Added: 3 years ago
From: MagusX1
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  • They left WAY before their time was due. Lunar and Vay were some of the best games I ever played.

  • @falariem Exactly, well said. I am also glad that they brought games like Cosmic Fantasy 2 and Popful Mail, which IMO are just overlooked classics like Vay and Lunar(To some extent.). Also if you have a PS3 PSN released WD's port of Vanguard Bandits on the Playstation Store!

  • About the jump to PlayStation, they made that jump because Sega was screwing them over a lot. But I give props to Working Designs because after the infamous Saturnday incident, they stayed with Sega until it was too much to bear and their I think last game brought over for Sega was Magic Knight Rayeart before deciding to localize games for Sony.

  • Fuck yeah, Arc the Lad 1,2 and 3 was the shit.

  • Who has the IP rights now?

  • @wblstudios Gaijinworks. They published some of the games on PSN, such as Vanguard Bandits, Alundra, and Arc the Lad. Gaijinworks is the former president of Working Designs' new company. Note that they don't own the Lunar series license; Lunar Dragon Song/Genesis was published by Ubisoft/Rising Star Games in USA/Europe. In addition, Xseed Games published the new remake of Lunar 1 (PSP) outside Japan.

  • @lilfrog5 Well, they need to get their asses on some new Popful Mail and Annet Futatabi.

  • WD poured more love and care into their games than any other company ever did. It's horrible that they're gone.

  • Not being American, when Working Designs acquired the license to publish a game that I wanted to play I knew that I would never get a chance to. They're one of a handful of companies, Atlus being another, who showed zero interest in sublicensing their games to other markets.

    Then their printing runs, I'm sure the deluxe packages were beautiful but they should have released standard versions afterwards. I don't find it a good thing at all to make buying their games intentionally difficult.

  • What upset me most about Working Designs is the juvenile and unfunny dialogue written for a lot of the content in Lunar and Albert Odyssey.

    I swear to God there were mother and daughter NPCs in Albert Odyssey talking about the daughter learning to speak "Ebonics" as well as several others making lewd sex jokes... stuff that wasn't funny then and isn't funny now.

    This did a lot to detract from the immersion of one's self in the game's narrative and atmosphere. Other than that, they were alright

  • The economy did working designs in before the recession was leaked out by the media

  • Comment removed

  • Best game publisher ever.

  • agreed - they gave me Alundra - one of my favorite RPG's - thanx for the history lesson - I learned a bit - but you said what led to their demise is debatable - I would like to hear your thoughts on that - do you think you would ever do a video

  • I have the demo for Lunar: Silver Star Harmony... its great fun. I love Lunar now.

  • I'm looking forward to the new website too but what will happen with the previous podcasts, there aren't any of them anymore, we can't hear the amazing Xenogears podcast :( again, and a bunch of other good ones you guys previously made, also are you guys going to continue your other ones like Twigame (Twitpppg maybe now ha) either way it's good that everyone will be back soon!

  • i own 2 working designs games

    Alundra

    Lunar Silver Star Story

    both are excelent games, it's sad they are not here anymore because their games where the best.

  • Growlanser Generations

    Lunar 1 and 2

    Popful Mail

    Alundra

    Vay

    And some other RPGs I have to search that were published by WD. So many great games that it saddens me that they went defunct.

    Oh well, the sad truth is that all good things must come to an end.

    Thank you WD for all the great memories, you'll be missed.

  • I personally love Working Designs and their games, but I can definitely see where they went wrong. I think after FFVII came out and RPGs went mainstream, Working Designs should have released their games in greater numbers, and sold the deluxe versions with all the extras separately. Releasing games in small numbers was a smart move when they were working on the TurboDuo and were selling to a niche market, but if they could now sell their games to a larger number of people, why didn't they?

  • Viola !!! hey is that you ?

    I know this gal

    I bumped her on @ DateHerSafe{^}com/profile?=985­4

  • one game I wished Working Designs would have done, was Grandia, it eventually was translated by Ubisoft, but it would have been better if WD did it instead

  • Lunar kicks ass. I have never played them but I have heard positive reception. A new Lunar game is coming. Well its a remake of the first one (again). The former president of Working Designs founded a new company called Gaijinworks, they translated a game called Miami Law. I believe several working designs members are now working at Gaijinworks.

  • Awesome game,great voice acting, amazing cut scene videos.

  • I miss them so much.

    Lunar and Lunar 2 for the Playstation are probably my favorite games of all time.

    And the most recent DS installment was SO mediocre, and I thought that most of that was due to Working Designs no longer being in the picture.

    Now with the announcing of remaking Silver Star (AGAIN...) for PSP, I shudder to think how it'll be handled in the hands of another company (probably Ubisoft). I mean, Lunar Legend was OKAY, but it was no Silver Star Story Complete, to be sure.

  • You mean Lunar: Dragon Song? The game doesn't look that bad to me. Then again I've never played. Can you explain in more detail why the game is so mediocre and why it's not as good as the originals from your point of view so I can understand what your saying better.

  • Well it wasn't translated by Working Designs, it was done by (I think) Ubisoft. And they just don't put the same amount of effort in the localization as WD did.

    I also didn't like the storyline, really. There's a plot twist but you can see it coming a mile away. The battle system doesn't have the same strategic depth that the originals and PS remakes do.

    The characters aren't lovable like their PS counterparts and the villain/final boss is an extreme anticlimax.

  • I agree 100% all of of their games were Quality over Quantity

  • Dude, i totally agree with u. I will always love my Sega Cd mainly 4 the fact that i played some stellar games on it which were published by Working Designs. Lunar 2: Eteranl Blue was my fav game of all time 4 a number of yrs. That game was pure bliss. I'm now playing the remake of Lunar:SSS on PSone. I still have the rest of the WD PSone catalog 2 go tru.

  • they were a good company but there marketing is what ultimately was there demise they were not nicked named working delays for noreason they would push there games back so far that by the time they were released the were passed up buy better and greater titles, some of there games were delayed by years and they wonder why they dont have a market if they had released there games as scheduled or close to it they would be as big or close the squarenix they had games to compete there timing was bad

  • Their localizations took longer than the development of the actual game.

  • Fare thee well, Working Designs. You were a true (and sadly under credited) pioneer in the gaming industry.

  • Alundra. Mail. no need more to say.

  • bernie stolar killed the sega saturn.

  • Comment removed

  • 1.copy and paste

    2.paste on 2 video's

    3.count to 10 in your head

    4.look at your hand'

  • VERY good video magus!! I dont know i missed this one!?

  • I just found out today that Working Designs went under.. I was sad to hear that, as I loved some of the translation jobs they did, especially for Albert Odyssey, Lunar and Rayearth. Contradictory to how many fans felt, I always enjoyed the crude humor they threw into the games.

    With that said, let's just say because of their translation job, i LOVED Lunar SSS for psx but the gba one (translated by a diff company) bored the hell out of me.

  • The crude humor was a reflection of the original Japanese content, for the most part.

    Working Designs was able to translate language AND culture. There were quite a few jokes about Japanese culture and current events in those games. WD managed to replace them with jokes about American culture and current events instead of just ignoring them or making them into dull generic jokes.

  • I'm glad they kept it in, then!

  • Comment removed

  • Awesome shoutout vid to Working Designs! I really miss that company!

  • Hrmm yes I own a lot of working designs titles it was sad to see them go. I felt now in some sense Atlus and Ubisoft are picking up the left over games that Working Designs probably be working on today if they were still in existence. I do miss those times where I see goof ups and such in the working designs cds from lunar and other games and such. Anyways they should be remembered and I would say the torch is sorta passed on now to Atlus and Ubisoft for the most part of japanese/USA releases.

  • omg man i still even have there last game on PS2 Growlanser Generations and i am holding one off to sell later on in the future and that was there last game.

  • Atlus is becoming the new Working Designs ... except they come out with games more often (and seem to be profitable). A couple of friends of mine used to be the early testers at that company back in the 90s. R.I.P. WD.

  • Lunar Silver Star Story complete is all the proof need to show why working designs kicks ass, They went out of bussiness due to poor bussiness practices. Though the head of the company wouldnt say so

  • I agree. I bought Lunar: The Silver Star for the Sega CD in early 1994.

  • I didn't even know about these until I was told that they didn;t exist anymore.

  • Good show, plus what make Lunar 1 more memorible for me was I gotten it for my 11th birthday. Man, I played that thoughout the entire day until I got to Meriba.

    Oh yea, what's the name of the intro song you play?

  • Lunar 2 Eternal Blue is one of the best, if not THE best RPGs I have ever played.

  • I agree. It took me 11 hours and 15 minutes to beat the game.

  • They also published Alundra and the lastest Silpheed game. They have to get bonus points for that.

  • lunar 2 eternal blue

    was one of my top games i have play in my gaming history XD

  • you wanna hear something sad? I live in a neighboring city right next to Redding, California, and I never heard that Working Designs was stationed there until just last year, after they closed their doors. I was living near a game localizer and didn't even know it. T_T

  • Working Designs is indeed a company that many fans really do miss.

  • what is the name of the song playin at the beginning

  • wow your mics much better there!

  • Who has everything they ever did?

    *raises hand*

    me.

    suckitdown, fools! :-D

  • really? show me in a vid!! i'm working towards that same goal myself!

  • WD ROCKS!!!

    I got some games that they released for PSX: Alundra, Lunar SSSC, Lunar 2 EB and Arc The Lad Collcetion.

  • Lunar is a great game, but that intro was so much a rip-off of the Ys Book I & II. :P

    Are you aware of Cosmic Fantasy 2 or Exile? Those were first games they released that required heavy translation and voice acting. They're latter work on the Sega CD and PSX overshadows their Turbo days, but its still good stuff.

  • I love Working Designs. They made the most beautiful games on the market. I miss them, they need to come back.

  • I really miss them :(

  • lunar silver and lunar 2 are still the best rpg games if u ask me

    it realy makes me sad that they didnt make a lunar 3 :(

  • Nice vid you knnow your stuff ;)

  • I loved Working Designs. Without them, I would have never been able to play Lunar 2. Which still today is one of my hands down favorite games of all time. When I first played Lunar 2 I shit my pants out of amazement. No, literally I flew through the roof of my house at how awesome of a RPG it was.

  • the cutsceens look cute and cool as drawn stuff

  • So sad to see them gone. Working Designs showed some true balls by relesing games other companys wouldent even look at. I also think its funny, they were one of the first company's to make "Special editions" of there games, now EVERY company is doing that now.

  • I heard Victor Ireland was going to establish a new company called Gaijinworks. What happened?

  • So sad that Working Designs died. Lunar and Lunar 2 are my all-time favorite games. Did you ever play WD'S WW2 simulation Iron Storm on the Saturn? Not your typical WD game but a very good one that is often overlooked.

  • working designs rocked,alundra was the one of the best games!!!

  • That they did, by the way I did a vid on alundra itself if you want to check that out!

  • already have man,thanks for bringing back the memories:>

  • No Problem expect more working design games!!!

  • Alundra was a bitch. Never beat it due to that cryptic "puzzle" with the four statues. Remember that part?

  • So there just gone forever...What a shame. They will forever be my #3 favorite game publisher. What is there connection to Atlus? I'm betting that they were responsible for bringing some of the original Atlus games to America. If you have any insight, I'd love to hear it. Going back to the conversation from a month ago, You must play Growlanser, and the $600 PS3 is backwards compatible, the $400 model is not. Never buy the $400 PS3...

  • Good video. One of your best.

  • Awesome video. I love Lunar and working designs :D!!!

  • Thanks my man!!!

  • those games look so cute i would love them

  • Yea these are really great games, the only sucky part is they are usually really expensive, unless you have no problem with emulation. If you like JRPGs you will really dig these games....

  • This was a great review. I'm am also a HUGE JRPG fan. You still can't drag me away from Ar Tonelico, or Soul Nomad and the World Eaters.

    -Jeremy

  • Thanks my man, yea those games are great too...I have not played Soul Nomad but I heard its a great rpg

  • Working Designs was so awesome. I regret trading some of their games in since at the time I didn't know they were going to be dead. Now, I'm going to recollect their games in honor of them.

  • Yea I thought they would still be around but I was saddened when I heard they closed down...;Good Luck though on collecting their games, I know several of them are pricey....

  • I got lucky and manged to snag both Vanguard Bandits and Popful Mail off ebay for under 100 together

    go me!

  • Your lucky my man!

  • I agree working designs rules, I have may of their games for sega cd, turbo grafx, saturn, playstation and playstation 2. I am personally hoping that Victor Ireland can do something with his New company Gajinworks eventually. Personally I liked the sega cd lunar 2 more then the ps1 version because they dumbed down the difficulty for the ps1 version way too much making it a much easier and much less enjoyable game, I will always treasure their special edition games.

  • Hell yea I love working designs, I never played the PS1 version of Lunar 2 but i heard it got some flak also for the storys continuity being odd...none the less thanks for subbing my man and I look forwad to more of your videos. By the way has Gaijinworks done anything by chance??

  • I personally loved it. I say get it

    GET IT NOW!

  • I wish we had a company like Working Designs for europe back than,none of the PS Lunar games (as well for a lot of other RPG's) were never released here.

  • I heard about that, so do you guys in europe ever get the Lunar games and what not??? Or do you have to use emulation as a means to play them???

  • The only Lunar game we got is the DS game,it's getting better with RPG's here since a few years,we finally got Final Fantasy 1-6 translated in german with the GBA/DS versions (we got the PS versions,without Chrono Trigger,as well,but only in english,FFVII was the first one ever released here),but we're still missing great games like Chrono Trigger,Suikoden 3,Super Mario RPG and all Dragon Quest games except VIII and the spin-offs. At least we're getting new RPG's like Lost Odyssey or Blue Dragon

  • Thats cool yea lot of those games are great that you guys did not get...I cannot believe you guys missed out on Chrono Trigger that game is a masterpiece....Suikoden 3 along with Suikoden 2 were the best games of the Suikoden series....

  • I still hope that after all the Final Fantasy GBA ports they make a Chrono Trigger GBA or DS port. Suikoden 3 is a stupid story,Konami said as a apology, that they had problems to put the translated text into the game so they decided to not release it as PAL version (europe & australia) cause it wouldn't fit to their quality standards *sigh*,that's at least what I've heard.

  • Thats still bullshit from Konami. I love Konami but with Goemon and the suikoden thing thats not the best things they have done by anymeans....Anyway though its also silly that Square has completely ignored the Chrono Franchise. I love Square, but I donot think they are as good as they used to be before the Square Enix Merger...

  • That is because Hironobu Sakaguchi and some other ex-Square programmers responsible for the SNES and PS1 classics formed own company Mistwalker who eecently made Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey on Xbox 360.

  • Yea, the sad thing too about that is from what I heard, was that Sakaguchi was sort of forced out of square because he was blamed for the merger in the first place(Due to the FF Film Spirits within flopping badly) but none the less Mistwalker does kick ass, I have played and beaten Blue Dragon and that game rocks, and Lost Odyssey though I have not beaten it due to urine getting on my 360, kicked ass, when I get my 360 back I plan on beating that bitch.

  • Blue Dragon was the last game I've played on the 360 (too much I guess),I'm on disc 3 and after beating it I wanted to play Lost Odyssey,both are great games,except the german dub of Blue Dragon,it's horrible,I'm glad that I can choose english as well.

    I've just heard that Tales of Innocence for DS will never have a US or EU release,that sucks,I really like Tales of Symphonia.

  • Thats fucking bullshit if thats true I love teh tales series, I loved Tales of Symphonia but you should also check out Tales of Destiny and the original Tales of Fantasia...

  • Destiny was never released here,but the GBA version of Fantasia,but it's kind of rare here,hard to find and mostly to expensive.

    I hope for Tales of Vesperia on Xbox 360 that it get at least a US release,hopefully as a codefree version,same for Tales of Symphonia 2 for Wii.

  • I hope so too it sucks that you guys donot get alot of the tales games I thnk they kick ass

  • Neither do we. We didn't get Tales of Destiny 2 (not Eternia, the first PS2 Tales game) and most of the handheld GBC and GBA Tales spinoffs. One of which is a crossover with the Druaga series!

  • Destiny came over

    it's on the PS.

    I have it

    it's awesome

  • I live in europe,no Tales of Destiny game came to europe.

  • Theres a DS Port of Chrono Trigger right now,I defentilly Recommend it,especially if you missed out on the SNES original and the PSX port,the new DS remake has extra dungeons and a new ending,so do check it out.

  • Haha 15 out of 10, it's ironic you said that because their slogan used to be "Our games go to 11"

    The last thing WD ever *attempted* to do but didn't happen before shutting the doors was to localize the Ganbare Goemon game for Playstation 2.

  • LMAO, you know what, when I said a fifteen out of ten I completely forgot about that slogan lol seriously thats was pure irony. Yea thats too bad about that Ganbare Goemon game, the sad thing too with Ganbare goemon is there are only four of those game and there is over what 20 of those games...and the Ganabare Goemon games are a blast to say the least, I wish there were more of those games coming out in the states...

  • Not even the DS game came out in the US. Konami treats Western Goemon fans like Nintendo treats Western Mother fans. Like we don't matter.

  • Exactly, I think that if Konamia released more Goemon games he would of been more popular in the west, and would be recognizable with Rockman(Megaman) and what not....

  • Yeah,Ganbare Goemon DS is an awesome game,I've never regreted the import,I hope they will make a second DS game.

  • Yea I love the Goemon Games...

  • I agree about the Goemon games,and you wanna know whats even sadder,because Goemon is so underated,in the future,it could be possible that Success/Ninja Studios/Atlus's Izuna series could end up being more popular than Goemon in the States and eventually in japan.....the reason why Goemon games see rare releases in the U.S because american gamers would'nt get the japanese jokes,so what they did is butchered the scripts in the english versions with american jokes.lol Great video btw

  • Lunar: The silver star story (complete) is my #1 RPG of all time. I feel like the game had a huge impact on me while playing it even though it's plot wasn't as complex as other games. I remember lots of people giving working design flak over adding american pop culture references, but that's part of what I enjoyed in the game.I own Lunar 2 (for PS) but the disc freezes at a certain point everytime I play, it makes me quite sad actually.

  • Yea the american pop culture references never bothered me either....I still think WD did a great job in translatinls of games and what not...

  • Working Designs kicks ass!!!!! They brought over one of my favorite games GROWLANSER!

  • I never got to play Growlanser I will have to check it out someday though....

  • Get Growlanser Generations for PS2, It has growlanser 2 and 3, both awesome rpgs. You can get it at Gamestop for like 25 bucks, and its not that rare yet. Id recommend definately recommend it

  • I definetly will, I just need to get a new PS2, do you think it will run on the PS3 when I get my PS3 in a month or so???

  • It should, but I heard that some ps3's arent backward compatible? Not sure. and I wouldnt get Growlanser Heritage of War (GL5) because the series changed direction and now it doesnt feel the same, But Growlanser 2/3 (generations) has a unique experience you wont find in another rpg.

  • I will check out Growlanser Generations defintely I have heard good things about it....

  • Alundra is a masterpiece, it came out a few months after FFVII so it managed to sell out and it is very hard to find unless you emulate but none the less its a very good game...

  • I want to plan on getting their games like Alundra for the PS1 and Growlanser Generations for the PS2 because I love RPG's.

  • Hell yea also look for the lunar games too you will not be disappointed in that...

  • Exile was sick, if you get the chance check out Cosmic Fantasy 2 that was a great game and check out Alundra

  • Now that I own a PC Engine Duo, I may check out the first RPGs WD published.

  • I have a copy of Exile and I liked that game, so thats one game and along with Cosmic Fantasy II kciked ass, I know you will like those games alot...There is a genesis version of Exile but its ok,I like the Turbo Cd Version much better...

  • I have a copy of Exile and I liked that game, so thats one game and along with Cosmic Fantasy II kciked ass, I know you will like those games alot...There is a genesis version of Exile but its ok,I like the Turbo Cd Version much better...

  • I hated to see WD go too! Popfulmail rocked and those special packages for both Lunars on the PSX were FN awesome.

  • Hell yea I loved Popful mail and I even have the Lunar Packages and I loved the arc the lad package.

  • Oh man WD was the shit. They did an awesome job translating and dubbing the Lunar games. The worst thing about them though is that take always took forever releasing the games they published. The Arc the Lad Collection especially. I lost count how many times that got delayed.

  • Yea that was the one bad thing but I am sad that they are defunct now...I loved the Lunar Collections and I loved Cosmic Fantasy II and Exile....

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