Looking through GamersGate I've been seeing a lot of JRPG imitations made using RPGMaker. I'd always associated RPGMaker with amateurish, poorly written and unbalanced fan faction, none of which is helped by RPGMaker's limited mechanics.

They seem to see fit to change €10 a pop though and add SecuROM DRM on top of it, and yet each of them have some good reviews, although I'm a little sceptical how genuine they are.

Anyone had any experience with them, most notably the Aveyond series and To the Moon?

The Aveyond games are pretty good. Well worth checking out when they are on sale at the very least.

To the Moon is hardly really an RPG. There's no combat. It's a good little tale though.

Aveyond series has a fairly decent reputation among the type of games you're asking about, haven't played any myself.

There are so many professionally made JRPGs I haven't gotten around to playing yet it would be silly to go looking for indies. Cool these guys can make games they want to play though.

Buy it, crack the SecuShit and enjoy a good Interactive Fiction that lasts not too long.
Will also do so one day.

As I mentioned in one previous thread, RPG Maker is merely a tool, and it wouldn't be uncommon to find something original and compelling made with said tool. To the Moon is one example - everyone with a soul should play it.

10 EUR for a RPG maker game is a no-no for me.

I've read some very good reviews for To The Moon and it really intrigues me. I've added it to my wishlist and waiting for the summer sale or something. €11.70 feels a bit too much right now.

Why does it make a difference what they use to build it?

imo a game should be judged on how good it is, not how expensive the software used to make it is. Some of the games in question are great and worth the money, a lot are crap. The fact that they are crap is why they aren't worth $10, not the fact they were made in gamemaker.

It shows a lack of effort, and most RPG Maker games play pretty much the same. Not to mention there's lots of freeware RPG Maker games that are probably better than the ones you have to pay for.

You can write webpages in notepad, but that wouldn't really say "effort", it would say "inability to use available tools and total waste of time".

That said though, yes, many of these games are pretty samey, but wading through the crap is necessary in the non-RPG Maker world as well.

Maybe it should be mentioned that some IFs can be downloaded for free from the To The Moon makers:

http://freebirdgames.com/games/the-mirror-lied/
http://freebirdgames.com/games/quintessence/
http://freebirdgames.com/games/lullaby/

I don't understand how you can draw that conclusion. It's an editor/creator, the games are as complex and with as much replayability as the creator makes them.

If you mean you've found people who make games with such tools to be generally unskilled, then I get your point, but I still don't think it's fair to pin it on the editing software they use.

I've seen shit in Flash and I've seen brilliancies in Flash. Same for RPGMaker. And sadly the best of them all was cancelled. (London Gothic)