EDIT: It is possible to run this exe of RPG Maker in Japanese using Locale Emulator in order to view Japanese Text, both in-game and in-editor. Be advised of a few things, however:

1: English text will NOT look pretty when it does appear in one of these games (this may be solvable with hex editing, but that isn't the point)
2: This exe cannot read JP filenames for images, so if your filenames are in Japanese, god help you. This mostly affects translators porting over games to the latest exe, but for normal people such as you and I, this just means you'll still need to hang on to your older RPG_RT exe's to run those. Why they made it like this is beyond my comprehension since.

---Original Review---
This is RPG Maker 2000 in a nearly perfect form, with a glaring exception that forces me to run both the JP Value!+ Version and this EN Version:
No Japanese language support
Which is a damn shame, because this is otherwise the perfect RM2k package for those of us boomers who prefer to go old school, even if only for the fact that the event editor has colored text to differentiate between commands.

One of the real shames of the older gen ツクール titles is that a lot of the best learning resources, such as yado.tk, are accessible only to those who understand Japanese. Operating under the theory that a rising tide lifts all boats, Japanese users of RPG Maker went out of their way to make many high-quality tutorials which serve not only to teach one how to use RPG Maker's built-in tools to a high level, but to teach why and how they work so that a learner can easily transition into coming up with their own solutions to new problems not covered by them.

This, in stark contrast to the English community where googling "how to do (thing)" may only yield partial explanations, or vague motions in the direction of how to do something with no true knowledge being passed along. This, I assume is part of a more knowledge-hogging culture where nobody wishes to share their "secrets" with others, for fear that others might make something high-quality themselves. This has somewhat bled over into modern iterations of RPG Maker where people are less inclined to learn and problem solve for themselves, preferring simply to stack plugins to try and make their game "unique," only to end up making something that is not unique in the slightest when everybody else has used the same plugins to achieve the same ends.

Learning how to use the tools in 2k can set a user up for success and independence down the line, even as they move up to more modern editions of RPG Maker. Indeed, someone who understands the limits of this older title will be very pleased when they find they can do such things as Call Common Events during battle in 2k3 and beyond, or use Self-Switches. By then, they may have already worked out clever ways to deal with the limitations set forth by 2k that can still be applied to their problem solving later on. They may also be dismayed at certain new limitations set forth by newer RPG Makers, but that is neither here nor there.

Is it every bit as clunky as it's ever been? Oh yeah. You will still want to use an external text editor of some sort to write all your dialogue, then copy+paste them into dialogue boxes. You will still need to manually set the transparent color of assets you import that have a transparent color different than whatever RM2k is expecting it to be. Eventing with the built-in event editor can be a real pain due to lack of certain abilities which would be nice. But that's just RM2k.

My biggest gripe outside of the inability to work with JP text or cleanly open JP titles (not an issue the other way around, ironically) is that the localization falls flat in certain areas. Where the Japanese version of the game is clear and concise with the terminology used, certain poorly translated sections add a sense of ambiguity and force me to refer back to the original game just to confirm precisely what some things will do or how they operate.

Control Variables: [XXXX: Variable Name] = (item) in Inventory
Control Variables: [XXXX: Variable Name] = (item) not in Inventory

Is a solid example of an incorrect translation which may cause players trouble who are not already familiar with these commands, which more specifically check for Items in Possession and Items Equipped. There are other instances where it is worse than this, such as setting the calling conditions for Common Events. The Japanese game has a setting which explicitly sets such events to be used Only When Called, whereas the EN localization simply grays out that section, providing you only with the other two options of Autorun and Parallel Process. (By default, a common event will only be called when you call it, but that is not made abundantly clear when it's not explicitly listed as an option.)

None of it is as bad as the Don Miguel translation of yore, which had such gems as Enter Password being used in the place of Key Input, Stop Parallel Events in place of End Event Processing, and others, but I suppose that was the price to pay for not knowing Japanese back then...

This game/tool is worth every penny of its asking price, and I almost feel bad having paid $2.50 for it on sale, but they still got me when I had to pay much more than that for my JP copy, so I feel a bit less guilty.

EDIT: It is possible to run this exe of RPG Maker in Japanese using Locale Emulator in order to view Japanese Text, both in-game and in-editor. Be advised of a few things, however: 1: English text will NOT look pretty when it does appear in one of these games (this may be solvable with hex editing, but that isn't the point) 2: This exe cannot read JP filenames for images, so if your filenames are in Japanese, god help you. This mostly affects translators porting over games to the latest exe, but for normal people such as you and I, this just means you'll still need to hang on to your older RPG_RT exe's to run those. Why they made it like this is beyond my comprehension since. ---Original Review--- This is RPG Maker 2000 in a [i]nearly[/i] perfect form, with a glaring exception that forces me to run both the JP Value!+ Version and this EN Version: [b] No Japanese language support [/b] Which is a damn shame, because this is otherwise the perfect RM2k package for those of us boomers who prefer to go old school, even if only for the fact that the event editor has colored text to differentiate between commands. One of the real shames of the older gen ツクール titles is that a lot of the best learning resources, such as yado.tk, are accessible only to those who understand Japanese. Operating under the theory that a rising tide lifts all boats, Japanese users of RPG Maker went out of their way to make many high-quality tutorials which serve not only to teach one how to use RPG Maker's built-in tools to a high level, but to teach why and how they work so that a learner can easily transition into coming up with their own solutions to new problems not covered by them. This, in stark contrast to the English community where googling "how to do (thing)" may only yield partial explanations, or vague motions in the direction of how to do something with no true knowledge being passed along. This, I assume is part of a more knowledge-hogging culture where nobody wishes to share their "secrets" with others, for fear that others might make something high-quality themselves. This has somewhat bled over into modern iterations of RPG Maker where people are less inclined to learn and problem solve for themselves, preferring simply to stack plugins to try and make their game "unique," only to end up making something that is not unique in the slightest when everybody else has used the same plugins to achieve the same ends. Learning how to use the tools in 2k can set a user up for success and independence down the line, even as they move up to more modern editions of RPG Maker. Indeed, someone who understands the limits of this older title will be very pleased when they find they can do such things as[i] Call Common Event[/i]s during battle in 2k3 and beyond, or use [i]Self-Switches[/i]. By then, they may have already worked out clever ways to deal with the limitations set forth by 2k that can still be applied to their problem solving later on. They may also be dismayed at certain new limitations set forth by newer RPG Makers, but that is neither here nor there. Is it every bit as clunky as it's ever been? Oh yeah. You will still want to use an external text editor of some sort to write all your dialogue, then copy+paste them into dialogue boxes. You will still need to manually set the transparent color of assets you import that have a transparent color different than whatever RM2k is expecting it to be. Eventing with the built-in event editor can be a real pain due to lack of certain abilities which would be nice. But that's just RM2k. My biggest gripe outside of the inability to work with JP text or cleanly open JP titles (not an issue the other way around, ironically) is that the localization falls flat in certain areas. Where the Japanese version of the game is clear and concise with the terminology used, certain poorly translated sections add a sense of ambiguity and force me to refer back to the original game just to confirm precisely what some things will do or how they operate. [i]Control Variables: [XXXX: Variable Name] = (item) in Inventory Control Variables: [XXXX: Variable Name] = (item) not in Inventory[/i] Is a solid example of an incorrect translation which may cause players trouble who are not already familiar with these commands, which more specifically check for [i]Items in Possession[/i] and [i]Items Equipped[/i]. There are other instances where it is worse than this, such as setting the calling conditions for Common Events. The Japanese game has a setting which explicitly sets such events to be used [i]Only When Called[/i], whereas the EN localization simply grays out that section, providing you only with the other two options of Autorun and Parallel Process. (By default, a common event will only be called when you call it, but that is not made abundantly clear when it's not explicitly listed as an option.) None of it is as bad as the Don Miguel translation of yore, which had such gems as [i]Enter Password[/i] being used in the place of [i]Key Input[/i], [i]Stop Parallel Events[/i] in place of [i]End Event Processing[/i], and others, but I suppose that was the price to pay for not knowing Japanese back then... This game/tool is worth every penny of its asking price, and I almost feel bad having paid $2.50 for it on sale, but they still got me when I had to pay much more than that for my JP copy, so I feel a bit less guilty.