The comparisons to The Legend of Zelda started almost immediately. Square Enix's upcoming action RPG Order of the Sinking Star and its sister title, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, both carry the HD-2D visual signature that Square Enix veterans have built their reputation on. That aesthetic, combined with real-time action combat and a fairy companion, made Zelda comparisons practically inevitable. The developers saw it coming, too.
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The Mana connection the team never stopped thinking about
Producer Naofumi Matsushita sat down with Polygon recently to set the record straight. The team was not looking at Hyrule for inspiration. They were looking at their own back catalogue, specifically the Mana series and the original Game Boy entry, Final Fantasy Adventure, which launched 35 years ago and eventually gave birth to the Mana franchise.
"We anticipated that some players might be reminded of The Legend of Zelda series when playing this title, so we're truly honored to receive comparisons like that," Matsushita told Polygon. "However, throughout development, we were consistently inspired by Square Enix's own action RPG heritage, such as the Mana series, particularly the Game Boy version of Final Fantasy Adventure."
Here's the thing: that distinction matters more than it might seem at first glance. Final Fantasy Adventure was itself compared to Zelda back in 1991, so the lineage of comparison runs deep. What Matsushita is describing is essentially a creative loop where Square Enix built a new game inspired by a 35-year-old title that was already drawing Zelda comparisons in its own era.
What the developers actually built
Matsushita was specific about what the Mana series gave them as a foundation. "The Mana series was groundbreaking in how it blended RPG elements with real-time action combat, striking a balance between the thrill of action gameplay and the memorable storytelling of an RPG," he explained. "That balance closely aligns with the core concept we set out to achieve with this title."
Building on that base, the team layered in three distinct elements that push the game beyond a straightforward Mana spiritual successor: the HD-2D visual treatment, a controllable fairy companion, and a story built around time travel. The combination is designed to land somewhere between accessible and genuinely challenging, which tracks with how the Mana series always positioned itself.
The Zelda comparison is understandable from the outside looking in. Both franchises share top-down action combat, puzzle-forward dungeon design, and a certain sense of adventure-game rhythm. What most players miss is that Mana was doing all of this in parallel with Zelda, not in imitation of it. The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is drawing from that parallel tradition.
Why this framing resonates with longtime Star Ocean fans
This kind of deliberate heritage-building is something Star Ocean fans will recognize immediately. Square Enix and its veteran developers have consistently returned to their own catalog for creative reference points rather than chasing whatever is dominant in the market at a given moment. Star Ocean's blend of sci-fi storytelling and real-time JRPG combat carved out its own identity precisely because it leaned into what made Square Enix's action RPG lineage distinct.
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales appears to be operating from the same philosophy. The HD-2D style is the clearest signal of that, a visual language developed in-house that has now become a recognizable Square Enix signature across Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, and beyond.
With the June 18 launch closing in fast, the demo on Steam is worth checking out if you want to form your own opinion on whether this feels more like Mana or Zelda. For deeper coverage as the release approaches, the strategy guides collection for Order of the Sinking Star will be expanding, and you can find broader gaming guides across the site for everything in the JRPG space right now.
