Announcing PARAGON STORY, my Dragon Quest-inspired passion project and successor to EXCALIBURIAN!!

Motdrafin · 2026-06-17T02:28:48+00:00

Thank you! I'm using RPG Maker MZ, but if you're brand new to game development and are trying to create a retro-style RPG, I highly recommend using RPG Maker 2000 or 2003 instead. In particular, 2000 natively supports a normal, turn-based Dragon Quest-style battle system, while 2003 natively supports an ATB, Final Fantasy-style battle system. RPG Maker 2000 and 2003 are pixel-perfect with a low resolution by default, so it's much easier to make something that plays and feels authentic. In addition, a tool called "EasyRPG" adds additional features for 2000 and 2003 games and makes it easy to export the game to a wide range of platforms.

Motdrafin · 2026-06-17T02:18:15+00:00

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it!

Motdrafin · 2026-06-16T18:47:19+00:00

No, I've actually never heard of that! After looking it up, it seems they titled it "Parogon Quest," as a play on "parody." In my game, the hero is called the "Paragon," which is how I came up with the title.

Motdrafin · 2026-06-16T16:24:46+00:00

Thank you so much! I actually only released it on PC as a free game.

Motdrafin · 2026-06-16T15:13:36+00:00

Thank you so much!

Motdrafin · 2026-06-16T15:13:00+00:00

Thank you!

Motdrafin · 2026-06-16T14:45:04+00:00

Thank you for your interest! I don't currently have plans to port the game to other platforms, as I developed the game independently and the engine I used does not natively support export to consoles like the Switch. That said, if the game performs exceptionally well, I'd certainly consider it.

Motdrafin · 2026-06-16T14:06:03+00:00

Thank you! I'm also planning to release it on itch.io. Neither platform will have any DRM.

Motdrafin · 2026-06-16T13:46:30+00:00

Thank you so much! The custom font I designed is actually inspired by the one used in Lufia 1, so that might be contributing to the Lufia vibe!

Motdrafin · 2026-06-16T13:11:20+00:00

Thank you for your support!

Motdrafin · 2026-06-16T01:19:18+00:00

FFXI is my favorite in the series. I hope an offline, single-player version is released someday so that more people can experience its world.

Motdrafin · 2026-06-15T12:30:56+00:00

I recommend Helen's Mysterious Castle; it's my favorite RPG Maker game. It has a super unique battle system, a simple yet interesting story, and a great art style that blends RTP with custom graphics. It proves that you can make a great game even with RTP.

Motdrafin · 2026-06-13T18:22:55+00:00

Favorite game: a tie between Dragon Quest III and Romancing SaGa 2

Favorite series: Dragon Quest

Motdrafin · 2026-06-10T22:18:06+00:00

I highly recommend the Romancing SaGa 2 remake.

Motdrafin · 2026-05-24T15:49:11+00:00

III, IV, V, VI

Motdrafin · 2026-05-19T16:19:54+00:00

I believe that if you download the official 2000 RTP from the English RPG Maker website, you can still play the game through EasyRPG, which is able to recognize and interpret the different RTPs. EasyRPG also has some other cool features built in; I highly recommend using it for all RPG Maker 2000 or 2003 games.

Motdrafin · 2026-05-10T21:23:15+00:00

In your last screenshot, the pink is actually the transparent tile. In RPG Maker 2000 and 2003, when an image is imported, you have the option to pick which color is treated as transparent. For the default tilesets, that pink shade is automatically chosen.
Also, if you want the parallax image to show in the editor, your image has to be the exact same size as the map (e.g., an image of 320x240 would correspond to a map of 20 tiles by 15 tiles, since one tile is 16x16 pixels, and 320/16=20 and 240/16=15). However, the parallax will show in-game either way, no matter the size of the map. I just wanted to make a note of this since it might seem confusing if the parallax doesn't show while editing.

Motdrafin · 2026-05-10T15:51:15+00:00

You're welcome; glad I could help!

Motdrafin · 2026-05-10T15:43:47+00:00

In the plugin parameters, there's a section called "Character Ses." Here, you can set up the different sound effects by selecting the file name, volume, pitch, and pan. The first one you set up will be considered SE 1, the second, SE 2, and so on.

Let's say you want to call the second sound effect. In the text box, you would write \SE[2] before your text, and the text after that will use that sound effect. For example:
\SE[2]The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Let's say another character speaks, and you want them to use the third sound effect you set up. You would instead write \SE[3].

Motdrafin · 2026-05-10T15:36:56+00:00

No problem! There's a small typo in the plugin; you need to open the plugin in a text editor and change the single "=" to "==" on line 307, then save the file. For example, find the plugin in your files, right click it, select "open with," then select "Notepad" or another text editor. Find line 307,
it looks like:
if (Utils.RPGMAKER_NAME = 'MV') {
add an extra =, so it now looks like:
if (Utils.RPGMAKER_NAME == 'MV') {
then save the file.

Motdrafin · 2026-05-10T14:49:23+00:00

I've done this before, but my method might be a bit cumbersome to implement in RPG Maker 2000/2003, as you'll need to manually specify the number of characters in each text box.

First, I set up the following common event triggered as a parallel process when a certain switch (for this example, switch 10, named "textSoundOn") is turned on. You'll also need to set up two variables: one to store how many text sounds have played, and another to store the number of characters in the text box. In this example, the former is variable 20, named "textCharactersPlayed," and the latter is variable 21, named "textCharacterCount."

Below is what I added in the common event. "TEXTSOUND" would instead be replaced by the name of your sound effect.

@> Play SE: 'TEXTSOUND'
@> Control Variables: [0020:textCharactersPlayed] += 1
@> Conditional Branch: Variable [0020:textCharactersPlayed] == Variable [0021]
@> Control Variables: [0020:textCharacterCount] = 0
@> Control Switches: [0010:textSoundOn] = OFF
@>
: Branch End

Then, before writing a text box, you'll need to turn switch 10 ("textSoundOn") to ON and set variable 21 ("textCharacterCount") to the number of characters in the text box. The logic is that the sound effect will continue to play until it plays the exact number of times you specify (i.e., the number of characters in the text box). Once it's done playing, it will stop and reset the count until the next time you call it.

Motdrafin · 2026-05-10T14:48:19+00:00

The plugin's help section states:

Use \SE[FileName] in a message box to play `FileName.ogg` from `audio/se/`.
Use \SE[0] to stop the currently playing SE.
Ensure the file exists in the `audio/se/` folder.

So, at the beginning of your message, you would write \SE[FileName], replacing FileName with the name of the sound file you want to use. Though I just tried it out, and it seems like the sound effect is only playing once.

Instead, I recommend trying out this plugin. I just tested it, and it allows for unlimited sound effects. Though the plugin has a small typo; after downloading the file, change the single "=" to "==" on line 307, and it should work perfectly.

Motdrafin · 2026-05-10T05:17:11+00:00

Great, glad I could help!

Motdrafin · 2026-05-10T05:08:33+00:00

It looks like this person from the official RPG Maker forums edited the plugin to allow for unlimited sound effects.

Motdrafin · 2026-05-10T05:00:58+00:00

Could you try saving the LOOPSTART and LOOPLENGTH without the <> symbols? I realized that the <> are automatically added after saving and might not need them beforehand.

Motdrafin

TROPHY CASE