RPG Maker

"Don't expect this to be a quick one, 'cuz it's gonna take a while."

This review is for a game I just got for my PSX. It's the very popular RPG Maker. I always used to joke around with friends and say how cool it'd be if we could create our own games, which was something that was only possible in dreams. Then this game came along. I'd heard of it but never played it. Just this Wednesday in fact, I found a copy at Electronics Boutique. Seeing that it was only $35 I picked it up. It sounds cool when you read the outside, and I half expected it to be kinda fun but not quite. Well, I was wrong. You get to create your own RPG! For a person with creativity and not much chance to use it this is the perfect game. Finally, an outlet for my creativity! There's also a sample RPG that is an RPG from the monsters' point of view. You play the role of a gobblin who wishes to become a boss. But he's a Weakling, and Weaklings never move up in the world. They're only there to give the Heroes EXP and gold. But the gobblin decides to go on a quest.
This is a game that's not for those who do not have much patience. Creating an RPG takes a long time. You have your characters to design, as well as your items, weapons, bosses, monsters and towns. Then ya gotta test it to see what you've created. The cool part is you get to choose your music from a list of tracks.
Control 10-10. Well, that depends on you. You can set your controls to be extremely annoyingly crappy if you want. The default settings are nice, and they work great.
Audio 10-10. I found the music in this game to be quite catchy. My only complaint is that there weren't more tracks to choose from, and you already have 35. The sounds were in my opinion a bit SNESish but not the worst I've heard by a million miles! They sounded like what they were intended to sound like, and that's all that matters. Again, you do get to control that. If a sound is annoying to you you can not put it in your RPG.
Fun Factor 10-10. Yeah, I've only had it for 2 days and I'm already hooked. You design all your locations, characters, items, weapons, armors, monsters, spells and bosses using the Anime Maker and the graphics provided. Believe me, this game takes a while to create, and I doubt we're even taking as long as the big companies do to make games. This is just a small part of what they must have to go through, and it's significant nonetheless.
The cool part about this game is that once you create your RPG to your satisfaction, you can save it to a memory card and actually play it through! You can even put your name in the end credits. And ya wana know the absolute icing on the cake? In the instructions, (and there are 2 books), it says that you're entitled to sell the work you create if you feel it's worth it. If you can find this game, get it, or at least rent it to see if you really like it. As I said, it's not for those who think it's easy to create a game, let alone an RPG. However if you are a devoted RPG fan like me then this one's for you!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/01, Updated 03/01/03