XBLA - Costume Quest - Expansion "Grubbins on Ice" out NOW! (Only 400 MSP!)

[quote name='radioactivez0r']You get all the pumpkin pieces from the scarecrow - make sure you talk to him before you enter the maze (if you are that far yet)[/QUOTE]
I am at the end, ready to fight Big Bones, and went back for the last piece but the scarecrow didn't give me anything. Still missing the one piece. Are all three from the same scarecrow or did I miss one earlier? It's the middle piece.

I see a scarecrow in a field behind where the barn is at. Can you get to that one or not?
 
[quote name='DukeEdwardI']I loved that costume. Looked so badass.[/QUOTE]

It was like a mega-awesome Jack Skellington.

[quote name='pghlooking']I am at the end, ready to fight Big Bones, and went back for the last piece but the scarecrow didn't give me anything. Still missing the one piece. Are all three from the same scarecrow or did I miss one earlier? It's the middle piece.

I see a scarecrow in a field behind where the barn is at. Can you get to that one or not?[/QUOTE]

No, you can't talk to that one.

There's one at the entrance to the maze. One before you get to the Mall up by the warp crypts. The other piece escapes me for the moment. But there are definitely three scarecrows you speak with.
 
Just beat the game with 200/200 'cheevo's. I loved this game, so did my 5 year old daughter. I'm a sucker for 'cute spooky' halloween stuff as opposed to the overly macabre or evil type of scary halloween stuff. So, this game was made for me. This was a perfect diversion for a few days until Fable 3 comes out.

Besides the theme and setting, I'm an old-school JRPG guy. So the turn based battles were very welcome. Great stuff all around, but best of all was the dialogue. I laughed out loud (at like 2 am) when Everett said he "fell on his dice". That was friggin awesome.
 
I'm only through the first area but I love the game so far. It seems like 6 hours or so is a good length for it. Reviews on it were too harsh overall. One of my favorite downloadable games of the year next to Lara Croft.

My 11 year old daughter also likes it and is also 1/3 of the way through.
 
I'm hopin Double Fine's game 2,3, and 4 during their development year will just keep getting better and more dynamic in it's replayability. In the interview Tim said instead of making 1 game every 4 years, make 4 games every 1 year using Brutal Legend's engine...hmmm, maybe a holiday RTS might be next.
 
[quote name='ShockandAww']I'm only through the first area but I love the game so far. It seems like 6 hours or so is a good length for it. Reviews on it were too harsh overall. One of my favorite downloadable games of the year next to Lara Croft.

My 11 year old daughter also likes it and is also 1/3 of the way through.[/QUOTE]

I agree about the reviews; I don't really understand what some of those guys were complaining about. It seems to do a lot of things well.
 
Finally got to play for an hour or two last night. I quit just after entering the mall. I have two concerns at this point:

1) I haven't gotten the achievement for jumping ramps (in the robot costume). Should I have gotten it before leaving the neighborhood or are there more ramps to jump later to make it pop?
2) In my list of quests, there was still one unrevealed (???????????) in the middle of all the other neighborhood quests that I had done. As far as I can tell, I did everything it was possible to do in that area (I did several additional sweeps to make sure), so I'm wondering if I missed something.

Amusingly, I was at 9,995 gamer points when starting this game, and winning that first battle with Everett bumped me to 10,000 exactly. That seemed appropriate somehow.
 
[quote name='Tybee']Finally got to play for an hour or two last night. I quit just after entering the mall. I have two concerns at this point:

1) I haven't gotten the achievement for jumping ramps (in the robot costume). Should I have gotten it before leaving the neighborhood or are there more ramps to jump later to make it pop?
2) In my list of quests, there was still one unrevealed (???????????) in the middle of all the other neighborhood quests that I had done. As far as I can tell, I did everything it was possible to do in that area (I did several additional sweeps to make sure), so I'm wondering if I missed something.

Amusingly, I was at 9,995 gamer points when starting this game, and winning that first battle with Everett bumped me to 10,000 exactly. That seemed appropriate somehow.[/QUOTE]

1) All the ramps are in the first neighborhood. I was missing one that I had previously passed by because it's an extraneous ramp. It's just east of your own home (though you have to start from the ramp northwest of your home). I wonder if that's the one you're missing, too.

2) The quests are listed by mandatory quests first, then side quests below. That may be why you're seeing an unrevealed quest in the middle of the pack.
 
[quote name='rapsodist']1) All the ramps are in the first neighborhood. I was missing one that I had previously passed by because it's an extraneous ramp. It's just east of your own home (though you have to start from the ramp northwest of your home). I wonder if that's the one you're missing, too.[/QUOTE]

Gahhh...I was afraid of that. :roll: Guess I'll have to start a new game when I finish just to get that one.

2) The quests are listed by mandatory quests first, then side quests below. That may be why you're seeing an unrevealed quest in the middle of the pack.
Click to expand...

Ah, okay. Hopefully that explains it. I've read a few bits around the Web and I don't see any sidequests that I missed in the first neighborhood.
 
[quote name='Tybee']Gahhh...I was afraid of that. :roll: Guess I'll have to start a new game when I finish just to get that one.



So then it was likely an undiscovered sidequest from the very beginning (maybe before racing Travis?). That sucks. Clearly I'm going to need to be more careful before leaving an area from here on out.[/QUOTE]

No worries, you'll actually reach a point soon when you can go back to a previous area and complete anything left undone.
 
Moreover, there are more ramps in the later areas as well, specifically en route to the final boss.
 
[quote name='Kreutz']Moreover, there are more ramps in the later areas as well, specifically en route to the final boss.[/QUOTE]

I totally forgot about those ramps at the end! I guess by that point it'd been so long since I had to worry about that achievement that it didn't even register in my mind that those were eligible, too.
 
[quote name='rapsodist']I totally forgot about those ramps at the end! I guess by that point it'd been so long since I had to worry about that achievement that it didn't even register in my mind that those were eligible, too.[/QUOTE]

I somehow missed a ramp in the neighborhood, so it was the 2 at the very end that got me the achievement :]
 
[quote name='radioactivez0r']I somehow missed a ramp in the neighborhood, so it was the 2 at the very end that got me the achievement :][/QUOTE]

Yeah, it's totally possible to get that achievement while you're still in the first neighborhood, but I remember thinking at the end of the game, "Oh good, more ramps if I had missed some!"

Glad you got the cheevo.
 
[quote name='100xp']I'm hopin Double Fine's game 2,3, and 4 during their development year will just keep getting better and more dynamic in it's replayability. In the interview Tim said instead of making 1 game every 4 years, make 4 games every 1 year using Brutal Legend's engine...hmmm, maybe a holiday RTS might be next.[/QUOTE]

I like hearing that. The more, the better.
 
I'm loving this game and even though I hate turn based gameplay, I really like the fights. Almost at the end I think.
I just finished the maze and went through the gate before I got distracted by the Sims 3.

My favorite costume is the
fries
because it's cute though I always use the robot one for zooming around and fighting.
 
[quote name='radioactivez0r']I somehow missed a ramp in the neighborhood, so it was the 2 at the very end that got me the achievement :][/QUOTE]I somehow managed to miss several ramps in the neighborhood, because I jumped the 2 ramps going up the hill, then the 2 going back down and still didn't unlock the cheevo. So before I went all the way up the hill
for the final battle
I went back to the neighborhood and rode around jumping ramps until it unlocked.

I like that none of the achievements in this game were ridiculously difficult or time-consuming to get. It's not very often I get 200/200 on XBLA games, so that was a nice treat.
 
[quote name='iNFiNiTE HORiZON']


Any idea if I start a new game and playthrough 'til that first achievement again would it unlock? I may try it anyways.[/QUOTE]


(just a follow up to this post) - that idea didn't work. really frustrating that it's stuck at 195/200 gamerscore :bomb:
 
[quote name='Danimal']I like that none of the achievements in this game were ridiculously difficult or time-consuming to get. It's not very often I get 200/200 on XBLA games, so that was a nice treat.[/QUOTE]

I think it's smart of developers to make their achievements easier to get. It appeals to the people who like to get all the achievements of every game they play, I would think.

And yeah, this is one of only two games I have all the achievements for. (The other being Dash to Destruction, that Doritos promo game. :D )
 
[quote name='utopianmachine']I think it's smart of developers to make their achievements easier to get. It appeals to the people who like to get all the achievements of every game they play, I would think.

And yeah, this is one of only two games I have all the achievements for. (The other being Dash to Destruction, that Doritos promo game. :D )[/QUOTE]

Haha, this game is my very first S-Rank. Puzzle Quest will be the next once I finish the DLC.
 
[quote name='iNFiNiTE HORiZON']Now my only problem is the game is saying I only have 14/15 achievements, but when I go to the achievements it says I have all 15. maybe just slow on updating or something?[/QUOTE]
If this is regarding the first achievement (something buddies), this happened to me when I was playing the trial version and "unlocked" it in game while at the first achievement. Recover your Gamertag and it will show 15/15 complete.
 
[quote name='utopianmachine'] And yeah, this is one of only two games I have all the achievements for. (The other being Dash to Destruction, that Doritos promo game. :D )[/QUOTE] That's also my only other XBLA game where I got the full 200/200. I think that was almost the whole point to that game, because I seem to remember unlocking them all in one half-hour playthrough, then never touching it again. :lol:

The Saboteur is my only full disc-based game with all achievements unlocked.
 
Playing Costume Quest was absolutely fun. I was a bit hesitant to pay $15 (I know about the spend 2400msp promo) for it but after completing it (and getting all the achievements) I thought it was well worth it. The 5 hours it took me to complete in one sitting was just right for the lite RPG gameplay. I hope for some DLC or the next title from Double Fine.
 
I completed the game last night and then got the full 200 points, which is my first game I've gotten all the achievements on. Such a great little game. Fun throughout. The length was just right for what it was, which is not the same as saying that I don't want to DLC, because I do. Would love an add-on adventure in the near future.
 
I could expand a lot on this, but here's the gist of what I think:

I give it about a 3 out of 5, and that's being a bit generous since I love Doublefine/Tim Schafer so much. The art is serviceable (despite a distinct lack of Scott C. contribution), the lack of voice acting is shocking (while I don't think it is required, DF has done very well with this in the past, and the game's aesthetic screams out for it), and the gameplay is both stale and needlessly complicated. Don't copy something (Mario RPG for the most part) and actually make it worse.

I really enjoy the aesthetics - it's exactly how I picture my childhood Halloweens, and how I hope ones in the future will be when I'm older. The environments are fun. Even the battlefield backgrounds look very nice. Enemies are pretty boring overall, but it "works" in the most benign way possible.

The game just has next to no polish, which is underwhelming (not necessarily disappointing). It just doesn't feel like Schafer was around at all, as it lacks his little touches, attention to detail, and the whole "every scrap of the game contributes to the whole product." It just feels halfhearted, in a way that screams out "Man, I wish DF made more money because I love those guys, and then they could in turn develop a game like this more and make it better."

In the end, I'd love to see a sequel that expands on the entire product. Build more adventure elements into the overworlds, simplify the combat while also adding in an item system, and fix some of the smaller technical issues (FPS dips, getting stuck on invisible walls).

Solid, but my expectations for a DF game tend to be skewed higher than most companies, and it just didn't feel like their hearts were in it.
 
Having not played Paper Mario, I can't comment on the similarities, but I can ask you a few questions. What exactly is lacking polish? And what did you find needlessly complicated? You seem to be indicating the combat, but I don't understand how timing a button press is complicated.
 
Paper Mario does the whole "press a button at X" to deal more/take less damage. But it doesn't have a pop up with each action that picks out a specific button. It more or less says "if you hit X here, you'll do more damage," and then tells you to figure it out from there for other attacks as the game progresses. So when you do a jump attack, you figure out it's just before you land on the enemy. When you use a hammer, it's a hold and release thing. And so on. It's much more intuitive and much less distracting than a game that demands you memorize the position of buttons on the controller. It's needlessly complicated, and I suspect it's because gamers are royal whiners about that sort of thing, where if they don't feel that they are being tested, all of a sudden a game isn't good.

It's the same thing that bugs me about Virtua Cop versus Time Crisis. The former zoomed in on an enemy and drew a circle around them, and it was hugely distracting. Time Crisis just let me aim on my own, which gives me less visual data to take up space on the screen, allowing me to aim faster.

For a DF game, this title has no polish. Boring menus, almost no sound effects, next to no variety in enemies, a horrid dialogue system, etc etc. It just feels like a me-too indie simple RPG, and if it wasn't "from the creators of Psychonauts!" I'm thinking no one would really care. DF always puts unique spins on their titles, and this is the first time I felt that wasn't there, and instead was replaced by a company who needed to fulfill a deadline to keep afloat.

I went into it wanting Tim Schafer's normal attention to detail, and it was roundly absent. Maybe he's working on the remaining three games they supposedly have in store, or maybe he's focusing on one of the titles, but he was completely gone from this one and it shows.
 
Think you're overthinking this one, Strell. I understand your criticisms, but for what this game is, I think it's quite charming and fun. Perhaps it's because we're not used to seeing an XBLA/PSN title from Double Fine that you expected more, but IMO this is a great get-in, get-out RPG with nice humor, engaging gameplay, and a cute aesthetic. Yes, the enemies and battles get A LITTLE repetitive and the save system isn't great, but those are about my only criticisms. Full voice would have been nice, but I didn't really miss it.
 
I loved Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and consider them probably my two favorite games of all time, but I think this game has a lot going for it too. No, it isn't as good as Paper Mario, not in the slightest, but it is very good and a lot of fun to play. If it were as long as Paper Mario, though, it would not have come off as well. But it isn't. The game is just about the perfect length for what it is and unlike most games I saw it through to the end, and did so with a great deal of enjoyment. I agree - I think you're off base here Strell. I totally admire you otherwise, but here, "I hear what you're saying, but you're completely wrong." :)

Having said that, I agree with the polish comment, at least in regard to the text bubbles. The text within them shifts around in an annoying fashion. Seems like they could have put more effort into getting little things like that right, but it's not exactly a deal killer.
 
I haven't finished the game yet, but I am taking my time with it and really soaking it all in. I could see myself playing numerous "episodes" or something like that of this game, collecting new costumes, going on new quests. Hell, they could serialize it and make it like Buffy or the Scooby Gang. It's just charming and wholesome and fun. It wouldn't take too much to add depth to the combat system.

I just don't see them really following the game up since it's tied SO closely to a specific niche holiday. I mean what could they do market-wise? Christmas Quest? Christ, no. Maybe something like Treehouse Quest, but who knows.
 
[quote name='Strell']

For a DF game, this title has no polish. Boring menus, almost no sound effects, next to no variety in enemies, a horrid dialogue system, etc etc. It just feels like a me-too indie simple RPG, and if it wasn't "from the creators of Psychonauts!" I'm thinking no one would really care. DF always puts unique spins on their titles, and this is the first time I felt that wasn't there, and instead was replaced by a company who needed to fulfill a deadline to keep afloat.[/QUOTE]

I have to disagree about the menus, I think the color palette and school notebook aesthetic has a real slick charm to it. All of the candy cards are a bit wasted with the small art pics and the lack of any real story background to them. I really enjoy the dramatic effect of trick or treating with its drum roll and either candy pay off or monster battle. Sure they could've added voicework but the interaction between the brother and sister had me smiling at moments.

What bugs me most about the game is that the overworld character movement is very herky-jerky. Your character will bump into things and stop dead in their tracks which is really weird.

In the end, this is Tasha's game. Not Schafers. And I think its a neat little game that doesn't really have much on XBLA competing with it. Brutal Legend was a chore to play. For a fan of Halloween, CQ is a great treat.
 
[quote name='ChernobylCow']I just don't see them really following the game up since it's tied SO closely to a specific niche holiday. I mean what could they do market-wise? Christmas Quest? Christ, no. Maybe something like Treehouse Quest, but who knows.[/QUOTE]

For Thanksgiving, Cornucopia Quest: Different foods imbue you with a variety of powers, helping you battle anthropomorphic, magic-wielding turkeys that have risen up against humanity.

For Christmas, Carol Quest: In the tradition of "Loom" and the Zelda franchise, learn a variety of seasonal songs to gain abilities and perform spells. You'll need to stay in key to defeat the vengeful armies of misfit toys!

Or something like that.
 
I'd go with Unspecified Holiday Quest. Seriously, though, why not just make it an add-on that is not related to a holiday at all? They're just going on a quest.
 
[quote name='bezerker']anyone catch the arrested development reference in the town with the carnival?[/quote]

C'MON!c'mon!
 
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet. Nice little virtual stocking stuffer. I'll gladly visit the world of Costume Quest once more!

I think the combination of the holiday aspect and the obvious Peanuts influence makes this feel like a totally natural extension of the brand.
 
[quote name='DukeEdwardI']Oh hells yeah. If it's priced at 400 points, I'll be all over that.[/QUOTE]

We were told that the downloadable content is slightly bigger than a level in the original game and could take roughly five hours to complete, depending on how quickly you want to get through the game.
Click to expand...

I hope it's 400 points as well if the DLC is one third of Costume Quest.
 
[quote name='Sway']I hope it's 400 points as well if the DLC is one third of Costume Quest.[/QUOTE]

I suspect it will be, but also they say it's like a larger level of the original, not just the same size as a level in the original, and will take about 5 hours to complete depending on how you play it. I guess we'll find out.
 
[quote name='radioactivez0r']The entire original game only takes 6-7 hours, so that would have to be a bigass level to be 5 hours long.[/QUOTE]

Or, there could be a lot of search and fetch quests. since there's no map currently you could be spending a lot of time wandering around, leveling up, or collecting.
 
Just saw the announcement about Grubbins on Ice this morning. I'm all over this. I just really hope it's 400 points. While the game was indeed great, 1200 points was a little hard to swallow for such a short game. 400 points for an expansion would be perfect.
 
jess, I saw you post alot about this game and after trying it today..I think i'm going to buy it afterall due to the promotion going on right now where i'll be getting 400 ms points back. The game is fun and all, just no replay value yet until the dlc comes out but I don't mind. I love games that are 6 hours or less to complete and the price point is kinda out there, but with the 400 ms point deal it's okay for me. Now which other game to get.. (game is fun and reminds me of a clean--edit-- version of penny arcade in a sense)
 
Glad to introduce you to Costume Quest, intox! It's a really great game, but it has a shortness to rival Limbo. Everyone enjoys the experience, but sometimes it's hard to justify 1200 point games for so short an experience. Quality over quantity this time, though.
 
I prefer short games I can finish quick though and I like this game alot more than limbo. Looking forward to the dlc and hope they continue to support it.
 
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