Very beginner-friendly, no coding needed
Mentioned in ~2 in 5 positive reviews
“If you ever want to get into making games but don’t want to deal with coding and learning lots, RPG maker is genuinely amazing”
Steam review · 235.2 h played ↗
RPG Maker MV
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 91%Very Positive · 91%Gotcha Gotcha Games, KADOKAWA, Yoji Ojima2015JRPG · Action RPG · RPG
$79.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 2 h ago
The verdict
A beginner-friendly, code-free JRPG toolkit with a big plugin ecosystem, but crash-prone, weak on Mac/Linux and pricey. Skip it if you're a serious developer or on a Mac.
Great for
Beginners, artists and writers who want to make a JRPG without coding
Main risk
Frequent editor crashes (Mac, Linux, Windows 11) and engine limits that force you into plugins
What players love
Plugins and JavaScript greatly extend it
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“once you start using custom plugins the potential becomes virtually unlimited.”
Steam review · 200.8 h played ↗
Large helpful community and tutorials
Mentioned in ~1 in 13 positive reviews
“Years of community content that you can explore for ideas, tutorials, and/or assets.”
Steam review · 97.8 h played ↗
Runs on low-end PCs
Mentioned in ~1 in 50 positive reviews
“good engine, runs on literal potatoes too”
Steam review · 3.2 h played ↗
What players complain about
Frequent crashes and instability
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“basically everytime i wanna edit ANYTHING it crashes, and Ive lost so much progress on my project because of them”
Steam review · 126.3 h played ↗
Broken on Mac and Linux
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“Don't let the "runs on MacOS" fool you. It doesn't work. It will crash no matter what you do or how hard you try.”
Steam review · 2.4 h played ↗
Too limited without plugins
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“I often feel like I have to go around RPG Maker's intended design, taking hours to implement something that I could've done in five minutes or less in Gamemaker”
Steam review · 291.4 h played ↗
Won't launch or corrupts project files
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“I recently switched PCs and MV just doesn't load on the new PC. The splash screen happens and then nothing.”
Steam review · 359.2 h played ↗
Overpriced, with expensive DLC
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“there are 643(!) DLCs right now, and every single one of them costs money.”
Steam review · 0.7 h played ↗
Official forums being shut down
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 negative reviews
“The forums are being shutdown. Over a decade's worth of guides, plugins and technical help are being deleted with no official archive.”
Steam review · 367.3 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Unsupported2 GB
Minimum
OSMicrosoft® Windows® 7/8/8.1/10 (32bit/64bit)
ProcessorIntel Core2 Duo or better
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsDirectX 9/OpenGL 4.1 capable GPU
Storage2 GB available space
Recommended
GraphicsOpenGL ES 2.0 hardware driver support required for WebGL acceleration. (AMD Catalyst 10.9, nVidia 358.50), iOS 8.0, Android 4.4.4*
OSMicrosoft® Windows® 7/8/8.1/10 (32bit/64bit)
ProcessorIntel Core2 Duo or better
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsDirectX 9/OpenGL 4.1 capable GPU
Storage2 GB available space
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