Costume Quest

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Trick-or-treat to save your twin, and your costume fights back.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox
Stores: Steam, GOG
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (94% of 4,120 reviews)
Players: 1
Made by: Double Fine Productions
Released: 2010

Get it on Steam GOG Xbox (One and Series X|S, the Xbox 360 version)

What frightens Not frightening: a cartoon Halloween role-playing game. Monsters called Repugians are stealing the town's candy and have kidnapped your twin, so you trick-or-treat through the neighbourhood, and at each door either candy or a monster waits; spooky by design, played for charm and humour.
Content: cartoon violence.

Costume Quest is a Halloween role-playing game from Tim Schafer's Double Fine. You trick-or-treat through a suburb, a mall and a country fair in homemade costumes that become giant champions when monsters attack. It is spooky by design but made for charm, not fright.

About Costume Quest

Costume Quest is a short role-playing game made by Double Fine Productions, Tim Schafer's studio, and first released in October 2010 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The PC version came to Steam in October 2011 with the Grubbins on Ice add-on included, and Mac and Linux versions followed.

On Halloween night your twin is carried off by monsters called the Repugians, who want every scrap of candy in town. You set off to get them back, going door to door in a quiet suburb, a shopping mall and a country fair. Knock on a door and you get candy or a monster; collect candy, finish small quests for the other children and find the parts to build new costumes.

When a fight starts, each child's cardboard costume becomes the real thing: a knight, a robot, the Statue of Liberty and more, each with its own attacks, in simple turn-based battles timed with button presses. Battle stamps and creepy treat cards add small bonuses.

There is nothing here meant to frighten: the monsters are comic goblins and the writing is full of Double Fine's jokes. It is on this site's Halloween page for players who want the feeling of the night itself, trick-or-treating, costumes, jack-o'-lanterns and all, between scarier games, or a Halloween game to play with younger players. Costume Quest 2 continues the story.

How to play Costume Quest

Buy it on Steam (Windows, Mac, Linux) or GOG, or on the Xbox store, where the Xbox 360 version plays on Xbox One and Series X|S.
Pick which twin you play, then knock on doors around the neighbourhood to collect candy.
When a monster answers, fight it in turn-based battles, pressing the shown button at the right time for stronger attacks.
Find costume parts and patterns to build new costumes; each one changes what your party can do in and out of battle.
Finish the quests in the suburb, the mall and the fair to rescue your twin.

Screenshots

A child in a candy-corn costume meets a boy in a cardboard robot costume on a lawn lined with glowing paper lanterns

A battle under a huge red moon: a giant blue robot faces a horned, armoured monster among jack-o'-lanterns and floating ghosts

Two trick-or-treaters with candy bags, a knight and an astronaut with a glowing wand, in a dark warehouse

Three children in candy-corn costumes slide down a hill on a board, a lit Ferris wheel with a jack-o'-lantern face behind them

Tips

Knock on every door you pass: candy buys battle stamps and creepy treat cards.
Try new costumes as you build them; some open paths outside battle as well as giving new attacks.
On PC, the Grubbins on Ice add-on is included and continues the story after the ending.