RPG Maker

"Its so good, even if you don't own a Playstation you need to own this"

Introduction
Most gamers like RPGs. Who wouldn't want to play Final Fantasy 7, or Mario RPG, or any others I have missed? It is no secret that RPGs are usually every gamers favorite game. I bet that after you play one of these classics, you think up your own masterpiece, but you sigh, because you know you have a VERY small chance of your classic to come to life. Well now my fellow RPG gamers, you can actually bring your creation to life, and best of all you don't have to spend your life savings on it. At a first glance, it may seem simple and overwhelming, but when you take the time to learn it, and good ideas you will be having a blast. I have spent a good 13 hours playing this game, and when I spend that much time on a game in three days, you know its good! The only big flaw I can see is that darn Anime Maker, but I will go into depth on that in a second.

Graphics 8/10
This section depends on the gamer and this is the reason. This uses Super NES graphics, but they are GOOD Super NES graphics. Some people have hated these graphics because they are not 3D. But I don't care if a game is 3D or not. Final Fantasy 7 could have had Game Gear graphics and I still would have liked it. The point is, Graphics don't make a game. I liked these graphics mostly because the sprites are detailed, and the pre-made monsters really look like effort was put into it. The amount of scenery, like plants, windows, signs,
and other stuff you can choose from is amazing. There is also pretty good wallpaper you can put in the background of your RPG. I thought these touches made the graphics really shine. The bad thing is that in Anime Maker, the game relies on buttons to show what you are selecting (anything that uses an idea from
Tamegotchi will fail) and just like Tamegotchi, doesn't do a very good job of showing you what you are selecting. There also are only two good house designs. But overall I will remember these Graphics, long after I finish my last RPG.

Story 9/10
Oh Yeah! Attention was definitely put into making a quality story as easy as possible. You can make almost any plot twist imaginable. You could have an old enemy join you, one of the main characters die, a boss attack the hero in bed, practically anything you want. You could have George Washington, me and your mailman team up to stop the evil Bill Gates from feeding Homer Simpson too much soda, or you could make a WWF rpg, where as the Rock, you battle losers to fight Triple H. The point is, anything is possible. Just to explain how detailed the story is is almost impossible. The bottom line is that almost any story you can imagine, can be done.

Sound 9/10
I loved the sound in this game. The BGM music you can select is awesome. There's one for every dungeon imaginable. It can be happy, sad, cheerful, scary or almost anything else. You can even select one to listen to
when you make the RPG! The Sound Effects are also good. There is a perfect sound effect for everything. Overall the sound effects are great.

Gameplay 9.9/10
This game is two games in one, the RPG Maker, and the anime Maker. I'll start with the RPG Maker, because it is SO much better. There are two majors things you edit in RPG Maker, Scereno Data and System data.
System data is where you edit things such as Characters, Enemies, Dungeons, Items, Magic, Title Screen, and stuff like that. As you can see, the amount of features here is overwhelming! First you should start with making Characters, which is actually pretty fast. You set the characters stats, graphics, color, Magic (if any has been created) , Skills, then you're done. One of the challenging parts of this game is not getting carried away with your character's beginner stats. Many people, myself included, have given them gigantic beginner stats, which can easily ruin an RPG, especially if the enemys are much lower. I mean, would you still like Final Fantasy VII if Cloud started with level 20 stats? No. I know I wouldn't. So just to help you people, beginner stats around 5 or 6 work.
The premade characters in my opinion are awesome, there are 68 of em, including a pirate, a boat (yes I am serious), a cat, a monkey, a normal townswoman, a purple dragon, and many, many, people. You can also change colors. Monsters are basically the same, except you can edit specifically what attacks they use, and the percentage they use them. You can have them run away, self destruct, use a normal attack, have them do a status effect like poisen, or have them cast one of your Magic attacks that YOU created. Creating items are jaw-droppingly easy, all you do is decide the type of the item, how much it costs to buy it in a shop, what it is called, and what the item does. You can make it a weapon, which can be equiped to a character (you decide which ones). You decide how much damage it does (don't make it too high though) and then the graphic of the attack. You can also make Potions that heal almost anything, armor, etc. Making Magic in this game is awesome, and easily the most memorable thing in this game. Here you actually create the Graphics! From 30 spell graphics to choose from, you can cut, paste, add sound effects, to make a huge fireball that explodes on your poor enemies, or have a metoer fly down from the heavens to put a bump on the helpless enemies below. Or you make others, I have just listed simple ideas. You can also make types in this game, only three, but it doesn't, matter, because you made em!
However, just because you can make types does NOT mean you can create a game like Pokemon. You can, but it will probably stink. Sorry Pokefans, but this can't create your version of Pokemon. Now that that is out of the way, I can speak about Dungeons! A dungeon is almost everything, from a town to a castle. Here you can create your own, or use a sample, as the setting of your RPG. The amount of Samples are mind boggling, there were about one hundred, just compairing one of the two options, Dungeon 1 and 2. In case you want to make a map you can call your own, you can piece together a dungeon from tiles, wallpaper, tables, and scenery like flowers and windows. You can also make the Back Ground Music, or have some tiles made on every blank spot of the map, so you save time and memory card spaces putting a cetain tile everywhere. Then there is the field, which is basically the world map, and you basically choose where you want to go when this is displayed in a normal game.

Then there are events. This is basically all the muscle of an RPG, including idle townspeople, the ending, a battle, or a conversation with a character. You can select its Graphic, its move types (like random, left and right, etc,) and how quickly it moves. The options, well there are so many things you can do I'll save me and your time by saying almost anything can be done.

Now I dread to talk to you about *ack* the dreadful anime maker. All you really do here is draw your own character, and *sob* I didn't know anything could be so awful. You never know whats going on. You don't know what all these buttons mean. You try to make a character, but it ends up looking like a crippled 90 year old man who moves like vaccuum cleaner. Overall this feauture is not worth the trouble and should be ignored at all costs. Shame too, because this game would have gotten a 10, if it werent for anime maker!

Control 7/10
Nice and responsive. "X" to Select, and "O" to cancel. Not Analog compatable.

Challenge 9/10
Creating an RPG is definitally a challenging expierenece, and comes out being very rewarding.

Replay Value 10/10
Oh yeah! You can make sequels to your favorite RPG, and a sequel to that one, and then a sequel to that one.....

Buy or Rent?
BUY. It is extremely rare, and it is good enough to buy, so the second you find a copy, buy it.

Overall 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/01, Updated 04/04/01