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Introduction
The end of October brings us to what I think is the most interesting USA festivity for those not born in that country: Halloween. The concept of wearing a costume and going out at night trick-or-treating is too alluring when you’re a child and the only way you can participate is through films, TV shows or cartoons.
To celebrate it, instead of leaning into the horror genre, I will try something different, but still thematically appropriate. Enters Costume Quest, originally released on October 19, 2010, for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 through their online stores (no physical releases). We are playing the PC port, first released in Steam on October 14, 2011. It comes bundled with the DLC, Grubbins on Ice.
The game was developed by Double Fine Productions, Inc., a studio founded in the year 2000 by Tim Shafer, famous for his work during the heydays of Lucas Arts, alongside programmers David Dixon and Jonathan Menzies. The studio is well known for Brutal Legend, the Psychonauts games, Brütal Legend, Broken Age and a few remasters of Lucas Arts’ games, like Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango and Full Throttle.
It’s the possible to say that Costume Quest came into our world thanks Brütal Legend’s problems in securing a publisher. Originally Vivendi Games was the title’s publisher, but the company merged with Activision in 2008, who inherited the publishing rights. Unfortunately, Double Fine couldn’t convince their new overlords to fund the game, and had to shop around until Electronic Arts agreed to publish it.
During these troubled times, Shafer promoted what he called an “Amnesia Fortnight”. For two weeks employees “forgot” their current work and were split in four teams to create a prototype from scratch. The process was repeated at the end of Brütal Legend’s development, which gave us two games: Stacking and our chosen game, Costume Quest.
Since Brütal Legend wasn’t commercially successful, its sequel was canceled and the studio was left without any active projects. Shafer then decided to shop the prototypes around, securing a deal with THQ for Costume Quest and Stacking.
The project was led by Tasha Sounart, who pitched the idea of the prototype and the lead animator on Brütal Legend. The game had a short development time, roughly a year, and according to Shafer cost no more than 2 million.
The game had good sales and was well received. Eventually, it was followed by a sequel, Costume Quest 2, released in 2014. A comic book side story by Zac Gorman called Costume Quest: Invasion of the Candy Snatchers, was published in the same year. Recently, in 2019 the games got a TV series adaptation on Prome Video.
Back to the original title, is it a sweet experience or more like tempered candy? Let’s find out.
The Narrative
Costume Quest tells the story of twins Reynold and Wren, the new kids in Auburn Pines, who wish to trick-or-treat during Halloween Night in their new neighborhood. You must choose one of them as your player character, so I picked Wren because she’s a smartass. As they go out into the night, your character dressed as a robot and the other one as a candy, they will arrive at a house being ransacked by a monster, more specifically Gus, from section 5.
Gus kidnaps the candy twin, thinking it’s a giant sweet, and flees. After following him to the entrance of the neighborhood’s cemetery, you are introduced to the game’s main antagonist, the witch Dorsilla, who is behind the candy snatching operation. Instead of fighting, she sends your character away on a whirlwind.
Now it’s up to you to find your sibling before returning home, foil Dorsilla’s plans and save Halloween. But you won’t do it alone, as two companions will join the adventure quest: Everett, the Tabletop/RPG/fantasy aficionado, and Lucy, the science obsessed youngster. Together the trio will explore their neighborhood, a shopping mall and a country fair, always collecting candy, finding new costumes and meeting a plethora of peculiar characters, some well thought, other strange for the sake of being strange.
Some of the most interesting moments are the patriotic party, where anyone with a patriotic costume can enter, but everyone came as President Abraham Lincoln, the gang of children where everyone dresses as a mummy, the children dressed as pirates that are being enslaved, and the yeti secret.
The game never tries to be serious or deep, neither tries to surprise you nor leave you on the edge of your seat. It’s always lighthearted and comedic, with a simple plot similar to what you usually find on children’s media.
Its unconventional and humorous atmosphere is akin to titles like Earthbound, the South Park RPGs and Saturday Morning RPG, with its suburban locations and zany moments. Fortunately, the humor doesn’t come from genre awareness and cynicism, but from genuinely funny dialogues, unconventional characters and unexpected situations the characters must partake in. I honestly prefer this type of humor.
I can’t say the game had the most intriguing plot I’ve ever experienced, or that it has unforgettable characters and moments. On the contrary, I think these elements are mostly forgettable. But I don’t think it detracts from the experience the developers tried to convey, which is finding weird children during Halloween and enjoy a few laughs.
Presentation
I liked the art style a lot, as it complements the game’s tone. In a time when everything was devoid of life, colorless and “realistic”, the game looks vivid, colorful and cute. Also, this kind of art direction tends to age better than ultra-realistic graphics, so even now the game looks inviting. I particularly enjoyed the starting neighborhood, with its red and brown tones that remind you of autumn and all the Halloween decorations on the houses.
Outside battles the costumes look like something bought in a store, not something a child would hack together. During battles the characters transform into their respective costumes, but instead of keeping the same aesthetics from the game map, the developers choose a more “realistic” design. I would prefer that they kept the same art style everywhere, similar to the South Park RPGs. Also, the characters become giants during these sections, fighting around puny human sized buildings.
The soundtrack reminds me of horror films for children, with playful yet spooky tones. It fits the game well but it’s not memorable enough to listen to it on your spare time. It was composed by Peter McConnell, and if you liked it you can buy it here.
Mechanics
In Costume Quest you explore the characters suburban neighborhood in search of the main character’s twin. You will be completing quests for other characters, playing apple bobbing, collecting cards and stamps, finding candy (the game’s currency), making new costumes (a crafting system for those of you who cannot live without one) and battling against monsters.
The developers made a lot of effort to make exploration interesting by adding a lot of breakable objects that can be smacked with the candy bag, simple environmental puzzles, side quests, collectibles, and trick-or-treating from house to house, what can result in gaining some free candy or fighting an enemy. You can also play a minigame of bobbling for apples for some sweet candies.
Costumes
It’s evident that Halloween costumes play an important role in the game. Some costumes give your characters exploration abilities, that are used while exploring and to solve puzzles. As the outfits also determine your character attacks, it’s important to experiment with them to form a good party.
There are eleven costumes in the game. You need to find their schematics and the necessary components to build and use them in battle.
Battle System
The game has a turn-based battle system that doesn’t offer a lot of options or chances to use strategy. When combat begins your characters can only use a normal attack and, after a few turns charging, a special attack. These special attacks are unique to each costume and cause different effects, like damaging more enemies, causing status effects, healing, etc. Hence, it’s important to test every new costume to see if they are worthy of a spot in your party.
As was common at the time, some attacks require additional input, like rotating one of the analog sticks or repeatedly pressing a button. You can also reduce damage taken by completing a button prompt when an enemy attacks. It becomes tiring after a while.
Winning battles will grant you some candies and Creepy Treat cards. These cards have no real impact in the gameplay, as they are just collectibles that make fighting more rewarding.
As for the difficulty, fights are usually very easy, and even if sometimes you can lose one or two times to a tougher enemy, a simple change of costume is enough to guarantee a win.
Unfortunately, the combat is too simple for the game’s own good. Your three-party members are identical, as they have the same stats and no different abilities. Since stats usually convey part of a character’s story and personality, showing how they are competent at some activities but not so capable in others, the developers missed an opportunity to make some characters better at wearing some costumes than others, forcing the player to experiment. That would be a better reason to try new costumes than just to discover which special you will gain.
Fortunately, through Battle Stamps you can give each character an edge. These items can increase attributes, add a passive ability or even another attack. Each character can use one, and they can be bought from Sadie, a girl who lost herself to the free market.
As your characters have the same attributes and most of the time, you will only use a normal attack, most battles feel scripted. You always attack first, then the enemy attacks. Repeat it one or two times until you can use a special attack. Even the damage is the same each battle. Thankfully, the game has no random encounters, and some battles can be skipped.
The game offers a few boss fights. They are fun since their gimmicky nature offers a change of pace and can even be challenging if you don’t choose your costumes wisely.
Grubbins on Ice
Grubbins on Ice is a DLC for Costume Quest released on December 21, 2010. It brings the characters to the world of Repugia that is being governed with an iron fist by a new villain called Araxia. After encountering Lucy and Everett, he kidnaps Lucy while Everett escapes to seek the help of twins Wren and Reynold. The three get their costumes and challenge the villain and his minions, but are defeated and end up in a village of Grubbins who want to start a revolution to overthrow the tyrannical government.
The gameplay stays practically the same, but you will have three new costumes, eight more battle stamps, eighteen Creepy Treat cards, and a new species of monster, the Repugiarchs. There’s also a humorous small change to the bobbing for apples minigame that I liked a lot.
It’s more of the same, so it’s worth your time if you liked the main game, since it ends on a cliffhanger, setting up the next game.
Final Thoughts
Costume Quest is not a bad game, on the contrary, it’s well made and funny, successfully emulating Halloween media targeted at children. It’s also short, so it’s a good game to celebrate the festivity. Finally, it’s one of the few Halloween themed RPGs out there.
The title’s biggest flaw lies in how simple its mechanics are, what can make the experience tedious. It’s also a bit forgettable, since the plot never surprises or move the player. I think Costume Quest is best seen as a beginner’s RPG that you can be played to activate those core memories from childhood or to introduce younger players who aren’t prepared for the horrors of 80h+ epics to RPGs.
Final opinion: recommended if you don’t mind its simplistic nature and want to celebrate Halloween with a thematically appropriate game, or if you like Double Fine’s humor. Otherwise avoid it.