Easily the most appropriate game to finish on Halloween!

There's a fantastic amount of charm to a game all about Trick-or-Treating. I also loved that the costumes can be changed at any time, so it feels like your party is much larger than it really is.

My biggest take from this game was that more RPGs should have a finite amount of enemies, completely eliminating grind. Apart from making a game about being kids on Halloween, that specific feature is the game's best concept.

(5-year-old's review, typed by her dad)

You get to put on costuuumes. And beat bad guys! And THAT'S! THE! END!

This is my shortest review.

Costume Quest is somewhere in my top 10 favorite childhood games, and I still really like it to this day. It's a game that captured my imagination as a kid, and I always found its atmosphere and tone to be cozy and fun. I used to have a tradition where I'd play it to 100% completion every October. It's one of my favorite games ever, and I think it holds up to this day.

Gameplay:
Costume Quest is a turn-based RPG with adventure game elements that takes place at Halloween. You play as one of two siblings, Reynold or Wren, and go on a mission to save the other after they are mistaken for a piece of candy by a candy-stealing army of monsters. You team up with two other kids and use the powers of your costumes to fight your way through the game's many encounters.

Your primary objective is to trick-or-treat at every house before you can move on, either encountering a normal person at the door or a monster which you must take down. I always loved (and slightly feared) the trick-or-treating aspect as a kid, as there's a tense build-up to the door being opened, leaving you to wonder if you're in for a trick or a treat. There's lot of things to do off the beaten path though. There's tons of hidden areas to find and side objectives to do. The main form of currency in the game is candy, which you can get by trick-or-treating or collecting in other ways. You mainly use it to buy stamps which give you special benefits to help you in combat. Stamps are also reward through side objectives. The main motivation for exploring, however, is the costumes. There's a good variety of costumes to collect and wear throughout the game. Some have certain applications for progression and puzzle-solving, but all have their own niches in combat that make them worth collecting and using. Costumes are constructed by finding three of their pieces scattered throughout an area. Once you get the pieces, the costume is yours and can be equipped onto any of your three party members at any time.

Combat is fun yet simple enough for a kid to understand. You can definitely call it "baby's first RPG", because it was certainly mine. It's a good system though. Everything is pretty straight-forward. Time that would otherwise be spent looking at stats and equipping gear is replaced with focus on team composition through swapping around costumes and equipping a stamp that would benefit a certain costume's niche. As for the battles themselves, they see your characters transforming into giant versions of what their costumes represent. For example: you wear a knight costume, you turn into a giant knight. The enemies do the same. For most of the battle, you'll be pressing a single button to initiate an attack and some extra buttons to boost its damage. After a couple turns, a meter will build up and allow a costume to use its special abilities. Some costumes unleash a powerful attack on a single enemy, some can hit multiple enemies, some will give buffs, and some will heal. This is where the team composition element comes in. There isn't much to do outside of that in battles though. Luckily, the combat stays entertaining through its enemy variety and set amount of battles. The game's also pretty short too, so you can rest assured that nothing will be overstaying its welcome.

Story:
The story isn't too crazy, obviously, but I do find it quite fun for what it is. Like I said before, it's basically about one sibling saving another sibling who has been kidnapped and also it's Halloween. There's a few fun twists though and some interesting characters here and there. I especially love the writing. It's very charming and I appreciated it even as a kid. There's uh... not too much to say outside of that.

Sound and visuals:
The sound design and music is pretty dang good, though the mixing can be a little weird at times.

As for the visuals, they're also pretty dang good. The characters in the overworld are cartoony and cute, which is humorously contrasted by the more detailed art style that the battles switch to. The environments are full of warm colors that really help to see the fall vibes. There's a nice variety in the settings as well. There's some really fun and creative designs all-around. I did always find the UI to be a bit underwhelming, but it's still fairly solid.

Conclusion:
Costume Quest is simply a really fun and charming game. Though it may be short, taking about only 5-7 hours to fully complete, it still manages to feel like a fulfilling experience thanks to its focused progression and meaningful side content. I don't think any other piece of media captures the fun of Halloween for a kid quite like this does. It is definitely a game I'd recommend, especially since it goes on sale for very cheap on Steam.

I’ve been wondering for a long time just how far charm can carry a product. No seriously, think about it- we've all seen movies or played video games that rode on a series of archetypes and cliches implemented in other superior products, and yet we give the rehashes a pass because they held a significant amount of an unquantifiable emotion called charm.

With Costume Quest, I think I’ve finally gotten the answer to my question, at least as far as video games are concerned: the charm has to add onto a solid foundation, not substitute for it. If the latter happens, you get a product that will make you smile occasionally but ultimately be seen as not worth your time, and that was the case with this release from Double Fine (who, ironically, did the Grim Fandango remaster, which I completed prior to CQ).

Like Fandango, you have an interesting premise in monsters taking advantage of Halloween to steal a bunch of candy from unsuspecting trick-or-treaters. Twins Reynold and Wren are out celebrating (and arguing) when these creatures kidnap one of the siblings (the opposite of whoever you choose to play as- however, given that I played as Reynold, I’m going to be using him as my frame of reference from this point on). It’s up to Reynold to save her, who teams up with two others, Everett and Lucy, to get her.

Paranormal beings causing shenanigans during holidays might not be the most original setting, but Costume Quest does a couple of things that play to the aforementioned allure. One is the focus on Wren and Reynold’s relationship: the writers actually succeed in creating that love-hate sibling dynamic in the dialogue, laying the groundwork for a decent mini character arc in which Reynold learns to publicly love his sister. And two, the whole situation is played very tongue-in-cheek. Sure, stealing kids and wanting to turn them into candy is inherently dark, but the goblin-like entities are depicted as blue collarish in personality, seeing their work as more of a duty than a genuine goal. There is the atypical incompetency, but it never takes over the majority of the grunts (a wise choice, as that would render them more annoying than entertaining). I’m also, admittedly, a sucker for stories involving kids who aren’t conventional superheroes taking it upon themselves to save the world; growing up, I liked Starkid and Teamo Supremo to give you an idea of this dumb guilty pleasure.

That being said, I did have one pet peeve, which is the running gag of adults not discovering the presence of monsters. I say running gag, but it’s only addressed once wherein a mall cop remarks that the ghouls are simply kids dressed up as gremlins. Every other time you have an adult(s) near one, they don’t even react to their presence (or the battles you get into). It honestly kind of bugged me, especially considering a lot of the houses you trick-or-treat at have Grubbins in them- like, what happened to the original occupants and how do the neighbors NOT realize that something is amiss right next door to them?!

Like I said, the story isn’t terrific or overly-entertaining, but it’s enjoyable enough, with a script that’ll get the occasional chuckle out of you.

Unfortunately, the biggest flaw is the lack of voice acting: this is one of those RPGs that would’ve benefitted significantly from a series of voice artists giving life to the cast before you, and a big reason for that is that most of the dialogue bubbles are on a timer, meaning you cannot read things at your own pace lest you miss out on some characters’ contributions to a scene. I didn’t see the reason for this. If it was done for cinematic pacing, then the direction sucks because often the snaps during convos lacked cohesion or reason, either hurting the drama by dragging things out or hurting the comedy by shortening situational jokes.

The soundscape, in general, is paltry. None of the music stands out due to the OST being ambient to a fault - there are at least 4-5 main areas in the game, and I can’t recall the track for any of them. There are people who may prefer that, seeing Halloween as an inherently horror-based premise that should focus on ambience over direct beats, but my counter is there is a balance that has been achieved by other games indulging in horror-esque motifs. In the end, only the battle theme is distinct, and I feel that’s primarily because it’s the only fight music in the entire game and, as such, repeats.

Sound effects are decent. Every suit has its own unique noises for attack and defense, but limiting everything to just three moves total inherently makes it all get repetitive over the course of hours (i.e., hearing the same missile noise from the mech suit is tiresome). Outside of brawls, you get other sources of monotony: footsteps are synced well-enough but don’t change based on surface (save liquid in Grubbins on Ice), breakable objects, hittable items, and people all have the same specific din tied to them when hit by the pail, no matter the type of object or size of the person (i.e., pumpkins give the same sound as rubble piles, trash cans the same as gumball machines, fat guys the same as little boys, etc...).

Graphically, Costume Quest is good. The artists capture the feel of Hallow’s Eve, with every area being covered with an orange or purple/black tint. Your atypical jack-o'-lanterns, hay bales, scarecrows, skeletons, and autumnal leaves are strewn throughout, and NPCs are surprisingly distinct in costume wearing (the exception being if they’re a part of a clique that requires the same suit). Child character models, while suffering from the Powerpuff Girl problem of having big heads with giant eyes, are stylized enough and fit the aesthetic of the world perfectly. That being said, there is some laziness in the form of the houses/buildings: they aren’t individualized at all, and trick-or-treating at any of them gives the same rehashed dialogues and animation. Also, I experienced an inconsistent/low framerate.

Unfortunately, the real flaws come with the gameplay. Costume Quest is a very barebones RPG. You have your three criteria: an experience/leveling system, customization, and turn-based combat, but it’s all so minimal as to be insulting. With the first, there are only 10 levels total and no skill points- due to there being no skills: the only thing that increases is your HP and attack power, which is pointless because you rarely have to revisit previous areas and your leveling correlates with the minions in new ones, essentially making the whole thing a form of level scaling.

Customization comes down to giving every partner a fully-assembled costume: you can’t mix-or-match parts and a select few costumes contain abilities vital for bypassing exploration obstacles, forcing you to have to switch constantly when you want to prep for a fight versus use one for movement (i.e., having to switch to the spaceman suit for the light-up sword, then switch back to something else). Transmog would’ve gone a long way here, or having it so that, if one of your partners is wearing a suit, you have access to its capabilities.

And finally, combat is downright bad due to a couple of reasons, the first being the dearth of diversity in powers. Each suit has a single attack as well a special power that is available after 3 turns, and that latter ability is always one of four things: a more powerful attack, a strong defense, a fright scare, or a heal. That is it. And it’s not like you’ll be using it much considering you’ll defeat 90% of grunts before it’s charged-up.

The system is pathetic. Forget fancy variations, where are the standard block/defend, evade, use item, or heck charge-up? This is common stuff that has been in place for years now (even relative to when Costume Quest came out in 2010). The availability of battle stamps (which seem to have been ripped off the badges from Paper Mario 2) do give some variation such as stuns, poisons, and counterstrikes, but some of these should’ve just been associated with suits or suit parts. And you can only equip one per a person, though I assume that was done to prevent the already easy combat from becoming even easier, which brings up my second complaint, which is the lack of strategy- literally all you have to do to win any fight is concentrate your attacks on a single enemy and conquer each one individually. Taking out the mages/healers is the only thing I can say that resembles a tactic, but at level 5 you’re at a point where even this is technically unnecessary (you’ll still want to do it to avoid dragging out battles, so there is subtle forced gameplay there). The very few bosses offer some strategy, but it’s too little too late.

You will have to fight a lot as the whole schema of Costume Quest is going around defeating roaming bugaboos, or trick-or-treating at houses that secretly have Grubbins inside. And because the combat is repetitive it’s not fun, and because you have to do it multiple times, it makes the game not fun.

And that’s what ultimately prevents me from recommending Costume Quest. It has nice visuals and a charming enough story, but sound and especially gameplay are in wanting, and exploration, despite being free roam, is very limited in scope/details/secrets. On top of all this, most of the sidequests are repetitive (ex., find this trading card or bob for apples or locate these missing kids), and the ones that aren’t honestly shouldn’t even be called sidequests since they’re mandatory for story progression.

As for Grubbins on Ice, it’s just more of the same. The story starts off on an interesting note with three of the characters traveling to the monster dimension and getting involved in a rebellion against the oppressive regime there, but that latter part is LITERALLY dropped and you get your standard beat the final boss (one of whom is taken from the main game). The gameplay and even mission structure is reskinned from the previous games (i.e., trick-or-treating = door-to-door knocking/recruitment, hide-and-seek = find runaways, bobbing for apples = bobbing for candied eyes), and the aesthetic aspects are also reskinned (pumpkins become snowmen). There is a hookline, but it doesn’t add much variety to the game world.

For the record, compared to other games, Double Fine’s rehashes aren’t bad, and it was nice getting to see a more “human” side to the monsters. I also found the shy romance between Lucy and Everett to be Peanuts-esque in its heartwarmingness. But the end product still feels lazy, and given that this sets-up the sequel, it is required to be played, meaning more effort should’ve been put into it.

Costume Quest has the right amount of hours per gameplay (about 5 hours to beat the main game, 2.5-3 for the DLC), but it’s not enjoyable enough to be recommended.

Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (200G). Costume Quest is a short, simple RPG with a Halloween theme, where the player takes control of a small party of children out "trick-or-treating". The game revolves around collecting parts of costumes that serve to facilitate puzzle-solving and to grant combat abilities when facing off against enemy monsters which roam the environments and sometimes inhabit the houses that you visit seeking candy. Those battles are the second major part of the game and again fairly simple, with your party facing off against monsters in a turn-based fashion. Combat abilities are limited to a basic attack and a costume-specific special with a three-turn cooldown, with the only additional depth coming from equipable badges. While these mechanics are clearly rather basic, the game as a whole is elevated by a wonderful sense of charm, typical of Double Fine's games, so it's a decently fun time through the six or so hours that it takes to play through to completion.

Costume Quest is a classic RPG with lots of humor and child adventure. The art style is cute and the battles remind me of the South Park episode where the kids transformed into anime action fighters outside of their normal dialogue.

The collectables are fun and there is enough of a challenge to unlock the various items to build on the world and make it enjoyable.

The DLC was also fun with the new costumes but the main game was better imo.

Jogado no Xbox Game Pass / Cloud Gaming. Eu gosto demais de RPGs de turno fofinhos com minigames para ataques, então não seria tão difícil assim de gostar de Costume Quest. Mesmo com pouco conteúdo pra oferecer e uma certa repetição mecânica, eu gostei bastante das batalhas ao ponto de fazer 100% no jogo.

Mesmo não ligando muito pra Halloween, eu gostei do charme da historinha, que realmente são só crianças tentando salvar a cidade deles de monstros comedores de doce sem que nenhum adulto sequer ajude.

costume quest is a harmless, cute rpg that is perfect for kids and is very charming and nostalgiac for adults. I didn't play this game as a kid like most people on here seemed to, I got it for free through the epic games store and it got chosen on my wheel of Halloween games. I can't even imagine how much fun I would have had with this if I played it when it came out, but going into it as an adult, it was a tad too easy for me. i don't fault the game for this, it is a kid's game, but at the same time playing it as an adult feels very grindy. the whole game feels like fighting low level enemies to level up in other rpgs. and again, i understand why it's like that, and i'm ok with it, but it did impact how I felt towards it. the one thing I love about this game is how it nails what Halloween feels like when you're young. it made me smile multiple times and really miss my trick or treating days. a great game for fall time.

Is this primarily aimed at children? Probably. Was I ever a child? I sure was.

And that's why this Halloween-based RPG was absolutely some of the most fun I've ever had in October. It isn't hard; just fun and repetitive in a way that really appeals to MY gaming hobby of enjoying my free time with limited challenge. I loved this for all the same reasons I still enjoy Pokemon as a 36 year old man. It's. Just. Fun.

100% with all costumes, battle stamps, and cards.

Doce ou Travesuras !!!

Costume quest e um jogo muito gostosinho de se jogar por causa da sua gameplay sendo bem facil ate podendo ser um pouco repetitiva, pois como um rpg por turnos so temos como atacar ou mandar o ataque especial quando cheio, so por isso deixa o jogo muito facil, mas eu senti falta de podermos defender ou usar itens isso para mim e um dos acertas e ponto baixo do jogo por se muito simples de jogar mas isso fez o jogo ser bem relaxante de se jogar, sem ter muitas dor de cabeça ou dificuldade tirando um pouco mais difícil ,mas não tanto assim, os chefões finais.

A história eu achei ela bem simpática e praticamente aqueles filmes de hallowenn infatil que as crianças vão atras de doces e acabam se envolvendo com alguma trama paranormal, e como o jogo e cheio de charme como a double fine consegue fazer deixa bem legal de ver o desenrolar dela, mesmo sendo bem simples.

E um jogo que vale a pena dar uma olha pois como esta no gamepass, e também sendo bem curto para zerar fazendo ele sde um jogo bem relaxante de se jogar.