@BlinkRape one problem with rpg maker is that it has actually swapped hands a lot of times. it's remained surprisingly similar despite all of that but yeah a lot of features have been moved around and removed and such. it went from ASCII, to Enterbrain (who had it for a long time), to Degica, then to Gotcha Gotcha Games where it is now. iirc GGG got it like halfway through MV and some of the original team still worked on it, i don't think anyone really knows the specifics but that's what i can ascertain from the devs who are active on the forums.

the major one of note was the layers system for mapping that was present in RPG Maker XP. everybody loved that and they took it away for VX and then made VX Ace very soon after that was quite literally just VX but better. i think the idea was to make the mapping more simple, because layers definitely were a little bit hard to use, especially for someone like a kid just learning how to get into the software. there were a lot of things like that in VX that caused a lot of the community to never actually begin using it, i remember probably the majority of people sticking with XP.

when MV came around it drastically expanded the engine, even though layers were still not present, so it was enough to warrant upgrading. layers are actually present, just not manually selectable, so you do have to kind of take an approach where the first thing you put down is the bottom layer, then you can put something else on top of it, etc. It was clear soon after they had created it though that users REALLY wanted the system, so some devs made a (technically unofficial, but basically sanctioned) sister program called TileD that expanded the mapping editor with unlimited layers and the ability to change your tile size from the default 48x48. this was particularly nice for the older engine devs that wanted to bring their maps over since they use 32x32.

when MZ was announced, and the engine switched hands again, they actually asked the community directly what features they wanted to be added. everyone was allowed to request one feature. most people said map layers, but there were also things like auto save and custom resolutions being built directly into the engine instead of needing plugins to work. lo and behold, they actually did a great job of adding as many of these commonly requested features to the engine as possible and i think they did a pretty dang good job with it. you can now switch between the easier no-layer map editing and the layered one when you need it.

the only thing i can really think of that is missing from MZ is XP's super simple way of making elemental strengths/weaknesses, but that was never very customizable so it's not really a loss and the new way of doing it is still really easy anyway.

i've been using rpg maker for 15+ years now. pretty crazy. i really love the way it is put together; the UI is just second to none. trying to get into unreal or unity is something i'm sure i could do given enough time, but there are just so many damn menus it gets overwhelming really fast and learning how to work with all of that is precious time i could be using to make the games i have stored up in my noggin.

one thing i'm still holding out hope for one day is some PC version of RPG Maker 3 on the PS2 where we can import our own assets instead of using the ones that come with it and add plugins. that will probably never happen but a man can dream xD mouse and keyboard control for that + assets/plugins would be the PERFECT tool for me.

when i finish my current game i'm going to do a little bit of research into godot and construct, because they both seem fairly similar to RPG Maker in terms of user-friendliness but are very clearly excelling in pushing their own boundaries farther all the time, whereas RPG Maker is definitely a little stuck in the realm of small (but very useful) improvements. i'm 100% okay continuing to use it because i do love it, but hey if there's something better that i can understand relatively quickly i'm down for that too.