RPG Maker Fes Review – Create Your Own RPG on Nintendo 3DS

<p>I&&num;8217&semi;ve used a few game design software programs in the past&period; Usually&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s a steep learning curve&comma; and it takes a while to build your first game&period; With the <em>RPG Maker Fes<&sol;em>&comma; I made my first map&comma; characters&comma; and monsters within an hour&period; The<em> RPG Maker <&sol;em>series is a user-friendly program that&&num;8217&semi;s been around for years&period; Until now&comma; the software was only available to American consumers on Playstation consoles or PC&period; <em>RPG Maker Fes<&sol;em> brings RPG design to the handheld platform&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s only available on Nintendo 3DS and plans to include a unique&comma; online game building community&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You start by designing your game&&num;8217&semi;s map&period; You can create your own from scratch or choose a pre-made template&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s that easy&period; When you select your map type&comma; you assign it a nickname&period; You can then select one of more than 50 background songs to play while your characters move across the screen&period; You can add detail to your map by selecting dirt paths&comma; stone paths&comma; buildings&comma; statues&comma; trees&comma; and more from the map creation menu&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126794" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126794" style&equals;"width&colon; 400px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-126794" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;18014708&sol;2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"RPG Maker Fes&comma; NIS America Inc" width&equals;"400" height&equals;"240" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126794" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">RPG Maker Fes&comma; NIS America Inc<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Once you have created a map&comma; you can add events at specific locations&period; Events include things your character can interact with&comma; like treasure chests&comma; stairs&comma; shops&comma; save points&comma; doors&comma; and more&period; For example&comma; when adding a treasure chest event to a map&comma; you can choose for it to contain gold or an item&period; The software allows you to select when the treasure chest event happens&period; Maybe you want the treasure chest to award gold when the character touches it&period; Maybe you&&num;8217&semi;d prefer they investigate it first&period; For advanced users&comma; you can edit the individual steps of an event&period; Maybe the treasure chest graphic switches from open to closed&comma; but as a surprise fourth step&comma; it changes into a boulder&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Database menu allows you to customize almost every aspect of your game&colon; characters&comma; monsters&comma; skills&comma; professions&comma; weapons&comma; and more&period; Like the map and events&comma; you can create these from scratch or pick from samples the game provides for you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126795" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126795" style&equals;"width&colon; 320px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-126795" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;18014818&sol;20&period;jpg" alt&equals;"RPG Maker Fes&comma; NIS America Inc" width&equals;"320" height&equals;"240" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126795" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">RPG Maker Fes&comma; NIS America Inc<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>You can design your own characters or choose from pre-made samples&period; When making your protagonist&comma; you can name him&comma; give him a nickname and profession&comma; choose a close-up and walking graphic&comma; and type a short description&period; From there&comma; you can get more specific about his starting level and how quickly he levels up&period; Standard RPG stats like HP&comma; MP&comma; STR&comma; DEF&comma; MAG&comma; INT&comma; and SPD can be set at this time&period; You can also choose his starting equipment&comma; filling up to four item slots with pre-made or custom items&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Monsters are created in a similar fashion&comma; but when creating a monster&comma; there are several more screens of customizable content&period; You can assign XP and gold rewards to monsters&period; Battle settings allow you to set behaviors and conditions when your character encounters the monster in the wild&period; You can select up to four different items that the monster might drop after a battle&comma; and the chance at which the items drop&period; If a character has a skill like Earthquake&comma; you can choose for this skill to be ineffective against certain creatures&period; Finally&comma; you can select monster elements &lpar;from a pre-programmed element wheel&rpar; and negated statuses&period; There are plenty of variables for a handheld game creation program&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126796" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126796" style&equals;"width&colon; 320px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-126796" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;18014837&sol;8&period;jpg" alt&equals;"RPG Maker Fes&comma; NIS America Inc" width&equals;"320" height&equals;"240" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126796" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">RPG Maker Fes&comma; NIS America Inc<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>RPG Maker Fes<&sol;em> is offering a free <em>RPG Maker Player <&sol;em>app at the time the full game releases&period; Anyone can download the app from the Nintendo eShop for free&comma; even if they don&&num;8217&semi;t own <em>RPG Maker Fes&period; <&sol;em>They&&num;8217&semi;ll be able to download games that peers have made&comma; creating a unique community between creators and players&period; Currently&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t believe there is enough variation in available graphics to really set different peer-made games apart&period; Hopefully&comma; the developers will allow players to purchase or upload additional graphic sets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A basic text tutorial can be accessed from the digital manual on the home screen of your Nintendo 3DS&period; Although programming knowledge isn&&num;8217&semi;t needed to create a game with <em>RPG Maker Fes&comma;<&sol;em> this information is helpful for complete beginners&period; The tutorial doesn&&num;8217&semi;t go into much detail about the more complex programming options available&comma; but it walks you through the steps needed to get your first game up and running&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; <em>RPG Maker Fes <&sol;em>is a simple&comma; well-organized piece of game-creation software&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s exciting to have something like this available on a portable&comma; handheld platform&period; The developer could improve the software by offering a more in-depth tutorial&comma; showing new users how to best utilize the more complex options available&period; However&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s easy enough to use that this isn&&num;8217&semi;t a deal-breaker&period; Thanks to this software&comma; we can expect to see lots of new RPG&&num;8217&semi;s on the Nintendo 3DS soon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A 3DS review copy of <em>RPG Maker Fes<&sol;em> was provided by NIS America&comma; Inc for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;