Reflecting on what Halloween was like as a child instantly conjures up so many distinct images: the crisp Autumn air, the rustling of the leaves, jack o’ lanterns lighting up the front porch, and kids scurrying around the streets in imaginative costumes. There’s such a possibility to the day, allowing you to dress up as whatever you want to represent your true self. Everything is riding the line between being a family-friendly version of spooky and legitimately scary. Few games capture this feeling as well as Double Fine’s ode to the JRPG, Costume Quest, which came out in October of 2010 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Costume Quest was born out of one of Double Fine’s Amnesia Fortnight game jams during the development of Brutal Legend. During Amnesia Fortnight, Double Fine would set aside their current project and split into teams that to create game prototypes for reviewed by the team as a whole. Costume Quest was one of these prototypes, and it was put into production and completed by Double Fine in under a year.
The game casts you as one of a pair of twins, Reynolds or Wren, who are heading out on Halloween night to trick or treat in their new neighborhood. Whichever one you pick is dressed in a robot costume, while the other is wearing a candy corn outfit. This costume makes them a target for a real-life, hungry monster called Grubbins, who kidnaps them, forcing you to put together a party of neighborhood kids to pull off a rescue mission before curfew.
The core conceit that the game is built around is the use of a variety of Halloween costumes that are collected throughout the game. These cleverly act as the classes and are not tied to a specific member of your three-person party. While exploring, costumes appear as they would in real life, but once the battle starts, the corny cardboard boxes transform into an epic robot. Each costume not only has a specific ability in combat, but also has an exploration ability for navigating the game’s levels. Costumes range from classics like a vampire or unicorn to oddballs like french fries and the Statue of Liberty. This mechanic perfectly captures the spirit of Halloween: you dress up as something else and embody it throughout the evening.
Each of the game’s areas is gated with the most Halloween-themed mechanic possible: trick or treating. You need to go from house to house and knock on doors, never sure if it will be answered by a clueless adult handing you candy or a monstrous Grubbin ready for battle. This is a brilliant way to thematically handle the random battles that JRPGs are known for, transitioning the classic holiday tradition into gameplay seamlessly. Forcing you to trick or treat at all houses also gives you an easy reason to explore the game’s world, which presents you with exploration puzzles that often block your progress until you find certain items or costumes.
While the game gels perfectly thematically, the gameplay isn’t always the strongest. Mechanically, the game is very simple, particularly when it comes to battles. There are timing-based button pushes that can add extra oomph to your attacks or give your defense a slight boost, but other than that it’s just doing a normal attack until you power up your special move. Aside from the changing of the costumes, there are Battle Stamps that can be collected to give you different buffs during fights, but other than that it’s very basic stuff. Fortunately, the game is relatively short, particularly compared to other entries in the JRPG genre, ensuring that its charm will keep you interested before it wears out its welcome.
This charm makes it easy to see why this was the first Double Fine game ever to get a sequel. The concept and world that Costume Quest set up is very easy to expand upon with new costumes and locations. The sequel even tweaked some elements of the combat a bit to make it more interesting, though still not as deep as other JRPGs. While it didn’t seem to garner as much attention as the original, but it was still a worthy addition to the franchise.
I say franchise because the Costume Quest brand has successfully made its way into other mediums as well. In 2014, Zac Gorman wrote and drew Invasion of the Candy Snatchers, an original graphic novel set in the Costume Quest universe that follows a trio of young Grubbins who sneak into the human world on Halloween night to steal candy to impress the popular kids. It’s a fun role reversal that finds a unique angle on the property, featuring great art and fun writing. This year, Amazon Prime adapted Costume Quest into an animated show that takes the concept and adds a bit more mythology around the origin of these transforming costumes.
Most people who love Halloween use it as a great excuse to revisit media that reminds them why they love the holiday, and Costume Quest is perfectly built to be revisited. It’s simple battle mechanics make it a smooth replay that doesn’t provide much resistance, and its six-hour runtime makes it easy to fit into even the busiest video game schedule. These factors also make it a great game to introduce to children, so if you’re looking for something to get your kid in the mood for trick or treating, or want to keep the spirit alive after the holiday has passed, Costume Quest is the perfect family-friendly option.