Which is the best?

[amazonwalrus 0]

I hear people say "Rpgmaker 2k3 is the best"
Others "Rpgmaker XP has more power for pros"
Others "Vxace"
Now "MV"

I want to make a old school game alot like FFVI style. Final Fantasy SDK owner says XP is for pros.

I'm so lost on which one I should use. Honestly i like the older graphics better. FFV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger. 
It boggles my mind on which to use. I have 2k3, Xp, Ace and MV. 

Which is best to make a FFVI style game people?

[Bob423 52]

I would use MV. You can always change the graphics if you don't like the style, but if you don't have the right graphics and that's a big thing for you, 2K3 is the closest to FF6, graphics wise.

[amazonwalrus 0]

thanks bob. guess i'll keep working with MV. VXace was easy to use. Some reason MV lags on my computer. Music and graphics. VXace ran smoothly

[Kushito 2]

Others "Rpgmaker XP has more power for pros"

 

RPG Maker isn't really for pros.

 

You should never factor in ease of use into RPG Makers. They may differ between themselves but on the scale of game development tools, they are all very simple. If you think any of them is difficult to use now, just put in the hours. This should not be a factor if your choice is between only RPG Makers.

 

I would advise you to go with MV. It's the latest, is portable (eg mobile, html5 etc) and is built on Javascript instead of Ruby. Because of the way javascript works, you can use a console to assist you with programming which makes things a hundred times quicker and easier. For example, you can use the console to inspect a javascript object i.e. the game player is an object with various properties which come default code. You could spend hours reading the code (and you will anyway if you want to script), but you can use the console to quickly see the player's (or any other object at all) current properties, and methods/functions. TL;DR coding easier. MV. DL it.

[Polraudio 122]

UNITY! OH wait this is an rpg maker topic :P. But yea as Kushi said MV would be your best bet. Once you get use to it you can start programming. dont get intimidated by programming, its alot easier than it looks but it takes time to learn.

[Yokuto Akiyama 0]

Based on my experience and some of the games I've played, I think Xp is the best for this. You can use Enu Tankentai XP for the side-view battle system (yes, I know they have that for VXA!) but XP is very easy to use, and there are so many scripts from people like Heretic, Rataime, Dubealex, Blizzard, and so many more to use in your game. My game's working great with XP, so it shouldn't be too bad for yours.

 

To be honest, XP isn't that amazing by default, but if you have the 30+ added scripts that I have, Character Maker XP, and Face Maker, it becomes a very powerful engine, maybe even the best of the RPG Makers. It's an engine with lots of potential.

[Bob423 52]

I feel like XP takes too much work to make great. MV already has some of the systems you'll need for a FF6-like game built in and the engine itself is more powerful. If you're having trouble running MV though, I'd use XP. It might take a little more work, but the mapping system and default graphics are much better than VXA or MV and it'll probably be easier to get help with it, at least on this site.

If you pick either XP or MV though, I can give you a big list of the best scripts and tools you might want to use for either for them.

[amazonwalrus 0]

Hell yeah! hit me up. So You guys think i should start spending all my time on XP?  there is no new updates to XP is there? where do i find the sideview battle thing for xp? i bought the new RM2k3 recently. Throw that away right and use XP?

[Polraudio 122]

RM2k3 doesnt have scripts so if you wanted to add stuff like a new menu, crafting system, etc.... you will only be able to do it with very very complex events that could take days to make. With XP you just add a script, get the call script command and done.

 

For XP I use to use this battle system. http://www.gdunlimited.net/scripts/rpg-maker-xp/custom-battle-scripts/sideview-battle-system-tankentai-xp

 

MV i think has a side view battle system. you can switch it from front or side view just like RM2k3. and it also has the ability to have scripts so you can change whatever, and add whatever.

 

Theres also a free weekend on steam for MV if you want to check it out.

[Marked 197]

Hell yeah! hit me up. So You guys think i should start spending all my time on XP?  there is no new updates to XP is there? where do i find the sideview battle thing for xp? i bought the new RM2k3 recently. Throw that away right and use XP?

Only one member recommended XP, lol. I think in your own mind you're learning to XP. I recommend getting the trial of MV and giving it a spin first. 

 

Just make sure you're aware of the dangers of such old systems. There's no updates for XP, and you can probably only get support for the engine here (cause we're so old :P). If you want help with a new script or changing a current script, forget about it. No one is around anymore to help you. 

 

There's a very small number of reasons you would go with an old engine. Forget about feel and difficulty. If XP can acheive something you can't in MV and that something is essential, then you can risk XP. Otherwise, go with the latest and greatest where you can actually talk to plugin authors and get support and, if its important to you, you can port your game to various platforms only in MV. 

[Ardaceus 21]

I really hate being the one that prefers VXAce... and now actually 2k that I have it, over the other RPG Makers. So yeah, my buddies are 2k and VXA.

 

So here we go cause why not, my “small†list of what I like about each RPG Maker (Excluding VX because it's like lv 3 and evolves at lv 30 into VXA)

 

 

2k vs 2k3

 

2k

Once you get the mapping down, the rest is easy. No scripts, nothing too complex, it's just nice if you want to create a retro RPG. It is the most simplistic of the modern RPG Makers, and has a nice charm to it. I like how everything is set up the way it is, like the regular classes are removed, and put on to a single character. Makes it easier to keep track of all a person's things on one page without having to go back and forth between tabs. The RTP is also very good, having good variety for such a small program to create small games, and I absolutely love the music! Another thing I like is the animations in the database, a preview of what you're using such as animations and character sprites. I also like the selection part, like the unique feature of having only some actors able to use items, and the checklist format. These are just some of the features that I could talk about, cause there's also a glossary, customization transitions, terrain battlebacks, it's fairly a good program to say.

 

2k3

Almost like 2k, except has a few improvements, worse things, and additions.

The soundtrack is what I want to point out first, the soundtrack is added onto in this version, and it sounds great!

There are a lot of new RTP items also besides that, though not so much graphically, more or less, it felt like the graphics were demoted a little bit. But to make up, the animations are what makes this stand out from 2k. There are new and better animations, new character stances, and classes devoted to a character, I find the way that this uses classes to be very unique from the rest of the series. But besides that, it's mostly the same. Unless if you want to use that search event function, not much else.

 

2k and 2k3

I would suggest to use one of these if you want to make a really retro looking RPG, with not too much detail. I highly doubt you could make a game as gorgeous looking as FFVI with these makers, but I like using them because I want to make a short little Retro game when I go on a mindfizzle with Wonder's War. Only use them if a really old and short game is what you are trying to go for. As for which one to choose, it really all comes down to if you want side view battles (2k3) or front view battles (2k), I personally like 2k cause I like front view battles the best... as everyone knows. I'm probably going to go off and make a thread to people that use side view, because they are usually all doing something that annoys me every single time.

 

 

XP vs VXA

 

So VXA and XP are both extremely similar when you come down to it, more than most people can think of actually, and it really doesn’t matter about graphics or the database or the mapping or the whatever it is you want to argue about. You can get the same scripts, graphics work for both since they are 32x32, database is pretty similar, system settings work fine, RTP tilesets are good in both, not much to compare except what’s in the next few paragraphs.

VXA has better eventing because you can choose more layers where eventing takes place and more ways to trigger events, XP has 4 animation frame movements for sprites, but neither of those factors matter because you can use clever switches and have a good knowledge of layering to event the same in XP, and it really doesn’t matter that XP has 4 animation frames for walking in a single direction, for VXA’s animation looks so similar to XP’s animation 99% of the time as the only way XP’s 4AFM helps is for when you are not using a character that is walking on two legs or is breathing while standing… which is pretty much almost everything, this only provides a bonus to vehicles and flying animals...That’s it.

XP has 3 layer + event graphing which can help in plenty of situations and infinite tilesets, VXA looks way better in the editor and is far more organized in terms of tilesets. There is not much I can say to this except that XP has no right to be better because of the 3 layer graphics… seriously, you can do the same in VXA with events to overlay or underlay another, and VXA has a counter card that costs 1 blue mana and 2 colorless to the infinite tilesets, as you can just make oversized character spritesheets, and fill that spritesheet with stuff like pillars, chairs, etc, and place the graphic you want in an event. You want proof of how well that works? Just look in the following photo bellow for my proof, guess how many events are in this scene?

 

 

22, and looking nice.

 

 

I’m not saying that VXA has better graphics, but you can get pretty good looking games in

And one of the biggest complaints I see, “XP HAS BETTER GRAPHICS THAN VX ACE!†To which, I say utter bullcrap, since graphics are not a part of the program at all. The RTP is a part of the program, but with some knowledge, you can easily use VXA graphics in XP or  XP graphics in VXA. Speaking of which, the Mack vs Chibi sprite. I already talked in the past about how you should use the Mack sprites in a game that focuses on realism and maturity, and Chibi sprites in a game where the focus is emotion and deep fantasy or humour. But you can use either in either program. But if I have to get personal about this, look through the RTP of both games in the characters section, and you’ll see that it is way easier to make emotion sprites for Chibi, and really hard to do the same with Mack, considering all the RTP has for Mack emotions is laying on the ground, feeling like garbage. Just look at the game on this website called Machine Made: Rebirth, it uses Chibi sprites in XP, and it looks great! And looking at the other side, I can’t really find any games that use Mack in VXA, so I found a website instead that does just that.

 https://grandmadebslittlebits.wordpress.com/tag/rpg-maker-vxace-mack-style-sprites/page/2/

 

To put it plain simple, they are both almost the same thing.

Best advice I can give is to use VXA if you want to use a program that visually looks better in the editor, or use XP if you want to use the program that is socially acceptable by so called

“Pros of game makingâ€.

 

P.S. I also have to mention that the songs in the XP RTP are absolutely terrible. It’s so echoey and makes my ears bleed when I listen to it.

 

 

MV vx VX

 

VX

VX is 10x not as good as VXA.

 

MV

The best engine in my opinion for everything, but I wouldn’t suggest using it for most projects because of two reasons, I’ll first go over what MV does great.

MV has an easy script system, good organization, good starting opportunities, and is the current up to date version.

MV also has an amazing looking RTP, paired with a good soundtrack. Something that this has that it shares with VXA is a character generator, except in MV, it actually looks good, and has much more variety in terms of what you can do for details because of the bigger sprite sizes. VXA has not so good of a generator as it limits you to colours, the faces look absolutely terrible, and there isn’t much in terms of clothing.

MV also has the ability to increase the amount of equipment types, neat.

 

Now looking at the two cons, which mainly involve the size of graphics, and the look of graphics.

I don’t like a 48x48 tile size, it means that your characters are going to have to be pretty large to match the rest of the map size, which can be difficult for using styles like Mack, Chibi, and 2k kinds, since you’ll likely need to double the size of Mack and chibi sprites, while tripling the size of 2k sprites. So it can make things a bit awkward when trying to use an old style of game for MV… which brings me to the next problem.

The characters are great and all, and look really well done, but I kinda don’t like them as much as Mack and Chibi sometimes. It took me a while to figure out what it was that made it different from the rest, and I found a video where it felt as clear as day what the problem was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAvVs-lJ3p0

Those sprites do not match the environment at all. They look very bright compared to what the scenery looks like. I think that would be a place where you would use a Mack Sprite. And looking on the other side… of course… I think Chibi sprites would work better here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTGZWlulzJw

 

But never the less, I think that you can make some great games with this.

 

 

So overall…

All versions have their perks, and I think I can put them into categories based on your needs.

 

2k/2k3 – Use if you want retro, not very detailed.

                2k – Buy this for Front View

                2k3 – Buy this for Side View

 

MV – Use if you want really detailed Games and if you want to make advanced gameplay easily, it also helps you learn javascript which is a big component of computer design.

 

VXA/XP – Use if you want flexibility with the graphics of an RPG, whether it be retro, fancy, or fantasy.

                VXA – If you want a better looking editor, and want an easier time with mapping, but some added judgement by the community.

                XP – If you want to join the cool kids, want a harder time with mapping, but less judgement by the community since many great games were made with it, like ‘To The Moon’.

 

 

P.S. Don’t worry about scripts, the same scripts are available for every version of RPG Maker somewhere at sometime, and 2k and 2k3 have no scripts.

[amazonwalrus 0]

well hell yeah man. You that sums it up. MV lags alot. I have it right now. Spent a few months with VXace. Almost have it mastered. Never used XP or Rm2k3. Soundtracks are least of my concerns. I make my own music. I'm sure MV will have all of its bugs fixed in the future. Delay in sound for instance. I'm not into this generation of graphics. I like old school. FFVI, V, Chrono trigger. So i might be best off with XP. Think I will give it a go and see what happens. Thanks for your input

[Kushito 2]

GG that was detailed, Ardy. Good job.

[Heretic86 25]

I like the visual style and Layers of XP over the rest, including MV.  If they don't come out with another version of RPG Maker that lets you control what layer you put what tiles on, then Im not using it.  And half kaiser sprites suck due to lack of size causing a lack of emotability.

 

Besides, with scripts, XP can look like this:

 

(Animated so give it a sec...)

Edited May 31, 2016 by Heretic86