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RPG Maker MZ is a software development program designed for creating role-playing video games with augmented features developed by Kadokawa that was published on August 20, 2020 by Degica. It is currently being maintained and published by Gotcha Gotcha Games after its formation on September 1, 2020. It is a successor to RPG Maker MV and is currently the most recent program in the RPG Maker series for personal computer platforms. It has received polarized reviews, while it was praised for its augmented mechanics over RPG Maker MV; the fact that it carried significant parts and features of RPG Maker MV was criticized.

Features[]

It uses plugins like RPG Maker MV, though old plugins are most likely incompatible with RPG Maker MZ. The Plugin Command has been improved with plugin defined lists for commands and arguments, instead of having to type in the commands manually.

It includes a built in tutorial mode with 19 tutorials.

An update to RPG Maker MZ allows maximum entries for most item types in the data base to be increased up to 9999, an increase from RPG Maker MV's limit of 2000.

Both side view and front view battle systems return in RPG Maker MZ. In addition, there are two modes for action sequencing, a turn based mode, and two variant time progress modes, a feature last seen in RPG Maker 2003. Unlike prior programs which used sprite sheets for battle animations, the open source free particle effect creation tool Effekseer can be used to create custom 2D and 3D effects for battles. An update allows MV style animations to still be used by right clicking on an entry in the animation list and selecting "Create MV-compatible data" in the list.

Unlike RPG Maker MV, RPG Maker MZ allows for manual map layering as in RPG Maker XP and older programs. Users can switch between automatic and manual layering at any time. The maximum layers have also been increased to four, the largest amount seen in RPG Maker.

A new event list is added, which shows dynamic list of all events in the current map, and appears instead of the tileset when the event editing mode is selected. The move command has been upgraded to allow you to show a preview of the move path in the editor.

Maps can now be added to a quick access list for quickly accessing certain maps, for example, maps that are currently being worked on a lot, or testing maps.

The art style of assets have been changed once again, though tiles will stay at the 48x48 resolution first presented in RPG Maker MV, making it easier to transfer assets from that program into RPG Maker MZ. An update allows for the use of smaller tile sizes such as 16x16 and 32x32 as seen in older versions of RPG Maker, and a brand new 24x24 tile size. To reduce the size of included image files in default asset games, the default included images are indexed and reduced to 256 colors, instead of the full color images found in RPG Maker MV. Assets from RPG Maker MV are generally usable as is in RPG Maker MZ without modifications, except for battle animations due to the switch in systems for animations, unless the MV-compatible mode is used for them.

The Character generator returns, along with a new feature that allows users to adjust the offset/position of items such as eyes on the portrait of the character. The kid selection of clothes and facial options are more complete compared to RPG Maker MV.

The system is now 64-bit, allowing for more advanced games to be made as the 4 GB RAM limit and 2 GB VRAM limit is increased substantially.

Internally, RPG Maker MZ data format is nearly identical to RPG Maker MV's, allowing users to edit RPG Maker MV projects easily in RPG Maker MZ by copying an RPG Maker MZ project file in to the file folder of the RPG Maker MV project.

History[]

The program's first trailer was released on June 18, 2020. The announcement led to complaints about its apparent similarity to RPG Maker MV.

Since RPG Maker MZ's release, there have been many updates that add new features and enhancements. Some notable improvements include support for different tile sizes and an increased limit to the number of entries allowed in the database.

Trivia[]

  • The initials in the names of the default actors for new RPG Maker MZ games spell out "RPGMAKER" (Reid, Priscilla, Gale, Michelle, Albert, Kasey, Eliot, Roza), the name of the program series.

Sample Games[]

One of the sample games made with RPG Maker MZ (English Only)

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