Skyborn
With all the big titles around, games like this are way too often overlooked. Sometimes i just feel the need to dwell a bit in the past and search for a classic RPG-Maker game to play. The advantage of these type of games are that they don’t rely on convincing with graphics, but rather on story and gameplay. And this one didn’t disappoint me in the slightest.
What i liked on Skyborn
Story & Characters
Take Claret, a rough-acting but soft-hearted Airship mechanist, on her journey to see the world, reveal the truth of the past and to fight the oppression of the Skyborns (the winged masterrace). The characters that you unlock while advancing are all from different backgrounds and are well appealing and authentic.
– Real player with 36.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best RPG Steampunk Games.
Skyborn is a unique story driven R.P.G. developed by Dancing Dragon Games and published by Degica. The Skyborn are a winged humanoid race that has defeated in war and consequently subjugated humankind. You take on the role of Claret Spencer, the star mechanic of an independent repair shop, who suddenly finds herself pulled into an epic city wide conflict which takes her and her friends on a journey through a tale of magic, metal and mystery as she unravels the secrets of the Skyborn. This is a R.P.G. Maker title which up to this point I had never heard of although I have played many games in the past with this same look and style. For those that don’t know, R.P.G. Maker is a program that allows users to create their very own role playing games. With that said, the gripping story in this title is really well conceived and unfolds over the course of the game in unvoiced dialogue and cutscenes many times alongside gorgeous anime inspired handrawn artwork that is truly a pleasure to the eyes. There’s enough intrigue, action and humor in this wonderful game to keep you consistently playing from start to finish.
– Real player with 33.2 hrs in game
Last Dream
Last Dream is one of the best RPG Maker Games that I have ever played.
The very fact that I spend 190+ hours on it and completed the game at least 10 times, should speak volume.
The interesting thing about this game is the steam achievements. There are 236 steam achievements, which make it necessary to play the games many times to get all the achievements. There are achievements for playing each of the 8 character classes in the game. There are achievements to play the game at all 5 level of difficulties. Furthermore, there are achievements to kill every monster and every boss in the game. To do that you will need to play the game more than once, because different bosses appear towards the end game, based on earlier game decisions that you made at the beginning of the game. Hence to kill all the bosses, you need to finished the game, and then start a Newgame+ game and make DIFFERENT game decisions.
– Real player with 195.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best RPG Indie Games.
Exceeded Expectations
Professional dialogue, inventive paths, compelling story development, haunting music, and challenging puzzles.
White Giant RPG requested that I share my old RPGMakerVX.net review of Last Dream, which I am happy to do. I played their early demos and bought an older version from WhiteGiantRPG.com a year ago. Now, after 100+ hours in the Last Dream world, here is my updated assessment:
A+ Mapping: You made judicious use of surrounding detail everywhere, with beautiful towns (Alfheim), majestic cities (Doria), and pleasant villages (Oakwood). Dry Gulch also feels like the travelers’ caravan that it is. Overall, very scenic and satisfying to explore.
– Real player with 115.5 hrs in game
OH! RPG!
Another RPG maker game review. The result of this RPG maker game is much better than the last RPG maker game that I reviewed.
Usually good RPG maker game on steam that we all love are good story telling ones such as “Mad Father”, “To the Moon” and “A Bird Story” simply because it take really a lot more commitment to recreate JRPG game than simply story telling ones. It’s really near impossible for small indie studio to produce and complete masterful JPRG like FF6. A lot developer like that last RPG maker game I reviewed “Secret Of Magia” lay out the foundation of a good JRPG but they failed follow it though and it ended up like uncompleted high school project.
– Real player with 26.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best RPG Indie Games.
Before we begin: “Now Loading…” wait a minute or two (it happens a LOT)
Okay, this is a PRIME examples of why we need a Neutral Option. There are things it does well, stuff I hadn’t seen before. There’s also me questioning the developer’s choices. I’ll start with the good then the bad.
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS HERE!
~Good thoughts:
Leaning on the Fourth Wall
There were quite a lot of jokes in this game, and I really appreciated the humour. Poking fun at things like outfits in a fantasy setting or the importance of healers in a party really struch a chord for me. It also looked at reactions to the hero’s actions in the wake of their exploits, imaginary or otherwise. Of course, there is a flip side to this but I’ll get to it later.
– Real player with 17.3 hrs in game
Labyronia RPG
Labyrinths and a story that surprises
Enter a realm in which mortals played gods, and ultimately failed.
Graphics: Ø The graphics aren’t surprising, and they are standard - but they are even in their “enlarged” state not ugly and not unsightly.
Sound: Ø Quite standard fare for a RPGMaker game. Nothing outstanding, but also nothing too annoying.
Playability: + The game has some traps laid out, but those actually make the game work perfect in all other areas. The traps are, spots were a low level character can get killed too easily… so take care, and play through the game. I encountered no bugs… some minor typos and a game that ran smoothly and without even once crashing - and I tried hard to get it crashing… No chance at this. You can’t save everywhere in the game which actually isn’t bad at all. And encounters are often visible on the maps (only not on the world map).
– Real player with 39.3 hrs in game
-Quick Review-
Labyronia RPG was developed by Labyrinthine and released in 2015. As it’s name suggests: Labyronia is an RPG. being an RPG there are many common themes that you experience in this genre of games: Emphasis on story, monster grinding, and gear juggling.
-Detailed breakdown review-
Story: You play as Arres, a particularly gifted Mage and student of Ibiz, you start your quest in an isolated shanty, and very little explanation on what to do. Like many classic RPG’s you don’t start out knowing what your goal is, you need to systematically talk to everyone and eventually come across the objective.
– Real player with 26.9 hrs in game
Aveyond 3-1: Lord of Twilight
Overall, Aveyond LoT was the kind of rpg that I have wanted for a while. The storyline was good enough to keep me interested (most of the time), I wasn’t spending a lot of time level grinding, and I liked the graphics. The world, and especially towns, were big enough to really feel like places, not just points you go to buy stuff and rest.
I have mixed feelings about the beginning sequence, mostly because I like my text in short snippets rather than full dialogue. The plot twist that sets up the rest of the game is enjoyable. The amount of walking soon to follow is mind-numbing. The puzzles are good, and I enjoyed gaining new abilities that opened areas of the game for exploration.
– Real player with 26.9 hrs in game
Just finished part 1 of this series and boy am I drowsy…
Aveyond has a lot of things going for it with some really pleasant sound design, excellent graphics (for a 16-bit style RPG) and fairly interesting characters with some decently writen parts. It really does look nice and as far as I can tell it’s all-original. The sound is especially good with some really well done environment ambience and some really memorable tunes. However, the gameplay itself just really turned me away from continuing this series. And by the way, I found out just now that it was a series. Never noticed the part of the description clearly noting this. My fault I guess.
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
Gladiator Trainer
Gladiator Trainer is a nice and fairly pleasant management game. It’s quite easy to learn and master, hence it’s quickly enjoyable.
This game is very similar to Crown Champion : Legends of the Arena from the same dev' team (Pilgrim Adventures), except for a couple of details. The differences between these 2 games are mainly related to the storyline (slightly different stories), but not quite concerning the gameplay. As a matter of fact both games share the same gameplay and exploit the same basic idea.
– Real player with 41.5 hrs in game
Gladiator Trainer
For the RPG players who are looking for a low cost entertaining game who like “building”:
The Positive:
Worth the low cost. ($2.00… I believe I had it cheaper when it was on sale.)
The random scenario occurrences are interesting and break the monotony of the pattern of battle and building.
“Real RPG aspect”: The estate development makes you the “driving character”.
On the fence:
You do not control what your fighter does. They fight how they want. You try to equip them the best you can.
– Real player with 29.6 hrs in game
3 Stars of Destiny
If you like old school style pixel graphic types of RPGs… you’ll probably enjoy this game. It’s an okay game but to be honest it barely makes my recommended list. I do love a good RPG especially on that can tell a good story and give me a sense of exploration and adventure this one just falls short of that.
Graphic wise it’s okay. The graphics are just very typical for an RPG Maker game there’s not a lot of uniqueness to the sprites and the character portraits are only so so. They aren’t bad they just don’t really stand out. The music and sounds are pretty decent but some of it is too repetitive and I have to play without sound. It’s not that different than other similar RPGs in terms of graphics and sounds.
– Real player with 105.8 hrs in game
3 Stars of Destiny is, all in all, a good game.
The game serves as a prequel to Laxius Power (freeware RPG games) and Laxius Force (check aldorlea for more info). This may or may not make the experience better for you, although I played this game before any of the others, and I loved it, so it’s whatever.
The game is a pretty standard fantasy game. The story is okay, honestly even though I absolutely adore the game, the story isn’t insane. It wasn’t meant to be insane either. This game was meant to be about how the main characters meet up, and that’s what the game showed off and did well.
– Real player with 104.8 hrs in game
Victim of Xen
Victim of Xen is a turn based RPG. The main character, Will, gets changed into a woman and sets out on a journey to find the witch, Xen, that did this to him to return his body. Along the way he teams up with some unlikely characters who are all for helping her… er… him on his quest.
Gameplay is pretty standard for the genre. Go to different towns, caves, castles, and towers. Talk to the townsfolk. Fight enemies in random encounters and some set boss battles. Use turn based combat, use healing and regenerative items, cast spells for attacks and buffs, defend, gain experience and gold, learn new abilities, get the best gear you can get. In a word: Adventure. If you’ve played other traditional RPGs, you’ll get this one. It’s nice in that it’s not too complex. The dialogue is a bit bland sometimes, or just not as funny as you might want, but it does a good job of establishing who characters are and getting you attached to them as a player. So that’s cool. It’s simple. Nothing too complex to worry about here. The story is easy enough to follow, fighting is boiled down to easy commands, and stats are easy enough to manage. There are even a handful of sidequests you can do to help gain some extra coin and experience without it all coming down to grinding. I like it. It has a somewhat retro, simple feeling that I enjoy in RPGs.
– Real player with 21.7 hrs in game
Victim of Xen, a interesting story, having played a few hours into the game, I can say that those who enjoy Final Fantasy 7 repetative grinding and side quests to earn money will get their money’s worth, as for myself, I somewhat regret buying it, a demo would have been good.
Also a minor spoiler, the game is very easy to break its pacing by doing the job in Old Dock’s by playing the game in windowed mode, moving it to a corner, putting some 20+ minute video on youtube, and doing the get wood, use on bench combo,
– Real player with 11.3 hrs in game
The Book of Legends
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Good things:
The game is a standard JRPG with turn based fights. The good thing is that world is quite open and you can get to many places and dungeons. There is loot hidden not only in chests but also in many items like tree or rock or pretty much anything so you have to constantly press space bar to not miss any loot. The good thing is that the game can be played with only a keyboard or with only a mouse so you can play it the way that is more comfortable for you. There are many characters both humans and animals and some others that can join your party so it is wise to look everywhere and talk to everyone.
– Real player with 84.2 hrs in game
I’m going to do a list of pro’s and con’s, which I normally don’t do, but, with this game, I think it would just be easier this way.
PRO’S
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I personally enjoyed the humour, it’s very similar to my style, dry and a bit corny.
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RPGMaker! I absolutely LOVE this engine! Some of my best childhood memories are of playing RPGMaker 2003 games in the mid-2000s that were free fan productions based upon LEGO play-themes. While we’re on the subject, a big shout-out to my favourite RPGMaker dev, Valrahk! If it wasn’t for you, I may not have appreciated the classics that RPGMaker is based upon, nor JRPGs and anime as an art-style in general. Thank you so very, very much!
– Real player with 53.5 hrs in game
DarkEnd
I own about 300 games, of which 30+ of them are RPG Maker games. I happen to like the RPG Maker genre.
DarkEnd is among the very best RPG Maker games that I have played.
I spend more than 100+ hours playing this game, and enjoyed it tremendously, and that is why I decide to write a review of DarkEnd to share my experiences.
In DarkEnd you can play as one of 4 different Primary Characters, and each of these 4 character has a very unique and intriguing storyline. You can also select a Secondary Character from the remaining 3 characters. The storyline is quite complex and convoluted and you normally would not know who is good or bad until the very end. Each of the character has their own unique reasons to go into the DarkEnd, and the outcome is also different and unique. Playing this game is like reading a detective novel for me, and each stage of the game give me a better glimpse of the story.
– Real player with 116.9 hrs in game
First off, i wanted to try out this game to see how it is. Sadly, i did not find the game that good. First off, i will post my pro’s for this game:
ONE OTHER NOTE: This is a rpg-maker game. These don’t bother me, but if they bother you, the reader, feel free to pass on this game. Graphic style also does not bother me. Also, i was not paid to make an review. I don’t believe in that method either. Even if i was given a free one, i would use my unbiased review to either give it positive or negative.
– Real player with 76.4 hrs in game