REVIEW SCORES: AN INFORMAL POLL

.5- Needs Work/Incomplete

1- Good Start/Playable.

2-Interesting ideas, hampered by poor execution but still worth checking out.
Something like an entry for a 2 day game making competition or like "Numbers" I love that game. it's short, ideally I would've liked it to be longer. But it's great! I can play it over and over again. It just needs a bit more to it to become a full game.

3-Average, playable, the standard, what most rpgmaker games should adhere to, and should be scored as due to the nature of the engine. If the game still uses RTP or has poor battle animations or Charas, It should not go above 3.

maybe something like, Leo&Leah, Demon Legacy or Hero's Realm.

4-Well polished. Well executed. Very creative.
something like Alter A.I.L.A Genesis, Necropolis and maybe even, Starless Umbra or Phantom Legacy


5-Goes above and beyond what you would normally expect from an rpgmaker game. Moves the engine forward. A must play.

Something like, "Alex Unleashed" by Ran Master (if it were complete) or "Fey" by Ashes of Emeralds or "Starless Umbra" by DragonHeartMan or "Beautiful Escape Dungeoneer" by calunio maybe "Space Funeral" by catmitts and maybe even Pirates: The Legend of the Silver Crescent by Carius, but I'm not sure; games which not only use the rpgmaker engine to it's strength but create something entirely original out of it's assets and materials. Naturally very few rpgmaker games adhere to this category due to the nature of rpgmaker, which is all the more reason why we should play them.

I wish people would get it out of their head that getting a 2 or 3 is a bad score. 2 is an okay score, 3 is a good score, 4 is a great score.

I dunno, most games on rpgmaker.net do not deserve 5s, they deserve 3s at most and the rating system should be moderated in order to adhere to this; There are a lot of great games of varying depth and quality on rpgmaker.net but no one is ever going to be able to find them if everyone keeps marking their favourite game as a 4 or a 5.

0.5 - Unplayable mess due to frequent crashes or extremely imbalanced combat/challenges that makes it impossible to progress. Often includes many of the elements that makes an 1. game as well.
1. - Not worth playing due to being very low quality across the board. Generally consists of a combination of: flawed game design. Bad pacing. Frequent spelling/grammar mistakes. Uninspired mapping. Combat or similar challenges being a mere afterthought.
2. - Might be worth a try for those who are interested in the concept or story, but tends to be either bad or bland. Mediocre in pretty much all aspects. Generally includes some of the points of a 1. game, but to a lesser extreme.
2.5 - Average game that would be worth playing for those interested in the concept or story. Generally consists of a healthy mix of good with bad game design decisions.
3. - Just above average, and might even be worth playing for those who aren't necessarily interested in the concept or story. Generally consists of decent game design paired with some, possibly, bland or questionable features.
4. - A well made game that could be worth a play for anyone looking for a nice gaming experience. Generally consists of interesting story/characters, good pacing, above average writing, a fair amount of custom resources, well-balanced combat system/challenges.
5. - A near perfect game with little flaws.

In my opinion a 2.5 would be worth playing if the game page appealed to me, but below that most likely not.

.5 - Either doesn't work or works but looks terrible.
1 - Works but seems to have been made by a drug addicted possum.
2 - Chaos Wars
3 - Basically the RTP with decent story/scripts.
4 - Works well, looks at least decent, sounds good, usually has some custom resources and/or scripts.
5 - Could have been sold for money if didn't contain another person's work/can be sold for money because it is 100% RTP, custom, or paid resources.

I think is important not to lose of sight that we're rating 'amateur' games, only because we can pick up any game just the same.

.5 - A brain-fart, so to speak. Not even worth reviewing. Developer probably just picked up Rpg Maker one summer and messed with it.
1 - A completely newbie game. Full use of RTP. Developer has no considerations of any kind, besides trying to emulate stuff they like.
2 - Below average. Pretty much the same as above, except it's slowly breaking free from cliches as developer incorporates new ideas.
3 - Above average. Common tropes and third-party resources may still be in use, but many considerations are being made to make the game something personal and enjoyable. Would recommend to anyone with similar tastes.
4 - A good game. A fairly unique concept and a nice execution. Gameplay, story, graphics, etc. are well taken care of, but still need some polish to reach their full potential. Would recommend to anyone regardless of subject/genre.
5 - An excellent game. Every detail has been carefully crafted. Probably made by someone with knowledge in many disciplines, or by a small team of people each with their own area of expertise, and/or counted with a small budget to pay for professional help. In other words, one step short of full-blown "Indie". A must play, both for entertainment and learning purposes.

PS: May I add that if this was inspired by recent review discussions, the issue was not so much poor scores, but poor content.

0.5 - A game pretty much has to be released in an unfinished state to get that low score from me. It's unlikely that I review such a game though, most likely I just stop playing and explain in a comment that the game is unfinished.
1 - Bad game. The game more or less only had boring parts and mediocre parts, nothing is really good about it. Avoid.
2 - Also a bad game. Has some good aspects to it, but the bad clearly outweighs the good. Avoid except maybe if the premise of the game really appeals to you, e.g. it's a love story and you're a sucker for love stories.
3 - Decent game. Is generally enjoyable, but has some noticeable problems and didn't anywhere impress me. Try if you've run out of higher scored games.
4 - Great game. Either the game was fun almost all the way trough or the game alternates between being fun and just OK, but did something that impressed me. Try it unless you really hate the premise, say it uses a grim dark setting and grim dark games annoy you.
5 - Excellent game. I don't expect to give that score. An RPG has to somehow solve the ever present problem of battles being fought by using the same tactics over and over. Second, more or less all categories (story, visuals, etc) must be at least good and the gameplay has to be excellent. Try even if it's not a type of game you normally enjoy.