So you've all probably heard of RPG Maker 2000, right? Well, meet the program that took RPG Maker 2000, and spiced it up a notch. RPG Maker 2003 was released earlier this year, and was eventually translated by RPG Advocate. RPG Maker 2003 is the full upgrade to 2000, making the world's best game maker for RPGs into a whole 'nother thing.

To start off, RPGM2K(3) is the WYSIWYG editor. Basically, you make what you want in an RPG. There's no coding or stuff, but there are events and things that let you make the game how you want it. If you want more info on how the whole thing works, visit the RPG Maker 2000 page to get a basic idea. 2003 upgraded several things that 2000 didn't have. For starters, the biggest concern is that you now have a side-view battle system. Many people complained about how in RPG Maker 2000, it was more of a first person battle system, and it lacked the Final Fantasy etiquette that most people enjoyed. Well, no need to worry, 2003 has an automatic side view battle system, complete with a revamped Database. That's by far the biggest update. Secondly, characters have battle animations, which are used much like a monster. They're incorporated into the scene, and each Battle animation fits the type of status effect or action taking place. So if your character dies, he'll fall over dead, unlike in the original maker where he would just be "dead."

Other upgrades include a few new tabs in the Database like the ability to make your own Class for a character. Now you have a system of classes ranging from Knights, Priests, Clergymen, hell, even Swashbucklers if you'd desire. Anything is possible. Weapon animations are also different. Not only do you have an animation like Punch A, Punch B, but now you have weapon animations that 'get placed' onto a character's Battle animation. For example, a weapon animation will usually contain frames of a single weapon in mid air. Let's say I'd uploaded a weapon animation of a mallet. In RPGM2K(3), you simply go to the Animations 2 tab, make a new weapon name, and pick the weapon animation of the mallet. Then, with the magical powers of 2003, it will use that animation and place it on a character's battle animation to make it look like he attacked with the weapon! It saves time and energy from having to combine a character and a weapon each time you want to use it.

Other neat features include real-time battle now, rather than turn based. You can import MP3s as music. There's more events, although I didn't have time to throughly examen them all. Characters can reach a maximum of level 99, and 9999 hp...etc. There's a whole list of updates in the readme file that comes with the game, and I recommend you read it. Quite simply, it's essential that you upgrade to 2003. The program is the most elite out there for making a RPG, and you can even customize your menus, in-game details, and what not. I don't believe there was a change graphically (although there might have been). Resolution appears to be the same, so don't expect to have 3D graphics or friggin toads leaping out of the screen.

As a first impression, you're going to notice that it looks a lot like RPG Maker 2000. But after a throrough examination, I'm sure you'll believe otherwise. The full file came out to be about 29MB to download, so make sure you have the space handy before downloading. I haven't tried making a game yet with it, but you can expect a demo soon if I do finish one. Please note that Don Miguel had nothing to do with this translation. Is it illegal? As long as you don't sell anything, you'll be fine. You can buy this off the internet for $98. Why such a high price tag? Because the company that made it, Enterbrain, doesn't want to pay high marketing fees to make an American version, and charges extremely high prices (for both Japanese and American versions).

If you're interested in downloading RPG Maker 2003, click the following links to download them directly. These links are not from my site, so thank them for the download. There is only one file to the download, and it automatically includes the RTP. It will install both for you. You don't have to delete RPG Maker 2000 or anything, in fact, it's recommended you keep RPGM2K so that you can play old 2000 games. On another note, you may have trouble reading fonts when you first play the game. READ the README file that comes with the program to FIX the problem. Try not to e-mail me or anyone else, the answer is solved in the readme. Enjoy:

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