1/31/00

Working Designs – The Gamers’ Game Company

If you have never heard of these guys, then shame on you. Let it be known that Working Designs is the ONLY company that truly cares about gamers. Yes, companies such as Square, Capcom, and Namco put out high-quality titles on a regular basis, but it’s obvious that their decisions are based solely on potential cash flows. Chopping out the story sequences in Ace Combat 3, not putting FF4 in the Final Fantasy Anthology, and endless "Director’s Cuts" in the Resident Evil series – these are all decisions made to cut costs and add revenue to these companies’ distribution of titles in the United States. It makes sense – if you want to stay in business, you have to make money, and sometimes that means cutting corners or putting out "special editions" of previously released titles. So pretty much everybody does this stuff, right? Nope, not working designs.

You see, Working Designs makes all of its moves with only the gamer in mind. I don’t know how they stay in business, but Working Designs regularly releases games that no other company would have the grapes to touch. Stuff like Silhouette Mirage and Popful Mail would NEVER be released in the States if it weren’t for Working Designs. Throughout their illustrious careers, the guys at WD have toiled to acquire niche titles for U.S. distribution, and this is how they became famous for their library of top-class RPG’s. As I’m sure any RPG gamer worth his Laconian sword will remember, before the release of Final Fantasy VII, there was a serious dearth of good, nay, any, RPG’s hitting the U.S. market. Most times we were lucky to get one per year; if two were released in a year, it was truly cause for celebration. Seeing this, that wacky Victor Ireland, Grand-Poobah of Working Designs, decided to do something about it. Beginning on Turbo-Grafx and SegaCD, WD released such classics as Lunar 1 and 2 on Sega-CD and Exile 1 and 2 on the TurboDuo to a starving RPG audience. They have continued to release quality RPG’s on pretty much every system since (except N64. Now why could that be?).

Working Designs brand games are known for their excellent translations, filled with a perfect mix of drama and humor. Square and Sony should be taking notes whenever WD does a translation. Working Designs has also become known for its insane attention to detail and quality in packaging and "extras". WD stuff always has foil-embossed packaging, as well as full-color manuals jam-packed with killer art from the Japanese original. Recently, they have taken to adding soundtrack CD’s and "making-of" CD’s with their games. Lunar: Silver Star Story for Playstation even came with a 100-page, hardbound book! Insanity! Like I said, these guys care about gamers, and it shows. The latest incidence of showing us love was their announcement to release Arc the Lad Collection. Perhaps a little background is needed here: Back in 1996, there still weren’t any RPG’s released for the Playstation. It had been a year since the PSX launch, and gamers were getting antsy. Then, rumors started flying about that Sony themselves were planning on releasing an RPG later that year. Since there were really only two RPG’s for Playstation in Japan, it seemed logical that it would be one of those two. One was Arc the Lad, a mix of straight role-playing and strategy with beautiful music and hand-drawn graphics that still look good by today’s standards. The other was Beyond the Beyond, a horrible game with a lame story and graphics that were a pixilated mess. This game is only matched in crappiness by the laughingly bad Quest 64. Of course, we got Beyond the Beyond, and the tasty Arc the Lad seemed destined to stay in Japan forever. At least, that was the case until last week, when Working Designs announced its intent to not only give us Arc the Lad, but also Arc II and III in what they are calling Arc the Lad Collection. This 6-disc set will also include a soundtrack CD and a "making-of’ disc. You see? If that isn’t love, then I don’t know what is.

The following is a list of titles that Working Designs has graced us with over their existence. Guerrilla tactics or online auctioning may be required to obtain many of these, as many, many gamers are fully aware of the value of any Working Designs title. However, rest assured that the fruits of such efforts are great indeed.

Parasol Stars – Turbo-Grafx – Action

Cadash – Turbo-Grafx – Action

Cosmic Fantasy 2 – Turbo-GrafxCD – RPG

Exile – Turbo-GrafxCD – Action/RPG

Exile: Wicked Phenomenon – TurboDuo – Action/RPG

Vasteel – Turbo-GrafxCD – Military Strategy

Lunar: The Silver Star – SegaCD – RPG

Vay – SegaCD – RPG

Popful Mail – SegaCD – Action/RPG

Lunar: Eternal Blue – SegaCD – RPG

Shining Wisdom – Saturn – Action/RPG

Iron Storm – Saturn – Military Strategy

Dragon Force – Saturn – Startegy RPG

Albert Odyssey – Saturn – RPG

Sega Ages – Saturn – Arcade Action

Magic Knight Rayearth – Saturn – Action/RPG

Raystorm – Playstation – Shooter

Alundra – Playstation – Action/RPG

Elemental Gearbolt – Playstation – Light-gun RPG (!)

Thunder Force V: Perfect System – Playstation – Shooter

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete – Playstation – RPG

Silhouette Mirage – Playstation – Action Platformer

If you’re not impressed by a heritage like that, then you must have some kind of chemical imbalance in your frontal lobe, or something. When Square didn’t give a rat’s arse about the U.S. market, Working Designs games kept us happy. And now, in an age where Square classics are bestowed upon us on a regular basis, WD games, with their unique blend of characterization, humor, and drama, are still highlights of any release schedule. Here is what you can expect from Working Designs in the coming months:

Vanguard Bandits – Playstation – Startegy RPG – March 2000

Lunar: Eternal Blue – Playstation – RPG – summer 2000

Arc the Lad Collection – Playstation – RPG – fall 2000

Here’s your mission: Pre-order all of these bad boys at your local retailer. Working Designs deserves your hard-earned cash, and these titles are all going to rock (especially Lunar: Eternal Blue; I practically wet myself when I heard that one was coming.). Of course, a working designs game wouldn’t be a Working Designs game without a dozen or so release date changes, so be patient. As I always say, "Working Designs games take forever to come out, but they’re always worth the wait." So make your pre-orders, take your Ritalin, and hunker down for the next gems in the Working Designs collection. You won’t be sorry.

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