Money and Power

Storyline- 4/5
You play as a bounty hunter known as Max. Max is living in a world recently ravaged by a power mad dictator. Even though he was dethroned long before the game begins the world is still recovering from the ravages of his tyrannical reign. Fortunately for Max that means there's a whole lot of criminals out there who still need to be caught. He and his buddy Axl, a dual sword wielding dark elf (now where have I seen that before?), begin the game by hunting down an old friend who just can't keep himself out of trouble. Just as he is about to be captured a mysterious group intervenes, and soon Max and Axl find themselves investigating a shadowy group who seems to be manipulating the world from behind the scenes. The story starts off strong and never loses steam. It's full of interesting twists, is generally entertaining, and is anything but predictable. The demo does end long before anything is resolved but it left me eager to see what was going to happen next.

Battle System- 3/5
The game uses rm2k's standard battle mechanics and things are decently balanced. For most of the game you'll be playing as the two bounty hunters and since neither of them have any healing capabilities it's extremely important to keep a stock of healing items on hand at all times. Since money is very hard to earn, most random enemies do not drop any at all, it tends to make combat rather challenging. The game is absolutely loaded with bosses and they're easily the most interesting part of combat. In fact there's one dungeon where you'll be fighting 5 of them in a row. The bosses also turn out to be a great source of experience and cash so there's almost no forced grinding involved.

Most of the problems with the battle system stem from the random encounters. They're extremely frequent in the early part of the game and don't really give enough exp that it's worth the effort to fight most of them. In fact the very first enemy you'll encounter gives a measly 1 exp. Since you require 30 exp for your first level and things rapidly advance beyond that point fighting them at all feels like a complete waste of time. Fortunately one of your party member's has an extremely high agility stat so your chances of escape are nearly 100%. This does die down quite a bit in the later portions of the game where the encounter rate is much lower. A few of the later dungeons have even done away with them completely. It does persist in the alternate party segments of the game, where you don't seem to do much of anything but fight random battles.

Another problem comes in the form of learning skills. Rather than gaining new abilities by level you'll have to obtain new skills by finding chests hidden around town. Although this itself isn't a bad idea, it is unfortunately the only way to learn new skills. Since the abilities found in chests are far more useful than your starting abilities if you manage to miss a few chest pickups you'll be finding battles a lot more difficult than they should be . Since leveling does not provide any new abilities and grinding is generally fruitless, it can be tough to get past an area if you find a boss stomping you.

Characters- 4/5
Most of your time is spent following the pair of bounty hunters as they attempt to catch one criminal after another. Fortunately the two are very likeable and their personalities play off well against each other. Aside from that you'll be dealing with their very cranky boss while you chase down a host of potential bounties. The game is absolutely jam packed with villains. Even though most of them are cannon fodder they have varied enough abilities to be interesting, and when it comes to the main villains there are a few truly terrifying personalities to encounter. At two different points of the game the story jumps to a separate protagonist entirely, one who seems to be a lot more powerful than the main party and is chasing an equally powerful target. He's far less interesting than the main party and as of the demo his motivations haven't been fully explained. Overall this game has a very strong cast and it is one of the reasons the story itself is so enjoyable.

Level Design- 3/5
I really don't have a lot to say about the mapping in this game. Everything is very functional but it usually doesn't go beyond that. Dungeons are simple and usually don't involve any puzzles, but they don't go on long enough to become irritating. Towns are small and easy to get around and aside from spending a bit of time looking for hidden items you'll be passing through them pretty quickly. The one notable aspect in this category is that early on in the game you'll be given a choice of two villains to go after. Each leads to a different area and a different set of events, and it's the kind of choice that adds a bit of replayability.

Graphics- 2/5
The game uses a mix of RTP, various custom works, and a whole lot of rips from other games. Although things look decent for the most part there's a lot of clashing of style and it can occasionally be a bit jarring. Even within a single town you're likely to run into several different rips from different sources. This problem is most evident with the use of chipsets and monster battlers. Characters fortunately tend to follow the same style.

Music/Sound- 3/5
The music is pretty much all over the place in this game. Songs are taken from a dozen different sources and it's unlikely you'll recognize most of it. Most of the battle themes were a bit dull but when it comes to town music this game really shines. Nearly every town theme is quite catchy and you'll be coming across quite a few throughout the course of the game.

Random stuff I liked-
One of the villains fights through a parasite embedded within his arm. The behavior of his ability was very interesting.

Random stuff I hated-
The intro drags on a bit long. I think the slow text speed is to blame.

Final Thoughts-
A very solid work in progress. It's already worth playing through and with a little more work might turn out to be a lot of fun.