I would like to thank NIS America for the review key to this title.

Regarding role-playing games (RPGs), I'm a big fan of the genre. When it comes to making RPG games myself, I adore the RPG Maker series for letting me do that. RPG Maker WITH for the Nintendo Switch lets me both play and make games on the Switch, and does so rather well.

First, some background. RPG Maker is generally a PC-oriented product, and these versions allow users to utilize custom assets as well as official assets. There are console ports of RPG Maker, but these typically do not allow custom assets due to console limitations. RPG Maker WITH is basically a modified port of RPG Maker MZ for PC, but it has a lot of technical differences.

Like most all RPG Maker products, this is a game creation engine for making top-down, 2D tile-based RPG games. As a console version, it does not have custom scripting and assets, though this is compensated for by exclusive online features specific to the console version and a wide variety of additional official purchasable DLC to use as assets.

Graphically, most of its assets are drawn from high fantasy and modern-day assets from RPG Maker MZ, which were just modified for the smaller resolution of the Nintendo Switch. Some additional original assets that follow the same styles are included specifically for this port. As the game was not released at the time of this writing, I could not download any additional DLC, but it will be available after release to provide additional graphical assets of varying themes. There are also various animation effects with particle effects for attacks and other situations to choose from if need be.

The music and sound assets largely follow the pattern of cribbing from RPG Maker MZ. They have high fantasy and modern-style tracks with orchestral, techno, and ambient themes. There are some added gothic choir vocals, especially for some of the new battle themes as well.

The control interface is a bit more complicated than the prior RPG Maker MV port for Switch. While they clearly label all buttons and it's easy to figure out with a bit of practice, WITH lacks the automated tutorial that the prior entry had. There is a tutorial game that can be downloaded for some basic instruction though. There is also support for a USB mouse, provided the player has one adaptable for the Switch. I would recommend getting one for the editor mode especially since it had a lot of menus to surf to do most operations.

Stability is generally excellent, but some caveats need to be addressed. There is a far wider latitude of objects allowed to be onscreen, which on the Switch may decrease performance (and hitting the limit will disable saves for stability reasons). There are included debugging tools to check RAM limits and determine errors in events and game variables as a counterbalance. Most internal engine limits conform to the PC port of MZ now instead of being somewhat curtailed, though given the limitations of the Switch, I advise players to keep a close eye on the RAM performance. Given the Switch 2 will be announced in several months with greater limits before it hits performance caps, more ambitious projects should likely wait for that. Some menus take a bit to load assets, but no load times become tedious.

A note on the online features. Players can share finished RPG projects and edited maps and database content. This does not allow sharing player-created graphics, music, sound effects, or animations, those can only come from official sources.

Morally, there are some concerns.

Violence is the typical RPG style "give commands and watch it happen" variety, should the creator opt to include combat, which can be front-view, side-view, turn-based, action-based, or some combination of all of them. Blood and gore are absent generally, aside from a few enemies that look mildly bloody.

Language is again only as foul as the creator wishes, much like in all other Makers. Sexual content is fairly mild, with few if any female battler art that is super revealing.

There are the usual stock references to demons, the undead, and minor occult references in the enemy battler art, though using these assets is entirely optional. The tilesets use generic "magic circles" in a snowflake pattern. This is entirely generic and references no real-world religion or occult symbology to my knowledge.

Morals and ethics in created games are entirely at the discretion of the game creator, any depravity or glory depicted is limited only to the intentions and game concept of the designer. There is a depiction of an enemy battler smoking a cigar, but the use of it in a project is entirely optional.

Technically, this is pretty sound as a console-based version of RPG Maker MZ. Morally, most of its more concerning elements are up to the player, but this is generally suitable for older children on up. If you want to make RPG games on console, this is not a bad if slightly pricey option, and is certainly recommended.