RPG Maker MV Player

Genre: Turn-Based RPG Application

Players: 1, Online Content Sharing

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Review:

RPG Maker MV Player, released on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2020, is a free Application to play games created by RPG Maker MV. As such, at least in theory it is a cost-free way to enjoy a potentially infinite number of RPG-style games, as well as Graphic Adventure, Visual Novel, and Puzzle games created by users who take a more creative approach to RPG Maker MV’s capabilities.

As I noted in my review of RPG Maker MV, that software has a steep enough learning curve that not many would-be creators will be able to use it to produce something viable. However, those of us who can’t do so can all benefit from the efforts of those who can, thanks to this free software.

In terms of presentation, due to the nature of this title, you’ll be seeing a lot of the same visuals and sounds reused throughout multiple games. The graphics use 2D pixel art visuals that don’t seem very much beyond what was available in the 16-bit era, and they generally lack that era’s charm. As for the sound, there are at least some solid RPG-style songs and sounds included here, but I’ll note that the default sounds for menu selections are ear-piercingly terrible, making it a crapshoot when you try another user’s game – did they take a moment to swap out the terrible sounds for ones that won’t drive you up a wall? It’s like playing Russian Roulette with your sanity each time you fire up a new game…

I should note one major flaw with downloading games created by other players – it takes an excruciatingly long time to do. It’s inexplicable why this would be the case, too – it’s not like these games need to download art assets. And of course, you can’t queue games to download and then go play something else while it works, everything has to be done while the application is running. Ugh. Even after downloading a game, you’ll spend a lot of time in loading screens- games take an extraordinary amount of time to load and to save your game.

Oh, there is one other issue I need to mention here – this game’s profanity filter is extremely overzealous, redacting anything even remotely close to something that could be considered offensive. Just how bad is it? “Who is hitting me? It’s a goblin who moved next door! This is exactly what I said would happen!” gets censored to become “Who i@@@@@ting me? It’@@@ goblin w@@@@@ved next door! This i@@@@actly what I said would happen!” (except with asterisks instead of @ symbols). Any game created using RPG Maker MV that wasn’t painstakingly proofread will be full of these redactions, regardless of how innocent the maker’s intent was.

Because of these issues, because of the high level of difficulty in even using the software properly, and because of the limited space allotted to designers in creating an RPG using this software, many of the games that you’ll find here will be a short “proof of concept” rather than a fully-fledged game. What’s more, I found that many of the published games I encountered suffered from poor use of English, with some pretty gastly spelling and grammar errors. What’s more, that issue with the redacting I mentioned… you’ll encounter it a lot. Apparently many game designers do not actually fully test the games they publish.

The game does feature an internal rating system, but I found it to be unreliable – it’s astounding what some users will rate highly. However, if you look long enough, and perhaps get some good recommendations, you can find some real gems here. Although let’s be clear – none of these games will revolutionize the RPG genre. RPG Maker MV may allow some amount of fiddling with the gameplay mechanics, but it doesn’t allow enough latitude to reinvent the wheel and craft something wholly new. Rather, the best games on this platform tend to be the ones that place a focus on story, and in fact the limitations of the gameplay mean that this may well be better-suited to Graphic Adventure and Visual Novel games, although many creators definitely still go the route of crating classic-style RPGs.

In the end, RPG Maker MV Player is fundamentally flawed in much the same way that RPG Maker MV was. However, in sparing the player the design portion of the game and its steep learning curve, and reducing the price to $0, it’s easy to forgive the flaws here. Yes, you will have to do some sorting through trash to find the real gems, but even so, when you find one it can be a real joy, and even more so knowing that you paid nothing to experience it.

tl;dr – RPG Maker MV Player is a free Application to play games created by RPG Maker MV, allowing players to search through games that others have made and enjoy them at no cost. While it still suffers many of the same issues as RPG Maker MV, and there’s plenty of trash games to sort through, the occasional gem you’ll find will make that free price tag well worth it.

Grade: B

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