SIDEWINDER'S PROFILE

I'd say the best years were around 2002 to 2004.

Classic menu driven RPGs were still a mainstream genre, so you had a lot of people who grew up with, and were interested in making RPGs. The community itself was also a bit less elitist.

My memory's a bit fuzzy, but I remember around 2005 onward the community started to care more about things like graphical consistency and the three tile rule. Not really bad per se but that meant games took a lot longer to develop, and there was an even greater risk of burnout. I kind of doubt something like A Blurred Line would have even gotten a demo release if Lysander had to make Lashe City look like Solar Tear.

author=dethmetal
I actually think the first Legion Saga is pretty decent, but it's severely hampered by a painfully slow walking speed and high random encounter rate. At the time of its release, though, it was probably the best completed RM2K game out there.

I could just be biased because I played the second and third game originally, then went back and downloaded the first.

I was expecting a hype missing link that was going to tie the series together, whereas instead I just got a basic RTP adventure with a few interesting gimmicks. Not bad by any means but I was never as invested in Legion Saga 1 the same way I was with 2 and 3.

author=ekoo100
Thanks for the recommendations guys. I've played a blurred line years ago and remember liking it. I'll have to check out the final fantasy endless nova and legion saga.

I'd also recommend Three the Hard Way, and Alter ALIA.

I haven't actually played the former and I have no idea what it's about, but I know it's one of those classic projects that everyone seems to love (I think there's a reference to it in the Way?) so you might like it. Alter ALIA is a really good anime inspired cyberpunk game, so if you liked A Blurred Line, check that out too.

EDIT: There's also Sunset Over Imdahl. It's another one of those games I never actually got around to playing but from what I know it's really well made, and might be worth looking into.

There's Evie's Enchanted Emporium:
https://rpgmaker.net/games/10989/

It's not finished though there is a short demo out. It's pretty cool, you start up an item shop and sell things to people.

I really like the battle background. I didn't know you could get procedural textures looking that good in Blender internal.