Game Review: Costume Quest (The perfect game for Halloween time!)

The game which I am reviewing today is a lesser known indie title called Costume Quest. Costume Quest is a role playing/adventure game which was developed by Double Fine Productions, and then published by THQ (I forgot they shut down until writing this, R.I.P. THQ). It was released back on October 19th of 2010, which was a smart move at the time considering that the game is Halloween themed, at least in my opinion. It was available to download on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 platforms, then ported to the PC through Steam about a year later. The version I'm reviewing is the ported Steam version, which I got out of a humble bundle a few years ago. 

Now, I'm sure some might say this game might feel a bit odd to play when it's not the month of October, since most people tend to ditch all of their Halloween decorations and the entire feeling of it by the next day, but I really wouldn't let that discourage you from trying it at any point in time. While the game does a perfect job of capturing the spirit of Halloween for children and giving adults a trip down nostalgia lane, it also does an excellent job of being quite witty throughout the game, having a great combat system and some rad designs for the transformations in the game. 

Now, the story of the game is definitely on the simple side, so don't expect anything too complex or emotional. At the start of the game you're given a choice of either playing as a boy or girl, the counterpart of your choice then end up being your twin sibling. You and he or she depending on your choice are getting ready to go trick or treating, however, your character isn't too happy about that due to the hilariously, embarrassing costume your twin has chosen to wear for the holiday. 

Your parent quickly scolds you about taking your sibling and forces you on your way with them. This of course leaves you with no choice but to start going door to door trick or treating with your sibling. After doing this for a short while, your sibling suddenly ends up getting kidnapped by monsters who have a plan to steal all of the candy from the townsfolk. (Though I feel that I should probably mention you shouldn't expect the monsters to be scary or anything, because they look like adorable little orcs for the most part.)  

After she is taken away, your character quickly realizes that your parents would be most likely be pretty mad at you if you come back alone knowing your sister has been taken by a group of monsters. Your character then swiftly makes a plan to try and rescue her with the help of one of your trusty friends at your side. But, of course the first part of your quest that is far more important than rescuing your sister or brother is to finish your trick or treating. Because, candy is more important than family, right? 

As you were shown before, you'll do this by going house to house and knocking at the door to beg for some candy. There is a certain number of homes in each location you visit in town where you'll need to knock on the door to try and get some candy, which I should mention does serve a purpose as it works as this games currency. However, it's a 50-50 chance at whether you're going to get some candy, or attacked by one of the dopey orc creatures instead. Either way, it's win-win since you'll be gaining currency or exp from the encounters. 

The combat system within this game is a turn based combat system, much like what the older final fantasy games gave us. I was happy to see the turn based system in this game, as it happens to be one of my favorite styles for RPG's. This one however is pretty simplified, and is taken down to its bare bones essentially. Because of this there really isn't much of an inventory system for you to manage, which isn't in itself a bad thing since it keeps things from getting too complicated. 

All you really have to manage is customizing your fighting styles, which you do by using different costumes which you'll get by collecting the specific materials needed and getting the pattern blueprints to create them from scratch. There is also a set of items called battle stamps which give you certain passive and active buffs like giving you an increased attack power, the ability to do counterattacks automatically, or giving you special abilities and effects to your attacks. 

There's quite a few which you can collect and they have a lot of variety and range to them. Some of them let you stun your enemies for multiple turns, one lets you the ability to scare an enemy from the battlefield, and another even lets you scare an enemy off from the battlefield. And, that's just a small sample of them. There are plenty of other great ones you can pick up which prove quite useful. You'll be buying most of these with your candy from a few specific shops in the game, though some of them are rewarded after battles. Each companion character can have one battle stamp equipped at a time, so you'll have to choose which fits with that character the best. 

That's all there really is to managing your inventory in Costume Quest. Pick a costume you want to use and equip it, choose your battlestamp for your characters, then find your way into a battle and then wait your turn to attack. However, I will say this, what the game lacks in complexity and depth for it's combat and inventory system is made up for with the flair it possesses. Each costume has it's own unique ability and design, and boy can they get to be hysterically over the top. 

The abilities which your costumes have certainly seem like they come straight out of the wild imagination of a kid, which I'm sure most of us had when we were younger. Sadly, I can't say the same for the monsters of the game, since most of their attacks are generally the same which I think is a shame. I would have loved to have seen some new attacks introduced every once and awhile at least. The absurd nature of your abilities certainly helps to keep the combat entertaining, however, which is nice. 

Between fighting with the little orc creatures and attempting to advance through the main story, there's also plenty of side quests to be done throughout the game (Which I'm sure comes as no to surprise for anyone who plays RPG's). The side quests range from finding or trading specific items with certain NPC's, collecting new and different costumes for your character, winning a costume contest being run in the neighborhood, bobbing for apples, and a few other Halloween themed events. 

Most of them basically would be categorized in the find and fetch category of quests, however. So, there isn't much of a variety to be expected from these. They definitely put more emphasis on the main quest over the side quests, which isn't that big of a deal as I care more about the story than random objectives. You'll want to look around everywhere in each neighborhood though anyways for new costumes to try out, so you may as well do these side quests while you're at it and earn some free stuff! 

This game thankfully doesn't feel like it's draining on you like a lot of RPG's can be with the amount of grinding and time you have to sink into them. Most of the time, you'll just be grinding only a short while until you're strong enough to clear the next part of the game. Generally, it'll only take around 25-35 minutes of grinding in each area before you can clear the "boss" for that section. Just make sure you continue collecting really strong battle stamps, because they really do make combat a breeze to get through. 

This is one reason why it's important to get as much candy as you can, so you can get more battlestamps. Though, you could probably clear the game without an issue if you skip grinding out all of the candy available. I do realize that some people only care about the narrative of games, and aren't really interested in the combat and grinding. There's nothing wrong with that either, especially with this game which has a funny, witty, entertaining story to it. But, I do think the combat is quite fun and you should spend at least a short time collecting stamps and grinding out a bit. 

The writing, story and atmosphere contained within this game really captures the spirit of Halloween that we all probably felt growing up as kids. The times when we had the imagination and thoughts that because we had a blanket wrapped around our neck made us a superhero, or because we had on some cardboard we drew robotic stuff on that made us cyborgs. The time where having some candy could fix most of your problems. (On second thought, I'm pretty sure having candy and sweets can still fix a lot of problems even now.) Now, add on the funny dialogue and sequences we get along with all of that and it makes a truly entertaining game. 

The art style for this game is quite endearing without being overly so to the point where it's nauseating. While it has that cutesy type of style to it, it never gets annoying or to the point where you feel like you're playing a game for kids. It has plenty of style to it and uses a wonderful color palette, and it utilizes itself to definitely make you feel like it's Halloween in the suburbs with the design of the environment. The little cutscenes we get for the costume abilities are also designed quite well, and I just think overall the game is pretty nice to look at while also staying pretty simple. 

Between the entertaining combat, neat art and graphic design, humorous writing within the game and the fun narrative, it really makes for a relaxing night of gaming if you choose to play this. I honestly think this would be a good game to put on and play if you're stuck at home this Halloween, especially if you're not a big fan of horror games and want something that sticks with the Holiday spirit, just in a different way than what we're used to. If you're not interested in RPG games, however, then this may not be for you. I would really recommend you give it a try though, as you're missing out on a cool little game if you skip it. 

Thanks for checking out my review! Hope you've enjoyed it!