Costume Quest Review

I write this review as a person that has never played a Double Fine game ever. Costume Quest is absolutely fantastic; it’s a game that seems to encapsulate all the things I love about the Halloween season along with my love for stories of childhood greatness. Much in the vein of Hayao Miyazaki animes (Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro) and Earthbound, this game is super endearing and brings a smile to even the most jaded of individuals. This game has charm to spare and may end up as one of my favorite RPG’s of recent date. Jump down to check my full review.

CQ starts on Halloween night where you choose from one of two twins, in a very intuitive way. You and your sibling are then of to go trick r treating but your sister or brother is kidnapped by monsters that are drawn in by his/hers Caramel corn costume. You are then thrown into a traditional RPG to retrieve your unlucky sibling from these Candy stealing monsters. The random battles of RPG’s past are dealt with in a very slick manner. In which you go door to door for candy and you have a 50/50 chance of getting candy from a human or battling a monster and getting more candy (which is the games xp for leveling up). The battles are very similar to Mario RPG wherein you time contact sensitive moments to deal out extra damage, essentially a quick time event (QTE). There is only one type of attack your character does essentially until they build up their special usually around the third attack.

Battle stamps are added to mix up the very standard combat by adding special perks to each of your party. They can be bought from shops located throughout the game. Some stamps will boost attack power or cause an enemy to be temporary stunned or even allows counterattacks. The main selling point for combat is your costume which you can change for other costumes as you collect them throughout the game. Each costume has a specific purpose from Offensive Mechs to healing Statues of Liberty, and even defensive boosting Knights. Though none of these are significantly deep, it can allow for some variation till you find the right combination for yourself.

Not enough can be said for the presentation of this game, from its simply adorable characters to its intense battle moments. When you’re in the games over world you are a little kid in your costume which is done up like you except a kids costume to be. The robot is done up with cardboard boxes and Heelys (shoes with rollerblades build in), but when you enter battle with the monsters the costume becomes exactly what a child’s imagination would change it into. In this case, a giant Gundam/Transformer that’s ready to kick some ass. Also some costumes have extra over world abilities like the aforementioned Heelys letting you move quicker or the Knights shield letting you cross under water falls.

Costume Quest is a remarkable game in its clever writing and complimentary setting, an annual release of these game would sit well for those that fear getting into the 60 hour RPG’s of old (FF13 anyone?). The length of the game I would say is a compliment instead of a hindrance since I would find that the weakest point would be the combat if it were stretched any longer than the 5 hours it took to beat this game. For 15 bucks you can’t do much better. So all I ask is for now is Yuletide Quest anyone?

9/10