Extravaganza Rising

My first instinct when I load an RPG Maker title with a 64% positive rating is to check whether that score reflects a rough-around-the-edges passion project or something that genuinely deserved a higher ceiling and just missed. Extravaganza Rising lands somewhere honest in the middle. It is a monster-collecting RPG built in RPG Maker, set in a place called Monsterville, and it leans hard into a lighthearted, slightly absurdist tone where three selectable characters descend into a monster-infested town chasing trinkets and treasure. The strategic layer is thin by genre standards, but it is there: you are constantly deciding which creatures to recruit, how to feed and train them toward specific skill sets, and whether to burn resources chasing rare variants or push forward with what you have. The monster-taming loop is the one system that clicks. Each creature on the roster has a rare version hidden in the world, and those rare forms carry access to a skill tier normally locked to human party members. Hunting them down adds a genuine compulsive pull that the rest of the game struggles to match. Side quests and mini-games flesh out Monsterville a little, offering gold, gear, and leads on the most powerful creatures in the region. None of it is deep, but for a solo developer release at this price tier, the breadth is respectable. The vault code system, where spending 200 gold per attempt to crack numbered codes rewards meaningful items, is a small but satisfying gold-sink that rewards players who actually read guides or the optional Monsterville Handbook DLC. Where the game stumbles is everything surrounding that core loop. Being built in RPG Maker means carrying the baggage that engine has always packed: resolution limitations, the familiar VX-era performance questions, and a visual identity that will feel immediately dated to anyone who has spent time with commercial releases. The tutorial does the minimum. There is no hand-holding about which character's starting stats suit which playstyle, no breakdown of how feeding mechanics influence skill acquisition speed, and the game expects you to self-direct pretty quickly. That is workable if you enjoy figuring things out on your own, but newcomers to the monster-tamer genre will likely bounce off before the rare-hunt hook sets in. For strategy and RPG players, this sits firmly in the "curiosity purchase" category. The decision-making loop around team composition, rare variant prioritization, and resource allocation via gold-sinks is functional, not sophisticated. You are not going to find AI complexity or mod support here. What you get is a small, self-contained RPG Maker project with a specific monster-collecting gimmick that works, sold at a price point that reflects its scope. If you have cleared your backlog of mainline entries in the genre and want something offbeat with a light completionist hook, Extravaganza Rising will hold your attention for a session or two without overstaying its welcome.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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