RPG Maker MV/MZ Support

Guide to translating RPG Maker games with Mafkers.

Supported Versions

How Mafkers Detects RPG Maker

1. package.json with “rpg maker” in name
2. www/data/ folder (MV) or data/ folder (MZ)
3. .json data files

Where Strings Are Stored

MV/MZ: JSON Files (PRIMARY)

RPG Maker MV/MZ stores all game data in JSON files:

• Actors.json - character names, nicknames, profiles
• Items.json - item names and descriptions
• Skills.json - skill names and descriptions
• MapXXX.json - map events and dialog
• CommonEvents.json - common event dialog
• System.json - system messages

These are plain JSON text - Mafkers parses them directly without any tool.

// Example Actors.json
[
null,
{
  "id": 1,
  "name": "Hero",
  "nickname": "The Chosen One",
  "profile": "A brave warrior on a quest."
}
]

XP/VX/VX Ace: Ruby Marshal Binary

Older RPG Maker versions use Ruby Marshal format (.rxdata, .rvdata, .rvdata2). These are binary files that need Ruby’s Marshal.load to parse.

Mafkers uses RPGMaker Decrypter to handle these formats.

Tools Used

• Direct JSON edit (no tool needed) for MV/MZ
• RPGMTL (MIT, Python) - for advanced RPG Maker translation
• RPGMaker Decrypter - for XP/VX/VX Ace Marshal binary

Tag Pattern

RPG Maker uses backslash escape codes:

• \C[n] - text color
• \N[n] - actor name
• \V[n] - variable value
• \G - currency
• \I[n] - icon

Mafkers’ tag tokenizer handles all these patterns.

Common Issues

Plugin Scripts

Some RPG Maker MV/MZ games store strings in JavaScript plugin files (.js). Mafkers extracts strings from .text property assignments.