First Impressions with RPG Maker MV

I have been using RPG Maker VX Ace since 2014 and made quite a few games with it. Back in 2016, I briefly tried out RPG Maker MV. My takeaway from it is that it was a laggy mess. As it was around the same time I noticed that technology was getting worse, I wrote it off as being an inferior version of VX Ace.

Earlier this month, I wanted to make a game prototype where the player can move using the mouse, RuneScape-style. By default, such function is not available in RPG Maker VX Ace. I did find a script that technically allow to do this, but the results were too janky to my liking. It also did not work while in fullscreen mode which made this option not viable at all.

I remembered that the newer versions of RPG Maker have such a function built in. As such, I tried RPG Maker MZ (different thing from MV). To my surprise, the program seemed quite decent. I, however realized that this tool can only generate 64 bits game. Knowing that MV produces 32 bits game, I decided to switch over to that engine. 32 bits games are pretty much guaranteed to work on every computer and I see no reason for a RPG Maker game to be 64 bits, hence my preference.

As such, I tried RPG Maker MV. The experience is pretty much identical to RPG Maker MZ. That being said, my memory was not lying when I recalled that engine has being laggy. After some investigation, I concluded that the engine struggle to load things in when it starts. This however goes away after a few seconds. I encountered a similar problem when I made some custom snow for Dymunia. As such, I putted an "artificial" loading screen and this problem was resolved.

The only other problem the engine got is that the music takes a few seconds to start playing. I have not fully investigated this yet, but I presume there is a way to fix it due to how flexible the engine is.

One thing that I appreciate is that the interface is nearly identical to RPG Maker VX Ace. Everything is where I expected it to be. Some terms used are different though, but I assume this is an issue specific to the French interface. Regardless, it is still pretty easy to figure what things do.

The best features of MV are the ability to change the game's resolution and the aforementioned click function. This is certainly a breath of fresh air compared to VX Ace.

Overall, my first true impression with MV is that it seems like a very solid game engine. The fact this tool can produce games that can work on Windows XP, Android and MacOS is crazy. This one of the rare instances where I can feel positive technological/innovative progress.

In retrospect, RPG Maker MZ (which was released after MV) seems like a downgrade. The lack of 32 bits support and the fact it uses some weird proprietary format for animations leave me scratching my head. I looked up what MZ added and the only things that stood out to me was the improved performance and more default assets. So yeah, I'll stick with MV for now.

Written by manpaint on 25 February 2025.