Out of Season Game Review: Costume Quest + Grubbins on Ice DLC (PC)

Unsurprisingly, holiday themed titles aren't the first things that spring to mind when looking for a quality game. Ignoring the fact that they simply aren't all that common, holiday games suffer from the problem of holiday films: they're only really relevant for part of the year. Not to mention the inherent tackiness of pretty much anything that's a holiday tie-in. Still, it wouldn't be much of a world if expectations always held true. So hooray for Costume Quest, a short, sweet, Halloween themed RPG that's so good, it didn't feel at all weird to be playing it in November.

In the broadest possible terms, Costume Quest is a JRPG style of game with turn based combat, a limited amount of environmental exploration and item collection. However, trying to talk about it in these genre based or purely mechanical terms really misses the point. The main draw of this game has to be its charm. Everything is bright and colourful, the music appropriately upbeat and, when appropriate, somewhat spooky. A bit like Scooby Doo in that respect. 

Beyond the bright colours, the visuals really convey the spirit of the game. On the maps themselves, things are heavily stylised and cute, the kids themselves having massive heads, big smiles and huge eyes poking out of their cute, appropriately bad looking, costumes. Things change when you get into battle though. The dopey looking cardboard and rag costumes suddenly become huge, living, badass versions of whatever they were meant to represent. It never gets old watching the cardboard robot costume turn into a cross between Megas and a Tau Crisis battle suit from Warhammer. The best part is that there is no disconnect. Despite the change in graphical styles, from ultra-cutesy to Toho style mega monster brawl when you enter a battle, it really fits together well. It's reminiscent of 'Good Times with Weapons', the South Park episode which shifts into an anime style to show how the kids see themselves, then back to the normal animation for how the rest of the world sees what they're doing. Though Costume Quest does the whole transition a million times better... and has a lot less violence... and fewer profanities.

The awesome visual style aside, the battles are simple turn based affairs: each costume has a single normal attack which can be boosted through a quick time event. Every three turns you can unleash that costume's special ability, which may be a a super attack, shield, heal or whatever. Another interesting element of the battle system is that there is no game over for losing a battle in this game, and you may run from any battle at any time, even the final boss battle. This not only fits win well with the whimsical style of the game, it also means that if you go into a battle with the wrong costumes equipped (some boss battles require you to have certain abilities), it's not a big deal just to leave, re-equip and come back. This also means that battles don't turn into hour-long slugfests as can happen in some other turn-based combat systems, because if things aren't going right, you can just try something else instead of settling into a long, repetitive, slog.

The costume mechanic really makes battles fun to watch, a mech fighting beside the Statue of Liberty and a Ninja is really a sight to behold, especially when the Statue heals everyone and a disembodied Lincoln head flies in on a red, white and blue-burst background. On the overworld, the costumes aid exploration with certain costumes having abilities, such as the Robot's skates and the Space Warrior's light, which can open up new areas. It can get a little annoying to have to keep opening up the costume menu to change every time a specific obstacle appears, but the change system is so quick that it's never more than a minor irritation. Though on a personal note, I did use the robot's skates as much as possible to move more quickly around the map, so I found that the robot got a bit more screen time in battles than I would have liked just because I forgot to switch costumes before I started a battle.

Even though the style, themes and gameplay could not be any further apart, Costume Quest really reminds me of Nation Red insofar as they're both games that have a strong focus on doing a few things really well, rather than trying to cram in as many badly implemented features as possible. There's a real elegance of design here, a restraint, that shines through from almost every element of the game. It's shown most by the length of the game itself, which clocks in at around six hours and that's to do nigh-on everything in the main game and the DLC. That's very short for a game of this type, but the game doesn't feel like it needs to be longer. The lack of length also makes for good pacing, the game never drags on or feels padded. It also means that the simple battle system feels elegant rather than restrictive, something that would likely happen if the game were longer. Really, it's reminiscent of watching a series of Blackadder: as much as you'd like more, its good to know that it never got the chance to go a little too far, to jump the shark. Costume Quest, like Blackadder, and unlike this analogy, only lasts as long as is necessary for maximum enjoyment, and not a moment longer.

However, they did continue Costume Quest with a DLC pack (just going to avoid the Blackadder holiday special comparison). The Steam version of Costume Quest includes the Grubbins on Ice DLC as part of the package, which is just as well really, because it is very much more of the same. It offers three new costumes, a little more story and a new area that is about on-par with one of the three main areas from the main game. Taken as part of the whole, Grubbins on Ice is a good addition to Costume Quest, playing both back to back really does stop the game from feeling short. However, it's difficult to recommend buying Grubbins on Ice separately. Yes, it provides about as much content as a third of the main game, but the main game itself is very short. Still, as part of the package on the PC, it's a good little addition to the game. 

Costume Quest has something for all but those with the coldest, deadest, of hearts... and those that really hate turn based combat. As a charming, fun little game full of great ideas that's still cheaper than a trip to the cinema, it's definitely worth a look.

9/10