I had to put the time in to memorize a list of menus and items and took a bit of a gamble jumping onto this having no idea what I was getting into but it was worth it.
This is so much more than a spin-off and it absolutely is not a party game platform fighter, this game has all the budget and depth of the main series games with tons of content and tools to mess around with, a list of playable characters that all play differently, and live action and pre-rendered cutscenes with full voice acting.
The identity, the charm, and the personality of Ape Escape is all still here, the unique twist of this time is the focus on action and combat instead of care-free platforming and exploring open levels.
That really sounds like a letdown or a downgrade especially for fans of the main games and it has entirely different appeal so fans of the main series might not appreciate this game. I don't blame anyone for assuming this is less of a game than those but they really pull it off and it's still as fun and engaging as those games in completely different ways.
The action elements and crazy sci-fi are taken to an extreme with this game, you're not just sneaking around catching monkeys.
instead of going back in time like in the first game Specter and his army have come from the future with advanced technology (at least, I think that's what's going on? I don't know JP language...), airships, tanks, and all sorts of futuristic gadgets. (sometimes you get to steal their vehicles and pilot them yourself!)
Not only that but throughout the game cutscenes and fake news reports show them taking over entire countries, the stakes and scale are much higher.
The game starts with the player fighting a monkey piloting a giant Ape mech, all the monkeys have beam swords, guns, and jet powered roller blades it's so over the top and cool at the same time, the game mixes a serious tone with the usual Ape escape humor and it all works so well.
This game takes the Ape hunting/collecting focus of the main series and fuses it with a 3rd person action where you complete missions and rack up a high score to grind for equipment, constantly getting and trying out new weapons, special moves, summons, and of course capturing rogue monkeys.
I'd compare the gameplay loop to something like Custom Robo, Gotcha Force, or maybe armored core? In that it's all about collecting and trying new gear and customizing your characters to your own liking.
Just like those games it was constantly fun trying out a better gun or movement option, or I'd try a different character to see how their version of each gadget works, there's so much variety in how the player can customize their character and there's a lot of options on what to spend resources on, you can focus on melee attacks, long range guns, rapid firing weak guns, powerful cannons, roller blades to tackle enemies, or mix and match, if you want to go into a level with 4 guns or just want to ram into everything with powerful skates the player is free to do so.
It feels great getting more powerful and completely broken by the end of the game, one touch I really liked is how game puts emphasis on this with that first mech boss, the player starts the game really weak and slow and can't defeat it, it's scripted loss.
Even when trying to go back it can't be defeated within the time limit, but the player can go back much later with endgame equipment and tear the thing apart in seconds, it makes the player feel the amount they've progressed and it's satisfying to defeat this boss that felt impossible at the beginning.
The level design is not emphasized as much, it's true the areas are much more straight forward, but they're not bad either the game isn't a bunch of flat square arenas or basic hallways with enemies in them, there's still secrets to find in most levels and though it's light there's some platforming too.
Jumping around in this game doesn't feel great, it cancels momentum and leaves the player open, so the platform mechanics are limited.
The game is consistently challenging, but I never needed to repeat levels to grind for better equipment, and the 30 missions have some nice variety some you just battle and capture regular enemies the whole time, but others have specific objectives, and there's at least 10 boss missions in the game and a lot of the designs are just as cool as everything else, there's lots of huge mechanical monstrosities to fight.
The game plays well with the framerate rarely going down and it looks good too, it's mostly in an urban city setting so there's a lot of grey city areas so it can be dull to look at sometimes it's not nearly as appealing or colorful as the other games, but that's all part of the theme and more serious tone the game is going for, whenever the game gets sci-fi and tech heavy with environments it gets a lot more interesting, I liked the cyberspace parts especially. It is very polished looking overall.
Great sound too, but it gets drowned out in the action most of the time, I found a few tracks I liked though. The soundtrack is not as consistently amazing like the first game but it's close enough. Just like everything else there's both serious and light hearted music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAX1ufweDTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Axvy-rnAQY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skif4LwPUcE
I'm thoroughly impressed with this game and I had a great time with it, there's just a lot of trial and error with the language barrier which I won't hold against the game, but it's something to consider.
The worst thing about this game is the camera, specifically targeting can be annoying, there's no camera control besides a centering button, so no looking around and often it targets the wrong enemy or gets caught on walls, nearly every time I would try to catch a monkey I'd miss either because it would target something else or I couldn't see well to line up the swing, it's cumbersome but I gave it some time and got used to it, the player can learn to work around the camera and it's ok but feels behind what other games were doing.
There's a few boring missions, and it's true the game fundamentally is repetitive I think that's made up for with all of the characters and gadgets
I was never bored or frustrated playing this.
It's possible to waste resources on bad equipment, of course the balance is a bit off too, there's some gadgets or weapons that are never as useful as others and barely worth taking up a slot, it's not game breaking though.
You only get equipment if you make and play with a character profile, but the game just lets you play with presets that are stuck with the default weapons. I don't know why they did this, there's no reason to ever play like that, and it leads to a lot of English players picking the option by mistake and not getting the core appeal of the game.
If you haven't played this and you don't know about it be careful what sources you look for on info about this game because I saw a lot of misinformation about this all over, the language barrier causes a lot of misunderstandings, it's often described as "the sequel to Pumped and Primed" but that's only a fraction of the story, the two games are extremely different. Definitely find and use a guide or you might miss important things.
I thought I was getting a wierd low budget spinoff, what I got was something entirely different.
They took the core of Ape Escape into an entirely new direction and it was great. This game is really cool.
This is so much more than a spin-off and it absolutely is not a party game platform fighter, this game has all the budget and depth of the main series games with tons of content and tools to mess around with, a list of playable characters that all play differently, and live action and pre-rendered cutscenes with full voice acting.
The identity, the charm, and the personality of Ape Escape is all still here, the unique twist of this time is the focus on action and combat instead of care-free platforming and exploring open levels.
That really sounds like a letdown or a downgrade especially for fans of the main games and it has entirely different appeal so fans of the main series might not appreciate this game. I don't blame anyone for assuming this is less of a game than those but they really pull it off and it's still as fun and engaging as those games in completely different ways.
The action elements and crazy sci-fi are taken to an extreme with this game, you're not just sneaking around catching monkeys.
instead of going back in time like in the first game Specter and his army have come from the future with advanced technology (at least, I think that's what's going on? I don't know JP language...), airships, tanks, and all sorts of futuristic gadgets. (sometimes you get to steal their vehicles and pilot them yourself!)
Not only that but throughout the game cutscenes and fake news reports show them taking over entire countries, the stakes and scale are much higher.
The game starts with the player fighting a monkey piloting a giant Ape mech, all the monkeys have beam swords, guns, and jet powered roller blades it's so over the top and cool at the same time, the game mixes a serious tone with the usual Ape escape humor and it all works so well.
This game takes the Ape hunting/collecting focus of the main series and fuses it with a 3rd person action where you complete missions and rack up a high score to grind for equipment, constantly getting and trying out new weapons, special moves, summons, and of course capturing rogue monkeys.
I'd compare the gameplay loop to something like Custom Robo, Gotcha Force, or maybe armored core? In that it's all about collecting and trying new gear and customizing your characters to your own liking.
Just like those games it was constantly fun trying out a better gun or movement option, or I'd try a different character to see how their version of each gadget works, there's so much variety in how the player can customize their character and there's a lot of options on what to spend resources on, you can focus on melee attacks, long range guns, rapid firing weak guns, powerful cannons, roller blades to tackle enemies, or mix and match, if you want to go into a level with 4 guns or just want to ram into everything with powerful skates the player is free to do so.
It feels great getting more powerful and completely broken by the end of the game, one touch I really liked is how game puts emphasis on this with that first mech boss, the player starts the game really weak and slow and can't defeat it, it's scripted loss.
Even when trying to go back it can't be defeated within the time limit, but the player can go back much later with endgame equipment and tear the thing apart in seconds, it makes the player feel the amount they've progressed and it's satisfying to defeat this boss that felt impossible at the beginning.
The level design is not emphasized as much, it's true the areas are much more straight forward, but they're not bad either the game isn't a bunch of flat square arenas or basic hallways with enemies in them, there's still secrets to find in most levels and though it's light there's some platforming too.
Jumping around in this game doesn't feel great, it cancels momentum and leaves the player open, so the platform mechanics are limited.
The game is consistently challenging, but I never needed to repeat levels to grind for better equipment, and the 30 missions have some nice variety some you just battle and capture regular enemies the whole time, but others have specific objectives, and there's at least 10 boss missions in the game and a lot of the designs are just as cool as everything else, there's lots of huge mechanical monstrosities to fight.
The game plays well with the framerate rarely going down and it looks good too, it's mostly in an urban city setting so there's a lot of grey city areas so it can be dull to look at sometimes it's not nearly as appealing or colorful as the other games, but that's all part of the theme and more serious tone the game is going for, whenever the game gets sci-fi and tech heavy with environments it gets a lot more interesting, I liked the cyberspace parts especially. It is very polished looking overall.
Great sound too, but it gets drowned out in the action most of the time, I found a few tracks I liked though. The soundtrack is not as consistently amazing like the first game but it's close enough. Just like everything else there's both serious and light hearted music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAX1ufweDTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Axvy-rnAQY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skif4LwPUcE
I'm thoroughly impressed with this game and I had a great time with it, there's just a lot of trial and error with the language barrier which I won't hold against the game, but it's something to consider.
The worst thing about this game is the camera, specifically targeting can be annoying, there's no camera control besides a centering button, so no looking around and often it targets the wrong enemy or gets caught on walls, nearly every time I would try to catch a monkey I'd miss either because it would target something else or I couldn't see well to line up the swing, it's cumbersome but I gave it some time and got used to it, the player can learn to work around the camera and it's ok but feels behind what other games were doing.
There's a few boring missions, and it's true the game fundamentally is repetitive I think that's made up for with all of the characters and gadgets
I was never bored or frustrated playing this.
It's possible to waste resources on bad equipment, of course the balance is a bit off too, there's some gadgets or weapons that are never as useful as others and barely worth taking up a slot, it's not game breaking though.
You only get equipment if you make and play with a character profile, but the game just lets you play with presets that are stuck with the default weapons. I don't know why they did this, there's no reason to ever play like that, and it leads to a lot of English players picking the option by mistake and not getting the core appeal of the game.
If you haven't played this and you don't know about it be careful what sources you look for on info about this game because I saw a lot of misinformation about this all over, the language barrier causes a lot of misunderstandings, it's often described as "the sequel to Pumped and Primed" but that's only a fraction of the story, the two games are extremely different. Definitely find and use a guide or you might miss important things.
I thought I was getting a wierd low budget spinoff, what I got was something entirely different.
They took the core of Ape Escape into an entirely new direction and it was great. This game is really cool.