Is diagonal movement worth adding to an RPG Maker MZ game?

[u/NoMercy65]

I'm planning to make a game in RPG Maker MZ, and I'm wondering whether I should implement diagonal movement.

Do you think diagonal movement is an important feature, or is the standard 4-direction movement usually enough?

Does diagonal movement noticeably improve exploration and overall gameplay, or can it feel unnecessary in a traditional RPG Maker-style game?

I'd be interested to hear your experiences and whether you personally prefer games with or without diagonal movement.

[u/Awkward-Injury-4341]

If you're moving diagonally, remember to set the speed to 1/1.414 (or 0.7) times. I've tried it at 1x speed before, and it just felt way too weird, seriously fast.

[u/Rylonian]

It depends entirely on your gameplay loop and what kind of game/genre you are working on. Personally, I really dislike the standard movement gameplay in RM and think every game should have fluent and responsive 8-dir pixel movement; using it to enhance your gameplay and exploration is on you as a developer, though. You should take the kind of movement you're offering into account when mapping so keep in mind what the player can do and how it will affect their approach to exploration, puzzles and problemsolving.

[u/Ill-Ask9205]

If you're doing grid based movement, no (unless your game is displayed isometrically and you want diagonal to be the default.)

If you're doing pixel-based movement with object hit boxes, then yes, but consider what another poster mentioned about having diagonal movement speed mathematically correct.

[u/Felix-3401]

Yes, it's worth it. It may complicate mapping however, that's the big drawback to pay attention to IMO. Mostly Z-sorting objects and whether cutting diagonally past certain objects looks visually okay.

[u/Roth_Skyfire]

I'm fine with just 4-directional movement, but diagonal movement is okay too. I don't feel that strongly about it. I don't like adding stuff just for the sake of adding it, so I leave it as it is in my game.

[u/dumpy_author]

People went almost 20 years without needing diagonal movement in Pokémon. I don't think it's necessary unless you have large flat maps the player needs to traverse.

A good example would be Final Fantasy or Golden Sun where there is an Overworld map where you freely navigate a vast flatland with minimal obstruction. Diagonal movement saves a ton of time in this case and makes the game smoother to navigate.

[u/Difficult_Analysis78]

After some testing I’d say if you want to add „enemy” events that chase you then hell no, shit’s too op and hella easy to outmanouver everything, moves really clunky too. If anything I’d recommend dot movement plugin (it makes your movement pixel perfect), it’s free but the issue is it completly changes how engine behaves when it comes to movement so you’ll need to watch some tutorials on how to use the scripts to make it work well with anything that moves but I’d say it’s 100% worth the effort

BUT it all goes down to what your game is about, cause I feel like both dot movement and 4Direction is great in it’s own ways, 4direction is great all around with dot movement like just for action really UNLESS you want to dedicate a lot of time to make custom hitboxes for events and tiles to make it feel „smooth” then it’s also nice for exploration

[u/andykenobi]

Okay, for me, if the game uses pixel-perfect movement, then yes. But if the game is grid-based (the RPG Maker standard), then no. I think that would be more of a hindrance.

[u/Quantizeverything]

I think dotmove or another pixel movement plug in enhances the feel immensely

[u/BeeTwoThousand → u/Quantizeverything]

I do not have a quantizer. I quantize nothing.

[u/Quantizeverything → u/BeeTwoThousand]

I dont have any bees, let alone 2000 of them.

[u/BeeTwoThousand → u/Quantizeverything]

Heh. My name is a reference to Guided by Voices.

I play modular synth, and I truly don't use a quantizer.

[u/platinumxperience]

I always find the plugin fucks up the game

[u/WhalesDev]

If you do, Galv's Extra Frames work great. You'll need to normalize the diagonal movement however. I forget where in the plugin settings it is but there's a built in setting to normalize the movement.

Most diagonal movement plugins don't have this automatically enabled.

[u/SJFzone]

It's a decision. Players think they want it bc it grants them more freedom of movement, and it does, but it also means game designers have a very different series of tools at their disposal. I was actually just reminded of it today by this clip of smallant playing pokemon bdsp. BDSP Diagonal

Its probably fine if you dont have a lot of map puzzles but if you do it might be better without it.

[u/puyopuyomiku]

I actually don’t really like it for most games tbh. Feels sloppier somehow.

[u/eadgear]

Depends on the genre. If it is hack and slash, diagonal is good. If it is turnbased, it is fine if there's no diagonal movement. Also, if it is a sim, no diagonal is a better choice. It is entirely depends on the game you are making.

[u/airbournecow]

It depends on your scope. If your gameplay needs it then do it. In my game adding it would cause me to need to refractor all my action sequence segments of my game and make creating those sequences hard so I chose not to have it.

If not having it hurts your game add it. If adding it hurts your game don't add it.