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RPG Maker

 
Games: RPG Maker
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RPG Maker
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Game Description

In RPG Maker, players with absolutely no programming experience or prior game-production skills can make their own role-playing quests and save them to the PlayStation memory card for themselves or a friend to enjoy. The world creation in the game is tile-based, and the entire game is done in the 2D style of 16-bit era RPGs. Players can create characters, towns, dungeons and script action to move along at a certain pace. They will place treasures, enter dialogue and create events that are triggered by certain actions within the game world.

Although players can create nearly anything they like with the game, it must be more or less contained in a fantasy theme, as the only graphics available adhere to that specific genre. Within that genre, however, the possibilities are varied, and you can make your new RPG a massive epic or a short jaunt. It can be utterly serious or laced with juvenile humor. Also contained within RPG Maker is a mode called Anime Maker, where those with the desire can create 2D pictures and animate them accordingly.
~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

Creating a console RPG has been the dream of many fans, but it was a dream that wasn't attainable until now. Agetec's RPG Maker brings with it the promise of world and character creation previously only available to developers and programmers with the know-how and cash to make games happen. And despite a few quirks and some missing features, RPG Maker brings that promise to life, and should be a treasured part of any RPG fanatic's PlayStation library.

While the visuals and sounds of RPG Maker are clearly not up to the standards of PlayStation-era RPGs and harken back to the early days of the Super NES and Genesis, the concept is executed well enough to make that fact negligible. The amount of control you have, within the confines of the system, is outstanding. While you cannot create your own tiles, which might have been a nice touch, you can choose from a large menu of them and assemble anything you feel like, from a town to a dungeon to a mighty fortress.

Beyond locations, you can pick from a number of characters, changing their colors and fixing them to look like whatever you'd like, from fantastic beings to your best friends (or worst enemies). Set up towns, create special weapons and items, and put in the dialogue and trigger events where you want them, when you want them. This flexibility allows you to create a game that is as long or as short as you want it, and the quest can be either entirely serious, completely goofy, or a healthy mix of the two.

While the customization is impressive, there are a couple of caveats. First, the theme is entirely fantasy, and since there's no ability to alter the basic graphics beyond palette swapping, you'll have a hard time making those far-flung future or space opera games you've been dreaming of. Another warning, not so severe problem, is that putting together complex plots and dialogue can be a hassle. You must be quite dedicated to create anything beyond a basic plotline. It isn't because of the interface, but because making a great game is intrinsically hard. So if you're willing to put up the work, RPG Maker is going to be willing to give you the rewards.

RPG Maker also comes with a drawing and animation creation tool called Anime Maker, but unless you really don't have any products to draw and animate, it isn't worth the time. The user interface is very difficult and actually creating an attractive product is an exercise in futility for all but the best graphic artists, who could still probably do more impressive work with Microsoft Paint and a video camera.

RPG Maker looks very simple, even primitive, but it delivers on its basic promise. Most players will be able to create that game idea they've had in the back of their mind for years now. There will perhaps have to be a few compromises made, but when you consider the alternative is a lifetime of programming experience and some ridiculously expensive equipment, that trade-off seems fair.
~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

With so many details that you can attend to, you really have the opportunity to make something fun and special with this game, and if RPGs are your thing, you have no reason not to give it a chance.
~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

The graphics are early 16-bit quality, but they're fine for this type of game creation tool.
~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

The sound is nothing special, with some nice songs and some fairly ugly ones, and only a few effects to choose from. But it doesn't hold back the true joy of the game.
~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

Not only can you make games, but you can also play them, and that is the beauty of the title. Work as hard as you want and be as strange as you want, and you will come out with a game that is uniquely your own, despite the limited power of the graphics and sound.
~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

Although the game is pretty easy to use, the instruction manual still does a good job of pointing out the tips and nuances that you'll be going through in game creation.
~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide
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Wikipedia: RPG Maker (PlayStation)
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RPG Maker
RPG Maker Coverart.png
Developer(s) Kuusou Kagaku
Publisher(s) JP Enterbrain
NA Agetec
Series RPG Maker series
Platform(s) PlayStation
Release date(s) JP November 27, 1997
NA October 2, 2000
Genre(s) Role-playing
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: E (Everyone)
Media 1 CD-ROM

RPG Maker is the first PlayStation version of the RPG Maker series.

Contents

Features

Graphics

The graphics of RPG Maker I are 2D, sprite-based graphics. Each character gets only four movement patterns: left, right, up, and down.

Sample Game

In order to help players along, this game features Gobli, a sample game already created by the game developers. Gobli was created in order to help players create an RPG and get a feel of how a created game is played.

Battle System

Battles in RPG Maker are random. These battles are activated as the player walks through area that are designated as battle areas. Battles are all turn-based, and depending on the agility of the monster, the monster attacks first or the player attacks first. Note that the player can only have up to four members in the party. Each battle ends when either the monsters are defeated or the player's party is defeated. The latter results in a Game Over.

Alternatively, as an event (see below), the player can set a pre-determined battle to occur when that event is reached. The battle can be set to end when either the player or monsters are defeated or when a certain turn has passed in the battle. This type of battle is usually a boss battle.

When a certain experience marker is reached, a player's character levels up. The required experience needed to level up increases as the players' level increases. When a character reaches Level 22, the same amount of experience points is required for each level, unlike other RPGs, where the number of experience points required increases with each level.

Events

Events are triggers that the game uses in order to create scenes. Some examples of event contents are "Display Message, Play Sound Effect, or Display Title/Ending". There are four different events. They are:

  • Normal Event. You can choose up to 30 different events contents(see above).
  • Treasure Event. This can only be used once in the game. Its primary function is to collect treasure from a treasure box. The player can set a "before graphic" (what the treasure box looks before the event is activated) and the "after graphic" (what the treasure looks like after it's activated.)
  • Duplicate Event. A duplicate on the selected event. An event must be selected in order to create a duplicate event. If the original event is modified, any duplicate events of that event are modified as well.
  • Intro event. Activates the event when the player enters the area.

Events can be activated in five different ways. It can be activated by:

  • Do Not Start. This event must be activated by a separate event, using the Take Over event.
  • Touch. This event activated when the player touches the event(can be used with the event content Move Location so the player moves to a different area on the map.)
  • Check. The player must activate the event by selecting it (standing in front of the trigger and pressing the "X" button.
  • Use Key. The player must use a specific "key" item to activate the event.
  • Use Item. The player must use a specific item to activate the event.

Events can be invisible, images of people, or even objects. Events are the only way to get NPCs (non-playable characters) to move around.


External links

v • d • e
RPG Maker video games
PC versions
RPG Maker 95 · 2000 · 2003 · XP · VX
Console versions
RPG Maker (PlayStation) · II · III

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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Games. Copyright © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Game Guide ® , a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
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