Compare Revisions

11 Exploration in The Adventures of Elliot takes place across Philabieldia, a sweeping continent viewed from a top-down perspective. Towns, dungeons, caves, and ruins are scattered throughout, and traveling between four distinct historical ages via the Doorway of Time opens up each era's unique regions as the story progresses. Previews of the demo show the overworld using HD-2D depth techniques to render distant terrain curving away in the background, giving the world a layered, panoramic quality.
22  
33 The Doorway of Time
44  
55  
66 Elliot begins the adventure in the Age of Safekeeping and travels progressively further into the past, crossing each era through the Doorway of Time. The journey moves in one direction chronologically: Age of Safekeeping, then the Age of Reconstruction, then the Age of Magic, and finally the Age of Budding at the dawn of human civilization. Each age has its own settlements, terrain, and threats, and areas explored in one era may look or behave differently in another.
77  
88 Guideposts
99  
1010 Adventuring guideposts are the central traversal and checkpoint system. Discovering a guidepost unlocks it as a fast-travel destination, letting players jump freely between any found location across all ages. Guideposts also serve as checkpoints: when Elliot is revived by Faie after death, the revival cost in tul, the game's currency, escalates with each use, but reaching a guidepost resets that cost back to its base. On Very Hard difficulty, costs do not reset at guideposts.
1111  
1212 Secrets and Off-Path Rewards
1313  
1414 The game is built to reward exploration that strays from the main path. Stronger weapons with greater attack power and enhanced special attacks can be found in dungeons, caves, and ruins that have nothing to do with the current objective. Three distinct types of optional content are woven through the world:
1515  
1616 The developers estimate a standard playthrough at about 30 hours and a thorough, explore-everything run at around 50 hours, so most of that extra time comes from the optional content described below.
1717  
1818 Secret Treasure Routes: small hidden dungeon areas tucked behind destructible cracked walls that can only be opened with bombs.Shrines of Life: optional combat and traversal challenge dungeons that test Elliot's full toolkit.Shrines of the Mystic: special locations where Faie learns a new magic ability; each discovery also unlocks a scored minigame called Faie's Magic Lessons, which rewards in-game music records.
1919  
2020 A more lighthearted collectible runs alongside all of this: finding 50 cats scattered across Philabieldia earns the Medal of the Katzenmeister. Rather than petting them with a button press, Elliot interacts with each cat by giving it treats or playing with it using toys; the feature was added by members of the development team who are fond of cats.
2121  
2222 Collectibles
2323  
2424 Exploration is rewarded with several kinds of collectibles. Treasure chests come in three colors, each holding different rewards, and other collectibles are tracked across all four ages.
2525  
2626 CollectibleWhat It GivesBlue ChestTul, magicite fragments, low-level magicite, blue keys, and other progression itemsRed ChestValuable rewards plus red keys used to open red locked doorsGreen ChestRarer magicite, larger amounts of tul, and more magicite fragments, usually locked behind platforming and puzzlesManuscriptOptional lore entries about Philabieldia's history, re-readable at the Orphanage in the Kingdom of HutherCatHidden cats turned in for milestone rewardsShrine of LifeA puzzle challenge that rewards a Shard of Life on completion
2727 Cats are brought to a cat-loving traveler near the fountain in the Kingdom of Huther, who hands out rewards at collection milestones.
2828  
2929 Cats CollectedReward5Cat Needle10Bomb Pouch20Quiver35Golden Egg50Medal of the Katzenmeister
3030 Shards of Life are the key exploration reward: collecting four of them forms a Drop of Life that permanently raises Elliot's maximum Life by one. They are found in chests and guaranteed inside every Shrine of Life. See Items for the full collectible item list.
3131  
32+For a complete list of every confirmed treasure chest, its reward, and where to find it across the ages, see Chest Locations.
33+ 
3234 Healing at Guideposts
3335  
3436 Most adventuring guideposts have a blue crystal and act as save and fast-travel points. A guidepost with a red crystal also heals Elliot to full whenever he approaches it, making red guideposts a free way to recover between fights.
3537  
3638 Puzzle Design
3739  
3840 Dungeons are multi-floor structures with distinct puzzle themes throughout. Faie's magic abilities function as the primary puzzle-solving tools, with each ability tied to specific puzzle types encountered in the world.
3941  
4042 Puzzle TypeDescriptionFaie Ability UsedPressure switchesFloor or wall switches that must be held down to open passages or trigger mechanisms.Copy (to press two simultaneously)Two-switch activationPuzzles requiring two switches to be pressed at the same moment; Faie's Copy creates a duplicate to handle the second switch.CopyLight-beam and mirror puzzlesRedirecting a beam of light to one or more targets using mirrors or reflective surfaces.Positioning and standard traversalWall-bombingCracked walls that conceal passages or Secret Treasure Routes; a bomb is required to open them.Bombs (weapon)Platforming sectionsMoving across platforms above pits, lava, or other hazards; Faie's Warp teleports Elliot across gaps.WarpTimed traversalPassages or sequences with a time constraint, such as outrunning a hazard.SprintEnvironmental interactionLighting torches in dark areas, melting ice, or detonating explosives to clear paths.Ignite
4143 Faie as an Exploration Tool
4244  
4345 Outside of combat, Faie is the primary means of reaching areas that Elliot cannot access on his own. Warp instantly moves Elliot to Faie's current position by consuming half the Warp meter, allowing him to cross pits or land on elevated platforms that would otherwise be unreachable. Sprint increases movement speed for time-sensitive traversal. Ignite, Vacuum, Copy, and the rest of the five magic abilities each double as exploration and combat tools, meaning players use the same toolkit in both contexts. Faie's abilities are learned progressively at Shrines of the Mystic found during exploration, so the puzzle complexity tends to scale with which abilities have been unlocked.