Costume Quest is a party-based role-playing video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ on October 20, 2010. In the game, the player controls a child who is trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween night when they encounter a monster that kidnaps their sibling. The player must travel around the local neighborhood collecting items for their costume, candy, and fellow children as companions in order to face the leader of the monsters and rescue their sibling. The costume aspects are used in turn-based battle segments, where the player character and companions are transformed into whatever they are dressed as to fight other monsters; the costume aspects are also used for abilities outside of battles.
A DLC expansion titled "Grubbins on Ice", was released on December 21, 2010, taking place after the events of the original game and set in the monster world of Repugia. A sequel, Costume Quest 2, was released in 2014.
Gameplay
Costume Quest incorporates elements of exploration of adventure games and character growth of role-playing video games. In the exploration part of the game, the player character explores their surrounding area, starting with their neighborhood, then a mall, and then a country town. In these areas the player can complete quests through trick-or-treating that reward the character with hints to the sibling's location, more candy (a type of currency for interactions with other children), and costume parts that can be used to alter the character's costume. The character can also befriend up to 4 non-player characters that can help with some aspects of quest solving.
At times, the player characters will encounter monsters, leading to the battle mode for the game. Here the children become giant versions of what costumes they are wearing, along with abilities reflected by that costume; for example, a child wearing a makeshift robot costume becomes a giant mechanized robot, while a child wearing a medieval sweater becomes a knight in armor and sword. Battles are turn-based, allowing the player to select attacks, blocks, or a special move that requires hitting a quick time event at the right moment to achieve maximum damage to their foes. Winning battles leads to additional rewards towards the player's main quest.
Plot
The game takes place on Halloween. Fraternal twin siblings Reynold and Wren are new in their neighborhood and are asked by their mom to make new friends in the neighborhood. The player at this point chooses which sibling to play as, marking them as "in charge". The two dress in their costumes, with the non-playable character dressing as a piece of candy corn and the playable character dressing as a robot. A monster sees the non-playable sibling, and kidnaps him or her. The player character must now save their sibling in time and be home before curfew. The player character trick-or-treats at houses, tracking the monsters and their sibling from the neighborhood, then to a mall, and then to a country town. Along the way, they meet fellow trick-or-treaters Everett and Lucy, who join their party. Eventually the player character confronts the leader of the monsters, Dorsilla, who after defeating her reveals that she is actually working for a much more powerful monster named Cadaverous Big Bones. By defeating him, the player character rescues their sibling and returns home, banishing the monsters back to their home world.
"Grubbins on Ice" "Grubbins on Ice" takes place after the original game in the Winter season. Everett and Lucy are searching for any evidence of the monsters that was left behind. Lucy finds a piece of evidence, which opens a portal that she is sucked into. Everett then takes Reynold and Wren with him to find and save Lucy, who has been taken captive by the monsters on the other side of the portal, which leads to the monster home world of Repugia. Similar to the original game, the player must trick-or-treat at various houses to eventually reach Cadaverous Big Bones, defeat him once more, and rescue Lucy. At the end of "Grubbins on Ice", the main characters escape from Repugia into a nexus of portals, which leads directly into the plot of Costume Quest 2.