Love and War: Act I

[Admiral Styles]

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWPwbaEVIkA



Screenshots:

Story:

Love and War is a tale taking place on the world of Terra. Ever since the birth of the first nation-state on this world, Terra has been wracked by the scourge of war. Five nations managed to survive throughout the ages, yet it seemed as though with each passing day, humanity slipped closer and closer to self-annihilation.

One man made a difference, however. The youthful Emperor of the Zion Empire, Geraud Valtemond, was this man. A brilliant, honorable, and benevolent monarch, he managed to open the eyes of the leaders of the other nations, showing them what lay ahead if Terra persisted down this road. Through diplomacy and sheer force of will, Lord Geraud created the Commonwealth; an international governing body, comprised of democratically elected representatives and Peacekeeping Forces, which would forever make war a thing of the past.

Three centuries have elapsed, and people have forgotten the lessons of the past. Tensions are rising between nations once again, and it seems as if the Commonwealth is powerless to do anything but watch as its order crumbles. Can one man make a difference, once again?

Well, maybe... If he can sort out his girlfriend trouble.


Playtime: 10+ hours


Characters:


Ryan Eramond

Spoiler

"Always do the right thing."

Ryan Eramond, aged eighteen, is the hero and protagonist of Love And War. He's a thoughful fellow living in the navy town of Davenport, who's just recently graduated at the top of his class from high school, and uncertain about what he should do next in life. He is best friends with Henrik and Armin, with the trio informally being known as "The Three Compadres". Ryan uses both a sword and a revolver in combat.


Lavender "Lavie" Regale

Spoiler

"Your father decided you needed an assistant, and here I am! Lavie Regale, at your service!"

Lavie, aged seventeen, is a classmate of the trio, and has known Ryan from childhood. The quintessential girl next door, she is usually a sweet, vivacious, and cheerful girl, but can be pesky and annoying or sullen and moody when she doesn't get her way. Lavie's weapon of choice is the longbow, though she uses it for sport rather than combat.



Henrik Spenson

Spoiler

"Love can be blind. Or blinding."

Nineteen-year-old Henrik is Ryan's best friend, and also his long-time scholastic rival - Ryan just edged him out by two points in their final examinations. He is generally more reserved then Ryan, but outclasses him when it comes to martial strength. Henrik has an understated sense of humour, belongs to the Church of Infinity, is politically liberal, and believes in respecting and protecting Nature. Henrik's favourite weapon in battle tend to be larger, two handed swords.


Armin Tamas

Spoiler

"And I'm the legendary Armin Tamas!"

Armin, an irrepressible wise guy and would-be ladies' man, rounds out the trio of the Three Compadres with Ryan and Henrik. Armin and Henrik are polar opposites in terms of politics and values, and Ryan sometimes has to intervene to keep things from getting heated between them. Ryan once refers to him as "loose on the whole 'morals' bit", and he has been known to do a spot of thieving from time to time. Despite this, he remains a likeable and loyal friend. Armin also fancies himself as a comedian, though his sense of timing often ruins his punchlines. Armin's weapon of choice is the dagger, and he carries a pair of them.


Juno

Spoiler

"You dare mock the name of Juno?"

Cold, distant, and wrathful, Juno is a young man who seems to harbour a grudge against Ryan, for reasons that are unclear. He is a swordsman of considerable skill who commands dark magic as well, with a "formidable, but unorthodox technique" (according to Colonel Whitworth), but can also play dirty when it suits him. Juno is intelligent, and tends to use formal language and forms of address in his speech. Little is known about his past, or his motivations.



Author thoughts:


Well now, it's been a long road, getting from there to here... But the day has finally arrived. I am pleased as punch to announce that the Complete version of Love and War: Act I is out!

If you're not familiar with the earlier incarnations, just what is "Love and War"? Well, it's a JRPG made with RPG Maker 2000 that focuses on plot and character development. I've been working on it for what seems like forever (and possibly is), and this is the (finally!) complete version. What's new?

For starters, it now features a lot of voice acting! This was a truly exhausting endeavor, begun in late 2010. Though I always tried to temper my optimism with realism, never did I think it would take almost two years to complete the "bells and whistles" of voice acting and new artwork. The final script weighed in at over 1,600 voice acted lines, and 117 pages - quite the major undertaking, as I would soon find out!

The new version also contains new artwork, which replaced all of the older cutscenes, redone mapwork, and new sidequests. Though it was a long and frustrating process at times, it also had more then its fair share of pleasant surprises and special moments. In the end, I think the end result was worth all the worries and heartache involved, and I hope you agree.

You can find our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/loveandwartherpg

The LAW webpage here: http://antioch.snow-fall.com/law/

You can check out a couple of my past experiments with voice acting here: http://www.youtube.com/user/AdmiralStyles

And here's a direct link to the new file: http://antioch.snow-fall.com/law/downloads/Law1.exe

I hope you enjoy, and I'd very much appreciate any feedback you might have. If you have any questions or what not, I'll do what I can to answer them too!

Please check out our game! You don't want to make Lavie cry, do you?


CAST LIST:


Ryan Eramond:
James Firkins

Lavie Regale:
Rina-chan

Juno:
PyschoJak

Armin Tamas:
Aekenon

Henrik Spenson:
Matt Alan

Marianne Robertson:
Jenny Krompel



Kaleb:
Kyle McColl

Samath:
Dillon Taylor

Colonel Whitworth:
Sarifus

Trainee:
Aekenon

Lugner:
Sarifus

Londes Kodenai:
U-1

Jessica:
WannabeUtau

Female Inn Keeper:
Liberty

Trask:
Aekenon

Alphonse:
LordJazor

Kin & Kun:
Brandon

Guard Captain:
LordoftheMorning

Koketsu:
Jacob Browning

Anne Lancaster:
Liberty

The Mau:
KatherineD

"Some Guy":
Shmeckie

Ticketmeister:
Shmeckie



Further Credits:


Thanks, of course, to Don Miguel, who translated RPG Maker 2000!

"Creative Cross", for a battle animation. http://csx.jp/~creativcross/

"Wild Pudding's Territory", for monster graphics. http://wild-pd.hp.infoseek.co.jp/

Orochi Kusanagi and his website, http://velv.net/, for music and battle animations.

Tantalus, for his resources. http://olls.impressur.com/index.html

Typhoon, for the nifty title graphic, his work on the LAW website, and for being such a cool guy.

SGCN, for his amazing work on the mapping, custom menu system, and battle additions.

X-Calibar, for his exhaustive work on the trailer.

 

[moog]

i expected some gameplay from that trailer

i was highly disappointed at seeing an anime montage with a jpop song.

your screens look alright but I would like to see maybe some battle gameplay screens/video? honestly everything here looks stereotypically anime, and that really isnt interesting me one bit.

 

[Admiral Styles]

That's quite understandable: LAW definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea. Thanks for dropping by anyway!

 

[moog]

No problem. glad you are taking criticism politely I am sure there are members here who this will appeal to!

 

[Maneo]

Looks cool. Do you plan on making more parts later?

Played a bit now. It´s pretty good, but the enemy parties are sometimes too many and too large, which can get boring if you beat 30+ spores. Also
the save point graphic could be changed to something that look better.


Just some friendly advice.

 

[coyotecraft]

You guys, this is really good storytelling. But it's so bloated with characterization that it took 2 hours to leave the beginning town. The NPCs have so much to say. It makes the town and the people believable. But it also seems excessive.

There are certain things that I think could be streamlined. IMO, The beginning had a lot of unnecessary maps. The battle message prompts are really annoying. It can't just say "All stats increased" it has to say each stat individually. One. Line. At. A. Time. That was my first battle encounter. And you aren't even playing as the main characters so I don't think battles matters here. Maybe this is just one of those quirks of rm2k but the flee rate has a low success rate and even when you do there's like a 50% chance your next step will be another encounter.
I'm in the marshes right now. And so far the steal ability hasn't worked on anything and poison rarely works.

Well done so far. I'll have more to say once I finish it.

 

[coyotecraft]

Aaannnd done. Almost got stuck in the mines. Under leveled, under equipped, and only a few healing items which sucked because I couldn't leave but I made it.

Looks like Admiral Styles only joined to post the game. I checked the website and no Act 2 yet. He seems to have plenty of help. Although working with voice actors has it's own share of problems I hear.

 

[Admiral Styles]

Glad to hear you successfully beat Act I, coyotecraft! Sounds like you pulled off a victory against the odds.

An older demo for Act II is lurking around out there, but it isn't compatible with the save file from the revamped version of Act I, alas. In any case, I hope you enjoyed your time in the world of Terra, and thank you for checking out my little RPG.

 

[Jumping Jack Flash]

That video is great,