[Obligatory "hoohoo 2000+ hour reviewer says it's just ok" joke here.]

I haven't been using RPGMaker nearly as much as some of the real "veterans" of this engine. I only worked with the previous version, MV, off-Steam since 2021, and I started using MZ in mid-2023. That said, I've developed 3 full games with MZ in that time - one of which I'm actively working to get published onto Steam right now, called Veins Like Tapeworms.

I think the biggest pro of MZ itself (and the RPGMakers as a whole) is that it's super accessible for anyone who's just starting off on making a game. Like its slogan proclaims it actually is simple enough for a child to pick up and play. You don't really need any coding knowledge to make a very basic walking-sim/JRPG right out of the box. That said, it does offer a lot of flexibility that's needed to make something more complex, such as a visual novel - which is actually what I've been using MZ for.

A lot of people are going to look at RPGMaker games as "bottom of the barrel" when it comes to their quality. It's at the point where even I'll click away from a game if my first impression of it is that 90% of it uses the default graphics that each RPGM game starts off with. The accessibility of RPGMaker really is a two-edged sword: On one hand, it's so easy for someone who's never made a game before to learn the ropes of the engine and actually construct something workable in a few days. On the other hand, people looking to make a cheap buck can just throw the default sprites together in a few days and put it up on Steam.

To that, I say that's the inevitability of many 'beginner' engines, like Unity or Unreal engine; it's not just RPGMaker. You can't just point at an engine and say "everything made with this is a buncha ♥♥♥♥." RPGMaker is just a tool that depends on whose hands it's in; you don't look at a botched roof and say it's the fault of the hammer that nailed down the tiles.

That said, there are a couple of downsides to MZ I have to point out. While the engine is really flexible if you know what you're doing, there's still a bunch of things you literally cannot do in the base program and have to seek community-made plugins for. The battle system is the best example of that: MZ's default battle system is slow, janky, and depressingly rigid when it comes to what you can actually do in terms of ally and enemy skills. I haven't tinkered with battles in a good 8 months, but right off the top of my head I'm pretty sure you can't make Damage Over Time skills deal damage to an enemy before their turn starts, only after it ends. Which, quite frankly, I think is a bit restrictive - I've played many games where being hit with a Bleed debuff causes damage before the beginning of a turn.

It's also worth noting that MZ's plugin community is much more... "gatekept," to say the least. This is mainly because of the biggest plugin conglomerate, VisuStella, setting prices for every single one of their plugins. I do understand why they'd do that! People have to eat, and I wouldn't want to make 200+ plugins for free. That said, buying VisuStella plugins adds up dangerously quick. Just ten of their $15 plugins would make the cost more than this engine at full-price. This isn't the fault of the MZ developers at all, just something I think people should know of before they commit to MZ; I know I wasn't aware.

My overall thoughts is that MZ is a really good engine! It's been my go-to for at least 3 of my projects, and probably a bunch more in the future. If you're on the fence about RPGMaker as a whole, I'd actually go a different route from people and say "pick up the predecessor MV on sale before you try out MZ." MV and MZ are so similar (to the point where I'd say MZ is just a prettied-up MV with Quality of Life features), you can get a good feel of whether or not you'd enjoy MZ just by screwing around on MV for a few hours. Plus as a bonus, MV is infinitely cheaper - it goes on sale to 12 dollars, and most of the plugins there are free.

Long story short: MZ is easily accessible, but its price point and rigidity in some places can end up being a turnoff for most people.

[Obligatory "hoohoo 2000+ hour reviewer says it's just ok" joke here.] I haven't been using RPGMaker nearly as much as some of the real "veterans" of this engine. I only worked with the previous version, MV, off-Steam since 2021, and I started using MZ in mid-2023. That said, I've developed 3 full games with MZ in that time - one of which I'm actively working to get published onto Steam right now, called [i]Veins Like Tapeworms[/i]. I think the biggest pro of MZ itself (and the RPGMakers as a whole) is that it's super accessible for anyone who's just starting off on making a game. Like its slogan proclaims it actually is simple enough for a child to pick up and play. You don't really need any coding knowledge to make a very basic walking-sim/JRPG right out of the box. That said, it does offer a lot of flexibility that's needed to make something more complex, such as a visual novel - which is actually what I've been using MZ for. A lot of people are going to look at RPGMaker games as "bottom of the barrel" when it comes to their quality. It's at the point where even I'll click away from a game if my first impression of it is that 90% of it uses the default graphics that each RPGM game starts off with. The accessibility of RPGMaker really is a two-edged sword: On one hand, it's so easy for someone who's never made a game before to learn the ropes of the engine and actually construct something workable in a few days. On the other hand, people looking to make a cheap buck can just throw the default sprites together in a few days and put it up on Steam. To that, I say that's the inevitability of many 'beginner' engines, like Unity or Unreal engine; it's not just RPGMaker. You can't just point at an engine and say "everything made with this is a buncha shit." RPGMaker is just a tool that depends on whose hands it's in; you don't look at a botched roof and say it's the fault of the hammer that nailed down the tiles. That said, there [i]are[/i] a couple of downsides to MZ I have to point out. While the engine is really flexible if you know what you're doing, there's still a bunch of things you literally cannot do in the base program and have to seek community-made plugins for. The battle system is the best example of that: MZ's default battle system is slow, janky, and depressingly rigid when it comes to what you can actually do in terms of ally and enemy skills. I haven't tinkered with battles in a good 8 months, but right off the top of my head I'm pretty sure you can't make Damage Over Time skills deal damage to an enemy [i]before[/i] their turn starts, only after it ends. Which, quite frankly, I think is a bit restrictive - I've played many games where being hit with a Bleed debuff causes damage before the beginning of a turn. It's also worth noting that MZ's plugin community is much more... "gatekept," to say the least. This is mainly because of the biggest plugin conglomerate, VisuStella, setting prices for every single one of their plugins. I do understand why they'd do that! People have to eat, and I wouldn't want to make 200+ plugins for free. That said, buying VisuStella plugins adds up dangerously quick. Just ten of their $15 plugins would make the cost more than this engine at full-price. This isn't the fault of the MZ developers at all, just something I think people should know of before they commit to MZ; I know I wasn't aware. My overall thoughts is that MZ is a really good engine! It's been my go-to for at least 3 of my projects, and probably a bunch more in the future. If you're on the fence about RPGMaker as a whole, I'd actually go a different route from people and say "pick up the predecessor MV on sale before you try out MZ." MV and MZ are so similar (to the point where I'd say MZ is just a prettied-up MV with Quality of Life features), you can get a good feel of whether or not you'd enjoy MZ just by screwing around on MV for a few hours. Plus as a bonus, MV is infinitely cheaper - it goes on sale to 12 dollars, and most of the plugins there are free. [b]Long story short:[/b] MZ is easily accessible, but its price point and rigidity in some places can end up being a turnoff for most people.