This is an interesting perspective from someone that's not particularly into RPG Maker but does make

Hell, I did spit it all up on the title.

"This is an interesting perspective from someone that's not particularly into RPG Maker but does make games".

On this occasion he talks about Last Dream, an RPG game made with... VX I presume? He touches some important points, and even mentions some of the ones that mortifies me the most. Like, making an RPG Maker game lose that "RPG Maker vibe" (graphics, the overall frame of the gameplay... I'm sorry, I just... think RPGs can be MUCH more variable or something like that -thing is, the editor is not, FOR OBVIOUS REASONS, I think-).

tl;dr watch the video, and let's talk as civilized orangutans! Orangutans are pretty peaceful. That's why I chose them.

Well, I know what I'm doing this year.

Is this guy for real? <.< I just... couldn't stand watching it. Is this even a serious review or a parody?

Could you please elaborate your point? He's serious. Unless it was released in April Fools (which didn't).

I don't see anything wrong with his review. He puts its points, its perspective, and does it in a respectful manner. What else could you want?

EDIT: And yeah, he hasn't played too much RPG Maker games. He is still happy at seeing RTP. Or maybe it doesn't matters that much (I'm not a reliable source of opinion, though I love spriting so I always ditch RTP entirely).

I agree, it's clear he hasn't played a lot of RPG Maker games. Which is a good thing. There's an audience out there that is still receptive to the stock resources. It's also proof that stock coupled with good design works.

That said, I could definitely recommend better games than the one he played, no offense to the creators of the Last Dream. I'm sure they worked hard on it.

Also, I found him to be a bit uncomfortable in front of the camera. Which made me uncomfortable. It was pretty obvious he wasn't use to or accustomed to his format. There was something tense about him.

Still he was honest and he did give appropriate feedback, and for that reason I found his review valuable and hope he continues to produce reviews on a regular basis.

yeah he was touting it like it was the second coming of Final Fantasy VI... oh well good for that game I guess. I think there's a lot more innovative games, RPG or otherwise, made with the RPG Maker engine that deserve more spotlight. not that rpg maker games haven't been getting spotlight lately, it's just you could always use more for some unseen games you know.

i'm ranting in the way that i hate, in a self-righteous way. :/ oh well I hope that he reviews more RPG Maker games!

The mapping on Last Dream wasn't that great. It kind of fails at it, really. But in other aspects of the game, that's where the real money is. And there's so much replayability value it's not even funny.

I don't really know if I can describe this clearly enough but his presentation looks like he was only pretending to be serious about the game in a parodic way. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if they had just burst out laughing in the middle of the review and start calling the game names. I said I couldn't stand it because it looked like a repulsive parody attempt to me, not because he actually liked the RTP.

No offense to devs btw, I didn't even know about this game before and it does look good in terms of gameplay. A little better mapping would have helped though.

We RPG Maker people are picky. In things that at the end can even not matter at all. I've seen games rise and be good, with no good mapping. Mapping is not about beauty, it's about good design. In that aspect, yeah, the town maybe is too big and empty, and stuff. But when you see the public react, that's where you know what things are important and what not.

People care a lot on story (deep, fantastic, with good personifications and stuff), add some pretty worked up scenes, "illumination" (a.k.a. Photoshop layers that obscure gameplay and make you squint the eyes, and only look good at one specific screenshot). Music, I've already said it. Music in this panorama it's stupidly gorgeous! So much that even obscures the rest of the game.

But other parts of the game seem to be untouched. And I'm not talking about the RTP graphics. It's the core. But this is all because the RPG Maker's core is not versatile enough (again, obvious reasons, EB will not make this thing bake waffles and do the laundry for you for just 60 bucks). If you want to make it stand out, you need to rewrite most of it. Something that the standard RPG Maker user will not do, because they share this artistic-inclined point of view.

If I'm being rude or something, I shall say, that's not my intention. It's just my usual rant about my love-hate relationship with RPG Maker. I still love you RM <3. But... (?).

In an effort to not just bring up an old post I'd like to bring up a new conversation based on this topic.

James Portnow as painted here seems a bit inexperienced...


The man is someone who has over a decade of experience in game design and education.  His was a part of the design teams on Call of Duty and Farmville, despite the reputation those games have now the prior changed the console industry and the latter really changed Social/Mobile games.  He's a professor at DigiPen Institute of Technology on game design and is the writer behind the popular and extremely useful show for game devs, Extra Credits




You can read more about him here or better yet subscribe to the show mentioned above and learn a thing or two to help make your games even better.

I can not express how much videos like this have changed who I am as a game designer.  I really hope a few of you out there dive into the content and knowledge this channel provides and create great things that push this industry further than it has ever been before.

Take care everyone