Ape Quest is not quite an RPG, but rather a collection of highly varied minigames with RPG elements thrown in.
The story of Ape Quest starts off with the prince of an ape-ruled kingdom who investigates the sudden disappearance of three spirits who have kept the land peaceful. Progression in the story is done via quests from a quest guild and, to be completely honest, the story does not have much in the way of dialogue or cutscenes to make the narrative worthwhile. Instead, the gameplay will take up most of the intrigue.
Playing Ape Quest teeters between being dull and entertaining depending on what happens. Moving in the maps requires the player to take preset paths which have random encounters, minigames, or occasional special events. Fighting enemies in the random encounters is inexcusably easy, dull, and monotonous. I swear that every single one can be solved by pressing X to win and move along. Although some enemies require more hits than the character's health can allow, the Ape-Team option which allows the player to attack with the various allies encountered results in being able to deal enough damage to instantly take down any foe. The only catch to using the Ape-Team function is that it uses up money but money ceases to be an issue about a couple hours in due to both the high amounts of money dropped by enemies and how inexpensive the option is. The turn-based random encounters are a letdown, but the action-RPG stages are even worse.
Some of the boss battles are played via an action-RPG flow but, as with the turn-based encounters, the difficulty is considerably low. The moves of each boss is so ludicrously predictable and slowed down that it takes little to no real thought to best even the toughest of the tough. In fact, some of the boss battles tend to repeat themselves, sometimes resulting in being required to face off against the same creature two or three times, showing a lack of creativity in the character design. Another area in which Ape Quest lacks creativity is, sadly, the statistics for the player character.
In an RPG there's hit points, strength, defense, and agility to outline some of the character's most basic variables. Ape Quest follows this formula by having all of the listed but does not venture beyond the basic RPG formula. There are two statistics which stray a bit from the usual aforementioned numbers: glory points and royal ranking. However, the actual relevance of said statistics in combat or minigames is trivial, offering no noticeable difference in anything other than the statistic itself. Perhaps the glory and royal ranking are simply meant to motivate the player but there seems to be no other reason for their existence other than that. Trivial statistics aside, there are a few aspects which stick out, mainly the Smithy who will allow the player to combine any two pieces of equipment regardless of type to (hopefully) create an improved weapon, shield, or suit of armor. Its amusing the first few times to see the monkey smith at work but being required to view the smith working on a new piece of equipment eventually makes the affair bothersome and dull. Also, the largest flaw of the Smithy is that there seems to be no clear definition of what will improve or ruin something, seeing as strong equipment coupled with strong equipment usually results in one of the original ingredients and adding in a weaker piece to the mix has random results. Thankfully, the minigames present in Ape Quest serve to make up for its woes.
The minigames in Ape Quest are insanely varied, ranging from shooting down pirates in a 2-D sidescroller format a la R-Type or rushing to the bathroom in order not to make a mess in your pants. Honestly, the creativity present in the minigames is flat-out awesome. What makes the minigames even better is that the Bannanals option gives the player the ability to play any previous played minigame and set high scores for each one. Although some tend to repeat themselves in the actual game, most of them are entertaining and simple enough to warrant multiple plays without inducing frustration. Outside of the Bannanals mode, completing a minigame grants experience (which varies depending on its difficulty) or penalizes with lost health for failure. The amount of health taken away is not that great of an issue since the amount of healing items picked up along the way instantly remedy any slip-ups.
Overall, Ape Quest is an interesting collection of minigames but the RPG elements present feel half-baked and tossed in for the sake of padding the gameplay. The full game goes for a price of $20 (US) and, if you're a fan of Warioware or the previous Ape Escape minigame collections, Ape Quest is worth checking out if you don't mind the underdone RPG elements.