// KOTAKU — GAMING
8 Things To Know Before Playing The Adventures Of Elliot: The Millennium Tales
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. I liked a lot of things about it: it’s got fun slashy combat, a neat upgrade system, and the actual adventuring of Elliot is pretty fun. I was a little less high on the story and characters, but still had a generally good time.
You might also like The Adventures of Elliot. You might like it even more if you read a few quick tips that will make your experience easier. I kept this thing very light on spoilers or even deeply specific tips: this is all just stuff I wish I had known when I first booted it up, because I would’ve been way less stressed out if I had.
Trust me on this. Open the menu as soon as you start the game and find the option for “Partner chattiness” under “Basic Settings.” Set it to “Reticent.” Even if you think you won’t mind the excessive chatter, I promise you that this only turns it down from “literally constantly blabs” to “still talks an awful lot.”
Once you meet the Magicite merchant and learn about Magicite, you’ll see there’s an option in her menu to upgrade your Magicite box size. Do this. Then, if you have the cash, do it again.
When I first started The Adventures of Elliot, I was afraid to shell out the cash for Magicite box upgrades, because I didn’t know when I would need the money for something expensive. Turns out, you don’t. Throughout the whole game, the only other things you’ll ever need to buy are potions and arrows and sometimes bombs. That’s it. After a while, these become trivially cheap, especially if you’re doing a lot of monster murder. So buy the Magicite upgrades while you can, as it’s the only real permanent power increase you can spend money on.
Also, spend all your Magicite fragments at the trader every time for equippable Magicite. There’s literally no downside, as there’s nothing else to be done with them.
Yes, I know the sword is cool. Please try out other weapons too. There are some bosses later in the game for whom you will absolutely want to cycle in weapons like the boomerang, arrows, bombs, and so forth. Also, some of them have really sick Magicite upgrades that make them even more useful, like the one that makes the chain sickle spit fireballs when you spin it. Try everything out, try everything out multiple times, and you may find a sleeper favorite.
You don’t! You only ever get Magicite fragments and money from killing monsters, and the occasional temporary buff. There’s no EXP system, no weapon drops. So if you want to sprint through an area and fight nothing, there’s really no downside. The only time it becomes an issue is when there are puzzles to do, in which case you’ll want to make sure there aren’t 20 enemies on your tail.
The Adventures of Elliot has a number of sidequests that become available to you at different points in the story. You can track them via the Quests tab in the menu, which will also give you hints about where to start a quest you haven’t found yet, or where to go next on one you have.
Generally, it’s good to do every sidequest, and to do them right away. Many of them give very good rewards, such as accessories or empty vials for potions. One early quest (helping a widow make peace with her husband’s death) eventually unlocks a second shop in town where you can buy the best potion in the game.