Costume Quest is a light-hearted, Halloween-themed RPG. This sequel follows on directly from the first game. Siblings Reynold and Wren go back in time to prevent a sugar-hating dentist from banning Halloween. They meet future versions of their friends who provide them with costumes - candy corn and a superhero.
There are no random encounters: some battles are found when knocking on houses and finding an enemy, but there are enemies walking around which you engage by walking into them.
In battle mode, your kids transform Power-Ranger style into a larger, real version of their costume. There are all sorts of costumes you find during the game; pterodactyl, wizard, clown, werewolf and more. The battles are simplistic which means it is accessible to newcomers to the genre. You only have a choice out of the basic attack and special attack. The special attacks charge after a few turns and each costume has a different ability: either dealing large damage, or assisting your team defensively e.g. healing. The basic attacks require a timed button press to deal the full damage. Similarly, when defending, a timed button press reduces the damage dealt, so it all feels like the Mario & Luigi series.
When you begin the game, you have 2 characters and the candy corn has no attack ability. You soon gain an additional party member, and find alternative and more useful costumes. The candy corn costume can have its use since it has higher health and has a higher chance of drawing enemies attacks.
In the first game, your health reset after each battle but now you have to trudge back to a fountain, or eat some of your candy supplies (which is a very low cost). These fountains are also how you save the game.
The stamp idea from the first game has been replaced by cards. Stamps added extra properties to battle such as more HP, extra damage, extra defence, poison attack, chance of dodging attacks etc. With this card system, you can select 3 cards to be available and these have various effects: heal you, charge your power meter, make the enemy attack himself, stun enemy and many more. These have a cooldown of at least 3 battles.
Some cards can’t be used against bosses like the one that halves an enemies health each turn. I thought that particular card was very useful as you can use it on one enemy while you focus your attacks on a different enemy. By the time you have defeated the enemy you were attacking, the other enemy will usually just need a finishing blow; so it feels like having a 4th party member. Sometimes the game throws 1 strong enemy at you, but since they won’t be classified as a boss, you can use whatever cards you want against them - which usually means they don’t put up much of a fight.
The game seemed very easy and I felt there wasn’t that much scope for strategy. There was a weakness/resistance mechanic but it seemed fairly negligible. I tended to focus on a particular enemy to reduce enemy numbers, but often you outnumber the enemy anyway.
You collect candy like the first game even though it probably doesn't make sense during the dentist’s rule. You are awarded it when winning battles, bashing objects with your pail, finding it on the floor, or as quest rewards. Candy is used for currency so you can buy cards or buy an upgrade for your costumes.
There are few side-quests but there’s only a few ideas; mainly hide-and-seek, or finding a specific card to trade.
To navigate around the map, sometimes you need to switch your main character's costume to gain access to an ability. Pterodactyl can flap wings to blow leaves away, and the wizard has a glow-stick to light up the darkness. You no longer need the robot suit for the roller-skates, you have this by default which allows you to travel quickly, but also travel up ramps to reach other areas.
I do like the graphical style with the charming cartoon graphics. The children are cute, seeming a cross between cel-shaded Link, and Animal Crossing's Villager. It's a shame there's no voice acting, because it would have added extra charm and more entertainment.
It’s nice to have short RPGs since they usually are overly long games. However, I felt the plot never really got going, there wasn’t much of a difficulty curve - it probably got easier, and it didn’t seem to build upon the first game. It was quite boring as a result.