RPG Maker

I love RPG Maker. I love using the engine to make games, and I love playing games made with it. XP is my true love, but I'm not picky. In fact, I've bundled in a few WOLF RPGs on this page, since they're often listed alongside RPG Maker titles.

I love the graphical and gameplay styles that RPG Maker was designed for, and that flourish in the community: turn-based battles, 2D retro-inspired pixel art. And I like seeing when developers implement other styles, too. I love knowing that when I play an RPG Maker game, I'm playing a passion project made by someone not totally unlike me. We might even have similar influences!

Despite this fondness, I spent a long time taking about as long to play RPG Maker games as it took me to make them, AKA about one every five years. To rectify that, I've been making a point to play more of them more often, and my life as both a video game fan and a game developer has definitely been much richer for it.

This page is to catalogue the RPG Maker* games I've played (or watched someone else play), as well as my thoughts on them!


Aveyond series Aveyond Studios XP
My special interest and favorite RPG Maker games of all time. RPG Maker fantasy at its best: goofy, with a lot of charm and heart. More specific thoughts per game!
Yume Nikki Kikiyama 2003
When I played Yume Nikki, I immediately understood why everyone adores this game. There's something so eerie and evocative about this game that immediately drew me in. I love the use of parallax backgrounds to create such surreal, dreamlike environments. I really felt a sense of success every time I was able to find an effect, too.

I also really respect and appreciate how pared down and randomized this game is. It really shook up my perspective of game design: it made me rethink what makes a game fun and reconsider my own approach to game development. It's obvious why this has spawned dozens of fangames; I'll probably try some of them out later.
Stargazer John Wizard XP
Stargazer is charming, warm, and funny, with a great spin on the RPG Maker XP battle system and unique maps. The story revolved around a central romance, where the majority of the game is driven by the leads' shared bonding, not the grand quest the player can see rumbling in the background.

The gameplay was fantastic, taking exactly what I love about RPG Maker XP and giving it personal flare. The battle system is strategic without being overwhelming, and serves as an excellent storytelling and characterization tool. The maps emphasized elevation in a way that both made for a really fun exploration experience, and mimicked the game's focus on summits really well. There are times when you get to interact with the map in unique ways, slowly learning new ways to explore an area, which are some of the most fun I've ever had playing a video game.

My biggest complaints are with the writing. Some of the character dynamics didn't make sense, and some of the jokes became grating when they were plot relevant for long stretches of the game. I also didn't feel like that final quest delivered very well.
Stargazer Christmas John Wizard XP
A bite-sized, Christmas-themed version of Stargazer's humor and puzzles. It swaps out the heart for more meta jokes, and Mel from Aveyond. For a smaller game, it's a worthy tradeoff. I almost called this "scaled-back", but it's worth noting that the jam-packed puzzles make this game delightfully dense.
The Shell of Permafrost Yummy XV Ace
This was a really interesting little game. The quick time events were a little frustrating for me, but the gameplay was very forgiving, and it was a really interesting way of showing magic. The story was intriguing and it was fun to watch things click together, both mentally and literally through the clue system.
Knight Bewitched Joshua Keith MZ
Overall, this was a really cute and fun game. The central love story was sweet, although there were some opportunities for drama and complexity that I felt like got skirted over. The other characters were also compelling, and there was one twist that genuinely got me!

Combat was more complex than I was expecting, in a good way - I'm used to RPGs giving you obvious best choices for weapon and gear, but almost every piece of equipment in this game had trade-offs, which made strategizing way more fun.

I had my issues with a few aspects of gameplay and a couple one-off jokes that I felt weakened the story and characters, but overall this was a great time.
Your Turn to Die Nankidai MV
I love a good death game, and this is an excellent fucking death game. If you've heard of the term "ludonarrative dissonance", YTTD has the opposite - some of the best ludonarrative cohesion I've ever experienced in a game. The gameplay is absolutely phenomenal, and extremely unique for an RPG Maker game. It's hard for me to settle my thoughts on the story, but I've really enjoyed it so far and am excited to see where it goes.
Eternal Senia Sanctum Games VX Ace
Another review described this game as the best use of real time combat in an RPG Maker Game they'd seen, and I absolutely agree. I also think it's the best use of the default RPG Maker VX-style graphics I've ever seen - while the blocky, square shapes are often criticized for being unnatural and claustrophobic, in Eternal Senia that feeling enhanced the experience rather than taking me out of it.

This game also made me bawl like a baby each of the three times I played it. I genuinely loved the characters and story.
Ceress and Orea Plueschkatze MV
Short and sweet and packs an emotional punch.

This game was very atmospheric - the tilesets are pretty and the maps are put together in really appealing ways, and the music is gorgeous. Sound effects heighten the experience by adding detail to the world - water drips only play as you approach the droplets, for examples, or unearthly groaning plays in maps as spirits appear.

The story is simple and straightforward, but very compelling, especially as you unlock memories. They add a depth to Orea and Ceress's relationship, fleshing it out as you go through the game, even though only you only control Ceress as you do.

The puzzles were easy enough, with most of them feeling more like an excuse to just explore the world of the game, but frankly it was such a stunning one I was very satisfied to do so. Heads up for a chase scene.
To the Moon Freebird Games XP
I do not like this game at all. I feel like this would have made more sense in a number of different mediums: visual novel, comic, movie. I'm not opposed to walking simulators, but To The Moon throws in random gameplay elements as if to prevent itself from being one. That would just function as a bandaid, though. I suspect I would have disliked the storyline no matter what. This comic summarizes the issues with the story better than I could.


Watched, Not Played

I love horror. However, I hate chase scenes, which means I won't play most horror games myself. Here are RPG Maker games I've watched other people play!

The Witch's House Fummy, Dangen Entertainment MV
This game is not fucking fair, in a way that made me reconsider game design. I'm too much of a scaredy cat (pun unintended) to play it myself, but I really respect it. It makes me wish I could steel myself to play it.

I fucking love the ending. It is, as often noted, one of the most shocking and heartbreaking twists I've ever seen in a video game.

I feel weird about its use of terminal illness/disability, in that I feel like I should dislike it, given the horror genre's mistreatment of disabled people, but as a cancer survivor, I absolutely love terminally ill characters who turn desperate and do whatever they can to get a chance at life. I spent a long time with my only exposure to my illness in media being characters lamenting that treatment was too horrible to be any better than death, and so I get a lot of satisfaction and resonance over characters going "no! I'm going to do whatever I can to live!"

Ultimately the ending, from the way the twist recontextualizes to game to Ellen's absolute conviction, is incredibly satisfying to me, as tragic as it is.
Mad Father
Blurb coming soon!
Pocket Mirror AstralShift VX Ace
Pocket Mirror is a gorgeous game with stunning backgrounds where every world feels truly unique. Unfortunately, it's a stunning veneer pasted over little substance.

The whole game feels like it's building to a tragic mystery, but it never pays off. The ending only hints at a conclusion based on ableist stock tropes about DID.
The Crooked Man
Blurb coming soon!


Friends' Games

Some of my friends also make RPG Maker games. I want to include these for both completion's sake, and to advertise their games, but I don't want to put on my same Formal Rating & Reviewing voice. So, in this section, I'll just gush about why I like them!

Stray Kitten and the Magical Lantern slimmmeiske2 MV? MZ? Blurb coming soon!
The Freelance Elf TeiRaven XP Blurb coming soon!


Aveyond series

The Aveyond series were the first RPG maker games I ever played. For a long time, they were my gold standard. They're still my favorites, but I wouldn't go that far anymore. I didn't want my main table to become flooded with Aveyond, but I have different thoughts on each game and wanted to give them their own time in the spotlight.

Game Engine Thoughts
Ahriman's Prophecy 2003
Blurb coming soon
Aveyond 1: Rhen's Quest XP
Here it is, the game that completely changed my life. Aveyond 1 holds up fairly well, though perhaps not quite as well as I would like it to. This is in many ways the series' weakest installment without nostalgia or the context of its release, but it remains a worthy opener.

Aveyond 1 has some of my favorite mapping in an RPG Maker game to date - the tilesets cohesively combine the typical more pixelated style with art more evocative of paintings. The colors, scale, and parallaxes combine together to make the world feel truly rich and magical. Caverns inexplicably show the night or sunset sky below as you wander through.

The battle scaling is a little ridiculous, but for me it breezes past "works" into enhancing the game - it makes me feel like I really am training for an epic quest, and gives me more time to roll the characters over in my head and get attached.

The plot is simple, straight-forward fantasy fare, but to me that's a pro and not a con. The cast isn't very well fleshed out, but they have strong, charming bones that easily endear players and just beg you to expand on them in your head. Protagonist Rhen feels like the halfway point between a fully realized character and a player insert protagonist, but the level of choice the player is given for her at the end lets it feel cohesive and pay off.
Aveyond 2: Ean's Quest XP
Blurb coming soon
Aveyond 3.1: Lord of Twilight XP
Blurb coming soon
Aveyond 3.2: Gates of Night XP
Blurb coming soon
Aveyond 3.3: The Lost Orb XP
Blurb coming soon
Aveyond 3.4: The Darkthrop Prophecy XP
Blurb coming soon
Aveyond 4: Shadow of the Mist XP
Blurb coming soon