I can recall a time when I first began using the Internet, and only knew a handful of URL's - this would be the days before Google. Every time I would visit the Internet, I would instinctually visit the Working Designs home page to see when their latest and greatest translation would hit the shelves.
For those of you unaware, Working Designs is probably the single greatest third-party publisher in all videogamedom. I was not aware of this until today, but the company closed its doors in December. The website's gone...it's over. I'm sadder about this than when Sony starved Bleem! into bankrupcy. And it appears that it was Sony's fault this time as well.
So I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on the wonderful memories I have thanks to one of the greatest companies that ever was. Working Designs did not actually create the games they published, however they invariably made them better. The company painstakingly selected phenominal japanese titles that would otherwise never have seen the light of day in the U.S. and localized them for the U.S. market. Along the way, the games would get what I can only describe as a loving, caring translation. The company's moniker was "Our games go to 11" - sort of a tip of the hat to "This is Spinal Tap" and a statement of their commitment to excellence beyond what should be possible.
Whenever you bought a WD game you could be assured that your money was well spent. They were one of the first to use full-color silkscreen printing on their game discs, and foil stamping and embossing on the manuals and inserts. They are, to my knowledge, the only game publisher to ever include a leather-bound hardback instruction manual. WD was known to their fans and to the industry by two unmistakable traits - one, their releases were always special events, and two they never ever released a game on time. They were one of the only companies that I know of who would release nothing at all if they could not release perfection. They took the time to do the job right, and every game they ever released was a gem.
I felt so compelled to buy each and every one of them that I used to jokingly say that I wished they'd stop making them for a while so I could keep up. Now I wish I had never even thought such a thing... I can, however, proudly say I own a copy of every single game they ever put out.
My first encounter with WD was when a friend told me about Lunar: The Silver Star for the Sega CD. I called all over town to find someone who had a copy, and when I arrived, I saw another WD game called Popful Mail. I was impressed at the foil printing and embossing on the game box, so I bought both. To this day those are two of my favoritest games of all time. Both of them were filled with quality voice acting - there were few games that even had voice, but they were the only ones that seemed to take it seriously enough to hire talented voice actors to do the parts in English. Most publishers at the time would have shied away from the whole prospect of re-recording the voice tracks.
WD had re-written the script for Lunar to contain more than a little wit and satire. It was the first glimpse I had of a game that transcended the kids-only stigma placed on video games without having to be violent or obscene.
Popful mail is still my favorite Action RPG of all time. I can still hear Gaw (A little blue creature from the game) saying "I'm dead...and hungry...and that's not a very good combination...Gaw...." and "Does Lord Venuncio have something good for Gaw to eat?".
As time progressed WD began releasing "Omake" boxes with their games. This is almost never done in the U.S. but in Japan, it is not unusual for an even lightly anticipated title to be released with a handful of special items, in a special deluxe artbox. Collectors (such as yours truly) just yum this stuff up. Aside from a couple of rare titles like Earthbound for the Super NES and Robotech (XB,GC,PS2), this never happens in the U.S. Well WD was a gamer's company and they loved all of the same things we do. They played most of the same games that we did, they saw the same movies and anime. They were all around a bunch of great guys.
After getting Lunar: The Silver Star and Popful Mail, I quickly returned to the store and purchased WD's other two titles - Vay, and Lunar: Eternal Blue. Later on, I purchased a Turbo Duo so I could play WD's earliest games - Parasol Stars, Cadash, Cosmic Fantasy 2, Vasteel, Exile, and Exile 2: Wicked Phenomenon.
When the Saturn came out, one of the biggest reasons I jumped on board and bought one was in anticipation of the games that WD would release on it. I was in for a bit of a wait there. I didn't care much for Shining Wisdom, although I have to admit that is more of a preference for art style, the game itself, and especially the writing was great. Iron Storm failed to impress me. Dragon Force, on the other hand was pretty nice, and Sega Ages was a lot of fun as well. I was practically holding my breath waiting for the Saturn remake of Lunar: The Silver Star to be brought to the states. The wait grew so protracted that I purchased a copy of the Japanese version of the game to get a sort of "preview" of it. In the mean time, Albert Odyssey was released. I have very fond memories of that one - I loved the art style. Although I can't remember much about the story or the characters, I remember having a ton of fun playing it, and getting stuck so badly on the last dungeon that my wife bought me a strategy guide just so she wouldn't have to watch me wander around the same dungeon for another 10 hours. I can't recall the exact timing of events but at E3 around 1997, WD dropped support for the Sega Saturn after wonder-moron Bernie Stolar, the then president of Sega of America deeply insulted Working Designs and their work, and later went on to deep-six the entire Saturn lineup when he announced that Sega was basically done with the platform. Although it took a few months to work out that way, this was the death knell for Lunar on the Saturn in the U.S. WD only published one further title. Ironically this was one of the first games announced by WD for the Saturn, and it ended up being the very last game to be released for Saturn in the U.S. - that game was Magic Knight Rayearth. To give you an idea of their level of dedication, when the U.S. anime publisher Media Works refused to allow WD to use the already-done english translation of the opening theme song that was to be used in the Rayearth video release, WD did their own translation of the song and hired a professional singer to come in and do it. Their verison is arguably better, but at the very least on par with the anime version.
With few places left to go, WD went to Sony. They made history with their first release in the sense that it was the first time Sony had allowed a third party to publish one of their first-party Japanese games in America. That title was the remarkable Action RPG, Alundra. Alundra was about as close as any game ever got to being Zelda on the Playstation. While RPGs were WD's main focus, the company did some occasional branching out into other genre's with games like the awesome shooters, RayStorm, Thunder Force V, and RayCrisis, and the light-gun RPG-ish Elemental Gearbolt. They were also entrusted with a Treasure title, Silouette Mirage. Eventually the Playstaion juggernaut convinced the Japanese creator of the Lunar series, Game Arts, to port their games over to Sony's system, giving WD another shot at publishing the 32-bit remakes, Lunar:The Silver Star Story Complete, and Lunar:Eternal Blue Complete in North America. WD treated Lunar with such respect that it was mind-blowing. The first remake, Lunar SSSC, was released in a gorgeous art box, came with a ton of extras, including a leather-bound manual, a soundtrack, a special video disc with a making-of feature, and even a special place to keep your preview demo of Lunar, if you had managed to snag it. Lunar 2:EBC was an even bigger release with an even bigger box of goodies. Shortly after release, they also made a several-hundred page hard-bound strategy guide available. Another of Sony's own RPG franchises had been consumately ignored by the company's U.S. counterpart - Arc the Lad. Working Designs picked up the rights to all three of the Arc the Lad titles that had been released at the time, and bundled them together in a single release, complete with all of the same trimmings as the Lunar releases. including an impressive 500+ page leather bound strategy guide. The game was released well after the PS2 had made its debut in North America.
WD hopped on board and began making titles for the PS2 right away. There were two titles available very shortly after launch - Gungriffon Blaze (Mech Combat) and Silpheed: The Lost Planet (Shooter). For a very long time after that WD was silent, not much news, besides a vague announcement that they had picked up the rights to do two additional PS2 games - both RPG's. Approxamately a year ago, WD released another masterpiece of translation - Growlanser Generations, a two-game set, complete with special art box and the works. They announced a PS2 Goemon title, similar to the N64 Goemon/Mystical Ninja releases.
Inferring from some of Victor Ireland's last comments, it is easy to conclude that Sony refused to allow WD to publish Goemon in the U.S., although the game was, for all intents, finished. That was apparently the final nail in the coffin.
WD was a champion of the gamer. Other than Nintendo, there just aren't many (if any at all) other companies that see the video game industry as anything other than a fast buck. Companies like the inappropriately named Electronic Arts with their slave-like labor conditions and anti-competetive business practices churn out games by the handful based on how many copies they can sell. They have lost the soul of gaming; they have lost all sense of the art form that is gaming. Without companies like WD who provide what can only be called "fan service" to the gaming public, the gaming industry is destined to die a slow dark death of un-innovative mediocrity.
Working Designs, I salute you. We will all miss you dearly. Thank you for 20 great years of gaming.
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