School can be a stressful time, and it can be hard to wind down and have fun. I hope these video games can help relieve stress and help you enjoy yourself if you have just a bit of free time available and don’t want to plan out anything elaborate. Plus, your gaming could help you refine skills related to digital skills, such as "demonstrating critical thinking, empathy, and multimodal literacy."
With Halloween just around the corner, I have the perfect video games for the season to start off this series- Costume Quest 1 and 2. Developed by the creators of the indie cult classic series Psychonauts, the Costume Quest series is a quirky turn-based RPG that takes place during the spooky season. With great comedic dialogue, quirky costume-based powers, and a fun and festive atmosphere, both games are a great way to celebrate the season.
The first game focuses on the story of two fraternal twins, Wren and Reynold. After picking on to obtain the coveted robot costume the two are fighting to wear, the other twin, forced into a candy corn costume, is mistaken as an actual piece of candy corn and taken by goblins (called grubbins) that have invaded the world to steal all the candy during Halloween. Through meeting new friends, making new costumes to wear, and help from the brother of the main villain controlling the grubbins, your twin of choice fights back to free their twin and save Halloween. The original game has a little wear from its age, having some strange controls and simplistic design, but the charm of the writing and attacks remain, making this game a really good Halloween adventure with all the charm of the holiday.
Along with the base game, Costume Quest comes with a DLC, Grubbins on Ice. This story occurs the winter after the main game but quickly takes the characters from the original to the world of the grubbins, allowing the game to remain focused on aspects of Halloween, like trick or treating. The DLC is simple but a nice way to add more to the relatively quick and simple game and perfectly leads the game to its sequel.
While Costume Quest shows signs of age, Costume Quest 2 remains a solid game despite coming out almost a decade ago. The game takes place right after the ending of the first games DLC, with them coming out of the land of the grubbins only to find themselves back at Halloween rather than the winter season they came out of. This game takes a broader scope than the first, having the characters stop the plot of a nefarious dentist in his goal to rid the world of candy, jumping through time and space to save the day. Trick or treat in the bayous, a candy-less dystopia, and many other places, as well as stopping to fight his evil dentistry-based robots and other lackeys using a new set of costumes including Thomas Jefferson, a Clown, a Pterodactyl, and Candy Corn, which does absolutely nothing, among many others. This game has much more content when compared to its predecessor while still retaining all the charm and style of the original. I still would suggest playing the first before diving into this just so the plot isn’t too confusing and the references make sense, though you don’t necessarily need to play the original to enjoy the game.
Both games run on similar mechanics, having you explore various worlds and trick or treat for candy (which acts as both healing and currency for the games) while occasionally running into enemies in the overworld or while trick or treating which leads into battle. Battles take place in a Paper Mario style, having your team and the enemy take individual turns, with you being able to do a small quick-time event to either increase your damage or to reduce damage taken. Attacking and defending charges your skill meter, which will eventually let you do a super, which will have pretty big effects. From healing your team to dealing massive damage to all enemies, supers can turn the tide of battle. Aside from your characters, both games have collectables that can do various things in battle. Costume Quest 1 uses battle stamps, which give passive buffs to you during battle, each character can be equipped with these stamps and be given basic stat buffs or more interesting abilities such as splash damage. Costume Quest 2 forgoes these passive buffs for active skills using Creepy Treat Cards. These cards can be used in battle for various things from stunning an enemy or a party heal. Be careful using them though, as each has a cooldown before being usable again. 2 also adds the feature of being able to upgrade costumes, giving each one substantial buffs while also helping give each a unique role to play in battle so you can figure out your favorite costume set-up.
Costume Quest is a fun, non-scary option for enjoying halloween. With its fun combat system, charming costumes, and great writing both games are fun distractions if you are feeling overwhelmed and can’t wait for Thanksgiving break to come any faster. Games like these can also help you sharpen your critical thinking skills and problem solving skills as you work to solve problems and open up the world as you work towards saving Halloween. Both games are available on steam for $20 together or $10 and $15.00 separately.
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