 2/5 are on my list of best jrpgs and so is OP2. Octopath suikoden is still very good news for me. But it's not clear that's what it is, it just looks exactly like it from the shot of the battle and the base builder. It's not like you have to jump far to arrive at "suikoden"
I saw the main character and thought "is this a red mage? is that a Final Fantasy action RPG?"
Anyway this reminded me a bit of the OG Seiken Densetsu (aka FF Adventure aka Mystic Quest) with the different weapons for different enemies and the fact that it channels old school Final Fantasy visual vibes.
Looks interesting, seems to be a homage to the Mana series and I might check it out.
My reaction to this being announced LOL
https://imgur.com/gallery/noctopath-traveler-elliot-edition-x6i0put
Didn't see a brand new HD-2D game and even less so an action RPG in that form coming, but I'm all for it personally - looking forward to seeing/hearing more about it and eventually playing it myself (most likely on my own, but it's cool that it can be played in co-op, too)!
Looks lifeless and uninteresting and it makes me want to play classic jrpgs instead.
I'm interested.
@Yel333 hahaha I think it was a terrible editing of the trailer to place the narrator and the fairy giving the exact same basic information within 2 sec, it sounded like a comedy sketch lol
The art style is a little samey in all of these games, but I'm such a sucker for pixel art style that I don't mind Square pumping this games out all the time lol it's looks SOOOOO good!
This caught my eye. I'll need to see more but I'm keeping an eye on this one.
@Oldstalk This hypothesis almost works but you have to include the absolutely ridiculous "Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy", like wtf just say "New Legacy of the Crystal".
@AussieMcBucket trust me, there's gonna be 8 games in total
Looks good like to get a Demo...that would something to try.
@sethfranum There is one on Switch2
@Fiergala Got it set to download.....
@danemord Oh my gosh, that makes so much sense now! But if this one is 0, then do we still have (at least) 6 more coming?
@Fiergala That's for the Elliot game, unless I missed one for this Octopath title, too.
Wait a sec, looking at the game profile pic, is this a key card or not?
@Hapless of course the title is dumb, this is from the Octopath, Bravely Default and Triangle Strategy team! It's practically a tradition to name things on the nose like this
This looks very much like Sword of Mana/Secret of Mana to me.
This one was a pleasant surprise. I'll be keeping an eye on it. I'd like to try the demo, but I don't have a Switch 2 yet. Looking forward to learning more!
It's not the actual name of the game that people hate. It's the name "Elliot" that they don't like. If they substituted that name for something cooler, people would have no issue with the game's name.
@Ulysses
Holy moly, you're right!
It's a bonus game!
Just finished this demo, really enjoyed it. Reminds me of classic Zelda and Square games, specifically Secret Of Mana, but with that HD-2D style. Colour me very interested in this.
I really wish Square-Enix would kinda ditch the HD-2D engine and go back to designing RPGs with fully pre-rendered, hand drawn backgrounds and sprite work. At this point, all of HD-2D games just kinda look samey, bordering on Unreal Engine slop.
It actually looks pretty cool, feels like an evolution of the HD-2D style of the Switch 1 era mixed with the more tri-dimensional look of Triangle Strategy.
Speaking about strategy, it's seems that's established for the studio too. Release a demo, review player feedback, take them into account during development and then release it successfully.
Along with the beefier power avaliable, it also looks like a bigger-budget game for the studio too, I hope it can reach sales expectations.
Big ole middle finger from me, Square. It's not confirmed yet, but there is no way this isn't a game-key card and I won't be buying it. With Secret of Mana/Evermore being some of my favorite games of all time, I would probably have been one of your biggest fans of this game, too.
I'll need a review but looks quite promising
Played the demo, loved it! Totally Zelda in all the right ways. Gonna for sure pick this one up!😁
As an Eliot myself I'm all in on this one 😁
Yeah, I'm not gonna let myself get invested in this. 100% chance it's gonna be on a Game-Key Card.
Might just play a bit of the demo to get the survey so I can complain about Game-Key Cards directly to Square Enix.
@Haruki_NLI star ocean 2
The Switch was so successful, they developed a whole new graphic style for it: HD-2D.
We're in Switch 2 era now. It should evolve to 4K-2D.
I’ll get the demo but very lukewarm about the protag.
I'm interested enough to try the demo.
Nothing to see here, just another Square Enix HD-2D offering…
Clearly we needed this as Switch2 exclusives.
The Switch1 is just too weak.
SquareEnix being weird
That being said.
That game looks amzing and the fairy is adorable + 2Player yay
@SplatRay001 eat cheesesteaks and soft pretzels to level up
Yea the naming is kinda lame lol but the gameplay looks really fun, hope it turns out well. I'm always interested in new top-down action games that look anything like Zelda or Crosscode
The gameplay is too mindless and weightless it feels like someone hacked basic action combat into Octopath and called it a day, the Zelda similarities are just for show it’s more like some old mobile ARPG like Zenonia.
Game looks alright. Name is horrible. People need to stop complaining about game key cards. Who. Cares. You'll get a cartridge that you'll use to install and play the game with alllll the same resale options. It's not a big deal.
@Haruki_NLI Triangle Strategy and Live a Life were HD-2D. But hopefully soon they'll need to call it 4K-2D.
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