Aperture Core is a free camera for MZ. It is not a screenshot plugin. A screenshot writes a PNG to the player’s drive and your game never knows it happened.
This gives the player a lens instead. There is a viewfinder with rule of thirds guides, a focus ring that racks, an aperture that visibly changes depth of field, autofocus brackets that lock onto a subject, and a shutter. When it fires, the engine scores the frame on what was in it, how it was composed, whether the subject was sharp and whether it was looking at you, then files a developed print in an album. Your events can read all of that back.
The authoring burden is one notetag on an event:
<photo: forest_wolf, Grey Wolf, size=1.6, rarity=3, points=180>
No separate database, no per map registry. Events are read again every time the viewfinder opens, so an event that only exists under a page condition behaves the way you’d expect.
Three files, no dependencies, load order declared so the editor warns you if it’s wrong.
Everything CSAF ships is AI generated and the listing says so.