Hey, look, I made a game… in a game!
What They Say:
An epic journey begins…with YOU! Become a master game developer with RPG Maker MV. With an arsenal of tools at your fingertips create elaborate, exciting, and memorable video games straight from your console! Then, share your adventures online with other players, who can enjoy your epic chronicles! The possibilities are endless with the latest and greatest RPG Maker software. With hundreds of assets and an infinite number of ways to create your game, turn your dream tale into the next greatest video game!
Content:
When it comes to reviewing games, I am always reviewing a game that someone else made and critiquing whether or not it was original, high quality, fun, and so on. To be fair, I am going to be doing that in this RPG Maker MV review for Nintendo Switch but the difference this time around is that the experience was mainly something that I, myself, created.
RPG Maker MV is the latest for Switch in a long-running series of games that have mostly been on PC. This latest version is interesting because it allows you to create a full-fledged game on your Switch console anywhere that you are. Do you have a burning idea for your own JRPG-style game but never did programming or coding in your life? No problem!
I have very little coding experience, mainly HTML, but nothing Java or anything else. As such, I am about as much of a newcomer when it comes to game creation but I was interested because I love games and writing, so I had a burning passion to make my own game.
I am happy to report that, yes, anyone can pick up RPG Maker MV and make their own game. However, it will take hours of work and experimentation to figure out the intricate systems of RPG Maker MV. For starters, it does come with a tutorial that you can use to get the basics but it only gets you so far.
The tutorial introduces to the basics of movement, scripts, and some events but it really only touches the very tip of the iceberg when it comes to making a game. RPG Maker MV is an investment since you really have to put in the time to figure out stuff on your own or look it up online.
But if you’re willing to put in the effort, I found that it is quite rewarding for creative and budding developers out there. While you can certainly make an 16-bit-like RPG like the name states, your imagination is (almost) the limit. You can definitely make a visual novel-like game with no combat, a dating sim, horror title, adventure game, and so on.
To test the game out, I made a short horror adventure game experience, similar to Corpse Party, in a single day. It wasn’t good at all but it was a great way to learn the mechanics of the title and workaround the systems to make a game that had enemies that could take you out, outside of the normal turn-based gameplay.
I then took that experience and began working on an actual game that (fingers crossed) you will be able to play at the launch of RPG Maker MV on Switch. One issue with this title is that it is solely for creating and sharing games. There is no basic game that is already built in for you to play around with, so you have to either make it yourself or rely on others to make something.
My second experience is a more traditional turn-based RPG that has some sci-fi and fantasy elements blended together. It is called Project Starlight and the goal I have is for you to be able to play part one (of three) when the title launches. It will be a third of a normal, shorter style of RPG but it has some surprises included like numerous party members and dating sim elements.
I found RPG Maker MV was mostly great in helping me achieve my goal. Overall, it is a rather deep experience with tons of systems and layers that will keep you busy for hours on end trying to figure it all out. But if you put in the effort, it is pretty easy to remember how to make events, NPCs, cutscenes, battles, and so on.
It was mostly able to do what I needed for my game like finding ways to work around and have a relationship system of sorts in the middle of an RPG. You can even use a keyboard plugged into the Switch dock to type dialogue, which made writing scenes a whole lot easier.
One thing to note is that you can use the touchscreen to go through the menus and select stuff, but it doesn’t work well at all so I wouldn’t recommend it. Overall, there is a lack of intuitiveness when it comes to RPG Maker MV. It’s a great system that works and lets you do a whole lot to make your own game but the UI is rather messy and slow at times.
Integrating most changes can take a few seconds to go through, which is understandable, but can make creating for long periods a little bit frustrating. And then it is rather easy to cancel out of events and other things that you are making by accident, making me have to remake certain cutscenes and events often.
And then there are the random limitations that you have to deal with the more complicated your game gets. One thing that really bothered me that I couldn’t do was use custom-made avatars for enemies (at least that I could find). When it comes to creating your own custom artistic items, the only things you can really do are make your own sprites and maps and that’s it.
You won’t be making your own music, UI, whole battle systems, and so on from scratch in this version of the game. While this is fine and understandable, the actual custom avatars you can make are limited. Sure, you can put them on the map as random NPCs to talk to but you can’t put them as enemies in battle.
Say, for instance, you have a Vegeta character of sorts who is a villain at first and you then want them to join your party. You want to have the player fight this Vegeta-like character and then later on, they join your party. Well, you won’t be able to fight their specific avatar that you created or even the numerous premade ones either. You are limited with enemies only to the premade enemy sprites, which is, well, limited.
This was problematic and forced me to make a workaround like using an image on top of some random avatar that looks somewhat like the character I wanted to use. It is unfortunate and unnecessarily limited for a game that lets you do quite a lot honestly. In the end, though, it is a solid game development software that is great for newcomers like myself who want to make a game but don’t want to spend hours learning through classes and so on.
In Summary:
RPG Maker MV is a great software system for making your own games (or playing someone else’s) even if you are a newcomer like myself. It has a lot included with it that gives you the options to make your own characters, classes, abilities, maps, and so on to fit the game you want.
I’ve tested it out myself and it is definitely possible to make your own horror adventure game, RPG, dating sim, and so on within this single system. Though it is clunky and slow at times, there is a lot available to you that teaches you as you go if you are willing to put in the hours to create something.
It does come with some rather unfortunate limitations that shouldn’t be there and there is no premade game automatically available, but I do recommend this game to anyone who wants to make their own game or just play what someone else has made and shared online.
Grade: B+
Developer: Kadokawa Corporation
Publisher: NIS America
Age Rating: 10+
Release Date: September 8, 2020
MSRP: $49.99 (Full version for creating and playing games)
Platform: Switch (reviewed), PS4, PC (already out)
This review was done with a review copy provided by the publisher. We are grateful for their continued support.
