I recently purchased (legitimately!) the license to RPG Maker VX, the latest version of RPG Maker which premiered in English a few months ago. I bought the license specifically for the legitimacy it confers, which will allow me to produce and distribute games commercially. VX also offers several improvements over the older RPG Makers such as RPG Maker 2000 and RPG Maker 2003, including higher limits on variables, pictures, etc., flexible sprite sizes, and, far and away the most important, advanced scripting functionality, which is pretty much like getting the key to the city...if you know how to use it.
My advice to those interested in making their own RPGs is this: If you are just going to make games for fun, and aren't very serious about dedicating a lot of time and effort, I would recommend you “acquire” older versions such as RPG Maker 2003 out there on the Internet. The RPG Maker 2000 and 2003 versions are actually more functional and easier to use in some ways than the newer versions of XP and VX, plus—and this is critical—there is a wealth of games and documentation out there, whereas existing games and useful documentation for VX are very slim at this point, since the product is so new. Looking at other people's games, and reading good documentation, is the trick to learning how to effectively utilize the software.
If, on the other hand, you're serious about making games that you'd like to be able to distribute commercially (i.e., sell for money), then you need to buy a legitimate version of RPG Maker, and that limits you to RPG Maker XP and the newer RPG Maker VX, because there are no other legal English versions of RPG Maker for PC. Keep in mind that RPG Maker XP projects are not portable over to RPG Maker VX. Also, if you do decide to get VX, bear in mind that you get to download the entire program, fully functional, for a free 30-day trial, from the Enterbrain website. You can decide for yourself if it's worth plopping down that $60.
If you're hardcore at programming, you probably don't even need to mess with RPG Maker. There used to be more sophisticated game design programs out there, legitimately available for English download, such as Sphere, but I haven't kept up with these programs and I don't know if they are still up to date. They usually have a steeper learning curve than RPG Maker. Alternatively, you could code your own from scratch.
