Costume Quest | Review & How to Play
3Costume Quest is an adventure game where you play as one of two siblings while the other one gets nabbed by a monster while you're out trick or treating. This is a turn based RPG taking place in three Halloween-esque locations (and a fourth location as free DLC). The costume you start out with and the many costumes you can find throughout the game become personas you take on when you wear them. It doesn't matter who in your party wears the costume, they simply turn into the real thing of that costume when you enter battle, giving them different abilities. There are "timed" hits for regular attacks, and each costume has a unique special attack that charges up after three turns. For example, the robot costume gets a missile barrage attack that hits all enemies, while the knight gets a highly defensive shield he or she can place on another ally. You also get stamps which you can equip one to each party member to give them something extra like poison damage or a stun attack to paralyze an enemy. There are lots of treasure chest-like objects around filled with candy or specific costume materials.
When you go trick or treating to people's houses, the people their will either be home and give you candy (currency) or a monster will be there who will start a fight with you (which gets you candy and experience points). The story is that monsters are secretly invading your world, and of course no one believes you, so you must rescue your sister by yourself with the help new friends you make along the way. Some costumes also have out-of-battle abilities which help you traverse the environment or solve puzzles. There are a good number of side quests and mini games to play as well for extra candy to buy stamps and costume pieces to gain new forms and abilities.
What I like:
+ The premise of the game and environments are pretty cool and original.
+ The party system with the costumes is a cool idea that allows you to customize your party's appearance and abilities.
+ I think the different environments are creative and fit the Halloween theme very well (neighborhood, mall, and fair grounds).
+ The extra DLC included for free takes place after the main game, in winter. This mode has it's own separate save files.
+ The inclusion of "timed hits" keeps the player engaged in turn-based battles to better attack and defend.
+ Great sense of humor for nerds.
What I don't like:
- The game is so easy most of the way that you won't need to change off your starting costumes or form specific parties to meet certain challenges. I only made plans for the final boss.
- There a lot of auto moving dialog boxes. There's no voice overs, so I see no reason to take away my ability to progress the dialog when I'm finished reading it. I realized during the game that there is a cutscene pause button (weirdly X on xbox controller), so that was a compromise for my not-fast-enough reading speed.
- The mouse on PC is picked up automatically, so it will be center screen and highlight that option first on any menu until you start your file or move it.
Recommendation:
The main game length is about 6 hours long and the DLC will add another 2 hours. The game is fairly easy, but has a good sense of humor and fun locations to explore.
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