RPG Maker FES for the Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo 3DS)
User Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): June 27, 2017
- Publisher: NIS America
- Developer: KADOKAWA GAMES
- Genres: Role-Playing
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative
Review Approach:
I've used several versions of the RPG Maker tool. It's nothing new to me. Event editing, map making, music selection, and press play. I'm pitting this against RPG Maker MV, RPG Maker 2003, and RPG Maker PS2, which are all more notable selections in the series. I've had experience with these tools before, and this one is no different.
Ah yes, the beloved RPG Maker series. A very small platform used by those with little experience. It provides easy to use features to those who don't have common knowledge of game development, allowing for some wonderful games to be made by those creative minds. However, for any user of a tool in the series, this should be their last choice.
RPG Maker Fes was released on the Nintendo 3DS worldwide on June 27, 2017. It had the feel of an actual RPG Maker game. The event editor, the character, the... limitations of the platform. It brought an unhealthy amount of limitations to an already limited series of RPG Makers.
Let's start talking specifics.
The Tools
RPG Maker has always provided several events to execute in a specific order to make a game. These range from small switches to battle processors and name inputs. Each of these events is one that commonly occurs in RPG's across the globe, and can make your game feel better and more professional. However, these features are limited more in Fes. I get that it's a console, but looking back on the 3DS's power, they could've de-limited it a ton more. For starters, there is minimal name input processing. You cannot have a user input a name for their character; it must be a pre-decided name for the character. Several of the supremely important event features are disabled, compacted, or entirely missing. I found myself having more trouble with it than I did with the 2003 version of RPG Maker. Using the Database has never been harder. You cannot edit tilesets, monsters and troops are harder to create, fewer terms can be defined, and everything is just generally bad to use. There is no character creator, a surprise to me, because RPG Maker MV was released in 2015, being the second-most advanced RPG Maker to this date, and had an awesome character creator I would have loved on the 3DS.
Map Making
Maps are an awesome thing that make every game what it is. Zelda had its dungeons, Persona 5 had Palaces, but heaven forbid you map-make on here without using a preset. Fes gave little to no instruction for which tiles I could use as ground, walls, or furniture. Getting to these tiles was a whole new level of rocket science itself. The other versions of the game allowed you to place these tiles in three sections: Basic, Large Furniture, and Small Items (commonly reffered to as C, B, and A). Fes gave no help to placing these tiles. Making these maps requires use of the most commonly lost component of the 3DS: The stylus. Good luck making them without it. It's clunky, requires some severe moving around, and the tools themselves are overcomplicated with no explanations. RPG Maker on the PS2 allowed for mapmaking in 3D (although never used again and also primitive as cavemen). It was easier to use than this one's tool, and it had more complex 3D terraforming. This should give you a little perspective of Stylus vs. Dualshock 2. I simply despise the maps in Fes.
Music
I'll admit, there are some songs to pick from. They range from somewhat sad to pretty good. I can't really say more about the music because for one of these RPG Makers, it's a low point. There's no importing your own songs or making some chiptunes because they thought you'd be fine with 12 songs and some DLC presets.
Oh yeah, DLC—
Do not buy the DLC. It adds nothing of significant value to the game. Seriously. Buying this was your first mistake, but the DLC would be your second. No high points about it. It adds extra costumes and some tilesets you will never use. Do not get it.
The Other Features I Need To Explain
Because it's a console, they aren't going to put prebuilt C++ libraries for you to export your games to Windows, so they made the next best thing: Network Sharing. You can publish your games to the Nintendo Network RPG Maker Fes server and have people play them using their copy, or the free tool named RPG Maker Player. I rate this as another high point. Being able to play games made by other people is an ingenious tactic for development. In fact, KADOKAWA reused this feature for RPG Maker MV Switch and PS4. Neat, eh?
Finishing Overview
It's generally unappealing, to say the least. Features were removed, mistakes were made, and problems were left unsolved. This game had untapped potential which would have made it better than other versions, but I still found myself coming back to other versions of the tool. Simply put, it's the low point of the RPG Maker series. It had no super defining features we would see again, except for the Networking. I hope future console releases are even better than this because we need a good, portable RPG Maker.
Let's start talking specifics.
The Tools
RPG Maker has always provided several events to execute in a specific order to make a game. These range from small switches to battle processors and name inputs. Each of these events is one that commonly occurs in RPG's across the globe, and can make your game feel better and more professional. However, these features are limited more in Fes. I get that it's a console, but looking back on the 3DS's power, they could've de-limited it a ton more. For starters, there is minimal name input processing. You cannot have a user input a name for their character; it must be a pre-decided name for the character. Several of the supremely important event features are disabled, compacted, or entirely missing. I found myself having more trouble with it than I did with the 2003 version of RPG Maker. Using the Database has never been harder. You cannot edit tilesets, monsters and troops are harder to create, fewer terms can be defined, and everything is just generally bad to use. There is no character creator, a surprise to me, because RPG Maker MV was released in 2015, being the second-most advanced RPG Maker to this date, and had an awesome character creator I would have loved on the 3DS.
Map Making
Maps are an awesome thing that make every game what it is. Zelda had its dungeons, Persona 5 had Palaces, but heaven forbid you map-make on here without using a preset. Fes gave little to no instruction for which tiles I could use as ground, walls, or furniture. Getting to these tiles was a whole new level of rocket science itself. The other versions of the game allowed you to place these tiles in three sections: Basic, Large Furniture, and Small Items (commonly reffered to as C, B, and A). Fes gave no help to placing these tiles. Making these maps requires use of the most commonly lost component of the 3DS: The stylus. Good luck making them without it. It's clunky, requires some severe moving around, and the tools themselves are overcomplicated with no explanations. RPG Maker on the PS2 allowed for mapmaking in 3D (although never used again and also primitive as cavemen). It was easier to use than this one's tool, and it had more complex 3D terraforming. This should give you a little perspective of Stylus vs. Dualshock 2. I simply despise the maps in Fes.
Music
I'll admit, there are some songs to pick from. They range from somewhat sad to pretty good. I can't really say more about the music because for one of these RPG Makers, it's a low point. There's no importing your own songs or making some chiptunes because they thought you'd be fine with 12 songs and some DLC presets.
Oh yeah, DLC—
Do not buy the DLC. It adds nothing of significant value to the game. Seriously. Buying this was your first mistake, but the DLC would be your second. No high points about it. It adds extra costumes and some tilesets you will never use. Do not get it.
The Other Features I Need To Explain
Because it's a console, they aren't going to put prebuilt C++ libraries for you to export your games to Windows, so they made the next best thing: Network Sharing. You can publish your games to the Nintendo Network RPG Maker Fes server and have people play them using their copy, or the free tool named RPG Maker Player. I rate this as another high point. Being able to play games made by other people is an ingenious tactic for development. In fact, KADOKAWA reused this feature for RPG Maker MV Switch and PS4. Neat, eh?
Finishing Overview
It's generally unappealing, to say the least. Features were removed, mistakes were made, and problems were left unsolved. This game had untapped potential which would have made it better than other versions, but I still found myself coming back to other versions of the tool. Simply put, it's the low point of the RPG Maker series. It had no super defining features we would see again, except for the Networking. I hope future console releases are even better than this because we need a good, portable RPG Maker.
Verdict
What I Liked ...
- Portable adaptation of an outstanding tool
- Share your games online
- Free tool to play other people's games
What I Didn't Like ...
- Bad UI
- Hard to use
- Very strictly limited
- Games end up taking more space than the tool
5
Gameplay
Hard to use at first, but you will pick it up after crying over it and googling a how to use. It's very hard until you memorize more tool locations than questions on the SAT (I'm exaggerating of course.) I generally found no appeal to it. It was, if you didn't get it already, really problematic. They could've done way better.
5
Presentation
I give this a good five. They at least tried to make it look good, but I never once saw an ad or had someone speak about this to me. There's some bad design choices, clunky UI, and some at least mediocre music.
4
Lasting Appeal
I forgot I owned this tool mere days after using it. It doesn't stick in my brain that I have a game I'm making, and I forgot about it quickly. They need to make it better. The appeal dropped when I remembered how simply useless the DLC is.
4.5
out of 10
