MONEY AND POWER

Max
A skilled bounty hunter with a unique fighting style consisting of using a shield, and his bare hands as weapons. Max is a smart-mouth, through and through. Though he would consider himself more of a quick-wit... Never at a loss for words, Max remains confident and compotent, even in the face of the most legendary of adversaries.


Axl
Max's Schwartzan partner, and the more level-headed of the two. While Max is quick with his words, Axl prefers to let his skills speak for themselves. He's uncharacteristically optimistic for a bounty hunter, though, never letting the job jade him. He sees Max as his best friend, as well as his partner, and often sees Max as his responsibility. He often finds himself in the role of Max's father or guardian, much to both their chagrin.


Chester
A wannabe crime boss who often finds his plans crumbling in utter failure, with Max and Axl often being the same ones to foil his schemes every time. This time, however, Chester finds himself with a mysterious sponsor, and some new hardware. But he may soon find that he's made a faustian deal he'll come to regret...


Dirk
The head of the Hunter's Nest where Max and Axl work, Dirk is a foul-mouthed, hard-assed, nightmare of a boss. With no patience for screw-ups, and a mouth that would demasculate a sailor, Dirk is not a man you want to cross. Making matters worse for Max, Axl often disappears when they return from a job, leaving him to deal with Dirk alone. A job no man on earth would want...


Cassandra
The current Archqueen, and the youngest in history. Only currently in her twenties, Cassandra found herself dropped into the seat of power as a teenager after the assassination of the previous Archqueen. However, she has proven herself very compotent, and her approval rating remains high. Driven by a strong sense of justice, and desire to keep the world from falling apart, Cassandra runs herself ragged trying to do her job to the best of her ability. When she finds that she may be being used by elements within her own government, however, she's not above taking matters into her own hands to prevent a global catastrophe.


Tisha
A frail teenage girl, kept as a secret from the world. There are those who would kill to get their hands on her, with many people being thrown to the wolves for the purposes of capturing this girl. What makes her so valuable may be the last secret Max and Axl will ever discover...


Celia Delgato
A Genusan singer who has become a global sensation, quickly becoming the most popular musician in the world. Her fans are innummerable, and her shows sell out within a matter of hours. For Celia, however, it's not about the money, or the glamour. She hopes to use her music and fame to promote tolerance toward the Genusan race, and spread the message of unity mankind hasn't been open to since the Daideus era. After befriending Max and Axl, however, Celia quickly finds she may play a role in uniting the world she never expected...


Schneider
An arrogant, yet skilled Bounty Hunter who works at the same Hunter's Nest as Max and Axl. His skills have caused him to become Dirk's favorite, leading Schneider to be given the bigger jobs. This quickly comes to bite him in the ass, however, as an impossibly large bounty leads Schneider to become wrapped up in secrets that may become the death of him.


Sylandra
Axl's former partner, Sylandra now works as the leader of the Mercenaries Guild of Capitol. While she may be short in stature, and absolutely horrible with common idioms, Sylandra is tough and capable. And the huge sword she carries around doesn't hurt, either. Still bitter over Axl costing her what would've been the biggest payout of her career, she continues to be the bane of Axl's existance to this day.


Curtis
A genius inventor living in a self-made fortress in the slums of Neotopia, Curtis holds on to his dreams of working in the Neotopia Research Institute as a government-sanctioned scientist. On top of that, he happens to be one of the biggest fans of Celia in the world, to near fanboyish proportions. After befriending Max and Axl, he proves to be a valuable asset with his skills, but may find himself to be in over his head...


Vincent Dvorak
Vincent is a Specialist; a master of both science and magick, which is usually impossible in the world of MnP. Specialists are so rare, in fact, that there have only been eight in all of recorded history. Vincent, however, may be the greatest of them all. He has single-handedly advanced the entire study of science and magick through his research, and improved global quality of life to the point where the global populace views him as a hero. In fact, his diplomatic trips are often met with swarms of fans, as if he were a rock star. However, Max and Axl quickly discover unseemly connections leading straight to Dvorak, and a global conpiracy with the Specialist at the center of it all. His motives and goals are shrouded in mystery, but the lives of countless people will soon be crushed by his machinations.


Rodriguez
One of Vincent Dvorak's 4 assistants, Rodriguez is a man one wouldn't expect to see a world hero associating with. Rodriguez posseses all forms of Kenesis (Telekenesis, Pyrokenesis, Cryokenesis, Electrokenesis, and Psychokenesis), which, while allowing him to wield incredible power with his mind, has left him a mental wreck. Mentally unstable, and very homicidal, Rodriguez is a man who cannot be reasoned with in any sense.


?????
This mysterious and eccentric young man belongs to an organizations standing in opposition to the world governments, Max and Axl, and even Vincent Dvorak. Their purposes are unknown to everyone, save select government officials who know much more than they're willing to tell. Dangerous and powerful, this man and his associates answer only to the one they call "Big Brother," and are rumored to have ties to Daideus himself.




Money and Power is, like most RPGs, very story-heavy. Featuring a long and winding storyline, with dialogue a cut above the rest (I did study dialogue to write it professionally, after all), MnP may not feature a ton of custom systems and the like, but boasts an intriguing storyline with balanced gameplay, and a variety of unique challenges.

One notable feature is that every boss and dungeon is desinged to be unique in some way. Unlike many RM games, you won't find yourself simply walking from point A to point B, inhibitied by random encounter suntil you reach an enemy with higher stats serving as the boss. In MnP, you'll face off against bosses that go through barrier changes, are healed by helpers that self-destruct if attacked (causing massive damage to the heroes, leaving the option of taking the damage, or letting the boss heal), or drop tiem bombs that cause an automatic game-over if they go off. In the dungeons, you'll find yourself fighting against the wind, avoiding frostbyte by rushing from shelter to shelter, and solving brain-busting switch puzzles.

Special attacks are governed differently, as well, with a variety of ways to acquire your techniques. At first, you can find techs in hidden treasure chests. However, later on you'll learn magick attacks, which can be upgraded for a fee (for instance, to use Final Fantasy attacks as an example, Fire would be replaced with Fira, then Firaga), while your old physical attacks can be infused with magical properties, creating new moves with new effects. However, these new moves come at a price, as enemies later down the line may be more weak to the original attack than its magickal counterpart. Also, other characters have unique abilities all their own (Curtis, for instance, learns his techniques if he can find the right materials, and build new tools with them that serve as his special attacks).

And, yes, magic is spelled with the archaic "ck" in MnP. As for why I'm using RM2K, I have my reasons. This post is long enough, so I won't get into that. ;) I'll be releasing demos in a chapter style, with each demo ending at certain parts in the story. The first demo is almost ready, but I can't release it until I find a graphical artist who can take my drawings, and make pixel art out of them. I want to incorporate cutscenes into the game (ala Ninja Gaiden), and I want it to look like actual game graphics... However, I'm just a penciller, so I can't do it myself.

Facesets are all edited to show various emotions. Edits are largely done by yours truly (thanks to my handy-dandy tablet), and provide extra emphasis on character reactions and personality.

Finally, sorry if I seemed to kind of stumble my way through this. I'm used to pitching story ideas in brief, vague paragraphs in my comic submissions, and I'm alot better at telling the story within the story itself, as opposed to something like this. So, I ask you to bear with me. =D

Figured I might as well post an update; the demo is 95% done, I'd say. Just a few cutscene bits, and the last boss fight of the demo. I also got someone to pixel-ify the artwork I needed done for the game, though they'll likely be done after the demo is completed. So, after they're finished, and I drop them where they go, the demo will be all ready for to play with!

Just for jollies, and to show off some progress, I'll be posting screenshots in the near future.