Reviewed: September 26, 2005
Reviewed by: Jason Porter

Publisher
Agetec

Developer
Enterbrain

Released: September 20, 2005
Genre: RPG Editor
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone

7
5
6
9
7.0

Supported Features:

The first RPG Maker was a powerhouse of flexibility, allowing customization of literally every aspect of a player's game, from the color of the main character's hair to the symbol used to represent money in the game world. Even the preset "rules" of the game's virtual world were changeable. The downside was that the game basically came down to an indigenous "if:then"-type programming language within a graphical shell. It took weeks to master even the most basic scripting, and a lot of time, effort and lateral thinking to harness the full power it offered.

The second RPG Maker pretty much followed suit, but automatically "recognized" connected elements for the player, allowing more time to be spent developing the flavor of the game, rather than filling in all the technical details.

The newest RPG Maker, simply titled RPG Maker 3, has continued the series' trend towards user friendliness and ease of use, but unfortunately, a high price has been paid to this end. Gone is the sheer level of customization the series used to offer, and with it, much of the creative control that made the games so much fun to begin with.

That isn't to say RPG Maker 3 isn't fun; on the contrary, in many ways it's the most enjoyable installment to date. And players can still write any kind of dialog, create any item, and stage any sort of struggle they want. But much of the "open source" feel of the first two games has been lost, and in the end, I found that my creativity suffered as a result. With a name like RPG Maker, there's just no excuse for that.

I'll start with the good. There's a lot of automated stuff in RPG Maker 3, for those of you familiar with the first two games, that should have been automated from the get-go. For instance, you no longer have to create an Event (an interactive gameplay element, ranging from an object, character or town to a story sequence or set boss battle), then attach a graphic to it, then place the Event in the appropriate location, in order to (for example) create a townsperson.

This time around, you can simply enter the Layout Editor, which lets you place Events on the fly inside any field, town or dungeon map, and then create the Event from the inside out. It's much more intuitive to click a spot outside the town market and say, "I want a guy here named Joe who tells the main character about cheese" then it is to write a script about cheese, attach it to a character Event, name the Event Joe and select the Event's position using X,Y coordinates on a map you aren't looking at.

There are a lot of small conveniences like this scattered throughout the creation process. And for a quick review of every Event and object you've created, there's a handy Database feature that shows them all in a quick list. For those experienced with RPG Maker games, this allows quicker switching between editable content. For the rest of us, the game creation process is divided into four convenient categories, each with a handful of sub-categories.

First off, there's the Characters & Items category, which, as the name implies, contains various tools for creating and assigning attributes to player characters, non-player characters (NPC’s), character classes, monsters and items. The most basic order of business, creating a character, still happens in the old, two-step process of linking a set of stats and skills to a graphical shell.

The Class editor is where you'll create the meat and potatoes of your characters. It includes fields to set a character's initial stats at level 1, the growth rate for those stats, and what skills she will learn as her level increases. Once the class has been designed, the Character editor will let you choose a character model from a fair number of preset designs, as well as an optional 2D picture to display when the character speaks. Attach the class to the character, and he or she is ready to start questing.

Creating NPC's, monsters and items is a bit simpler. NPC’s can be created as graphical shells alone, either here or in the Layout editor (I'll get to that in a moment). Monsters and Items are simply given basic stats, assigned experience and gold values (and so on), and saved to the system. Once a decent array of stuff has been created, it's time to make a game world, a safe town and maybe a simple dungeon for your character(s) to explore.

Creating a World Map is as easy as drawing it, and the controls are slow enough that it's hard to screw up when accuracy is needed. A handy Undo function is there for when you need it, though. After drawing in your landmass shape and ‘errain types, switching to Advanced mode lets you add mountains, hills and coastlines to your creation. A few switches back and forth between the texture and the elevation editors will ensure that your mountains are suitably rocky and your valleys are lush. At any time, you can preview your work, as well, which saves a lot of time switching back and forth from the full play-test mode and the editors.

Dungeons are similar in that they can be drawn by hand; however, there's a separate tool to choose a unified theme for your dungeon, rather than an on-the-fly textures editor, making the overall process a snap. The only thing that needs to be drawn in is the shape of the dungeon, which is left up to players. After that, stairways, doors and trap tiles can be added, and textures and lighting set.

Towns are perhaps the easiest of all to create. In the Field editor, which lets you place Events onto the world map, it's as easy as finding a spot and pushing "X". Choose to create a town Event, and then exit out. In the Layout editor below the Field editor, you can place buildings, objects (like a fountain or signpost) and NPC’s into your new village, creating each object and Event as you go along.

From there, it's just a matter of setting enemy encounter probabilities and writing lots and lots of dialog. There you have it: a basic, bare-bones RPG adventure. Unfortunately, the point at which you get down to the details of the game (i.e., creating NPC’s, shops and so on) is the point at which its weaknesses start to really show. So let's say you want to make a special doublewide shop that has a weapon smith and an armor smith in it, side by side. Just go ahead and-- oh wait, you can't. That's right, the shape and size of buildings, as well as their interior design, is no longer changeable by the creator. In every RPG Maker, there have been preset items, buildings, backgrounds and so on that could be utilized by the creator.

Often, for a casual player, these were a godsend, as they automatically took care of the dull, repetitive stuff like writing the Innkeeper's dialog, or designing an entire castle from scratch. However, for those of us with a drive to make everything original, there was always the option to make it ourselves - until now. You'd better hope you like one of the three standard Weapon Shop buildings - there's no way to get into the game's preset data and toy with it anymore.

This rigidity extends into other, even more frustrating aspects of creation, though. Let's say you (like me) want to create a female warrior character who strikes swiftly and fights with a katana. Should be as easy as making a character class that uses a katana and creating some fast warrior-type stats for her, right? Wrong.

In RPG Maker 3, you see, women just don't use katanas, no way, no how. Why is this? Would it have been that difficult for the game to allow all thirteen-odd types of weapon to be used by both sexes? I think not. And yet, each gender has certain weapons that are exclusive to it. Again, since these presets can no longer be altered, what should have been a minor annoyance and a quick trip to the database editor becomes a frustrating limitation. I had to have my character wield a dagger instead, which just doesn't have the same cool factor.

As if all that (and a bag of chips I've skipped over, mind you!) weren't enough, RPG Maker 3 even limits the types of enemy you can create! Although every character model in the game, monster or humanoid, has attack and magic animations, they've been separated into two sets by the game: ally/NPC, and enemy.

Let's say you want a climactic showdown between your main character and a wicked king. Too bad! There's only one human-type enemy graphic, and it's a bandit. A story centered around warring kingdoms would feature an awful lot of bandit combat. Now, there is a king model, and yes, he can attack and so on - but he's only available as a friendly character. Similarly, if you wanted to recreate the first pre-packaged adventure that came with the original RPG Maker (about a goblin who wants to become a Dungeon Boss), you'd be out of luck. The goblin, you see, is designated as an enemy and can never, ever be used as a player character, or even a townsperson, for that matter. There's just no excuse for this kind of creative limitation - it's bull crap, and that's all there is to it.

The list goes on and on - both of what makes RPG maker easier to use and more fun than ever before, as well as what makes it the most frustrating and in some ways, disappointing installment in the series to date. As far as directly telling a story goes, much of the original game's flexibility remains - for example, scripting long bouts of dialog, complete with music changes and screen effects, is still as arcane and satisfyingly flexible as ever. However, there are so many unnecessary limitations on what type of story can be told, and who can star in it, that it seems to me many original ideas will become tired retreads when put through the game's paces.

Present-day or futuristic stories - forget it. Human-vs.-human conflict - forget it. Characters that defy classification, settings that defy location, storylines that truly defy the norm - forget all of it. If you want to make a fantasy RPG with male samurai and female witches, where the orcs are always the bad guys and every item vendor keeps the same shop, this is the game for you. If you want to realize your tale of Gobbo the Space Clown, Intergalactic Emissary of Unwelcome Affection and his adventures in the world of the Scribble People, you'll just have to look elsewhere. Of course, maybe that particular example is a good thing. But you get my point.

Character models, like everything else, are in 3D this time, and actually look humanoid, which is also a jump from the last game, which featured characters that looked like Gummi Bears. Due to the MMO-style trailing camera, though, you'll rarely get to see your character's face, which is too bad. It's also worth mentioning here (although it may fit better in Gameplay) that, when playing your created game, controlling your character is a nightmare, thanks in part to the trailing camera and in part to Agetec's laziness. Turning a character around involves slowly rotating him or her 180 degrees - you can't just decide to go the other way, which is incredibly frustrating.

The time of day changes dynamically in the field, which is a nice touch, and seasons can also pass. Accompanying lighting and weather effects are decent, good enough to lend some atmosphere to the setting. There are also a large number of variations to choose from regarding the world's climate, which will affect the types of grass and trees seen on the field map.

Unfortunately, with all these relatively slick graphics comes limitation yet again. The generic fantasy setting is all there is to choose from in RPG Maker 3. No islands of concrete or cities made of glass to be seen - and characters all wear kilts and quivers, so to speak. Again, this is fine as long as a fantasy setting is your cup of tea, but it's unfortunate that there weren't more options - a handful, at least.

The sound effects department is another big disappointment, though, especially for fans of the series. Gone is any sort of customization regarding which items and actions are attached to what sound effect. A sword always sounds like a sword, and a fire-breathing devil always sounds like a fire-breathing devil. This was a pity to me, as I had planned on making my fire-breathing devils mew like kittens - but silly or not, the point is that if you don't like a sound effect, there isn't a whole lot you can do about it. Again, the ease of not having to apply sounds to every little thing is offset by the lack of flexibility the system affords, and it's disappointing that Agetec couldn't have found some middle ground on it.

The RPG Maker series has always stood for letting creative minds run wild. The promise of an easy to use toolset for game creation is one that excites many people, RPG fan or otherwise. It saddens me to say that RPG Maker 3 simply does not live up to its legacy here. It will help plenty of people tell plenty of stories - but much of the original material that might have been will never be, simply because of the severe limitations of the system.

However, the magic of the original RPG Maker has been lost, somewhat, by the newest member of the family. There is too much that cannot be done, and no way to change it anymore. If the ease of use and large number of preset data had come packaged with a way to get behind the scenes and really create, I'd be as jolly as a barrel of monkeys. But that's simply not what happened. Instead, Agetec took the easy way out, selling what really feels like an unfinished piece of software, which, despite its many wonderful features, lacks enough depth to live up to the RPG Maker name. I'd feel safe in recommending it as a purchase to people who know what they're getting into - but not at $49.99. Find it used, or wait for it to drop in price first.