Costume Quest (PSN) Review

Costume Quest (PSN, XBLA)

I know I listed this on my top games of 2010 list (Honorable Mention) with only playing the Demo of the game, but unlike my Donkey Kong review, I still believe that this game deserves it's spot on my list.

Costume Quest is a downloadable game for the Xbox360 and PS3 that was released around late October of 2010. What originally caught my eye with this game is that it was developed by Tim Schafer (of Grim Fandango, Psychonauts and Brütal Legend fame). From what I have noticed from playing some of the previously mentioned games, Tim Schafer has an interesting sense of humour to his storytelling and his games tend to have amazing art design. Costume Quest is no exception.

I originally had downloaded the demo since I'm not too keen on downloadable-only games (I prefer having hard copies of my games). However, I was blown away by the demo. I ended up finding everything that I could find in the demo and continued to play it for about almost an hour and a half! Though, I did not buy the full version of the game right then due to not having enough money. Luckily thanks to some magical invisible universal force making me wait to get the game, Costume Quest actually ended up going on a 50% off sale.

The game itself was a little bit shorter than I was expecting... but then again, I can not tell you the exact amount of time that I put into the game. All I know is that I sat down everyday for about 3 - 4 days straight playing the game. Even though I am playing the game "out-of-season" (since the game takes place on Halloween), I was too enthralled with how fun the game played moreso than to care if the game was relevant. There is DLC (Downloadable Content) for the game that extends the story a little more, and for the first time, I'm actually going to buy it.

As far as the story of Costume Quest, you start the game on Halloween night. The two twin children main characters, Wren and Reynold, are getting ready to go Trick-or-Treating. Their mother ends up assigning one of them to be in charge and protect the other one. This is where you get to choose your gender of playing as a girl or a boy. I chose Wren since I am of the female body type. The characters get changed into their costumes; for the playable character: a robot, and for the NPC sibling: a candy corn.

You go outside and both you and your sibling attempt to get candy from your neighbors, only to be shunned away because of your horrible costumes. When attempting to get candy from another house, a Goblin... err, a Grubbin comes out of the house (after tearing it apart for candy itself) and sees the NPC sibling dressed as a candy corn. Mistaking the child for actual candy, the Grubbin kidnaps them and thus begins your epic journey of cosplaying on Halloween to save your other half.

The game plays like a JRPG during battles, in the sense that the game is a Role Playing Game and all the battles are turn-based. You have 3 different attacks, each set to 3 different buttons, during battle. Though you'll mainly be using only 1 button combined with a quick-time event for the majority of battles; unless you equip skill-learning battle stamps to your characters. The third button of battle happens about once ever 3 turns, but opens up a special move (i.e. for the robot, you get a massive missile fire). When Trick-or-Treating, the enemies are randomized in the houses, while in certain parts of the game the enemies are viewable in the area.

Outside of battles, you explore the town for various items and dropped candy. You can talk with other children and accept quests from them too (like helping them obtain a certain kind of card). Though certain parts of the town are only accessible via the special abilities of your costumes (i.e. like using the robot to skate up ramps, and the knight's shield to block stuff falling overhead). You can find coffin-like treasure chests as well that mostly either contain candy or materials for a new costume.

I only beat the game at level  8, but I was fine with that. Sometimes it is nice to just sit back and enjoy a game for what it is, and not spend eternity grinding yourself silly against enemies to level up just to beat a particular boss.