Nearly all the assets in this game, the character sprites and portraits, the enemy and area art, the menus, even the "nameless shade" text are all default assets from RPGMaker.
I had a hunch it was an asset flip, but I'm not familiar enough with RPGMaker to make that call... yet. Pretty sure there'll be plenty more games like this in the future. Thanks for clarifying!
@@Graeldon well, not an asset flip per se, as they have these for that specific reason in their base kit. There are some rather good rpg maker games that have a majority of their tiles from rpgmaker itself, but it's still an incredibly lazily done game. Oh and controller support is either directly due to rpgmaker or they have found a dll online that basically just enables proper support and maps the keys properly.
@@BewegteBilderrahmen Yeah, a few other commenters mentioned that! There's likely a good way to use the basic assets, and a bad way - this is definitely the bad way
This is as pure an RPGmaker asset flip as you can get. Every point of competence of the game is owed to RPGmaker's stuff rather than anything the "developers" actually did.
Sadly I wasn't familiar enough with the RPGMaker assets to spot this, or at least to confidently say it in the review. I definitely had a hunch while I was playing that most, if not all of the assets were pre-made and not original designs
@@mlpfanboy1701 Yeah but absoutely not the one this was clearly made on. I know for a fact that it is entirely possible to import any new created assets you want for anything in the game
@@Starfloofle if you wanna see something good made in RPGMaker I can't recommend Super Lesbian Animal RPG enough, it looks good, has a wonderful story and it actually has some interesting mechanics
I agree that it shouldn't have been sold for money, but assuming it's someone's first RPG Maker game is being too kind. Considering the "DLC" on offer, I'm much more inclined to call it a straight up asset flip. They threw it together in an afternoon to try to make a quick buck.
Shit, my first RPG maker project was better than this. And I didn't even finish making it. I put... far too much effort into event triggers for a literal hole in the ground you could invest gold into to expand with more and more shops and amenities.
Also, the reason the final boss reappeared is that there are two ways to remove an interactive element (event) from the map in RPG Mekr. The first is using the "Erase event" command, which removes the event from the map but will respawn it if the map is reloaded (ie. you leave and come back again) The second is using a variable and setting up the event so that it will deactivate when that variable has a certain value. Basically creating a "You beat the boss" variable and then making it so that the boss won't appear anymore if that variable is turned on. It's pretty much the most basic thing you can do in RPG Maker which isn't a basic function of the program that you can access with a single click, and the author didn't even do that.
Would have been better to have a progress variable. Have NPCs appear/Disappear as you increase it, so you could have different stocks in the shop as you could set it so no 2 versions of the shopkeep would appear on the value. Later dungeons could be unlocked via beating mini boss's that increase the value of the progress variable. I havent used RPGMaker in ages but I remember it not being that hard.
You're better off using a switch (or in this case, a self-switch) rather than a variable. Switches are boolene variables (on/off) that appear to be stored in arrays based on how the game organizes them.
TBH a system where you have both a character and a secondary sheet that determines certain magics or specific skills or something that grows from the plot entirely independent of levels and EXP would be really cool but why would we expect that from an asset flip
I love the idea of the final boss just hanging out in the hub town, there's so much potential in that idea. Like, say, they don't take you seriously and give you a Gruntilda-style taunt every time you come back to town. And the boss' motivations could be something interesting as well, like being your lost dad and secretly wanting you to succeed, or the boss is cursed with immortality and just wants sweet oblivion after watching everything they loved crumble over the centuries, and has started the bootcamp hoping to train a warrior strong enough to finally end their existence.
Sounds like you've got a game idea to work on! I do like games that let you challenge the final boss at any time, essentially letting you determine how difficult the fight will be based on how prepared you are. Chrono Trigger and Breath of the Wild are two games that come to mind that do this, but I'm sure there are others.
Imagine the boss is just in the bar of the town drinking some coffe and reading while you are getting stronger to fight him He might not even be a villain but just some really strong hero wanting to retire and training the new generation to make sure the world will be in good hands after he is gone
This happens in a game, but I forget which game. I think it's in one of the Fable games, or maybe Two Worlds or Too Human, there are speedruns of it where they get good equipment and immediately destroy the final boss in the first town. I think it was meant to be a big twist and you're supposed to do it at the end of the game after solving the mystery, I've never played it.
Completely unintentional! I thought the settings menu might be similar to Unity in that it isn't pre-set... apparently that's not the case. Now I know for when I'm reviewing RPGMaker games in the future, and I'm sure there will be plenty of them
@@Graeldon As someone who uses RPG Maker a lot for their own games (Which sadly won't appear in these videos cus I am not on Steam) I would like to ask you to be a little easier on their options. The engine REALLY does not give us much wiggle room for what we can do, ESPECIALLY in the days of VX Ace which I am SO glad to have moved on from. I mean, MV (The next one) doesn't even let you change the window colours and still does not have a fullscreen or any default ability to mess with the resolution. (And volume adjusts in figures of 20% instead of something reasonable like 5%, so you'll immediately go from ear-blastingly loud to super quiet.) VX Ace TECHNICALLY lets you mess with the resolution but...uh...no, it doesn't, you can make it like-15% bigger and then all of the assets are going to look weird because nothing was made with this in mind. You can tell by the art style what RPG Maker engine it was made in, and this one was VX Ace so a lot of issues with the game will be because VX is just garbage. I do think MV games are MUCH better even without plugins, but the fact it switched to a language that more people use did WONDERS for its community made assets, and MZ incorporated a lot of those features into the newer MZ. (Wow, over a decade to be able to control the resolution! It even lets you change the game and text size separately!) I'd go into more detail about all the things that make it hard to make a good game with RPG Maker but I'm sure you're already wanting this comment to end.
That was quite interesting actually, thank you! I've always been aware of RPGMaker as an engine, but I don't know much about it. So thank you for sharing some of the limitations of the engine
@@Graeldon I'm glad. :) Basically, if it looks like it's in VX Ace: prepare for the most bare-bones thing you've ever seen because nobody wants to code for it and the developers refuse to do so for any of their projects. But at least past then it moved onto languages people used XD I still can't believe HP cost skills aren't a default part of the engine...or life steal weapons.
@@TheGreatBackUpVIDEOS I managed to track down a few scripts that let you use a fullscreen function that decently upscales sprites without blurring the entire thing. They were a boon for my game.
For developers, it's really hard to get seen because of over-saturation. That is, projects like this and others basically have made Steam have like 70 releases a day. This is why I don't actually think there's oversaturation in seriously developed games. There's no oversaturation of serious developers, because 80% of these 'devs' are gold rushing into the celebrity of the idea of creating a video game. If you've ever been to a gaming convention or a game jam you realize that everyone and their dog is making a game, but few are really willing to put in a decade of sacrifice to it or actually take it very seriously. In the AAA world, there are literally talks about "well, you're going to release an unfinished buggy mess and that's okay you can just fix it later" and in the indie world there are literally talks of "well, you have to scale it back, don't make that ultimate dream project or reach for the stars", and this is where we are today in the industry.
I've been working on my game for 5 years and sometimes when I see things like this it makes me feel like I'm dumb for not just doing some cheap asset flip just to pay the bills.
there is a difference between not shoting for the starts and not even trying. an indie need to have realistic expectations. when i played ocarine of time i wanted to make an game like this, but even as an kid i knew that it was impossible to do every part of it alone, so i tried to see what other people were doing in small teams and tried to do something similiar instead. nowadays people play games made by 1500 persons and think they could do better by thenselves just because they have an easy to use tool like RPG Maker or an powerful tool like Unreal (that big studios also use)
@@amuro9624 you arent dumb. but you need to pay the bills in the mean time so find an temporary job then when you get enough exp try to crowd fund an project or anything like that.
14:15 The reason why the thing turned into a chimera is that it’s an RPG Maker boss asset. Bosses can’t turn around, they only have one “front” sprite, therefore if you don’t lock their position RPG Maker will try to turn them if you talk to them at a different angle form the default one. That results into the sprite changing to whatever tre software thinks it’s the correct sprite, based on their position on the boss monster asset sheet. If the other assets didn’t already give it away, this’s the definite proof that the developer used RPG Maker to create a shallow game to earn a quick buck, with no care for making it work. I remember when I was in middle school I also tried to make a game with RPG Maker, but I would stay up late to fix the visual issues caused by the sprites or any problem that had to do with events…
I’m guessing your game still had more of a plot at least. Lack of polish can be expected from amateurs (of which I probably still count despite growing up with RPG Maker), but passion can still create something of substance. I’d rather play whatever your game was, rough edges and all, than this pure asset flip that knows it has no reason to exist beyond being an asset flip. And hey, the rough edges on your game couldn’t be any worse than the one game I made with VX Ace. Short version, I got that version of RPG Maker-and Steam as a whole-with my first laptop, but that quickly turned into a potato that lagged running freaking Word. I did finish it, but out of nine chapters, I only tested seven, because by that point trying to actually play the game on that laptop just wasn’t worth it.
@@isenokami7810 It was a long time ago, I think I was 12, and although I think the plot was interesting, I was a bit of a perfectionist and I wanted to have lots of systems all working perfectly. I didn’t understand the concept of “focus”, so I just threw in everything I thought was interesting. Sure, the systems were polished to an extreme, but there were too many. After a year, I only had the tutorial done because that… after a while I abandoned the project, but I’ve lately been thinking that I should take it up again
@@xarim4769 I feel that. Not a perfectionist myself, but a while back ambition got the best of me, made me want to make custom battler sprites from scratch on a project, personalized for each character. I…haven’t been on RPG Maker in years because progress stalled right away on those, never felt up to working on them. Didn’t really help that the project was an MLP fan game, meaning I was dealing with quadrupeds and trying to work out how they’d move in my head. Though yeah, I wanted to put that much effort into a fan game, compared to the non-game that is Arcane Raise. It was more the state of Sonic RPG Maker games that put this thought in my head, but the result is the same regardless: I want anything I make in RPG Maker to be a serious game made with passion, and not one of these lazily barfed out messes. I want anything I may release to be among the better examples of what RPG Maker can do, at least compared to the expectation of, well, this.
17:21 The fact that even a game like this STILL got a Mixed reception at best instead of Overwhelmingly Negative gives me a lot of hope for my own game dev endeavours...
Based on the steam reviews it seems that the reason the "give all achievements" button exists is because it gives you in-store currency for steam that allows you to buy a wallpaper.
@@EdKolis They could have cracked down on stuff like that, but it was definitely a thing at one point. There were instances of essentially the same game reskinned over and over, all with super simple achievements.
This looks like the kind of thing someone might slap together in an afternoon of opening up RPG Maker for the very first time and playing around with some of the basic features.
@@GraeldonThat implies any other wannabe devs actually know this game exists. Which, this is actually the second time I’ve heard of this (forget who I saw talk about it first, just that he specifically tore apart bad RPG Maker games on Steam), so that might be a fair assumption.
@@GraeldonI wouldn’t call it a “success”, I doubt they developed a sizeable enough fanbase to even buy a bag of rice more than once per week from this game’s sales. To me, I don’t think your game can be considered successful until it reaches the level of Undertale/Five Nights at Fuckboys/LISA/OFF/Epic Battle Fantasy/etc. in terms of gaining a following; or, at the very least, has a fanbase dedicated enough to constantly pester you about new releases, and pre-order your stuff.
@wolfetteplays8894 Heya! According to SteamSpy they sold between 50,000 and 100,000 copies - that's a decent amount of cash for most people even after the cut that Steam would take.
@@Graeldon holy shit… I assumed it was in the low 5 digit range. That is far higher than I was expecting 😳 I am losing faith in modern day gaming and my ability to keep up with the scene
the more i see of these awful Rpg maker games the more confident i feel about my own, at least i have hand drawn monsters and an insane but existant plot
As an aspiring dev who uses RPG Maker, seeing this game disappoints me. I've played RPG Maker games that are fun and well-balanced, and even a few games that use default assets, but make up for it with lovable, memorable characters, and plots that can make me go as far as to break down in tears because they genuinely move me so much. RPG Maker is a powerful tool in the right hands. My hope is that aspiring devs will learn from games like this and make something better. It's okay to use default assets. I get it. Art is hard. But at least try to make a good game and not try to milk your players for their money.
Indeed, when i was 14 i played a VX one that used almost all default assets. It's an Italian game called Overdrive (i think it is kinda "famous"). I checked the dev facebook a month or so ago tho, they won't finish it anymore, as it was dedicated to his then girlfriend, and they broke up TT
Definitely, with a little more effort they could make something better. Maybe they just too lazy and greedy to even try. RPG Maker VXA to me is very handy and inspiring tool!
Or at least find someone who creates art and buy from them(and use it if they allow it which they normally do), just as long as it fits the theme of the game. Or find a friend and they create the art for the game, so you can work as a team or something
Umbral Soul is a great example of this. Despite using mostly RTP assets and default characters, it sets itself apart with its characters, story, and general concept. Yeah, "You play as the villain" has been done before, but this particular game does it really well cause many things are in shades of gray rather than purely black or white. I respect that game despite it having some flaws (Notably a good chunk of permanently missable stuff). Compare that to this, a game with no soul and made solely to make a quick buck.
Dev really likes latin. Aurum is latin for gold, umbra means shadow, anima has quite a few meaning (like mind, spirit or even heart), and sanctus means saint. Very straightfoward names for an RPG.
Little correction: Final Fantasy is not the grandfather of all JRPGs. That is a very hard game to nail down, but most people would attribute it to Dragon Quest 1, which released the year prior and is leagues more popular in japan than final fantasy. It's basically synonymous with the phrase "RPG" over there and is partially responsible for all the shitty high fantasy isekai being made right now. Final Fantasy meanwhile is an afterthought to its own country.
The Grandfather of Premodern RPG and JRPG convention Was Sweet Home and Dragon Warrior. Remember that Final Fantasy was called such because it was going to be Square's FINAL attempt to even DO an RPG! xD
@@metalspinda9594 That's actually a myth. They were originally going to call it "Fighting Fantasy", but the name was already taken, so they just changed it to "Final Fantasy" to preserve the alliteration.
So here's why the game gives you the option to unlock all achievements - there is an entire genre of games on Steam colloquially known as Achievement Farms, where the sole purpose is to get a ton of achievements in order to raise your Steam level. There's a couple of niche features tied to your Steam level, one of which I think is your friends cap, and these Achievement farms are an inexpensive way for people to raise theirs. It's a win-win-lose scenario, the devs and farmers win, and the people who have no idea lose.
I thought that might be the case originally, but I would have expected a large quantity of achievements. Take a look at my !Anyway! Review as an example - it has 5000 achievements. The achievement farm games I've found so far also unlock them as soon as you begin playing, not after a tutorial, and they certainly aren't optional. It's still possible that's what this game is, they've just done it in a way I haven't seen before
Achievements don't give levels though. Achievements are completely detached from any other feature but themselves, and their associated profile showcases.
This game honestly feels to me like a prototype for a longer, better game, what with the unique currency name and the small bit of lore given to you in the town. It feels like a debug room more than anything.
I wouldn't say using gold in another language is a unique currency name. Pretty sure it's not even the only rpg to use aurum as the currency, but I can't remember for sure what game did it.
Nameless Shades as rpg protagonists? ...A concept wasted on this game. Imagine: 3-6 possible backgrounds per character, randomly determined early in the playthrough, and as they continue their escape from the spirit world back to life, they remember more. ...This is a concept that would live or die based on the quality of its writing.
Sort of reminds me of Nechronica -The Long Long Sequel - A tabletop roleplaying game where you play as the resurrected dead. Everything in this world is dead or about as dead as you are, and you have to come to terms with that fact. Along the way, you will remember pieces of your old life before you died, shaping your character along.
@@a13m34kind of, the characters have set backgrounds and stuff but certain choices you make in their text based intros at the start of a run change your skills and some of the good ones are REALLY good
"Aurum" is literally the latin word for "gold". It's where the atomic symbol "Au" comes from. Similar to how "plumbum" is the Latin word for lead, hence "Pb" as its symbol. Most elements with strange letters for the element symbol (Potassium, Antimony, Tin, Copper, etc) have similar origins. The exception is Tungsten, whose symbol "W" comes from the fact that in the US it was called "Wolfram" due to a dispute over who had naming rights. The "W" was a compromise.
Correct, and that's why I take issue with the name - nothing else in the game has names with latin origin so thematically it just doesn't fit. Everything else is just standard high fantasy stuff. Funnily enough though, the "lore" DLC text dump actually has several latin references in the chapter titles. So had the lore actually made it into the game, I would have been less harsh on it
@@Graeldon Ehh, I thought your criticism of the word was way more pretentious and obnoxious than the inclusion of the word itself. It's where I clicked away from the video.
As someone has used the RPG Maker franchise for a long time, it is noted that not only does the game use the default assets that comes with the engine itself; as stated by other commenters; it also uses no original content besides the character's names. The maps, the weapons stats, the classes stats, the enemy stats, EVERYTHING is default when you start a new project in the engine (More specifically RPG Maker VX Ace). Even the majority of the maps are default template maps that can be access by right clicking the map selection scene in the project editor. They just threw something together to make a quick buck on steam if it was paid for.
It's a bit disappointing that RPGMaker (and other game engines) get abused in this way, but it's also unsurprising. I thought stock assets were being used, but I didn't know to what extent.
I'd love to see the creators of RPG Maker sue this joker, but that might discourage people from using the tool... Would that be a bad thing or a good thing?
@@EdKolis I don't mean to discourage people from using the RPG Maker series / engines. Some cool products have came out with people who built experience over years to create beatifical projects like Changed, Omori, Lisa the Painful, etc. The problem is that many new developers try to go straight into the engine expecting to make the next "Mona Lisa" and then selling it on Steam for $10. (Even worse if you sell it for $0.99 like newer devs). The best advice is that for your first, second, third, etc ; do not sell it. Even if it's your tenth, create your own assets. Barely anyone will buy a RPG Maker game with default assets, except RPG Maker devs. Again, the engine is perfect for beginner AND expert devs, but don't try to sell a game with only default assets without a purpose.
Years ago I was a part of the german RPG Maker scene. There was this huge shift, trying to convince people to not ripp obscure graphics from japanese super famicom games and because of a lack of free assets available (especially in the "higher resolution" newer RPG Makers) most newcomers gobbled something together with the default assets, putting not work into their projects at all. Slowly the scene got from "fangames inspired by the SNES era and similar" to "how to make money on steam without any effort at all". Some people even showed off the included Example-Maps as proof "how good" their new game will be. Its really sad to see where the scene ended, because here in germany it was big. I mean... one of the biggest people here went on and made the highly acclaimed commercial Cross;Code...
Interesting. Now that you mention it, I used to play two horror GRPG titled 'Desert Nightmare' and 'Taut', both were still my favorites to this day. I found German RPGmaker games to be quite unique due its blend of Western and Central Europe mythics in a more realistic theme.
I was a bit harsh on it, and I overlooked the fact that the 3 MC's also have Latin names, so there is a thematic link there. So it's not as bad as I initially thought. I'm still annoyed that they chose to put time and energy into a creative currency name rather than the actual game though.
@@Graeldon I mean... you yourself said it wasn't a very significant change. Sure, it would be great to see more work done on this game, but do you really think a simple change from "gold" to its literal chemical symbol really took THAT much away?
RPG assets aside, the CONCEPT is good at least. Having to train a party of wayward souls until they are strong enough to traverse to the world of the living isn't a bad premise on paper. And hell, giving a mage a GUN is BRILLIANT! There was potential for something good here! Like maybe each dungeon had something special for each party member; a memento or something that they would earn from a boss that symbolized something when they were alive, something to give them a modicum of a backstory. But man, what a waste...
Love the idea of each dungeon unlocking past memories - A journey to discover their past before they can move on... could need to complete something unresolved in their past life etc. Unfortunately we have to judge the game based on what it is, not what it could have been. But yes, more mages with guns please
This is exactly what I was thinking. I was thinking it would've made a decent roguelike game where progressing will slowly uncover the protagonists' pasts, how they died, why they want to return to the world of the living, etc.
That small window problem is going to come up in most if not all RPG Maker games. One of the signs this game wasn't good was that it didn't have "F3 - Adjust Window Size" or something similar scribbled on the splash screen. I've never seen the instructions look _good_ but it sure is comforting to have it right there when you boot up the game. Shows that the dev actually cares about your experience.
I agree, and I would have cut the game some slack if it had those instruction on the launch screen. It shows they are trying to work with the game engine to the benefit of the player. That's helpful to know though, and I'll keep it in mind for when the next RPGMaker game crosses my path!
One of THE best RPGMaker games in existence, OMORI, doesn't have a "Adjust Window Size" on the Title Screen. I wouldn't hold too much against a game for not telling the player that. There IS an option in the options to adjust the window size, though. And most people find it, and do use it.
@@Graeldon Well, it was released in Dec. 20. It is now June '23 and I am *still* watching playthroughs of it to this day. It has 51,253 ratings on Steam, 97% of them are Positive, putting it very comfortably within the "Overwhelmingly Positive" category by Steam itself. It has 179 tracks in its OST (not counting the 5-ish tracks in the Console-Only content). If you wanna see spoiler-free examples of some gameplay, the newest two videos of my own channel are of OMORI.
Fun fact, this game did have sequels on Steam that were delisted, I even remember seeing them at one point. The only real reason I could find for their delisting is, you know, being shovelware.
Not sure if someone already explained it, but RPGMaker uses a single image with the all sprites for an object. Usually 4 lines of 3 sprites, each line for a character facing a different direction. But some sprites don't have a version facing anywhere but down, so they share the sprite sheet with other sprite. That's why the final boss changes once you talk to it. Probably if you talk to it from a different direction it will be a different creature.
It’s hard to believe that a bunch of people even made this game There are projects out there that are one-man endeavours, and even for them, it would be impossible to make something as bad as this, this had to be made in a lab or something
This video just makes me reflect on my own experience with RPG Maker. I actually did finish a game, it takes around 2 hours to beat. Wish someone would tear it to pieces like this.
@@Graeldon It's nowhere near steam, haha! It was one of my "exercise games" where I was getting to grips with with the new maker. Still, I think it would be interesting to see it contrasted to this dumpster fire of a cash grab.
There used to be other games from this "franchise" for sale. I guess since Steam has taken a few measures against achievement spam games and other scams those might have been removed from the store. I remember "pre raise" and "re-raise" were common in shovelware bundles, during the peak of the asset flip/spam games epidemic. Not to insinuate there isn't a asset flip problem anymore, but the algorithm used to be worse so looking for indie games or "hidden gems" was a nightmare.
Yeah, I did some extra research after publishing this video and realised that there were other games that appear to now be de-listed. It's going to be interesting to see how many more games like this I have to play before I come across an RPGMaker game with some actual effort put into it
As someone who monkeys around with RPG Maker, there are a zillion things they could have done that they fucking... didn't (or did wrong) that made me hit my head on my punching bag. - As someone else mentioned, the boss has no direction fix (which prevents bosses from "turning" and becoming a different sprite on the sheet). But its code was also obviously keyed to Erase Event. Switches are your best friend in RPG Maker, and using them (even simple self switches) activates or deactivates events, or creates event tiers so characters behave differently under certain requirements (more in that later). Using switches makes sure events are gone for good. Erase Event keeps events away...until the pkayer exists and re-enters the map. At which point they respawn. - Using a simple self-switch command on the NPC outside the tent could unlock new information after talking to her once, and a choice box with simple questions would have made her more engaging. - THAT ITEM SHOP WITH THE FUKKIN STAT BOOSTS AHHHH. Pretty much every item in this game has or is around its default price. If I remember correctly, stat boosters are cheap as shit so when you try to resell them, they go for a pitiful amount. This is to persuade you to keep them and use them- rather than sell them- because they are meant to be rare finds. (EDIT- default price for these items is actually 3000 gold. Meaning it was a conscious choice to lower it...) - All playable character face sprites- including DLC- are just the default eight characters. RPG Maker has a mix and match character generator- which you can even add parts to- and all its face sprites face the opposite direction. Even then, I usually export a generated sprite and edit it extensively in an external program. I can get skipping that step of you can't make good sprite art. But not using the generator at all- despite it being easy to find/use- and then CHARGING PEOPLE MONEY FOR DEFAULTS makes me want to go on a Godzilla style rampage. Sorry for the rant but this crawled under my skin. Also might be interesting to reveal what's under the hood a little.
Creative use of stock assets will get a thumbs up from me for sure. As long as they get the level design, plot, character interactions, worldbuilding and core mdchanics right, it'll be a game worth of praise. Arcane Raise... did none of that.
You know... waaaay back in 2010, in my late highschool days, i tried RPG maker for the first time. To this day, I'm still ashamed of how many bugs it had and how many recycled assets I used. In fact, I never dared to make my game public even for free. Yet i am absolutely SURPRISED that my game back in the day managed to deliver almost every feature Arcane Raise misses. And that's all considering there's just a single dev behind the game. If there are two or more people on this "project"... no! Seriously, that's beyond impossible.
Well they probably tried to finish it in like 1 month, if you can make maybe like 3 thousand bucks in a month off of Stream you can make a business out of it. 🤷
I tried RPG maker myself for a while, but I never personally liked it as much as I did GameMaker. I felt it too hard to control the curve, though that was years ago and I may look at it again to try something. I do enjoy the process of making a game, and have always been a huge fan of RPGs. I still can't really art though.
😂😂 Apologies, that was not my intent, but it's a valid point! Chrono Trigger is definitely in my top 5 favourite JRPG's! I am always worried when reviewing these games that at some point I'll accidentally attract the ire of a fanbase I was completely unaware of haha
Actually, the final boss just being there the whole time and you being able to battle at any point, is a GENIUS idea. Someone has to structure a good JRPG game like that.
@@Voxelroguery To be fair, balancing that wouldn't be hard, assuming the intended way to fight the final boss is after you've appropriately prepared, with any low level attempts being for studying boss behavior and movesets
I love RPG Maker, i think it's an incredible tool for people that otherwise couldn't make the games they want. It's a shame projects like this gave RPG Maker a bad reputation.
Since this is ALL just stock RPGMaker assets, we probably spent more time watching this video than the 'dev' spent making the game, and you almost certainly spent more time playing it than they did. I'm kind of surprised it took 25 games before running into a cheap RPGMaker game, but I'm sure you will see many more if you continue this series. Most are pretty bad (though I haven't seen one this bad before), but some are actually gems, so hopefully we see those.
I'm surprised it was this far along too, but I'm 100% sure there's many more on the horizon. I am hopeful though as a few people have commented that there are some great games made in the RPGMaker engine - just few and far between from the sounds of it though.
The funny thing is that there is a RPGMaker game I've played for so long that these stock assets to me have names and a story. And it's so goddamn weird to see them in a completely different and much worse context :D
@@antonioscendrategattico2302 that's debatable, but its also besides the point. if you've ever tried to make anything in rpg maker you know damn well it takes a while
I kinda like the irony of the character portraits. The most woman looking is the male tank. The most bulky looking is the fast melee guy. And the fast melee looking male is a woman sorcerer.
RPGmaker! Since it comes with a lot of built in assets and doesn't requite a ton of advanced coding knowledge, it's popular among lots of first time developers. That said, while a lot of games built using the engine tend to fall into the category of cheaply made shovelware, there's a lot of great stuff too. Ara Fell, for example. That one's fantastic. I've only just discovered your channel, but if you want to look into more games made with the engine, I reccomend starting there.
Thanks for stumbling across my channel! RPGMaker definitely attracts a lot of first-time game devs, and that's a good thing! I'm looking forward to playing some actual good games made with engine someday. Unfortunately, there's likely a ton of asset flips like this to get through first. Ara Fell isn't too far away though... maybe only a couple of years at the pace I'm going haha
It'll definitely be worth the wait. If I were to make a direct comparison, Ara Fell is a lot like the Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. A good RPG for people new to the genre. It's simple, but the humor and music more than make up for it, in my opinion. In any case though, looking forward to hearing more reviews from you!
@@lionwithglasses8590 Mystic quest is one of the few Final Fantasy games I'm yet to play, so playing something in the same vein sounds interesting! Thanks for giving me something to look forward to!
This is exactly what a JPRG would be like if it was created by modern neural network Also Cpt Angelo was very relatable protagonist who just left after the tutorial
Did you ever check the "Remnant Necklace" in the magic shop? it cost 0 and it said it held old memories and you can't take it off once you've put it on. I was super curious, it's the same necklace Captain Angaelo has in the intro, does it make whoever wears it into the captain? Also that achievement thing I have a theory on. I'm not super knowledgeable on these things but there are games that purely exist to spam you with achievements to push up your number of achievements for your steam profile. I'm not saying that was the only intent here but it feels this was added for those achievement farmers (esp. with rather basic names like "Pi", without a deeper reason behind it I can see). I wonder if it had steam trading cards also for similar farming reasons?
A note on the Steam achievements, its very likely that those numbers are that way due to people buying the game and never getting around to playing it or an error with the achievement handout code, though theres definitely plenty of people who didnt progress
It's a good theory, but it's been confirmed that Steam achievements only count if the game has been played. That's why achievements that trigger when initializing the game will be 100%, but ones for starting a "new game" or competing a tutorial will not
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the other gams did get made. To my knowledge there were 4 sequels: Arcane preRaise, Arcane RERaise, Occult Raise & Occult preRaise. They got published under a different publisher name though, and Valve noticed that they were just spamming achievement spam games, so banned everything the "new" publisher had published.
The achievement count aspect could be correct, but there's only 37 of them. I've played a game with almost 5000. There were Steam reviews that mentioned being able to purchase a solid black steam profile background though, so maybe that's a part of it?
As soon as I saw it was an RPGMaker game, my expectations plummeted to a tripping hazard in hell, and yet the game is determined to win the limbo contest against even the devil himself.
Going through *every* game on steam? That is a ridiculously gargantuan task, are you making a video on EVERY game also? I don't know if you'll ever get close to finish but good luck!
I am indeed! It's 100% an impossible task though. With over 70,000 games on Steam, and new ones added daily, even if all I did was spend 2 hours playing each before writing a review, that would still be nearly 16 years of continuous playtime. Reviewing one game per week would take roughly 1346 YEARS. I'm content to simply get as far as possible, and who knows, maybe one day someone will take over this project for me. Imagine in the future if there is a UA-cam account that has played and reviewed every single Steam game in existence. That would be incredible.
I'd like to mention that the reason the game shows up in such a small window is because it's an RPGmaker ACE game, all ACE games load up in that small of a window, and the developer is not given any capacity to change the aspect ratio. RPG Maker Ace is an intiquated RPGmaker system, and every should be using MV or MZ at this point. This is a facinating game to look at, and I'm glad I found your channel.
The developer is given the capability to change the resolution at will, they just didn't know how to do it (it requires changing the script files, which are written in Ruby Programming language).
This game feels like something I would have made in rpg maker back in the day, promising to myself that I would come back to it, move the dungeon entrances to the overworld, etc, but never came back to it.
I actually like when RPGs make up their own currencies. It can be used as a bit of world building, and if it happens to be made of gold, you don’t have to worry about forgetting in NPC dialogue.
This looks like hell, BUT since we're already there, I'll play devil's advocate and say that calling your currency whatever you want is actually perfectly fine. It can be a sign of originality and thoughtful world-building. Of course, that's not the case here
Heya! Thank you to everyone that has stopped by to check out this video, and a special thank you to everyone that has been commenting! While I normally try to respond to every comment, this video has blown up waaay beyond what I could have expected, so I apologize if I miss yours! Also because a lot of comments mention this: Yes, I messed up. Dragon Quest should be the Grandad of JRPGs, not FF. And yes, I know that Aurum is Latin for Gold. I still think it's a dumb name though. I appreciate the feedback that everyone has been giving: the good and the bad. It all helps me to improve for the next video! If you came here just for the JRPG content, that's cool, but I hope you'll stick around to see where this crazy journey takes me - see you in the next one!
Have you tried Black Souls? It's another RPGMaker game, with souls-like mechanics. It's actually embarrassing that Black Souls and Arcane Raise are made with the same engine, considering how much of a masterpiece the former is. Doesn't seem like it's the kind of games you'd make videos about, but just a heads up.
I used to love JRPGs, but now I feel like there is no real challenge and exploration in them. I wish they had more open worlds with hidden secrets and multple paths to beat the game.
I immediately subscribed after this video, your journey to review everything in alphabetical order is fascinating as hell and I wanna see all the ups and downs. Heck you've already made me aware of at least one game that sounds fun that I'd never have discovered on my own
This game feels like someone decently familiar with RPG Maker made it. I wouldn't be surprised if the creator is around 16-18 years old. If so, I hope they go on to make better and better games.
1:43 isn't the best example. The "Timber!" achievement was added in a minor update quite some time after version 1.4 released. So older players who unlocked every achievement could literally just not have Timber if they havent played the game in years.
In theory the concept of having a Final Boss you can challenge any time (such as Ganon in BOTW), characters with no name or backstorys you gotta fill by exploring their world and discover their fate that led them to this world sounds cool. But it seems this was their first game so filling it out wasn't executed that well. If executed right I'm sure this could work. This series is a cool idea btw! Edit: 200 Gold is so less for Statboosters, you can buy like 9 per chest... If these were limited though it'd make for a much better system to add to the upper concept.
I've never used RPGMaker, but I know how to write a story. The premise of souls (aka shades) having to fight for their next life isn't necessarily new but it still has a lot of potential. Was already putting a plot together in my head watching this. This game feels like a person who'd never made an RPG before took a crack at it, and came up with the most basic product they could. If it at least had a story that might have helped. It looks like it could be salvaged, but it'd take some work.
I agree, it could absolutely be salvaged, but what we have is a project that feels like the dev just gave up after the tutorial was finished. A project with sky high ambition, but rock bottom realization.
Was rolling my eyes and laughing when you read the Steam description. The obvious lies are just laughable. "A game you will absolutely remember for better or worse" got me, though. Seriously, they put that on their steam page?? It's like the devs KNEW!! Came across your channel in my recommendations, love the series & the way you present yourself. Totally subscribing 🌟
The fact that it allows you to unlock all the achievements from the get-go, the lackluster content and the fact that it consists of RPG maker assets leads me to believe that this is one of those achievement farm scams. Those were primarily used to get easy trading cards that you could then sell on the community market. Considering it was released in 2017, back when this scam was at its peak, helps add to this theory. The DLC for it was probably just there so he could add more stuff to the storefront to make it look more legit.
This is why people hate RPG maker. Lowering the bar can be a good thing for accessibility and you can point to gems like The Way or Thiea The Crimson Eclipse as examples of why it's good but you also have to realize that a TON of garbage will come with it. Unity has the same problem.
The accessibility of a game engine is a double-edged sword... I'm looking forward to playing a good RPGMaker game in the future. Heck, I'll take a mediocre one!
I hear the reason Unity stopped requiring games made using the free version of the engine to display a splash screen is they realized it was being associated with garbage!
@@Graeldon There are some great games that use RPG Maker as the foundation, such as Lisa: The Painful a side scrolling adventure through a wasteland where all the females have vanished. A feat not easily accomplished in an engine primarily designed for top down RPGs.
"You can call your currency gold" Oh good, here I was about actually give the coins names. Maybe based on historic ones like Spanish doubloons, Venetian ducats or Roman... Aureus! Thank fuck I don't have to world build there without alienating my players. This was kind of a strange rant out of some otherwise legitimate criticism.
I used this particular version of RPG maker, VX Ace a lot, and I can tell they barely put effort into it. The most effort that I can tell they put in was creating the hub, tutorial, and the inn. I was able to very easily pick out which premade maps they utilized, even the stores aren't original. The forest dungeon, without examining the actual asset, I am very certain is the Lost Forest, the poison swamp is... the Poison Swamp (the poison tiles also do damage by default in the engine), the lava cave looks like Lava Cave F1F, and the jungle maze looks like World Tree F1F. All of the enemy sprites and skills are defaults (at least none that I saw in the video), though I don't blame them for not making their own enemies because I suck at art. For the final boss, I can basically guarantee that they have it set to Erase Event after you defeat it, but that won't stop it from reappearing when you leave the hub and return, so this is definitely someone who is not very experienced. I only make games for my own personal use, so I typically only use the premade maps either when I want a set piece like the Devil's Castle Exterior, or don't have the patience to design one myself (I suck at decorating too), but I normally alter them in some way like to make them into somewhat linear mazes at the very least, and they could only be bothered to add teleporters and chests.
As bad as this game is, I think it should be noted that the devs using aurum for gold makes sense since they use a lot of latin as a stylistic choice. Pointing this out as pretentious, whilst not seeing it and sneering at it in a condescending tone, is being pretentious.
You're right to call me out on that - I overlooked the Latin character names and the Latin chapter titles in the lore PDF. I'm still not a fan of it, simply because gold/Aurum as a currency doesn't make a lot of sense in a limbo world inhabited by spirits, but that's likely my personal bias coming through. I'll aim to do better in the future!
@@noop9k It is when it's done with an air of just look of how clever I am, like most of what Neil Gaiman writes. World building is difficult in not getting hung up in minor details and focussing on separate elements without it coming together organically as a whole. (...And No Tolkien did not achieve it, just for the record.)
@@Graeldon Fantasy very often doesn't make sense and this RPG look incredibly bland. But most RPG maker games are. Well, that or they're really pretentious, like those angsty horror rpg games. "Look, it's trauma manifested in pubescent bloody symbolic images....shocking, daring, profound"
So. It looks like everything actually *good* about this game is just straight up part of the RPG Maker engine. But things like the "A Nameless Shade" bios? I'm 99% sure that's literally the default text that RPG Maker gives all party members by default.
The bit about unlocking all the achievements is so that the game can be marketed in the niche genre of 'achievement grinder' where people will spend a few dollars to buy a game that gives you super easy achievements. Not sure what that does to your Steam bio but people seem interested. I've seen reviews like "bought this for the achievements". I wish Steam would crack down on the crapware out there.
As someone who has made my first RPG Maker game from mostly basic assets, but with love and care... it was hilarious to see how little effort i put into this one. Even the number values, names, etc. of all the weapon are the default list. Can't confirm, but I bet your ass the tutorial character's bio is a default placeholder too. It's like having a huge set of Lego bricks, from which you can build something fun and unique and creative, or you could just randomly throw together someithing with no rhyme, reason or effort.
This game made my old unfinished RPG MAKER FES games look like fully developed masterpieces. I haven't even played the game and I feel...hollow. It doesn’t have a story, only has a single boss, and when you beat said boss, there isn't even an ending. This seems like an utterly vapid experience.
It looks like literally someone's first attempt at understanding how RPGMaker works. Putting it on Steam is like trying to sell your child's kindergarten scribbles on the international art market.
14:12 The reason this happens is because the sprite sheet they used (one of the default rpg maker ones) only has sprites facing one way. Usually RPG Maker sheets contains sprites for each direction, so when you approach it from below it tries to change into the bottom facing sprite which in this case contains another different big monster. You can force the event to stay in a fixed position by toggling a single setting after you place it in the RPG Maker editor.
Firstly: I'm so happy I have found this gem of a channel! Directly subscribed too! Secondly: On the bright side of this "game", I now want to start up RPG Maker and start making a new game. Maybe use this "plot" (if you can call it that) and make something out of that. Find the soulshards that were splintered off of you when you died, so you can go back home to live or get to rest forever? With every soulshard you find a piece of memory and learn who this character is? Maybe see more of the world you're in? Even thought that sounds interesting, I will, like always, never finish that. But it gives my creative juices something to work on. So thank you for that! ☺
Wow, this game makes 11 year old me look like a genius. I might have not known about game design, or programing, or even how to add in custom sprites, but even I could make cut-scenes and an ending back then. Even a decade later I still remember that you could check a box so a character wouldn't change direction when talked to. The final boss changing sprites happened because the prebuilt boss sprites shared a sprite sheet with other bosses. Also, not even a permanent change to the state of an object to get rid of the final boss? It's pretty easy to make bosses disappear forever by changing them to a state b of nothing, or even a teleporter to the ending.
I've used RPGMaker ACE (the engine they used) and they used default characters, default database for the weapons, dungeon 1 was a sample map that they added a little to, and dungeon 3 and 4 were made with the generator it looks like. No idea where dungeon 2 came from though I suspect its another sample map I just don't recognize. But overall it was basically sample maps, what's already in the engine, and the generator for the most part. Wouldn't be surprised if the enemies still had the default stats.
Probably the sole mercy is that they left the combat as easy instead of like some bad RPGMaker games where there's a stat wall, between an area you can curbstomp through and the next where you die in 3 turns max.
This game is made with RPGMaker and.. it is really obvious this developer is extremally new with the software. Quite possibly even being the first project they've ever made. Cause I play a lot of these styles of game myself and I'm noticing countless amateur mistakes people commonly make. Everything from the horrible game balance, to very poor use of the default assets. All these tilesets, music, enemy sprites and characters this game is made from come with the software and you're free to use them however you like when making games, even in commercial ones! It's super cool, although they get a bit of a bad rap specifically because of games like this. Cause while all these assets are professionally made and can be used to great effect, they're often used very unprofessionally. Case & point, that giant knight that turns into a chimera when you talk to him. The reason that happened is because both those monsters are actually part of the same tilesheet! They're mapped to different directions, and when you use those sprites in your game, you're meant to 'lock' their direction in place so they don't change into the other three monsters when talked to from different directions. But for some reason a lot of developers just don't know how to do this! I apologize if this is your first exposure to RPGMaker! I promise people are infinitely more creative with it than this!
Thanks for explaining what was happening with the Boss sprite! My last time playing an RPGMakler game was years and years ago, so I'm not familiar with the assets... yet. I don't have a problem with using default or free assets, if they are used in interesting or creative ways. This game... didn't.
~ 5:06 - RE: why the achievement unlock dialogue at the literal start of the game? Two possibilities I see: 1. this is an achievement series product (there's an RPG series on steam that you may or may not have run accross yet in this series where each game has literally thousands of achievements, each < 1 minute each to unlock -- sort of a way to artificially buff up your achievement counts if you're into that kind of thing) 2. the game is bugged and so instead of fixing the bug they were like "hey, let's just give the user the ability to bypass achievement checks and. unlock everything!" Since this game isn't "chievo" something, thinking it's the second (this seems to match with the fact that the game looks a mess, and I'm only a quarter of the way in)
Would like to point out that at 14:00 you are fighting fish in what seems to be a volcano. Clearly not their environment but pretty badass in my opinion
Obviously this is an RPG Maker asset flip, but not even all the maps are original. The forest is a sample map to reach you how to use looping maps to make confusing, maze-like layouts. 100% someone’s weekend project if it’s not an attempt at shovelware.
Having read a lot of the comments here, I'm actually shocked by how many assets are samples/free. I think only the tutorial, the hub area and maybe the tavern are original assets
I think the people who didn't lit the first bonfire and didn't chop down the trees are the ones who picked up the game on sale and still didn't play it yet. Fallout 4 mods disable archievements, so the people who "didn't enter the wasteland" likely just used mods.
I believe Steam only tracks achievement percentages for people who have actually run the game since the achievements were added. E.g. if 100 people buy the game, but only one person actually installs and plays it, the game will have a 100% achievement % for any achievement they get while playing
The best part about the game not having a settings menu is that RPG Maker MV, comes with a settings menu _by default_ , meaning the creator of the game had to go out of their way to turn it off. The thing is - this is not even possible using default rpg maker mv. The dev had to go and download/make a plugin that removes the settings menu. That is an impressive level of commitment to making a bad video game. Granted, removing the settings is only a few lines of javascript, but still, thats really funny.
If this comment gets 5 likes ill remake this game but good.
I'll hold you to that, and if you make it, I'll play it
@Graeldon I'm not the original creator btw, I just think it's sad that a game made with purely the rpg maker assets brings so little charm to a game.
@@GurglingBurbling I know, and I agree. I'd just love to see someone take this game and upcycle it into something actually decent. If that's possible
If you do end up doing this, please give Captain Angealo the justice he deserves. Make him the MC he should’ve been, I beg. 😭
@@ayyteen Yeah, ong. An actual MC with backstory
Nearly all the assets in this game, the character sprites and portraits, the enemy and area art, the menus, even the "nameless shade" text are all default assets from RPGMaker.
I had a hunch it was an asset flip, but I'm not familiar enough with RPGMaker to make that call... yet. Pretty sure there'll be plenty more games like this in the future.
Thanks for clarifying!
You'll find plenty of RPG maker games on Steam.
Some big time game ports have even used RPG maker assets.
@@Graeldon well, not an asset flip per se, as they have these for that specific reason in their base kit. There are some rather good rpg maker games that have a majority of their tiles from rpgmaker itself, but it's still an incredibly lazily done game. Oh and controller support is either directly due to rpgmaker or they have found a dll online that basically just enables proper support and maps the keys properly.
@@jwwhitmarsh8411 That's interesting to know, thanks! Hopefully I'll be able to identify these re-used assets in the future
@@BewegteBilderrahmen Yeah, a few other commenters mentioned that!
There's likely a good way to use the basic assets, and a bad way - this is definitely the bad way
This is as pure an RPGmaker asset flip as you can get.
Every point of competence of the game is owed to RPGmaker's stuff rather than anything the "developers" actually did.
Sadly I wasn't familiar enough with the RPGMaker assets to spot this, or at least to confidently say it in the review.
I definitely had a hunch while I was playing that most, if not all of the assets were pre-made and not original designs
tbh, a game could be good even if it has default assets if the story is good
To be fair some rpg maker engines make it so you can only use default assests
@@mlpfanboy1701 Yeah but absoutely not the one this was clearly made on. I know for a fact that it is entirely possible to import any new created assets you want for anything in the game
@@mlpfanboy1701 Yeah but not the PC entries fam
This is the kind of thing I made in high school while messing around in RPGmaker lmao. No excuse to charge money for something like this.
If it was a demo with a "coming soon" screen at the end, I would have been far more forgiving of it.
But as a final, paid product... yikes.
@@GraeldonAgreed. The mapping in the game is terrible. These tiles can be used much better.
Yeah I found some games on the 3ds version that are much better than this as well
These kinds of games are the reason why RPGmaker games have heavy, HEAVY stigma against them.
Or at least why *I* have heavy stigma against them...
@@Starfloofle if you wanna see something good made in RPGMaker I can't recommend Super Lesbian Animal RPG enough, it looks good, has a wonderful story and it actually has some interesting mechanics
You know what, I feel kinda compelled to make my first RPGMaker game just so that I could give Captain Angaelo the game he truly deserves.
honestly same lmao
Dew it!
You should definitely do it
Honestly that would be amazing, give that man a back story 🤣
Please do
"And given that Anima is a magical type class, I equip her with a stereotypical mage weapon: a gun."
For her neutral special, she wields a gun
That may very well be my favorite part of this game.
Terraria moment
Cosmic Star Heroine (a way better indie RPG than this) has a Gunmancer character, so hey.
I Might Be Outta Mana But I Ain't Outta Options
Man, I've heard of Steam dumpster diving, but this is like Steam geological core sampling.
Hehe, good one
This is quite a unique insult, I might steal this. Lol.
Sometimes you get hidden gems, and sometimes you crack it open and lava gushes out and melts your face. :D
can't wait until he gets to the $400 broken Russian shovelware games
Well, to bee fair, that sounds it would be pretty valuable.
This is someone's first RPG maker project.
It has no business being sold for money.
100% agree. I would've been more forgiving had it been free. Or at the very least, without the DLC.
I agree that it shouldn't have been sold for money, but assuming it's someone's first RPG Maker game is being too kind. Considering the "DLC" on offer, I'm much more inclined to call it a straight up asset flip. They threw it together in an afternoon to try to make a quick buck.
Shit, my first RPG maker project was better than this. And I didn't even finish making it.
I put... far too much effort into event triggers for a literal hole in the ground you could invest gold into to expand with more and more shops and amenities.
I can literally make this game. This is premade maps.
Someone out there will buy it. That's the point.
Also, the reason the final boss reappeared is that there are two ways to remove an interactive element (event) from the map in RPG Mekr.
The first is using the "Erase event" command, which removes the event from the map but will respawn it if the map is reloaded (ie. you leave and come back again)
The second is using a variable and setting up the event so that it will deactivate when that variable has a certain value. Basically creating a "You beat the boss" variable and then making it so that the boss won't appear anymore if that variable is turned on. It's pretty much the most basic thing you can do in RPG Maker which isn't a basic function of the program that you can access with a single click, and the author didn't even do that.
you don't even have to use a variable, you can literally do this with a self-switch. this game is incredibly poorly put together 😭
Would have been better to have a progress variable. Have NPCs appear/Disappear as you increase it, so you could have different stocks in the shop as you could set it so no 2 versions of the shopkeep would appear on the value. Later dungeons could be unlocked via beating mini boss's that increase the value of the progress variable. I havent used RPGMaker in ages but I remember it not being that hard.
You're better off using a switch (or in this case, a self-switch) rather than a variable. Switches are boolene variables (on/off) that appear to be stored in arrays based on how the game organizes them.
Yeah this game doesn’t even seem to have used a single switch
I LOVE SWITCHES RAAAGG
The most foreshadowing of the game's quality I can see is at 8:34, the daggers at the shop... None of the characters can equip them.
“A nameless shade” says the profile box of three characters each with names 😂 that sets up the quality of this game perfectly
They tried to be edgy, but they didn't think it through
It should have been "a random shade" or a "just another shade" etc. Lol
That's default description in rpg maker
@@AngPur Ironically, that just makes OP's comment that it sets the tone for this game's quality even more true.
TBH a system where you have both a character and a secondary sheet that determines certain magics or specific skills or something that grows from the plot entirely independent of levels and EXP would be really cool but why would we expect that from an asset flip
I love the idea of the final boss just hanging out in the hub town, there's so much potential in that idea. Like, say, they don't take you seriously and give you a Gruntilda-style taunt every time you come back to town. And the boss' motivations could be something interesting as well, like being your lost dad and secretly wanting you to succeed, or the boss is cursed with immortality and just wants sweet oblivion after watching everything they loved crumble over the centuries, and has started the bootcamp hoping to train a warrior strong enough to finally end their existence.
Sounds like you've got a game idea to work on!
I do like games that let you challenge the final boss at any time, essentially letting you determine how difficult the fight will be based on how prepared you are.
Chrono Trigger and Breath of the Wild are two games that come to mind that do this, but I'm sure there are others.
Sounds like FFX🤔
Imagine the boss is just in the bar of the town drinking some coffe and reading while you are getting stronger to fight him
He might not even be a villain but just some really strong hero wanting to retire and training the new generation to make sure the world will be in good hands after he is gone
This happens in a game, but I forget which game. I think it's in one of the Fable games, or maybe Two Worlds or Too Human, there are speedruns of it where they get good equipment and immediately destroy the final boss in the first town. I think it was meant to be a big twist and you're supposed to do it at the end of the game after solving the mystery, I've never played it.
@BAIGAMING it was the first Two Worlds game - and I love that you can do that haha
Praised the game for an RPGMaker feature. Truly a game that is down in the dumps.
Completely unintentional! I thought the settings menu might be similar to Unity in that it isn't pre-set... apparently that's not the case. Now I know for when I'm reviewing RPGMaker games in the future, and I'm sure there will be plenty of them
@@Graeldon As someone who uses RPG Maker a lot for their own games (Which sadly won't appear in these videos cus I am not on Steam) I would like to ask you to be a little easier on their options.
The engine REALLY does not give us much wiggle room for what we can do, ESPECIALLY in the days of VX Ace which I am SO glad to have moved on from.
I mean, MV (The next one) doesn't even let you change the window colours and still does not have a fullscreen or any default ability to mess with the resolution. (And volume adjusts in figures of 20% instead of something reasonable like 5%, so you'll immediately go from ear-blastingly loud to super quiet.)
VX Ace TECHNICALLY lets you mess with the resolution but...uh...no, it doesn't, you can make it like-15% bigger and then all of the assets are going to look weird because nothing was made with this in mind.
You can tell by the art style what RPG Maker engine it was made in, and this one was VX Ace so a lot of issues with the game will be because VX is just garbage.
I do think MV games are MUCH better even without plugins, but the fact it switched to a language that more people use did WONDERS for its community made assets, and MZ incorporated a lot of those features into the newer MZ. (Wow, over a decade to be able to control the resolution! It even lets you change the game and text size separately!)
I'd go into more detail about all the things that make it hard to make a good game with RPG Maker but I'm sure you're already wanting this comment to end.
That was quite interesting actually, thank you!
I've always been aware of RPGMaker as an engine, but I don't know much about it. So thank you for sharing some of the limitations of the engine
@@Graeldon I'm glad. :)
Basically, if it looks like it's in VX Ace: prepare for the most bare-bones thing you've ever seen because nobody wants to code for it and the developers refuse to do so for any of their projects.
But at least past then it moved onto languages people used XD
I still can't believe HP cost skills aren't a default part of the engine...or life steal weapons.
@@TheGreatBackUpVIDEOS I managed to track down a few scripts that let you use a fullscreen function that decently upscales sprites without blurring the entire thing. They were a boon for my game.
For developers, it's really hard to get seen because of over-saturation. That is, projects like this and others basically have made Steam have like 70 releases a day. This is why I don't actually think there's oversaturation in seriously developed games. There's no oversaturation of serious developers, because 80% of these 'devs' are gold rushing into the celebrity of the idea of creating a video game. If you've ever been to a gaming convention or a game jam you realize that everyone and their dog is making a game, but few are really willing to put in a decade of sacrifice to it or actually take it very seriously.
In the AAA world, there are literally talks about "well, you're going to release an unfinished buggy mess and that's okay you can just fix it later" and in the indie world there are literally talks of "well, you have to scale it back, don't make that ultimate dream project or reach for the stars", and this is where we are today in the industry.
honestly preach.
Great analysis, and a very real take on the current gaming landscape...
I've been working on my game for 5 years and sometimes when I see things like this it makes me feel like I'm dumb for not just doing some cheap asset flip just to pay the bills.
there is a difference between not shoting for the starts and not even trying.
an indie need to have realistic expectations.
when i played ocarine of time i wanted to make an game like this, but even as an kid i knew that it was impossible to do every part of it alone, so i tried to see what other people were doing in small teams and tried to do something similiar instead.
nowadays people play games made by 1500 persons and think they could do better by thenselves just because they have an easy to use tool like RPG Maker or an powerful tool like Unreal (that big studios also use)
@@amuro9624 you arent dumb.
but you need to pay the bills in the mean time so find an temporary job then when you get enough exp try to crowd fund an project or anything like that.
14:15 The reason why the thing turned into a chimera is that it’s an RPG Maker boss asset. Bosses can’t turn around, they only have one “front” sprite, therefore if you don’t lock their position RPG Maker will try to turn them if you talk to them at a different angle form the default one. That results into the sprite changing to whatever tre software thinks it’s the correct sprite, based on their position on the boss monster asset sheet. If the other assets didn’t already give it away, this’s the definite proof that the developer used RPG Maker to create a shallow game to earn a quick buck, with no care for making it work. I remember when I was in middle school I also tried to make a game with RPG Maker, but I would stay up late to fix the visual issues caused by the sprites or any problem that had to do with events…
How did the game you made turn out?
I’m guessing your game still had more of a plot at least. Lack of polish can be expected from amateurs (of which I probably still count despite growing up with RPG Maker), but passion can still create something of substance. I’d rather play whatever your game was, rough edges and all, than this pure asset flip that knows it has no reason to exist beyond being an asset flip.
And hey, the rough edges on your game couldn’t be any worse than the one game I made with VX Ace. Short version, I got that version of RPG Maker-and Steam as a whole-with my first laptop, but that quickly turned into a potato that lagged running freaking Word. I did finish it, but out of nine chapters, I only tested seven, because by that point trying to actually play the game on that laptop just wasn’t worth it.
@@isenokami7810 It was a long time ago, I think I was 12, and although I think the plot was interesting, I was a bit of a perfectionist and I wanted to have lots of systems all working perfectly. I didn’t understand the concept of “focus”, so I just threw in everything I thought was interesting. Sure, the systems were polished to an extreme, but there were too many. After a year, I only had the tutorial done because that… after a while I abandoned the project, but I’ve lately been thinking that I should take it up again
@@xarim4769 I feel that. Not a perfectionist myself, but a while back ambition got the best of me, made me want to make custom battler sprites from scratch on a project, personalized for each character. I…haven’t been on RPG Maker in years because progress stalled right away on those, never felt up to working on them. Didn’t really help that the project was an MLP fan game, meaning I was dealing with quadrupeds and trying to work out how they’d move in my head.
Though yeah, I wanted to put that much effort into a fan game, compared to the non-game that is Arcane Raise. It was more the state of Sonic RPG Maker games that put this thought in my head, but the result is the same regardless: I want anything I make in RPG Maker to be a serious game made with passion, and not one of these lazily barfed out messes. I want anything I may release to be among the better examples of what RPG Maker can do, at least compared to the expectation of, well, this.
17:21 The fact that even a game like this STILL got a Mixed reception at best instead of Overwhelmingly Negative gives me a lot of hope for my own game dev endeavours...
i doubt it's from any consumers. Not uncommon for companies/groups to weasel in fake positive reviews to trick people
Maybe my rpg has a chance if something like this can get a decent amount of reviews😂
@@wofan1000 you need to constantly design every aspect wrong
Even then, doesn't "overwhelmingly negative" require like at least 50k reviews?
@@TrlDMC.1 That would be about a thousand reviews if you're going for the overwhelming positive or negative title.
Based on the steam reviews it seems that the reason the "give all achievements" button exists is because it gives you in-store currency for steam that allows you to buy a wallpaper.
It didn't work for me, so maybe something is broken? Still, I can't imagine myself ever buying a game just to get a monocoloured background lol
Also achievements boost the rate you get cards at
I didn't think Steam did that because it was exploitable?
@@EdKolis They could have cracked down on stuff like that, but it was definitely a thing at one point. There were instances of essentially the same game reskinned over and over, all with super simple achievements.
@@Graeldon"play stupid games win stupid prizes"
This looks like the kind of thing someone might slap together in an afternoon of opening up RPG Maker for the very first time and playing around with some of the basic features.
They were smart enough to put it on sale and profit from it as well. And sadly, their success only encourages others to do the same
@@GraeldonThat implies any other wannabe devs actually know this game exists. Which, this is actually the second time I’ve heard of this (forget who I saw talk about it first, just that he specifically tore apart bad RPG Maker games on Steam), so that might be a fair assumption.
@@GraeldonI wouldn’t call it a “success”, I doubt they developed a sizeable enough fanbase to even buy a bag of rice more than once per week from this game’s sales. To me, I don’t think your game can be considered successful until it reaches the level of Undertale/Five Nights at Fuckboys/LISA/OFF/Epic Battle Fantasy/etc. in terms of gaining a following; or, at the very least, has a fanbase dedicated enough to constantly pester you about new releases, and pre-order your stuff.
@wolfetteplays8894 Heya! According to SteamSpy they sold between 50,000 and 100,000 copies - that's a decent amount of cash for most people even after the cut that Steam would take.
@@Graeldon holy shit… I assumed it was in the low 5 digit range. That is far higher than I was expecting 😳 I am losing faith in modern day gaming and my ability to keep up with the scene
the more i see of these awful Rpg maker games the more confident i feel about my own, at least i have hand drawn monsters and an insane but existant plot
An insane plot of better than no plot at all!
@@GraeldonMoloch has stolen the Amulet of Yendor from your god %s! As a newly trained %s of %s, you have been given a quest. Go bravely with %s!
Please don't forget such classics as "Suits," "Mad Father," or "Off."
Insane *works.*
@@underthepaleamber throne got bad reviews but even that at least tried to make a real game.
Yeah, my first demo made in a single night without knowing what I was doing was more of a game than this lol
As an aspiring dev who uses RPG Maker, seeing this game disappoints me.
I've played RPG Maker games that are fun and well-balanced, and even a few games that use default assets, but make up for it with lovable, memorable characters, and plots that can make me go as far as to break down in tears because they genuinely move me so much.
RPG Maker is a powerful tool in the right hands. My hope is that aspiring devs will learn from games like this and make something better.
It's okay to use default assets. I get it. Art is hard. But at least try to make a good game and not try to milk your players for their money.
Indeed, when i was 14 i played a VX one that used almost all default assets. It's an Italian game called Overdrive (i think it is kinda "famous"). I checked the dev facebook a month or so ago tho, they won't finish it anymore, as it was dedicated to his then girlfriend, and they broke up TT
Definitely, with a little more effort they could make something better. Maybe they just too lazy and greedy to even try.
RPG Maker VXA to me is very handy and inspiring tool!
Or at least find someone who creates art and buy from them(and use it if they allow it which they normally do), just as long as it fits the theme of the game. Or find a friend and they create the art for the game, so you can work as a team or something
Nah it rather play a hand draw rpg maker assets than the default ones, they're over used
Umbral Soul is a great example of this. Despite using mostly RTP assets and default characters, it sets itself apart with its characters, story, and general concept. Yeah, "You play as the villain" has been done before, but this particular game does it really well cause many things are in shades of gray rather than purely black or white. I respect that game despite it having some flaws (Notably a good chunk of permanently missable stuff).
Compare that to this, a game with no soul and made solely to make a quick buck.
Dev really likes latin. Aurum is latin for gold, umbra means shadow, anima has quite a few meaning (like mind, spirit or even heart), and sanctus means saint. Very straightfoward names for an RPG.
The dev doesn't lie... You WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER the game! Though not for the good reason.
100% agree!
For the sake of my own sanity, I'll choose to believe that this whole thing was satire lol
@@supercyclone8342pretty true
Little correction: Final Fantasy is not the grandfather of all JRPGs. That is a very hard game to nail down, but most people would attribute it to Dragon Quest 1, which released the year prior and is leagues more popular in japan than final fantasy. It's basically synonymous with the phrase "RPG" over there and is partially responsible for all the shitty high fantasy isekai being made right now. Final Fantasy meanwhile is an afterthought to its own country.
I have to agree with you, and that was an oversight in my script. Likely just my personal bias showing as a long time FF fan ❤️
The Grandfather of Premodern RPG and JRPG convention Was Sweet Home and Dragon Warrior. Remember that Final Fantasy was called such because it was going to be Square's FINAL attempt to even DO an RPG! xD
@@metalspinda9594 That's actually a myth. They were originally going to call it "Fighting Fantasy", but the name was already taken, so they just changed it to "Final Fantasy" to preserve the alliteration.
Today Persona 5 is the best JRPG in my opinion, because it has stylized graphics and sticks to turn-based play.
@@astrahcat1212the rpg gameplay is way too weak imo random encounters feel like mini games
So here's why the game gives you the option to unlock all achievements - there is an entire genre of games on Steam colloquially known as Achievement Farms, where the sole purpose is to get a ton of achievements in order to raise your Steam level. There's a couple of niche features tied to your Steam level, one of which I think is your friends cap, and these Achievement farms are an inexpensive way for people to raise theirs. It's a win-win-lose scenario, the devs and farmers win, and the people who have no idea lose.
I thought that might be the case originally, but I would have expected a large quantity of achievements. Take a look at my !Anyway! Review as an example - it has 5000 achievements.
The achievement farm games I've found so far also unlock them as soon as you begin playing, not after a tutorial, and they certainly aren't optional.
It's still possible that's what this game is, they've just done it in a way I haven't seen before
@@Graeldon maybe that "optional" thing is to make an illusion of it being a normal game?
Achivements do not raise your steam level, crafting badges do
Everytime I hear about that the first thing I think about is digital homicide
Achievements don't give levels though. Achievements are completely detached from any other feature but themselves, and their associated profile showcases.
This game honestly feels to me like a prototype for a longer, better game, what with the unique currency name and the small bit of lore given to you in the town. It feels like a debug room more than anything.
They did make sequels (and a prequel) that were apparently just as bad. So bad that they got delisted from Steam
not that as it was a tcg scam@@Graeldon
I wouldn't say using gold in another language is a unique currency name. Pretty sure it's not even the only rpg to use aurum as the currency, but I can't remember for sure what game did it.
this is literally just default RPG maker, none of this is original.
This feels like a debug map, just a place where everything is conveniently in one place to test mechanics.
Nameless Shades as rpg protagonists?
...A concept wasted on this game.
Imagine: 3-6 possible backgrounds per character, randomly determined early in the playthrough, and as they continue their escape from the spirit world back to life, they remember more.
...This is a concept that would live or die based on the quality of its writing.
The classic amnesia story!
I actually was hoping Arcane Raise was going to do something like that.
Not even close.
I think fear amd hunger dose something similar to this idea
Sorta similar but not quite can be found in Planescape: Torment
Sort of reminds me of Nechronica -The Long Long Sequel -
A tabletop roleplaying game where you play as the resurrected dead. Everything in this world is dead or about as dead as you are, and you have to come to terms with that fact. Along the way, you will remember pieces of your old life before you died, shaping your character along.
@@a13m34kind of, the characters have set backgrounds and stuff but certain choices you make in their text based intros at the start of a run change your skills and some of the good ones are REALLY good
"Aurum" is literally the latin word for "gold". It's where the atomic symbol "Au" comes from. Similar to how "plumbum" is the Latin word for lead, hence "Pb" as its symbol. Most elements with strange letters for the element symbol (Potassium, Antimony, Tin, Copper, etc) have similar origins. The exception is Tungsten, whose symbol "W" comes from the fact that in the US it was called "Wolfram" due to a dispute over who had naming rights. The "W" was a compromise.
Correct, and that's why I take issue with the name - nothing else in the game has names with latin origin so thematically it just doesn't fit. Everything else is just standard high fantasy stuff.
Funnily enough though, the "lore" DLC text dump actually has several latin references in the chapter titles.
So had the lore actually made it into the game, I would have been less harsh on it
@@Graeldon Ehh, I thought your criticism of the word was way more pretentious and obnoxious than the inclusion of the word itself. It's where I clicked away from the video.
same, his reasoning also makes sense
As someone has used the RPG Maker franchise for a long time, it is noted that not only does the game use the default assets that comes with the engine itself; as stated by other commenters; it also uses no original content besides the character's names. The maps, the weapons stats, the classes stats, the enemy stats, EVERYTHING is default when you start a new project in the engine (More specifically RPG Maker VX Ace). Even the majority of the maps are default template maps that can be access by right clicking the map selection scene in the project editor. They just threw something together to make a quick buck on steam if it was paid for.
It's a bit disappointing that RPGMaker (and other game engines) get abused in this way, but it's also unsurprising.
I thought stock assets were being used, but I didn't know to what extent.
I'd love to see the creators of RPG Maker sue this joker, but that might discourage people from using the tool... Would that be a bad thing or a good thing?
@@EdKolis I don't mean to discourage people from using the RPG Maker series / engines. Some cool products have came out with people who built experience over years to create beatifical projects like Changed, Omori, Lisa the Painful, etc. The problem is that many new developers try to go straight into the engine expecting to make the next "Mona Lisa" and then selling it on Steam for $10. (Even worse if you sell it for $0.99 like newer devs). The best advice is that for your first, second, third, etc ; do not sell it. Even if it's your tenth, create your own assets. Barely anyone will buy a RPG Maker game with default assets, except RPG Maker devs. Again, the engine is perfect for beginner AND expert devs, but don't try to sell a game with only default assets without a purpose.
The default assets are perfectly fine. Stop gate keeping. Most people making that complaint have never made a game period. Everyone's a critic.
Years ago I was a part of the german RPG Maker scene. There was this huge shift, trying to convince people to not ripp obscure graphics from japanese super famicom games and because of a lack of free assets available (especially in the "higher resolution" newer RPG Makers) most newcomers gobbled something together with the default assets, putting not work into their projects at all. Slowly the scene got from "fangames inspired by the SNES era and similar" to "how to make money on steam without any effort at all". Some people even showed off the included Example-Maps as proof "how good" their new game will be.
Its really sad to see where the scene ended, because here in germany it was big. I mean... one of the biggest people here went on and made the highly acclaimed commercial Cross;Code...
Interesting. Now that you mention it, I used to play two horror GRPG titled 'Desert Nightmare' and 'Taut', both were still my favorites to this day. I found German RPGmaker games to be quite unique due its blend of Western and Central Europe mythics in a more realistic theme.
Damn, that's a cool backstory for CrossCode though; that game is amazing
"Au" isn't a super creative change from Gold, but imo it does deserve to be a positive rather than a negative.
I was a bit harsh on it, and I overlooked the fact that the 3 MC's also have Latin names, so there is a thematic link there. So it's not as bad as I initially thought.
I'm still annoyed that they chose to put time and energy into a creative currency name rather than the actual game though.
Yeah, it's weird its the only non-cliché thing in the game but it's better than nothing.
@@Graeldon I mean... you yourself said it wasn't a very significant change. Sure, it would be great to see more work done on this game, but do you really think a simple change from "gold" to its literal chemical symbol really took THAT much away?
@@fraidybat123It was probably the thing with the most effort put into it in the game
RPG assets aside, the CONCEPT is good at least. Having to train a party of wayward souls until they are strong enough to traverse to the world of the living isn't a bad premise on paper. And hell, giving a mage a GUN is BRILLIANT! There was potential for something good here! Like maybe each dungeon had something special for each party member; a memento or something that they would earn from a boss that symbolized something when they were alive, something to give them a modicum of a backstory.
But man, what a waste...
Love the idea of each dungeon unlocking past memories - A journey to discover their past before they can move on... could need to complete something unresolved in their past life etc.
Unfortunately we have to judge the game based on what it is, not what it could have been.
But yes, more mages with guns please
@@GraeldonIsn't there a new game coming out called Wizard with a Gun? Also one called Squirrel with a Gun... 🐿️🧙
@EdKolis I actually hadn't heard of Wizard with a Gun until another commenter mentioned it.
Weirdly, I had heard of Squirrel with a Gun though...
This is exactly what I was thinking. I was thinking it would've made a decent roguelike game where progressing will slowly uncover the protagonists' pasts, how they died, why they want to return to the world of the living, etc.
And you already put more thought and came out with a better concept than the devs of this game... cheers!
"You will remember this game for better or WORSE" indeed, I see what they did there, sneaky devs.
That small window problem is going to come up in most if not all RPG Maker games. One of the signs this game wasn't good was that it didn't have "F3 - Adjust Window Size" or something similar scribbled on the splash screen. I've never seen the instructions look _good_ but it sure is comforting to have it right there when you boot up the game. Shows that the dev actually cares about your experience.
I agree, and I would have cut the game some slack if it had those instruction on the launch screen. It shows they are trying to work with the game engine to the benefit of the player.
That's helpful to know though, and I'll keep it in mind for when the next RPGMaker game crosses my path!
One of THE best RPGMaker games in existence, OMORI, doesn't have a "Adjust Window Size" on the Title Screen. I wouldn't hold too much against a game for not telling the player that. There IS an option in the options to adjust the window size, though. And most people find it, and do use it.
@@Dhalin it's a very unusual engine limitation
@Dhalin I haven't played OMORI but I'd be curious to see what the player drop-off rate is like
@@Graeldon Well, it was released in Dec. 20. It is now June '23 and I am *still* watching playthroughs of it to this day. It has 51,253 ratings on Steam, 97% of them are Positive, putting it very comfortably within the "Overwhelmingly Positive" category by Steam itself. It has 179 tracks in its OST (not counting the 5-ish tracks in the Console-Only content). If you wanna see spoiler-free examples of some gameplay, the newest two videos of my own channel are of OMORI.
Fun fact, this game did have sequels on Steam that were delisted, I even remember seeing them at one point. The only real reason I could find for their delisting is, you know, being shovelware.
Doesnt steam only takedown games if they're being used for malicious purposes?
Not sure if someone already explained it, but RPGMaker uses a single image with the all sprites for an object. Usually 4 lines of 3 sprites, each line for a character facing a different direction. But some sprites don't have a version facing anywhere but down, so they share the sprite sheet with other sprite.
That's why the final boss changes once you talk to it. Probably if you talk to it from a different direction it will be a different creature.
yes, only his left side stays the same if u talk to him
It’s hard to believe that a bunch of people even made this game
There are projects out there that are one-man endeavours, and even for them, it would be impossible to make something as bad as this, this had to be made in a lab or something
Feels like an early attempt at an AI generated RPG.
That's an interesting future to consider.
@@Graeldonit very likely was
@@Graeldon THIS is exactly what I thought the whole time
This video just makes me reflect on my own experience with RPG Maker. I actually did finish a game, it takes around 2 hours to beat. Wish someone would tear it to pieces like this.
If it's on Steam, maybe I will!
If it's not on Steam, why not?
@@Graeldon It's nowhere near steam, haha! It was one of my "exercise games" where I was getting to grips with with the new maker. Still, I think it would be interesting to see it contrasted to this dumpster fire of a cash grab.
There used to be other games from this "franchise" for sale. I guess since Steam has taken a few measures against achievement spam games and other scams those might have been removed from the store. I remember "pre raise" and "re-raise" were common in shovelware bundles, during the peak of the asset flip/spam games epidemic. Not to insinuate there isn't a asset flip problem anymore, but the algorithm used to be worse so looking for indie games or "hidden gems" was a nightmare.
Yeah, I did some extra research after publishing this video and realised that there were other games that appear to now be de-listed.
It's going to be interesting to see how many more games like this I have to play before I come across an RPGMaker game with some actual effort put into it
As someone who monkeys around with RPG Maker, there are a zillion things they could have done that they fucking... didn't (or did wrong) that made me hit my head on my punching bag.
- As someone else mentioned, the boss has no direction fix (which prevents bosses from "turning" and becoming a different sprite on the sheet). But its code was also obviously keyed to Erase Event. Switches are your best friend in RPG Maker, and using them (even simple self switches) activates or deactivates events, or creates event tiers so characters behave differently under certain requirements (more in that later). Using switches makes sure events are gone for good. Erase Event keeps events away...until the pkayer exists and re-enters the map. At which point they respawn.
- Using a simple self-switch command on the NPC outside the tent could unlock new information after talking to her once, and a choice box with simple questions would have made her more engaging.
- THAT ITEM SHOP WITH THE FUKKIN STAT BOOSTS AHHHH. Pretty much every item in this game has or is around its default price. If I remember correctly, stat boosters are cheap as shit so when you try to resell them, they go for a pitiful amount. This is to persuade you to keep them and use them- rather than sell them- because they are meant to be rare finds.
(EDIT- default price for these items is actually 3000 gold. Meaning it was a conscious choice to lower it...)
- All playable character face sprites- including DLC- are just the default eight characters. RPG Maker has a mix and match character generator- which you can even add parts to- and all its face sprites face the opposite direction. Even then, I usually export a generated sprite and edit it extensively in an external program. I can get skipping that step of you can't make good sprite art. But not using the generator at all- despite it being easy to find/use- and then CHARGING PEOPLE MONEY FOR DEFAULTS makes me want to go on a Godzilla style rampage.
Sorry for the rant but this crawled under my skin. Also might be interesting to reveal what's under the hood a little.
At about the 2 minute mark, I saw the letter achievements to the side and immediately went “oh god not again.” This series has already scarred me
And yes, those are stock RPG Maker assets, but there are games that use them creatively and concentrate on actual plot.
Creative use of stock assets will get a thumbs up from me for sure. As long as they get the level design, plot, character interactions, worldbuilding and core mdchanics right, it'll be a game worth of praise.
Arcane Raise... did none of that.
You know... waaaay back in 2010, in my late highschool days, i tried RPG maker for the first time. To this day, I'm still ashamed of how many bugs it had and how many recycled assets I used. In fact, I never dared to make my game public even for free. Yet i am absolutely SURPRISED that my game back in the day managed to deliver almost every feature Arcane Raise misses.
And that's all considering there's just a single dev behind the game. If there are two or more people on this "project"... no! Seriously, that's beyond impossible.
Sounds like it may be worth revisiting, polishing, and putting some of your older content out in the wild!
Well they probably tried to finish it in like 1 month, if you can make maybe like 3 thousand bucks in a month off of Stream you can make a business out of it. 🤷
I tried RPG maker myself for a while, but I never personally liked it as much as I did GameMaker. I felt it too hard to control the curve, though that was years ago and I may look at it again to try something. I do enjoy the process of making a game, and have always been a huge fan of RPGs. I still can't really art though.
when you put the title "The JRPG that does everything wrong" and start the video with "Chrono Trigger" I was readying my pitchfork
😂😂
Apologies, that was not my intent, but it's a valid point! Chrono Trigger is definitely in my top 5 favourite JRPG's!
I am always worried when reviewing these games that at some point I'll accidentally attract the ire of a fanbase I was completely unaware of haha
"This is probably the only thing the game does right"
Me knowing controler compatibility is a standard RPGM feature
The things I have learned since releasing this video...
I've filed that away for the next time an RPGMaker game comes up
@@GraeldonLove how knowing this means there isn't anything the game does right XD
Actually, the final boss just being there the whole time and you being able to battle at any point, is a GENIUS idea. Someone has to structure a good JRPG game like that.
It would need to be INSANELY balanced for that to work.
@@Voxelroguery To be fair, balancing that wouldn't be hard, assuming the intended way to fight the final boss is after you've appropriately prepared, with any low level attempts being for studying boss behavior and movesets
That game exist and is named Chrono Trigger, developped in 1995
@@shadourow-bathory6965 Came here to see if anyone already said it, cheers
there is a few games not just jrpg that have the final boss at the start
I love RPG Maker, i think it's an incredible tool for people that otherwise couldn't make the games they want. It's a shame projects like this gave RPG Maker a bad reputation.
Since this is ALL just stock RPGMaker assets, we probably spent more time watching this video than the 'dev' spent making the game, and you almost certainly spent more time playing it than they did.
I'm kind of surprised it took 25 games before running into a cheap RPGMaker game, but I'm sure you will see many more if you continue this series. Most are pretty bad (though I haven't seen one this bad before), but some are actually gems, so hopefully we see those.
I'm surprised it was this far along too, but I'm 100% sure there's many more on the horizon. I am hopeful though as a few people have commented that there are some great games made in the RPGMaker engine - just few and far between from the sounds of it though.
The funny thing is that there is a RPGMaker game I've played for so long that these stock assets to me have names and a story. And it's so goddamn weird to see them in a completely different and much worse context :D
rpg maker games actually take a long ass time to make lol
@@TsukiStuffs Games in general take a long ass time to make. But this is just an asset flip, asset flips aren't games.
@@antonioscendrategattico2302 that's debatable, but its also besides the point. if you've ever tried to make anything in rpg maker you know damn well it takes a while
It's crazy how this game consistently kept going below my already very low expectations as the video went on.
You were doing a game of limbo with your expectations - they were doing a game of limbo with their effort.
Arcane Raise: "The Legend of Dragoon, 90s Final Fantasy, Malicious, and Dark Cloud."
Players: *excited gasp*
Arcane Raise: No no. Not the fun parts.
"Fun" is an additional DLC that they never finished creating
I kinda like the irony of the character portraits.
The most woman looking is the male tank.
The most bulky looking is the fast melee guy.
And the fast melee looking male is a woman sorcerer.
RPGmaker! Since it comes with a lot of built in assets and doesn't requite a ton of advanced coding knowledge, it's popular among lots of first time developers. That said, while a lot of games built using the engine tend to fall into the category of cheaply made shovelware, there's a lot of great stuff too. Ara Fell, for example. That one's fantastic. I've only just discovered your channel, but if you want to look into more games made with the engine, I reccomend starting there.
Thanks for stumbling across my channel!
RPGMaker definitely attracts a lot of first-time game devs, and that's a good thing! I'm looking forward to playing some actual good games made with engine someday.
Unfortunately, there's likely a ton of asset flips like this to get through first.
Ara Fell isn't too far away though... maybe only a couple of years at the pace I'm going haha
It'll definitely be worth the wait. If I were to make a direct comparison, Ara Fell is a lot like the Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. A good RPG for people new to the genre. It's simple, but the humor and music more than make up for it, in my opinion. In any case though, looking forward to hearing more reviews from you!
@@lionwithglasses8590 Mystic quest is one of the few Final Fantasy games I'm yet to play, so playing something in the same vein sounds interesting! Thanks for giving me something to look forward to!
You're very welcome!
@@Graeldon Projared didn't like Mystic quest cause its Easier than FF1.
This is exactly what a JPRG would be like if it was created by modern neural network
Also Cpt Angelo was very relatable protagonist who just left after the tutorial
He saw the rest of the game and noped outta there
Did you ever check the "Remnant Necklace" in the magic shop? it cost 0 and it said it held old memories and you can't take it off once you've put it on. I was super curious, it's the same necklace Captain Angaelo has in the intro, does it make whoever wears it into the captain?
Also that achievement thing I have a theory on. I'm not super knowledgeable on these things but there are games that purely exist to spam you with achievements to push up your number of achievements for your steam profile. I'm not saying that was the only intent here but it feels this was added for those achievement farmers (esp. with rather basic names like "Pi", without a deeper reason behind it I can see). I wonder if it had steam trading cards also for similar farming reasons?
Okay, just talking to a rando npc for them to immediately turn into a chimera with no explanation made me fucking bust a gut laughing, nice one
A note on the Steam achievements, its very likely that those numbers are that way due to people buying the game and never getting around to playing it or an error with the achievement handout code, though theres definitely plenty of people who didnt progress
It's a good theory, but it's been confirmed that Steam achievements only count if the game has been played. That's why achievements that trigger when initializing the game will be 100%, but ones for starting a "new game" or competing a tutorial will not
so the controller thing is a built in feature of RPG maker and not anything the dev did. also tons of stock RPGmaker assets
Thanks for clarifying! I suspected that was the case! So the one thing the game gets right isn't even by design. Sounds about right haha
@@Graeldon yeah pretty much... this is lazy FOR a lazy rpgmaker game
@@shadoeboi212 And then they try and claim it'll be the best JRPG ever made... likely just intended as clickbait
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the other gams did get made. To my knowledge there were 4 sequels: Arcane preRaise, Arcane RERaise, Occult Raise & Occult preRaise. They got published under a different publisher name though, and Valve noticed that they were just spamming achievement spam games, so banned everything the "new" publisher had published.
That's interesting, I can't find them on Steam even when I search by the title.
Perhaps they've been region-locked?
It looks like a vehicle to make money from people buying it to inflate their achievement count and/or buying the dlc.
The achievement count aspect could be correct, but there's only 37 of them. I've played a game with almost 5000.
There were Steam reviews that mentioned being able to purchase a solid black steam profile background though, so maybe that's a part of it?
Some eroge rpgmakers that barely feature combat somehow manage to be better than this, incredible
As soon as I saw it was an RPGMaker game, my expectations plummeted to a tripping hazard in hell, and yet the game is determined to win the limbo contest against even the devil himself.
That's an incredibly poetic description, I love it
i miss actually good rpg maker games
Going through *every* game on steam? That is a ridiculously gargantuan task, are you making a video on EVERY game also? I don't know if you'll ever get close to finish but good luck!
I am indeed! It's 100% an impossible task though. With over 70,000 games on Steam, and new ones added daily, even if all I did was spend 2 hours playing each before writing a review, that would still be nearly 16 years of continuous playtime.
Reviewing one game per week would take roughly 1346 YEARS.
I'm content to simply get as far as possible, and who knows, maybe one day someone will take over this project for me.
Imagine in the future if there is a UA-cam account that has played and reviewed every single Steam game in existence. That would be incredible.
@@Graeldon they probably make games faster than you can download them
I'd like to mention that the reason the game shows up in such a small window is because it's an RPGmaker ACE game, all ACE games load up in that small of a window, and the developer is not given any capacity to change the aspect ratio.
RPG Maker Ace is an intiquated RPGmaker system, and every should be using MV or MZ at this point. This is a facinating game to look at, and I'm glad I found your channel.
The developer is given the capability to change the resolution at will, they just didn't know how to do it (it requires changing the script files, which are written in Ruby Programming language).
This game feels like something I would have made in rpg maker back in the day, promising to myself that I would come back to it, move the dungeon entrances to the overworld, etc, but never came back to it.
I actually like when RPGs make up their own currencies. It can be used as a bit of world building, and if it happens to be made of gold, you don’t have to worry about forgetting in NPC dialogue.
This looks like hell, BUT since we're already there, I'll play devil's advocate and say that calling your currency whatever you want is actually perfectly fine. It can be a sign of originality and thoughtful world-building. Of course, that's not the case here
Heya! Thank you to everyone that has stopped by to check out this video, and a special thank you to everyone that has been commenting! While I normally try to respond to every comment, this video has blown up waaay beyond what I could have expected, so I apologize if I miss yours!
Also because a lot of comments mention this: Yes, I messed up. Dragon Quest should be the Grandad of JRPGs, not FF. And yes, I know that Aurum is Latin for Gold. I still think it's a dumb name though.
I appreciate the feedback that everyone has been giving: the good and the bad. It all helps me to improve for the next video!
If you came here just for the JRPG content, that's cool, but I hope you'll stick around to see where this crazy journey takes me - see you in the next one!
I like dragon quest and breath of fire those are great series but this game looks like garbage
Have you tried Black Souls? It's another RPGMaker game, with souls-like mechanics.
It's actually embarrassing that Black Souls and Arcane Raise are made with the same engine, considering how much of a masterpiece the former is.
Doesn't seem like it's the kind of games you'd make videos about, but just a heads up.
I used to love JRPGs, but now I feel like there is no real challenge and exploration in them.
I wish they had more open worlds with hidden secrets and multple paths to beat the game.
Breadtube and it's algorithm. You did the thing. No one knows what it is. But they turn up the flow and you get exponential growth.
I immediately subscribed after this video, your journey to review everything in alphabetical order is fascinating as hell and I wanna see all the ups and downs. Heck you've already made me aware of at least one game that sounds fun that I'd never have discovered on my own
This game feels like someone decently familiar with RPG Maker made it. I wouldn't be surprised if the creator is around 16-18 years old. If so, I hope they go on to make better and better games.
"Game template, now give me money!"
The game.
This truly is an RpgMaker moment
All these years and years of technological and aesthetical development in JRPG and RPG Maker were only for THIS to be made! I'm very proud!🎉
1:43 isn't the best example. The "Timber!" achievement was added in a minor update quite some time after version 1.4 released. So older players who unlocked every achievement could literally just not have Timber if they havent played the game in years.
In theory the concept of having a Final Boss you can challenge any time (such as Ganon in BOTW), characters with no name or backstorys you gotta fill by exploring their world and discover their fate that led them to this world sounds cool. But it seems this was their first game so filling it out wasn't executed that well. If executed right I'm sure this could work.
This series is a cool idea btw!
Edit: 200 Gold is so less for Statboosters, you can buy like 9 per chest... If these were limited though it'd make for a much better system to add to the upper concept.
I've never used RPGMaker, but I know how to write a story. The premise of souls (aka shades) having to fight for their next life isn't necessarily new but it still has a lot of potential. Was already putting a plot together in my head watching this. This game feels like a person who'd never made an RPG before took a crack at it, and came up with the most basic product they could. If it at least had a story that might have helped. It looks like it could be salvaged, but it'd take some work.
I agree, it could absolutely be salvaged, but what we have is a project that feels like the dev just gave up after the tutorial was finished.
A project with sky high ambition, but rock bottom realization.
9:30 uhh… “Aurum” literally means gold…
Correct. I overlooked the Latin names of the party characters, so it's not as pretentious as I originally thought.
Was rolling my eyes and laughing when you read the Steam description. The obvious lies are just laughable.
"A game you will absolutely remember for better or worse" got me, though. Seriously, they put that on their steam page?? It's like the devs KNEW!!
Came across your channel in my recommendations, love the series & the way you present yourself. Totally subscribing 🌟
The fact that it allows you to unlock all the achievements from the get-go, the lackluster content and the fact that it consists of RPG maker assets leads me to believe that this is one of those achievement farm scams. Those were primarily used to get easy trading cards that you could then sell on the community market. Considering it was released in 2017, back when this scam was at its peak, helps add to this theory. The DLC for it was probably just there so he could add more stuff to the storefront to make it look more legit.
This is why people hate RPG maker. Lowering the bar can be a good thing for accessibility and you can point to gems like The Way or Thiea The Crimson Eclipse as examples of why it's good but you also have to realize that a TON of garbage will come with it. Unity has the same problem.
The accessibility of a game engine is a double-edged sword...
I'm looking forward to playing a good RPGMaker game in the future. Heck, I'll take a mediocre one!
I hear the reason Unity stopped requiring games made using the free version of the engine to display a splash screen is they realized it was being associated with garbage!
Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. Get more everything, get more crap. (But also more gems!) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
RPG Maker gets an unfair reputation, mostly because of trash like this.
@@Graeldon There are some great games that use RPG Maker as the foundation, such as Lisa: The Painful a side scrolling adventure through a wasteland where all the females have vanished. A feat not easily accomplished in an engine primarily designed for top down RPGs.
RIP Cpt. Angaelo, gone but not forgotten
"You can call your currency gold"
Oh good, here I was about actually give the coins names. Maybe based on historic ones like Spanish doubloons, Venetian ducats or Roman... Aureus! Thank fuck I don't have to world build there without alienating my players. This was kind of a strange rant out of some otherwise legitimate criticism.
Clearly "Baby's first RPG Maker Project". I did similar stuff in 2001, but I didn't publish it.
I used this particular version of RPG maker, VX Ace a lot, and I can tell they barely put effort into it. The most effort that I can tell they put in was creating the hub, tutorial, and the inn. I was able to very easily pick out which premade maps they utilized, even the stores aren't original. The forest dungeon, without examining the actual asset, I am very certain is the Lost Forest, the poison swamp is... the Poison Swamp (the poison tiles also do damage by default in the engine), the lava cave looks like Lava Cave F1F, and the jungle maze looks like World Tree F1F. All of the enemy sprites and skills are defaults (at least none that I saw in the video), though I don't blame them for not making their own enemies because I suck at art.
For the final boss, I can basically guarantee that they have it set to Erase Event after you defeat it, but that won't stop it from reappearing when you leave the hub and return, so this is definitely someone who is not very experienced. I only make games for my own personal use, so I typically only use the premade maps either when I want a set piece like the Devil's Castle Exterior, or don't have the patience to design one myself (I suck at decorating too), but I normally alter them in some way like to make them into somewhat linear mazes at the very least, and they could only be bothered to add teleporters and chests.
Other commenters had been speculating that the dungeons might be pre-made assets as well, thanks for confirming!
As bad as this game is, I think it should be noted that the devs using aurum for gold makes sense since they use a lot of latin as a stylistic choice. Pointing this out as pretentious, whilst not seeing it and sneering at it in a condescending tone, is being pretentious.
You're right to call me out on that - I overlooked the Latin character names and the Latin chapter titles in the lore PDF.
I'm still not a fan of it, simply because gold/Aurum as a currency doesn't make a lot of sense in a limbo world inhabited by spirits, but that's likely my personal bias coming through.
I'll aim to do better in the future!
But latinizing some stuff IS just that - a stupid attempt at being pretentious while adding nothing of value.
@@noop9k It is when it's done with an air of just look of how clever I am, like most of what Neil Gaiman writes.
World building is difficult in not getting hung up in minor details and focussing on separate elements without it coming together organically as a whole.
(...And No Tolkien did not achieve it, just for the record.)
@@Graeldon Fantasy very often doesn't make sense and this RPG look incredibly bland. But most RPG maker games are. Well, that or they're really pretentious, like those angsty horror rpg games.
"Look, it's trauma manifested in pubescent bloody symbolic images....shocking, daring, profound"
This has some real “baby’s first RPG Maker game” energy. I wouldn’t even be mad at it if it was free, but alas…
Yeah, I'm generally less harsh on free games. But this was paid, with about $20 of DLC.
So. It looks like everything actually *good* about this game is just straight up part of the RPG Maker engine. But things like the "A Nameless Shade" bios? I'm 99% sure that's literally the default text that RPG Maker gives all party members by default.
The bit about unlocking all the achievements is so that the game can be marketed in the niche genre of 'achievement grinder' where people will spend a few dollars to buy a game that gives you super easy achievements. Not sure what that does to your Steam bio but people seem interested. I've seen reviews like "bought this for the achievements". I wish Steam would crack down on the crapware out there.
As someone who has made my first RPG Maker game from mostly basic assets, but with love and care... it was hilarious to see how little effort i put into this one. Even the number values, names, etc. of all the weapon are the default list. Can't confirm, but I bet your ass the tutorial character's bio is a default placeholder too. It's like having a huge set of Lego bricks, from which you can build something fun and unique and creative, or you could just randomly throw together someithing with no rhyme, reason or effort.
This game made my old unfinished RPG MAKER FES games look like fully developed masterpieces.
I haven't even played the game and I feel...hollow. It doesn’t have a story, only has a single boss, and when you beat said boss, there isn't even an ending. This seems like an utterly vapid experience.
That's a pretty accurate description. I finished it and thought "well that was pointless".
It looks like literally someone's first attempt at understanding how RPGMaker works.
Putting it on Steam is like trying to sell your child's kindergarten scribbles on the international art market.
14:12 The reason this happens is because the sprite sheet they used (one of the default rpg maker ones) only has sprites facing one way. Usually RPG Maker sheets contains sprites for each direction, so when you approach it from below it tries to change into the bottom facing sprite which in this case contains another different big monster. You can force the event to stay in a fixed position by toggling a single setting after you place it in the RPG Maker editor.
Firstly: I'm so happy I have found this gem of a channel! Directly subscribed too!
Secondly: On the bright side of this "game", I now want to start up RPG Maker and start making a new game. Maybe use this "plot" (if you can call it that) and make something out of that.
Find the soulshards that were splintered off of you when you died, so you can go back home to live or get to rest forever? With every soulshard you find a piece of memory and learn who this character is? Maybe see more of the world you're in?
Even thought that sounds interesting, I will, like always, never finish that. But it gives my creative juices something to work on. So thank you for that! ☺
And in a tutorial message they boldly call this piece a "Franchise". Someone is too much self confident...
In fairness, they did actually release other games related to this one, but they all got removed from Steam and this is the only one that remains
Wow, this game makes 11 year old me look like a genius. I might have not known about game design, or programing, or even how to add in custom sprites, but even I could make cut-scenes and an ending back then. Even a decade later I still remember that you could check a box so a character wouldn't change direction when talked to. The final boss changing sprites happened because the prebuilt boss sprites shared a sprite sheet with other bosses. Also, not even a permanent change to the state of an object to get rid of the final boss? It's pretty easy to make bosses disappear forever by changing them to a state b of nothing, or even a teleporter to the ending.
I've used RPGMaker ACE (the engine they used) and they used default characters, default database for the weapons, dungeon 1 was a sample map that they added a little to, and dungeon 3 and 4 were made with the generator it looks like. No idea where dungeon 2 came from though I suspect its another sample map I just don't recognize.
But overall it was basically sample maps, what's already in the engine, and the generator for the most part. Wouldn't be surprised if the enemies still had the default stats.
Same thing with music also?
Probably the sole mercy is that they left the combat as easy instead of like some bad RPGMaker games where there's a stat wall, between an area you can curbstomp through and the next where you die in 3 turns max.
This game is made with RPGMaker and.. it is really obvious this developer is extremally new with the software. Quite possibly even being the first project they've ever made.
Cause I play a lot of these styles of game myself and I'm noticing countless amateur mistakes people commonly make. Everything from the horrible game balance, to very poor use of the default assets.
All these tilesets, music, enemy sprites and characters this game is made from come with the software and you're free to use them however you like when making games, even in commercial ones! It's super cool, although they get a bit of a bad rap specifically because of games like this. Cause while all these assets are professionally made and can be used to great effect, they're often used very unprofessionally.
Case & point, that giant knight that turns into a chimera when you talk to him. The reason that happened is because both those monsters are actually part of the same tilesheet! They're mapped to different directions, and when you use those sprites in your game, you're meant to 'lock' their direction in place so they don't change into the other three monsters when talked to from different directions. But for some reason a lot of developers just don't know how to do this!
I apologize if this is your first exposure to RPGMaker! I promise people are infinitely more creative with it than this!
Thanks for explaining what was happening with the Boss sprite!
My last time playing an RPGMakler game was years and years ago, so I'm not familiar with the assets... yet.
I don't have a problem with using default or free assets, if they are used in interesting or creative ways.
This game... didn't.
~ 5:06 - RE: why the achievement unlock dialogue at the literal start of the game?
Two possibilities I see:
1. this is an achievement series product (there's an RPG series on steam that you may or may not have run accross yet in this series where each game has literally thousands of achievements, each < 1 minute each to unlock -- sort of a way to artificially buff up your achievement counts if you're into that kind of thing)
2. the game is bugged and so instead of fixing the bug they were like "hey, let's just give the user the ability to bypass achievement checks and. unlock everything!"
Since this game isn't "chievo" something, thinking it's the second (this seems to match with the fact that the game looks a mess, and I'm only a quarter of the way in)
Would like to point out that at 14:00 you are fighting fish in what seems to be a volcano. Clearly not their environment but pretty badass in my opinion
Obviously this is an RPG Maker asset flip, but not even all the maps are original. The forest is a sample map to reach you how to use looping maps to make confusing, maze-like layouts. 100% someone’s weekend project if it’s not an attempt at shovelware.
Having read a lot of the comments here, I'm actually shocked by how many assets are samples/free. I think only the tutorial, the hub area and maybe the tavern are original assets
Very much an incomplete RPGMaker demo that I could make in an hour. Looking forward to seeing you cover more like it!
I think the people who didn't lit the first bonfire and didn't chop down the trees are the ones who picked up the game on sale and still didn't play it yet.
Fallout 4 mods disable archievements, so the people who "didn't enter the wasteland" likely just used mods.
I believe Steam only tracks achievement percentages for people who have actually run the game since the achievements were added.
E.g. if 100 people buy the game, but only one person actually installs and plays it, the game will have a 100% achievement % for any achievement they get while playing
The game feels like it’s an alpha like they are trying to make the foundation but gave up and just “finished” it
The best part about the game not having a settings menu is that RPG Maker MV, comes with a settings menu _by default_ , meaning the creator of the game had to go out of their way to turn it off. The thing is - this is not even possible using default rpg maker mv. The dev had to go and download/make a plugin that removes the settings menu. That is an impressive level of commitment to making a bad video game. Granted, removing the settings is only a few lines of javascript, but still, thats really funny.
But this VX Ace, which doesn't have a built-in settings menu.