RPG Maker MV - SAKAN DLC

This tool is incompatible with an up to date standard Windows 10 operating system. It won't open any projects and hence doesn't do anything at all other than waste your hard earned money and memory space. The devs blame it on Microsoft updates and claim they can't do anything to fix it. If you'd like to waste some time you can read that up here: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/sakan-refuses-to-open-new-mv-project.128055/ Their suggestion is to either uninstall several Windows updates (which of course is a security risk and does not fix this issue) or to (quote) "Try using an emulator to emulate an older version of Windows." Wow just wow. Emulate an older version of Windows? Mind you, it's not even possible to emulate one of the more recent preceeding Windows operating systems, like Windows 8 or 7. You would have to virtualize it, which in turn would be a massive waste of hardware resources (in case your hardware is even capable of doing that) and time , just to use this tool. If you're like me and like to buy stuff on sale, but don't have the time to run the software immediately within 14 days of your purchase, you will not even get a refund from Steam even though this software is obviously broken/not even usable. Another peeve is that the tileset builder can not be used as a standalone tool as it operates only from within RPG-Maker MV, like a plugin and is thus _only_ compatible with MV. So you can't even use it in the recent RPG-Maker MZ. Anyone who wants to customise their tilesets is better off to familiarize themselves with a proper image editing software. Try GIMP, it's free and it actually works and you can get stuff done with it! Nuff said.

Honestly, this toolset seems rushed. It is almost like they were trying to make a quick tileset editing tool and release it as soon as they could, slapping on a $30 price tag to make people think it was well developed. That being said, there is a significant amount of potential for this DLC. If the developers upaded the pack, adding features like individual layers that you can move and edit sepratly and a wider selection of parts to use, this could be the next big step in making it easier and more fun to develop original looking RPG games. I would say that those who have purchased these tools should push to have this DLC updated (Not make another version they can charge us for like the Game Character Hub) so that they quality fits the price.

How do you mess up software so bad that it has no paint bucket, no easy to use eyedropper, can only edit one tileset at a time, and has a ton of issues (that were somewhat fixed but not fully) running on modern Windows? Seriously, the only way I can see someone wanting this is for the free tiles it comes with. But this software is extremely tedious to use and has a ton of issues with crashing and the like. Yeah not worth it, there's better options that are free to use.

So after playing around with it for a while I think like this: Is the programm worth the money? NOPE Its usefull if you forgot to add one thing to a tileset or want to switch something out, but for MAKING one its really bad. At least at the moment (24.3.17). But are the parts worth it? 100% Even more so if you are using Yanflys Doodads. Just buy it, take the parts from the folder and be happy. There are still some wild pixel sometimes but that can be fixed very quick and maybe they will patch it.

HOW TO GET THIS TO WORK: I am writing this review for people that can't get this to work. I was filling out a refund request as I was going through different scenarios to try to fix it and they weren't working. I was adding what I tried and failed to the refund request. After it not showing up in RPG maker MV or showing up in the detected tools list, I was trying to run it directly from the 'tool' directory under the rpg maker mv install folder. When I'd run it the splash screen would pop up and then disappear. There were no warning or errors in the event logs. The windows troubleshooter helpfully told me it was incompatible, so I was just about to refund when I found a post talking about problems with it. I guess the windows troubleshooter just says it's incompatible if it doesn't know how to fix it. "If I don't know the answer it must be the programs fault". Typical Microsoft. The biggest problem is they don't tell you how to use it and for some reason it isn't automatically detected in RPG maker mv where you first look for it. On steam, it should be downloaded and unpacked, but RPG maker does not see it or add it. How to fix: 1. In RPG maker mv I went to Tools->RPG Maker MV tools. It doesn't show the tools detected - probably because they install to 'tool' rather than to a plugin directory. 2. So you have to hit the button 'Select Path' and then point it to the tool directory under you RPG maker MV install directory. 3. In the tool directory you should see directories for SAKAN and/or the other ones if you bought them. Selecting the directory under tool worked for me. Once you've selected the proper folder hit the Select Path button. The plugins should then show up under the Found Tools list. 4. Once you see them show up at the bottom under "Found Tools" you have so then click on the plugin in the list so that it's highlighted and then hit the Add button. When done adding hit the "OK" button. Once this is done they will show up in RPG maker MV. THE SHORT VERSION So, the short version is that the plugins are installed to 'tool' instead of 'plugins' so you manually have to go and add them into rpg maker mv. They DO NOT run stand alone so if you try to run the .exe from the install directory the splash screen will come up and disappear and you won't get any warning. The fact that there are no instructions for how this should be used/work adds to the confusion.

I want to write this in response to a lot of negative reviews I've seen. I decided to buy this toolset regardless of reading a whole bunch of negative reviews. I got it because I felt it may speed up some parts of my game making process, and it has. This product does not have a whole bunch of content, it doesn't have the most ideal user-interface, and it doesn't do anything that you can't already do in photoshop or Gimp. What it does do well is help you edit tiles quickly without having to jump in and out of other programs. I've been using it to edit my overworld tiles on the fly and it has made my workflow much faster. This is not a product that is going to solve all your problems, but if you value your sweet time and have a large project in hand, it is a pretty cool tool. I am glad I bought it.

I have more than 2k hours in MV, & I've altered in one way or another just about all of my tilesets. This lets me, import assets, export assets, & alter the assets I already have in my database. So for someone like me who is always tinkering with their tilesets, I like it a great deal. UI is nice & streamlined & can be booted up from MV while you're working on your project. I would say that if you aren't planning on doing much with your tilesets, you're probably better just fooling around with defaults on Gimp. But if you want as much variety as possible with your tilesets, or you want use your own tilesets but aren't a top tier pixel artist, this might be just what you're looking for.

You won't be able to make anything super original, but it's great for piecing together tiles. If not for anything else, it comes with a decent amount of original B-style tiles and a simple animator. It would be nice if scroll zooming and a dynamic "selector" feature were added. Overall, it truly is the RPG Maker of image editting software. I rate it 15 out of 24 toenails.

I have 520 hours in RPG Maker MV. That been said, let me give a piece of advice to you, who might be interested on buying it: DON'T DO IT! I repeat: DON'T DO IT! Don't waste your money on it! Don't buy it. It's a buggy, trashy, half-baked tileset editor. It's just not worthy. With this program, you WON'T be able do to even basic things like MERGE two tiles in one, because this thing can't merge, ANYTHING! It can't deal with LAYERS... Also you will have to keep open a bunch of tilesets - one after another - becuse this thing can't deal with more than ONE tileset at a time! Even if you just wanna assemble a tileset with existing parts of other tilesets, it can't save your tileset correctly. It bugs your tileset when you save it...(And you can't even NAME your tileset file). Seriously, just don't waste your money on it. You can do EVERYTHING you need with a simple image editor like Krita, for example (which, by the way, is free).

TL:DR - Not worth $30 - Good for a quick edit, not much more. Wait for updates. 5.4/10 rating. I'm a huge fan of the RPG Maker Products. I've been using them for quite some time, and even purchased multiple licenses for MV. The tools up until this point have all been 3rd party. It was quite exciting for me when SAKAN launched. A built in tool for MV would SURELY be amazing, especially after watching a video for it. It seemed like the perfect addition for what I was trying to do. Then I made a purchase, and wish I would have refunded it right away. It gives a lot of sense of promise, but the editor is unintuitive, and not helpful, if you are used to ANY other image/tile editing program. Especially compared with the way that MV works, I would have atleast expected it to feel similar to MV. The F1 help form, is only helpful in the slightest way, and most stuff would benefit from being more well documented. After playing around for hours, and attempting to gain a more intimate knowledge of a tool that's supposed to help make my maps more original, and my tiles more sexy, I began to realize that it would have just been easier to use a FREE program like GIMP, or Photoshop (since I already own it) Every single thing that you can do with SAKAN, you can do with another editor, plus more. So in the end, I have decided to keep SAKAN, because it's nice for a quick edit (sometimes), but at this point, that's the only other good feature. And because I want to support the developers. I just sincerely hope, that with a pricetag like that, there will be many updates in the future to improve SAKAN, and that make me want to update my review. As much as I would like to recommend this MV Tool to someone I just can't tell people to spend their hard earned money on it yet. Not until we see updates, and new and refined features. A layer window would be nice, rather than CTRL+Z everything. That all being said, My rating: Features: 5/10 Customizability: 2/10 Documentation: 7/10 Intuitiveness: 5/10 Functionability: 8/10 Overall Score: 5.4/10.0 You would be better off saving your money for now. Edit: I just realized Steam doesnt log my hours when i launch this tool, because im launching from inside MV, so.... yeah. Many more hours invested in this than 0.0 lol.