most of them are teens who just care bout animations and flashy 3d models.
Not really.
If you take a closer look to most of the (too many) threads regarding RPG Maker, you'll see that the disliking is mostly centered around the void of too many of those games, void that include the story.
On the Western scene, 80% of the times the maps are empty, making you move from a side to another, for the sole purpose to make you move. As for the battles, when there's some, they generally are meaningless, being nothing more than the justification for the use of RPG Maker.
There's a game, I don't remember which, where you've to pass through the sewers almost every time you have to go out ; well, firstly I have a complain for city council, please can you finally build a road to connect my neighborhood to the rest of the town ? And on those sewers, there's rats that you'll have to fight. There's nothing to win in those fights, and nothing to loose either, they aren't strong enough. What the fuck ?
I've nothing against RPG, it's more the opposite, in what probably is 40 years of video gaming, I surely played them more than any other genre. But here it's not RPG, it's not battles, it's an artifact to hide the void of the game and artificially make it looks longer than it really is.
On the Asian part of the scene, it's a little better. The maps are filled and living, and the combats have a purpose. But please, don't describe them as having a story. There's exception of course, but the vast majority of those games don't present you a story, they present you a journey diary.
The game engine, and the way it force you to write your game, just don't let enough place to the story. The player will follow the MC on his journey, dot. But like the engine is focused on the map travel and battles, and really lack of narrative mechanisms, you'll know nothing more than this journey.
What is the reason and motive behind MC's journey ? What are the reason of each step of this journey, and what are their implication ? Who really are those persons he'll encounter during this journey, what are their reason and motive to be here, to help him ? All this, and more, is unknown in 99% of the games made with RPG Maker.
This flatten the story and leave the interest of the game in the sole hands of the map and battle systems. And, like I said, on the Western scene those are pure artifact that, most of the time, have no meaning nor even reason to exist in the first place ; what add a void in top of a void.
A RPG Maker game is to a story what would be an 1 hour version of
The Lord of the Ring, that would contain only the scenes where you see Frodo. The story can still be interesting, but it would leave you with more questions than answers. To just name the most important ones: Why Frodo have the ring ? Why is the ring so important ? Who's Gollum and why do he seem to literally crave for the ring ? Why everyone in Mordor is going in the same direction, emptying the whole place ? How the fuck is Gandalf alive at the end of the movie ? Wait, why Aragorn is the King ?
It's how you feel at the end of a RPG Maker game, whatever how entertaining it could have been if it have good maps and combats. Not that games made with other engines are necessarily better and have deeper stories, but then it's because of the author, not because the engine don't give you the possibility to do better.
P.S. also, its pretty easy to lose track sometimes in these games and some games NEED the walkthrough as well.
See, it's exactly what I said. If RPG Maker offered more place for the narrative, this wouldn't happen. Simply because it's the task of the narrative (whatever pure narration or dialog with the characters) to give you the information you need to advance.
For a RPG game, whatever the engine, the walkthrough should be needed only if you didn't payed enough attention to the dialog/narration, and when you are facing a purely technical puzzle, or a choice that feel crucial and you're not sure of the best outcome for your MC as you play it. Everything else should be available through the interaction with the characters.
