So I finally got around to checking out a game by well known game developer Tim Schafer. Tim Schafer is the founder of Double Fine productions, which produced games such as Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, as well as the remakes of Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango. Costume Quest is the third game made by Double Fine productions, following up the aforementioned Psychonauts and Brutal Legend. All I can say is, if those two games are as good as I heard, then Costume Quest is somewhat of an odd one out, because I did not care all that much for it.

The story has you play as either a male character named Reynold, or a female character named Wren. The one you don’t choose gets kidnapped by monsters who are obsessed with candy. You get to rescue your sibling, and go trick or treating in the process. Along the way, you find a bunch of Halloween costumes, each of which give you different abilities on the overworld and in battle, and that can be swapped across the different party members you recruit throughout the game.

In terms of presentation, the game is serviceable. The sound effects work well, and the visuals are fine but unremarkable. The music, however, leaves a lot to be desired. Nothing in this game is particularly memorable or sticks out, and a friend claimed that it sounds like “Harry Potter music,” which is as damning of a criticism as I can imagine. Furthermore, you have the same battle music for every battle in the game, including the final boss, which is just lame.

Costume Quest is commonly cited as a comedic RPG, and it is often recommended to EarthBound fans by dumb people who think the only things people like about EarthBound is that there’s kids, it’s funny, and it takes place in modern times. Speaking of the humor, I found it surprisingly weak. I can only think of one joke that stuck out, and even then, it this joke about the suffragettes that stuck out because of how many layers of wokeness you need to be on to get it. The concept may have been unique in 2010, but now that there’s a fuck ton of parody RPGs out there, this game looks a lot less interesting.

Costume Quest does at the very least commit to the bit, and it did make me nostalgic for when I did trick or treating as a child, and while I can’t remember much of the writing, I don’t remember disliking it. That alone is not enough to carry this game, so it is up to the gameplay. Unfortunately, the gameplay is rather hit or miss.

Exploring each area and moving around the overworld was fun, but it was also bare bones, and provided little incentive to got back to old areas. The only reason the lasts longer than ten hours is because it throws in some simple side quests that would normally be considered filler in other games. I do need to stress, I didn’t dislike these side quests, and they were a good addition to the game, it’s just the fact that the game itself is simplistic.

The battle system is also simplistic. Every character has both a regular attack, and a special move that they get every three turns. The closest thing to anything such as equipment is the aforementioned Halloween costumes, which change what the special move is, and the action command you need to perform to do it. There’s some that have a powerful attack, some that do healing various forms of healing, and some that do buffs. There is a decent variety in options, but the only time you will even need to think about switching up a basic damage-healing-revive setup is the final boss… of the DLC episode, which is drastically harder than anything in the game up to that point. Otherwise, the game is Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest with action commands…. Halloween edition.

And if that’s what you’re looking for, the Costume Quest will be a satisfactory game to recommend to as a first RPG. But at the same time, I wouldn’t recommend expecting anything deep from it, otherwise you’ll get more of a trick than a treat.

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