RPG maker, one of the more maligned game making tools out there (although these days I think GameGuru and Unity might have a worse reputation). And I get why people dislike RPG-maker so much, most of the games that get released that use the engine tend to be rather craptacular. But there's been a few good ones.
To the Moon, and its sequel, Finding Paradise, were both pretty good, although they were more walking sims than RPGs. Still good games.
Clandestinity of Elsie was surprisingly good, but I feel like this was a case where it was despite the engine, not because of it.
Skyborn was a pretty good "regular" JRPG, and I've heard that Echoes of Aetheria (by the same devs) is supposed to be even better.

Anyway, instead of just writing bump, please tell us about an RPG maker game you've enjoyed
(Cthulhu saves the World was by the way not made in RPG maker!)
And here are the giveaways

5 years ago

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8-Bit Adventures: The Forgotten Journey Remastered Edition is pretty good.
Penny Arcade 3 (4 sucks though)

The Space Pilgrim series of course.

5 years ago
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Oh yeah, space pilgrim was a lot better than I expected it to be.

5 years ago
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In my humble opinion Rakuen is a nice one

5 years ago
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Well, not sure if "enjoyed" is the right word, but I finished The Divine Paradox. I only started playing it because I collect traffic cone screenshots in games -- but since the cones were only in the last, modern day act of the time-travelling story, I told myself "well, I got all the way here, I might as well finish it". :-)

5 years ago
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That's a very specific thing to collect screenshots of :P

5 years ago
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Well, they're everywhere. :-) So far, I have cones from 369 games in my album, and about 250 more queued for upload.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1201427366580138&type=1&l=7788caa531

5 years ago*
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Stray Cat Crossing
Space Pilgrim games (they aren't RPGs, but 1-2 hour long episodes of a point and click adventure story. No repetitive fight, grinding for hours, yaay)

5 years ago
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Oh, I forgot about that one. It's one I've played and enjoyed!

5 years ago
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Well i can't say i'm a big fan of RPGmaker games but i sure enjoyed Greyfox and Legend of Mysteria.

5 years ago
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Project "Fire" is not bad and I liked the story.

5 years ago
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Hero and Daughter+

If you don't want to spend money, you can get the (legally) free version of the game here, which is slightly outdated compared to the Steam version, but still contains 95% of the content of the game. I spend 110+ hours on the free version before buying the game Steam at full price to support the author.

5 years ago
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How about I tell you about not one, but like 72 good RM games:

Some free ones:

Eternal Senia Surprisingly competent Action / RPG.

Fausts Alptraum Horror / Adventure game visibly influenced by classics such as Ib or The Witch's House (both free, both great).

Mothlight Weird setting, pretty similar to OFF (another great free RM classic).

I could mention many more free RM games that are not on Steam, but if I start to do this I'll probably still be typing this comment tomorrow.

Some not-free ones:

Ara Fell One of the rare Final Fantasy clones done right.

A Bird Story This is from Kan Gao, To the Moon's dev, it's not as good, but it's still good.

Cherry Tree High Comedy Club Anime comedy VN, it doesn't look like it, but it was made with RM.

City of Chains Decent SF RPG with some Deus Ex- like skills that affect your progression.

Hello Charlotte Very disturbing dystopian game (it's pretty much trigger warning land, be wary), this is the second episode, there's a third one on Steam and the first one is free (not as good as the other 2 though).

Hylics It was made with RM and probably huge amounts of LSD, kinda similar to Space Funeral in its atmosphere.

LISA A strange but very good mix of Earthbound and Fallout, both silly and depressing.

OneShot If you only play one game from my list PLAY THIS ONE. It's an absolute masterpiece, can't really say why without spoiling it but the characters will really grow on you.

Pale Echoes Standard JRPG with a twist, you have to sacrifice characters to progress. Not mindblowing but fun for the few hours it lasts.

Remnants of Isolations This is more a proof of concept than a real RPG, but you can go with worse ways to spend a couple of hours.

Stray Cat Crossing Short horror game with amazing pixel art.

The Witches' Tea Party Cute adventure game in a storybook style (it can get spooky sometimes, but it's not full-on horror). The prequel, Trick & Treat, is free.

Haven't played those yet, but they're supposed to be good:

Rakuen AFAIK it's one of these feelstrains games.

Where They Cremate The Roadkill Deranged collage weirdfest, sequel to Middens.

5 years ago*
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Nice! Thanks for taking the time on this list. I'm not the OP but I think I'll add a lot of these to my wishlist :P
I agree with the ones I have played. You are spot on with Oneshot! Lisa, Rakuen, and Ara Fell are also favorites of mine.

5 years ago*
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Thank you too for taking the time to read all this :) From your later post in this thread I see that I also forgot to mention 199x. It was a bit rough and the mapping was terrible, but it made up for it with an interesting take on the characters.

5 years ago
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I agree. It had many issues but I enjoyed that the devs tried something different, and also it didn't overstay it's welcome.

5 years ago
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The Witches' Tea Party was surprisingly nice, it deserves more recognition.

5 years ago
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Hey, I remember you from the game's forums :D Thanks again for giving me those infos about the character profiles.

5 years ago
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That is quite the list; very impressive work!

5 years ago
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Thanks, I hope it will inspire someone to play one of these games :)

5 years ago
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I had no idea Cherry Tree High Comedy Club (and I presume the sequel) was made with RPGMaker.

I played Trick & Treat and it was really cute! It was a nice free romp and the characters were endearing.

5 years ago
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Cherry Tree High's sequel is made with RM too, yes. If you liked Trick & Treat I highly recommed The Witches' Tea Party, the characters are more developed and the game feels way more polished (shameless self-advertizing, I wrote one of the few guides for this game).

5 years ago
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Dang, you covered almost everything I was going to mention. I especially loved Hello Charlotte and OneShot, those both made me way more emotional than I was expecting.

Some other stuff:

Actual Sunlight Self-indulgent but well-written game about depression.

Corpse Party Originally made in RPG Maker, now remade dozens of times. Still a great game with amazing voice acting. (Don't buy the version on Steam, though, get the Back to School Edition.)

Always Sometimes Monsters Decent morality simulator.

Haven't played these, but I've heard good things:

LiEat Strikes me as very cute and very anime.

World's Dawn Stardew Valley-alike.

Corinne Cross's Dead and Breakfast Cute game where you run a haunted inn.

5 years ago*
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How could I forget Always Sometimes Monsters, it was great (I didn't enjoy Actual Sunlight though, the main character came off as very unlikeable :/). I also forgot to mention Yume Nikki even though it's both excellent and popular :x

(LiEat was made with WOLFRPG, it's not the same engine although it's very similar. The LiEat light novel was also a nice read.)

5 years ago
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That's quite a list! Stray Cat Crossing was really nice, i forgot to mention it above, and I plan to play LISA soon.

5 years ago
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The Albino Hunter
Aveyond 3-1, 3-2 (have not played the rest in the series yet)
Legionwood 2: Rise of the Eternal's Realm
Lilly and Sasha: Curse of the Immortals
Lilly and Sasha: Guardian Angels
Lilly and Sasha: Nexus of Souls
A Long Road Home
Stargazer
All of the above are favourites of mine. Quite like the rpg maker games and think the story is what shines through with the better ones.

5 years ago
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I've heard a lot of good about the Lilly and Sasha series. I should give it a try at some point.

5 years ago
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They were fun little games. Am a bit hazy on the details now but I think the characters were fleshed out a little better than some games and there was thought in the conversations between the characters.
Edit: and thanks for hinting we should name some favourites...my wishlist must be about 20 games fatter now just from this discussion :)

5 years ago*
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If I can consider this site to be reliable I have only 3 games made in RPG maker?

I really liked To The Moon. The Bird Story was meh. And I couldn't play in Stargazer, this game felt really bad. So I couldn't play for longer than 1st level.

5 years ago
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It uses tags from Steam, so it's not really reliable. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is incorrectly tagged, for example.

5 years ago
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I lol'd at the GA descriptions. Nice stuff.

I'd link RPG Maker games I enjoyed, assuming there are any, but I don't even know how to tell whether a game is made in RPG Maker... Won't be able to deliver; sorry about that.

Edit: thanks to Stefanig, I checked my RPG Maker games and... uh... I haven't played all of them, but "meh" sounds like an appropriate word for most? I seem to recall One Way Heroics being okay, though.

5 years ago*
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This site is very helpful if you ever need to tell what genre a game is. Just click on the tag you want to search and it'll tell you which games you have that fit the description.

5 years ago
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Oh, nice suggestion! Thank you! :D (Edited my original post.)

5 years ago
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My first experience with RPG Maker games were some horror ones, actually. Among the first ones I played were these:

The Witch's House
Mad Father
Corpse Party
The Crooked Man (Made with a different, but similar, software as RPG Maker)
Ib

Well, I've played a lot more aside from horror, but they've been mentioned already. Here are some picks if you want spoops. :D

5 years ago
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Space Pilgrim is a nice series of point-and-click adventure games made in RPG Maker with a good Sci-Fi story. I liked the first two episodes a lot (I'm about to finish the second one and then move on to the 3rd and the 4th).

Links:

5 years ago
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The 2nd episode of the sequel was released yestarday. Space Pilgrim Academy.

Just metioning in case you haven't noticed that there is also part 5 and 6. :)

5 years ago
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Thanks for mentioning it! I was vaguely aware of the existence of a sequel but haven't had a chance to check it out yet.

5 years ago
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OneShot is pretty nice too. Cute 4th-wall breaking adventure game.

5 years ago
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I wish I had not missed the Chrono.gg sale for that one, several people have recommended it!

5 years ago
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I only played a few RPG-maker games... Worth mentioning:

  • Skyborn, as you said, was quite good.
  • To the Moon is almost a "novel", but the story was great.
  • Breath of Death VII was quite funny -- wait, was it RPG Maker made?
5 years ago
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Breath of Death 7 and its cousin Cthulhu Saves The World weren't made in RPG Maker.

5 years ago
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I enjoyed Storm of Spears. A bit on the easy side though.

5 years ago
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Out of the few RPGmaker games I have played I liked Skyborn the best. Millennium was decent enough to make me buy the sequels, though I never got to finish it because I started playing other games and put it aside.

5 years ago
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I got banned by one of the devs of one of those RPG maker basic-as-all-hell games because I criticized their place on the Steam Store. On their Steam forums I mean. One of my funny recollections.

Of course, that was slightly before Steam was infested with unfinished student projects.

5 years ago
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I liked Doom & Destiny, I played the free version on tablet.
The 2nd one is also free, but could not get into that one.

5 years ago
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D&D1 was really good!!!! XD

5 years ago
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I've enjoyed a lot of good rpg-maker games. To bad so many people are lazy with the tools because there is also a lot of genuine creativity based off rpg-makers simplicity. Here are some I enjoy.

  1. Oneshot: This is one of the most creative rpg-maker games I've ever seen. I don't want to say much about it because its much better played with little to no info. It has memorable characters, a good story, unique gameplay mechanics, and interesting worlds.
  2. LISA: Lisa mixes dark comedy and drama perfectly to demonstrate a wonderful and somewhat haunting story. It also has interesting choices and gameplay mechanics.
  3. Rakuen: A tear-jerking adorable story about a hospitalized boy and his mom who travel to a storybook world while helping other patience along the way. This one also has really good characters and it's incredibly sweet the whole way.
  4. To The Moon:You've already mentioned this one. I haven't played the sequel yet but I'm happy that its good!
  5. Ara Fell: A long-ish 16-bit rpg. This one felt very nostalgic and I think it's a hidden gem.
  6. The Crooked Man/Mad Father/The Witches House/IB: I grouped these together because these are some of the many great horror rpg-maker games you can find online. I think some are on steam but I've played them all free a long time ago. The classic horror ones rarely disappoint imo.
  7. Last Word:This one needs a better tutorial, but once you figure it out it's a lot of fun. The game takes place in a world where having the last word in an argument means power over the other person. So the combat is a sort of rock/paper/scissors system where you battle with your words. The entire game takes place in one building so It’s gameplay is essentially reading dialogue and battling.
  8. Always Sometimes Monsters: This one is a hit or miss with people. Its story heavy with a lot of choices mixed in. The story isn't amazing though and the ending disappointed a lot of people. I still enjoyed this one though and it's worth a try if you have it.
  9. Stray Cat Crossing: a short pixelated horror game filled with puzzles and mystery. It gets a little repetitive towards the end but still a very good game.
  10. Alicemare: (corrected: NOT made by rpg-maker). By the same creators of LiEat. For some reason this game nor LiEat really connected with me. I likes this one a little bit better though. It's not really about Alice in Wonderlands. Instead it uses themes from many different fairy tales. The characters are shallow but it has a creepy vibe and a somewhat mysterious story.
  11. The Deed: In The Deed, you are trying to get away with murdering your sadistic sister so you'll get the family enheritance. The game only lasts minutes, but the fun part is the amount of replayability. You have to choose the right weapon, plant the right evidence, and answer the interview questions correctly. Try different combinations each time and see what happens.
  12. 199x: A two hour game where you (the player) are a character in the game and the main protagonist Clara speaks to you. It's a neat little game that has a generic but likable story and characters.
5 years ago*
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I'll be that guy and say that Alicemare wasn't made in RPG Maker.

created by △○□× (Miwashiba) using the WOLF RPG Editor.

Which is the same engine as One Way Heroics.

5 years ago
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ah thank you. It had an incorrect rpg-maker tag on it. I appreciate you being that guy :P

5 years ago
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Hey I thought no one was going to mention always sometimes monsters. Ironic that a lot of the best RPG maker games are those which aren't RPGs.

5 years ago
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The Crooked Man/Mad Father/The Witches House/IB: I grouped these together because these are some of the many great horror rpg-maker games you can find online. I think some are on steam but I've played them all free a long time ago. The classic horror ones rarely disappoint imo.

RPG Maker has carved out this niche for itself with story-focused, cutesy-creepy horror, which I really love. I like spooky things, but I can't stand photorealistic blood and guts. RM horror games tend to focus on characterization and good writing, plus they also seem to have a much higher chance of a decently happy ending than mainstream horror. (I get why some people feel like bittersweet/happy endings ruin horror stories, but I like having this sense that the characters suffered through all that trauma for a reason.)

5 years ago
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I agree! I'm a wimp when it comes to horror games so I like that I can play them but still feel creeped out.

they also seem to have a much higher chance of a decently happy ending than mainstream horror. (I get why some people feel like bittersweet/happy endings ruin horror stories, but I like having this sense that the characters suffered through all that trauma for a reason.)

I feel the same. I can never immerse myself fully in horror games or movies because I expect it to usually have a weak story or kill everyone off in the end.

5 years ago
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I should try The Deed, I've got it on steam and if it's that short, it's not much of a time investment.

5 years ago
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It's about 20 minutes for your first playthrough.
You should save after you introduce yourself to everyone, so that you can reload the game multiple times and try different combinations. It's probably about 1-2 hours to try everything.

5 years ago
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OH! RPG! It has mixed reviews but I won it here on SG and liked it quite a bit, the story is split in episodes which you complete as different character's perspectives to obtain scores that unlock the next episode, the puzzles feel very rpg like and the fights can go from impossible to very doable when you change your strategy after retrying, the story is nice and the maps are well done imho. :)

5 years ago
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Heroes of Legionwood is a nice series.

5 years ago
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Eternal Senia, plus it's free. Very nice game, you can read my review on Steam.

5 years ago
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All the yes for Eternal Senia .
That game was so good .

The endings tho ....

5 years ago
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Skyborn is one of my favorite RPGMaker games .
Sadly the follow up game was kinda disappointing :/

5 years ago
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To The Moon is the best RPG Maker for me, but it's not a RPG as you said. :)

5 years ago
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