The RPGMaker graphics turn me off, I hate the "click on random furniture to see what's there" mechanics, and a few tunes in the soundtrack aren't that great...

...but otherwise I am really amazed what these people were able to do with RPGMaker. They rip-off many of the Final Fantasy
mechanics (e.g. materia, ships, etc.), some of the characters (the shirtless dude reminds me a lot of Sabin from FF6) and many plot beats (mainly from FF7), but somehow they managed to remix everything so well that this game has its own personality. And it is an epic story and AWESOME storytelling, clearly a labor of love, they spared no RPGMaker-efforts to tell it the best way they could. A few long cutscenes in the 2nd half are incredible, including an epic battle (again, despite the RPGMaker graphics) and a fantastic epilogue.

So this is probably the best $1 game I ever played. Since I spent about 75 hours on it, it is certainly the largest time/$ ratio I have ever seen. Score: 85/100.