This is incorrect. I am saying that ease of access has caused the flooding of this site with generic games that all share the exact same gameplay loop with no inherent differences. Most RPG maker games are “Talk to the people you need to talk to, fight enemies on the path there, equip armor and tools to increase your battle efficiency” and most of them use the same landlocked combat system that makes more use of RNG than skill, completely ruining the concept of fair combat in favor of something that just, turns into crossing your fingers and playing the same 1-2-MAYBE 3 actions if they somehow encourage guarding over using that action to attack (props to those that do.) Again, I don’t hate all projects that use RPG maker- there’s some Great ones out there, but that’s because most of them either work with the system they have or they bend it over backwards and make it into their bitch to surpass it’s limitations. Using the As-Is combat system is deeply flawed.
The fact that it allows people to create games that have very little love put into them, and still get a complete game. The goalpost needs to be moved, like, way the fuck over. Completely scratch default combat mechanics and give me a reason to go places outside of “oh hey I need X”, you know? Both, “Dungeon of the Devourer” and “SFRPG - EXTENDED” are some of my favorite examples of this:
DotG features a system where you’re encouraged to change what form you take on to fight enemies to get an advantage over them by directly changing how much damage you give and take. Still, the generic combat system leaves much to be desired: Some combats are simply too hard without certain buffs/debuffs, and some combats too easy when you’ve got the right kink at your side going in- The scrapping of all mechanical skill from the equation (In RPG maker, Not DotG inherently) means you have very little to actually accomplish… one game, I forgot which, (I think it was Paladin Princess?) actually had some enemies telegraph strong attacks, which gave you an opportunity to dust off the guard feature that usually has very little purpose because you never know if an enemy is going to use a strong or weak attack without said telegraph system.
Likewise, SFRPG actually completely does my favorite: Bends it over backwards and serves it chicago-style. Completely changes how the normal stats works, gives you visually represented and sexy as hell skill upgrades through the form of increasing your weight class- increasing your damage, unlocking new abilities, and those abilities you gain are just flat out better: There’s no pretending with which one’s going to be better, It’s usually said flat-out in the skill’s description, and there’s no bulky mana bar to get in your way of spamming all the best attacks, since enemies scale stronger the further into the world you go.
Furthermore, SFRPG also features two inflation types- Blueberry and helium- that both give you extra skills to use in the form of a limited Feeding option if you can overpower the enemy, which is hands-down one of the best ways to beat one of the bosses that requires you beat them by stuffing them.
All three of these games do wonders BECAUSE they take what RPG maker offers them, says “fuck you, I’ll do what I want” and put some spins on it that make it more interesting than just “I hit attack!.. They attack me!.. I hit attack!.. They attack me!..” and puts at least a little thought into the combat side of the game- which is by far RPGmaker’s absolute worst default mechanic. (Naturally, SFRPG, which breaks it the most, is my favorite of these examples.)
These artists went out of their way to change what was already given to them BECAUSE they had a vision that they loved enough to go through the pain of changing the systems already in place! In other words, I am not so much saying that any medium in particular is terrible and should never be ever used, as much as I mean to put emphasis on: “The more of your game that YOU make, the more unique and interesting it will be.” As such, RPGmaker, which takes over a huge amount of the content you make, is a bad medium WHEN you let it define the game you’re making.
Sure, it’s a nice building block to start from, it really stream-lines some things I imagine, but it achieves that stream-lining through replacing a large portion of mechanics that would be wild and diverse and whacky, with spamming the J or the Z or the ENTER key for a few minutes every now and then and saving after every combat, with the use of health potions as needed.
It’s this corporate samey-ness that REALLY grinds my gears because it’s the same thing as buildings across every street being giant concrete bricks with the same white sterile decor on the inside- All of those buildings would be much preferred by me if they were just… Brave enough to be themselves. Brave enough to defy the medium and create something better than what was defined by their predecessors.
What I’m trying to get at is, yes, I’m aware my words were an incorrect way of trying to get across what I was really meaning to say, and I thank you for calling me out on that front- However I do, still, have a point, and I’d like to think maybe something I say in this thread will resonate with someone here- RPG maker is a bad medium when the artist using it allows it to take over all of their game and completely ruin any kind of uniqueness it could have had.
I, by far, do not expect everything to be perfect, or great, or even good- Making mistakes is how art gets better, but largely? Using RPG maker just limits artists by filling in gaps that would have been much nicer to see some difference in. I just wanna see people making Unique games, not just the same gameplay loop over and over and over again… It’s like eating nothing but apple cinnamon oat meal. Sure, it’s good every now and then for a bowl or two, but… Please can I have something else? Even if it’s still oat meal(An RPG game), can it like… have something new in it? Have something that dares to be something more than apple and cinnamon?
