My history with this series isn’t especially in depth. Prior to this release, the last one I played was RPG Maker on PS1. I was really into the genre and had grand ideas for making my own sweeping epic that would win the world over and get me prestigious roles at various developers. I stopped trying about a week in after I realized how long it was going to take to make anything substantial. 20 years later I’m jumping into it again – surely the experience must be more streamlined after three console iterations.

To put it bluntly, if you don’t have hours to dedicate to this like a second job, don’t bother with the maker – you can play the games people upload with the free player. I struggled to make it through the tutorial, between the huge bouts of lag to the lack of understanding as to what I was doing, I wondered if I should’ve just dived into the creation myself. Tutorials for these kinds of games are very difficult to create, and the only team I can think of that makes them intuitive, engaging, and entertaining is Media Molecule. Menu heavy games rarely get it right, and this is no exception. Even with the tutorial, once I jumped into the blank slate for creation, my eyes glossed over and I was overwhelmed with what I needed to do. I threw down some tiles and turned it off – I rarely get time to play games, and at the time I booted it up, I was not in the right mindset for trial and error or creating.

For those that don’t know my history, I went to college with the intention of getting into film or game development on the production side with animation. I helped work on a couple of mobile games and contributed to a few short films. I have a decent understanding of pre-production, production, and post-production. Not having a fleshed out story with characters and a world already in my mind’s eye, it’s hard to just jump into something like this. Some people will just jump in and create on the fly; more power to them. For me to make something really cohesive, I  need these ideas plotted out ahead of time, which is why I’ve been enjoying my brother-in-law’s journey with the maker (MZ, which just released) on PC – he’s been sending me updates of the songs he’s made for it, as well as the abilities, items, and world map he’s created. There’s plenty more to go into it, but it’s nice to see him approaching it in a way that he probably won’t burn out.

For someone that wants to make an RPG but doesn’t have the time to dedicate to learning a game engine like Unity, RPG Maker is undoubtedly a great jumping off point. There are tons of already rendered assets meaning you don’t need to have artistic skills, and the programming aspect of it is pretty much drag and drop with the proper buttons. Changing the properties of NPCs is as simple as updating a few fields in their designated menu, which is also the case for any enemies you may face in the field. Honestly, the tools are all there for the creator to drag and drop – how it plays out is up to them.

I will say that like I did on the PS1, I used a controller for the entirety of my experience of this. This is 100% not the right way to use this software; please use a keyboard and mouse if you get this. Not only will it save you time, it’ll avoid a lot of frustration. It’s not to say that you can’t use the controller, there was undoubtedly a lot of time put into making it work with all the menus and traversal of the map. However, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. This is not a case of Diablo 3 on console, where the controller worked far better than most people expected. This is more like Sim City 2000 on PS1 – it’s available, but you may end up hating yourself. There’s also a fair amount of lag when creating in certain areas and bouncing from testing to creating, but I’m sure this will be patched out.

Reviewing software like this is difficult, because it’s not really a game. However, it is an experience, and that’s wholly up to the player/creator to develop. Everyone that picks this up will have a different story to tell, either with a creation of their own, or how they failed to make what they wanted because they didn’t realize what went into making a game, even if it is simplified. Because of my situation and time allotted to what I’d like to do, this isn’t exactly at the top of my list for priorities. Will I be jumping into it down the road? Possibly, I still want to make that RPG from my youth, even if it’s not especially great in the end. There’s a small ember, but there’s so much to add to it that it’s honestly daunting to think about at this time – my advice is to start with something small, because you learn so much along the way. Is this something people with more time to dedicate will enjoy? Undoubtedly, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with. The beauty of this is that it allows players to focus on telling a story, which is a big part of why I’ve always loved RPGs since I was first getting into them.

RPG Maker MV is an accessible piece of software for the RPG fan that wants to get their story into the wild without too much trouble learning new software. Just know that this is a bit outdated when compared to the newest PC version, as this iteration came out in 2015.

8 out of 10

Pros

• Make Your Own RPG
• Huge List of Assets
• No Art or Programming Experience Needed

Cons

• Huge Time Sink
• Lag When Creating/Testing

RPG Maker MV was developed by KADOKAWA and Yoji Ojima; the console version was published by NIS America. The game is available on NS, PC, and PS4. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of RPG Maker MV, check out the publisher’s site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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