RPG Maker is neat, guest starring OHRRPGCE
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2025 11:04 pm
I like weird obscure indie RPGs. I've played quite a few RPG Maker games and am always curious to find more that are good. Steam's actually started a low-key golden age for RPG Maker games not just reaching a new level of quality but being a completely valid way to develop a for-sale game. So yeah! Some recs...
Anything made by Ephiam: Venaitura, To Aerthen, and Scarmonde. Ephiam tends to use vanilla RPG Maker without a lot of heavy plugin or script lifting, but designs amazingly engaging worlds and unique classes and characters that you may not notice it's vanilla RPG Maker. I consider Ephiam's work the gold standard on what vanilla RPG Maker can do. Scarmonde especially is one of cooler RPGs I played in 2024 and I wholly recommend.
Wolfs Moon Studios and their massive library of games deserve a mention too. Wolfs Moon does a bit more creative scripting around stuff, and turns their games more into Diablolikes with tiers of loot and rare drops that alter the battle systems. They churn out a game a quarter it feels like; I've only played a few and I've learned Wolfs Moon tends to lean into the "Bosses have one solution" style of puzzle fights and grind. If that's your thing, hey!
Veiled Skies is one I've been eyeing on my wishlist for ages. It's a cloudpunk "Inspired by Phantasy Star" game involving a species of fox-people and has a really neat fanciful vibe that screams "The dev knows what they like and they're gonna make exactly that". We need more of that. It also looks really sick. It's RPG Maker MZ but doesn't look it.
Exit Fate is an old, old mainstay. Someone built a spiritual successor to Suikoden in RPG Maker XP. I have no idea how they did that, but they did. Even running this in 2025 might be a challenge but it was considered one of the best for many, many years.
And hey, if you're tired of RPG Maker, may I suggest the OHRRRPGCE, AKA "The Hamster Republic Engine"? Because Feenicks has done some neat stuff there. I wholly recommend False Skies as a full-arse RPG in the style of Final Fantasy 3 or Legend. It's on Itch and Steam for a couple bucks and is a full 35 hour experience.
Feenicks's A Single Fallen Feather is a neat romp too! It's a FF1 "Party builder" style RPG where every PC and NPC is a harpy. Very bird, and free to boot.
I've got a couple others on my wishlist but I know so little about them I can't say much. I har murmurings of things like Wooden Ocean I want to give a try one day. I'm always looking for more though if anyone's played some RPG Maker or OHR game that just blew them away~
Anything made by Ephiam: Venaitura, To Aerthen, and Scarmonde. Ephiam tends to use vanilla RPG Maker without a lot of heavy plugin or script lifting, but designs amazingly engaging worlds and unique classes and characters that you may not notice it's vanilla RPG Maker. I consider Ephiam's work the gold standard on what vanilla RPG Maker can do. Scarmonde especially is one of cooler RPGs I played in 2024 and I wholly recommend.
Wolfs Moon Studios and their massive library of games deserve a mention too. Wolfs Moon does a bit more creative scripting around stuff, and turns their games more into Diablolikes with tiers of loot and rare drops that alter the battle systems. They churn out a game a quarter it feels like; I've only played a few and I've learned Wolfs Moon tends to lean into the "Bosses have one solution" style of puzzle fights and grind. If that's your thing, hey!
Veiled Skies is one I've been eyeing on my wishlist for ages. It's a cloudpunk "Inspired by Phantasy Star" game involving a species of fox-people and has a really neat fanciful vibe that screams "The dev knows what they like and they're gonna make exactly that". We need more of that. It also looks really sick. It's RPG Maker MZ but doesn't look it.
Exit Fate is an old, old mainstay. Someone built a spiritual successor to Suikoden in RPG Maker XP. I have no idea how they did that, but they did. Even running this in 2025 might be a challenge but it was considered one of the best for many, many years.
And hey, if you're tired of RPG Maker, may I suggest the OHRRRPGCE, AKA "The Hamster Republic Engine"? Because Feenicks has done some neat stuff there. I wholly recommend False Skies as a full-arse RPG in the style of Final Fantasy 3 or Legend. It's on Itch and Steam for a couple bucks and is a full 35 hour experience.
Feenicks's A Single Fallen Feather is a neat romp too! It's a FF1 "Party builder" style RPG where every PC and NPC is a harpy. Very bird, and free to boot.
I've got a couple others on my wishlist but I know so little about them I can't say much. I har murmurings of things like Wooden Ocean I want to give a try one day. I'm always looking for more though if anyone's played some RPG Maker or OHR game that just blew them away~