RPG Maker MV
- Genre : Simulation, Role-Playing
- Publishers : NIS America
- Developers : Kadokawa, Enterbrain
- Players : 1
- Consoles : Nintendo Switch
- Languages : Japanese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, English
- Release date : Sep 08, 2020
I always loved reading to discover the stories or live them through a Role Playing Game (or RPG). Actually, I love stories be it in a film or a game. I am addicted to beautiful adventures. And naturally, I always wanted to write as many of them as possible to share them with a maximum of people as possible. I tried many times to write a book, but without managing to describe the universe enough to immerse my future potential reader.
Then I heard of RPG Maker, and I asked myself why not create an interactive story: a RPG. As an RPG has a visual setting, creating my story should be a little simpler. Furthermore, having done developing studies, I was always curious to see what this software could do without having the courage to go for it myself. I patiently waited for the game to be released on the Nintendo Switch to finally go for it.
Let’s create my first RPG !
The first thing I was about to see is that I was absolutely not ready and that before creating a good RPG, I was going to spend a lot of hours on it! But why am I telling you this?
The game begins with a magnificent cinematic that puts everything I love in a RPG forward. So I go super hyped into the tutorial! It launches itself and explains the basis of the creation of a game: graphic conception for each map, event management (necessary to go from one map to another for example) and the setting up of the combats with the monsters. That is when I realised the amount of work that was awaiting me to create only a few hours of game on this little RPG.
You have to thing about a lot of details be it only for the movements (starting point, conditions, arrival point, orientation of the character) or the creation of the decors (dungeon, simple card, inside of a house…) and I am not talking to you about the configuration of the combat phases…
Honestly I got really scared. I even asked myself if I would be able to create a game… or not, having the time to do it and then the memories from my first games came flooding in and I decided to plunge myself in the adventure that is the creation of a game. Come what may.
RPG Maker MV: the only limit is yourself!
The tutorial of the game lasts about an hour and shows you the fundamentals of game creation. That is to say, the usage of the graphic slabs, the navigation between the different menus, the movements from one map to another and a quick tour of the setting menu. From then on, you realise the immensity of possibilities that this software offers. You can manage absolutely everything: characters skins, music, background images, monster’s apparition, experience gain, weakness… It’s really impressing! Such a quantity of options guaranties the conception of a unique game.
The game, or should I say the RPG Maker MV software, awoke the developer in me giving me the envy to set everything up in the minutest of details in order to propose to the other players on Nintendo Switch my own little RPG. Indeed, there is a free version called RPG Maker Player that allows all the Nintendo Switch processors to play to the games created with RPG Maker MV freely.
I think that I will spend quite a lot of time on the creation of my game! I only have to assimilate all the controls and explore to its fullest each menu.
A long but necessary learning process
Basically, RPG Maker is a software available on PC that has been optimised for consoles. First on the 3DS and today on the Nintendo Switch. The controls went from a keyboard/mouse to remote/touchscreen. Honestly the controls are well optimised for the Switch, they will ask for a little bit of training at first, but one gets quickly used to it. The touch screen is a plus especially for writing dialogues, but I think I’ll invest in a stylus more comfortable with my large fingers.
Concerning the graphic creation possibilities or even the event set up, there is so much choice that the time needed to learn how to use the software will be even longer! You will have to discover the multitude of graphic tiles, look inside the settings, the music, the voices, etc. In short, this software is so complete that if you have the patience and the imagination required you will manage to create your own game!
A little help for the beginners
Accompanying the tutorials, RPG Maker MV will propose you preconceived maps so that you may start your adventure.
I found two interests in them! On one side, this allowed me to make a first trial in creating events and monster configuration without having to worry about the graphic conception of my own maps. As such I explored the different menus a little more to better understand the possibilities that this game offer.
And furthermore, I got a brand new set of ideas for my own maps creation, thanks to the slabs made available by the game. At first, I was completely lost: for example, it took me 30 minutes to find a slab I would use as a door to the house I had just “drawn”. And I wasn’t terribly pleased with how it looked! The same goes for the ideas of planning the inside or villages maps with walls, that wasn’t easy for me to do. The possibility to modify existing maps really helped me understand the map conception better.
Conclusion
RPG Maker MV is destined for RPG players wishing to create their own game. It is extremely complete and will ask for a consequent learning time. Indeed, the more things/tools the more one spends time on it. I think that I will create small tutorials but a little later on this game/software, because getting started with it is not necessarily easy for all the menus. And that despite the help directly available in the software.
It offers a multitude of options and settings so that you can create your own game and each “compilation” (save) to test it will take some time. And there’s nothing more normal for this type of software. You will also have to have an idea of the project you are working on to canalise yourself and create a coherent game. In short, if you dream of creating a RPG and share it with the Nintendo Switch community, RPG Maker MV is made for you.
Please note that the free version named RPG Maker Player will allow everyone to test your game, if you have decided to share it online.
Good luck to you, program well!
