It is exploring the space, and moving from location to location, and saving and loading, etc. Those little maps and building plans... those get my goat.
I just added a screenshot of the world map to hopefully alleviate some of your concerns. RPG Maker maps frustrate the hell out of me too. Thats why I put everything off of a central road, and disabled collision on most objects so you never have to move more than 20 or so grid spaces from one location to the next, and never find yourself stuck between a lamp post and a wandering NPC.
I knew I was basically volunteering for this early criticism when I decided to use RPGM, but I truly believe that most of the frustrations people have with RPG Maker is due to shitty devs who never ever cared about end user experience. I understand that pretty much everyone prefers exploration like the kind in an Akabur game where you just click on a world map, and so I tried my absolute best to replicate that in
Below the Fold.
My main problem with the standard visual novel dialogue system is that, as a writer by trade, I simply can't escape the feeling that I'm just looking at paper dolls and reading some guy's script. I've always felt like the depth of characterization in JRPG style cutscenes far exceeds that of even the most well written visual novels because the motions of the actors makes it all seem just a little bit more real. Being aware of the space of the world, even when it's 2d pixel art, makes a huge difference in our ability to interface emotionally with the action on the screen.
There's a reason why
Stardew Valley is almost certainly the most successful dating sim of all time, and that's because while the player is pursuing their own goals, NPCs are allowed to exist visually and spatially in a shared world. There's really no understating the effect that has on people emotionally.
There's a fairly popular ROM Hack of
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that you may have heard of called
Majora's Mask which features an extensive sidequest/romantic subplot about an innkeeper (historically one of the most under served characters in the history of videogame narratives) that resonated deeply with a generation of middle schoolers who stalked the low poly models of Anju and Kafei for hours and hours, trying to find the windows in their schedules that would allow their version of Link to save both the world and the marriage of the reused asset of the chicken lady from the previous game.
You're not wrong, I'm not right, but there's a reason I've elected to do things this way and I will stand on my sinking ship if I have to and defend my use of RPG Maker all the way down to the bottom of the ocean, where I will hopefully still be able to find an audience. I really hope if you do end up trusting me enough to give me a download that you are not disappointed. I'm here to entertain you guys with my story and I hope that I can at least make you smile a few times while you're saving and loading.