[RM2K3] WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT 2K3?

There's already a bajillion rips already set up and organized for rm2k(3)! (and I never thought of converting it because back in the XP says it was time to use higher res shit or something equally dumb)

Separate mapping layers. No, seriously. That shit is the bomb.

Also, for some reason it's just much more fun to mess around in. IDK, it just is.

Also, nostalgia bombs everywhere. ;^; Love dat engine...

*Ahem*

It was an era of exploration and innovation. A time when people pushed past the boundaries of what they thought could be done and experimented, sharing their knowledge with their fellow creators. A time of expression and thought, when mapping wasn't all that a game should aspire for, when graphical consistency didn't matter so much, when you made custom menus just to prove you could. It was a time of discoveries; an era of moving ever-forward with design and forging rules and ideals that we now take for granted.

Those years were a trying time, a frightening time but a time of incredible fun and enjoyment. A time that was not about money or fame, but about sharing your creation with the world.

It was a very different time and is fondly looked back on by all who lived through it.

That's why people like the engine. It invokes dem feelz, dawg.

What I like best about it right now is that people finally decided to stop fucking fighting about it supposedly being the best engine. Fuck, that was annoying.

The separation of mapping layers was the best thing about it. Having all the advantages of VXA, there's no real reason to use 2k/3 anymore, but having to work around the compressed layers is a bit of a hassle when mapping.

I love the graphics. I like the rough, unpolished, Super Nintendo look they have. It looks like it could have been on the SNES console. Don't get me wrong; the squeaky clean look of VX Ace has its charm, but 2k3 will always have my favorite graphics. Yes, there's a difference between it and 2000. RM2k has a somewhat more primitive look to it.

I never used 2k3 myself, but it was the first RPG Maker engine I've ever seen in action. I'm not too much of a fan of pixelated graphics, but I can see how they appeal more to some people than later engines' RTPs. What I immediately liked was the cool-looking battle system, with moving hero battler graphics, the option to make enemies float etc. Of course, the disadvantage is that making your own hero battlers becomes much more difficult, not to mention the bugginess of the combat engine.
What's probably most important is that 2k3 relied a lot less on scripting than newer engines. I mean, scripting is awesome if you can find the time and energy to learn and use it. But this can't be taken for granted, and 2k3 offered a lot of functions not present by default in later engines.

I love both 2K and 2K3. VXA does have its charm, but 2K/3 just feels a bit more retro, for the retro lover in me, plus a person can learn a lot just from the events without having to resort to scripts. What y ou can learn to do yourself through events can easily be carried over from one maker to the next. What you learn from a script in XP and up isn't as easily portable. Quite often you'll either need to remake the script yourself for the next installment or request and wait for one to be made.

XP is barely functional without scripts, as it is stripped down

In what way is it "barely functional?" Vanilla XP has more features than 2k3.

because there aren't alot of proprietary protections

That's not true. DynRPG is a hack.

and then plugins can be added to give it more features.

That's not only true in XP, VX, and VXA, but it's more true in them because it's natively supported.

author=Sailerius

XP is barely functional without scripts, as it is stripped down

In what way is it "barely functional?" Vanilla XP has more features than 2k3.

It's missing Equip Two Weapons!!!


E:
heh, but seriously, it's telling that whenever a new RM engine comes out, one of Yanfly's first scripts always seems to be "Restore missing functionality from past makers"

hero's realm kinda sorta. otherwise i 100% agree with the knock-off Treasure of the Rudras analogy since the actual Rudras is way better than any 2k3 game using its graphics

I like 2K3 simply because of many of the reasons already stated. There's a lot of stuff already there for 2k3 (when I was looking at stuff for XP and VX, there was barely anything there at all, or anything that I would've wanted to use), and the system is pretty easy to understand (when I was looking at XP and VX, I didn't understand ANYTHING that was going on, and I didn't want the hassle of dealing with scripts back then). I know back when I posted my game on Pooshlmer, it got so much flak for not being done in VX, and people constantly tried to get me to switch to it, but I felt like 2K3 worked best for my type of game (that, and I didn't want to spend forever trying to recreate everything in another maker, even worse losing out of things that I had already done because they wouldn't work right or something). Yes, it probably does seem like a Treasures of Rudra knockout due to how much of the chipsets it uses from the game (but as stated already, kinda hard not to use those chipsets as they're the nicest looking bunch I've seen, and they're generally good for just about anything unless the game is specifically stylized like Earthbound or Zelda), but it works perfectly fine for mine (that, and there's like no good Final Fantasy chipsets to work with).

Add onto DynRPG and 2k9 Ultimate, both of which are really nice programs to use with 2k3, and a lot of flexibility can be done with them I feel that I think could rival VX Ace in terms of what could be done (don't quote me on that, I don't know VXA at all). I don't know, it's just a lot easier to use (though the bugginess of the battle system is something that annoys me aye...and it's really REALLY hard to make an unique battle system otherwise...)