Working Designs is no more :(

K

KuKzz

Well, it's a sad day for all gamers community. WD is closed now:

Link

This means no more great limited editions, no more good WD-style translations, no more 2D JRPGs like Lunar and Growlancer... Sure, Atlus and some other companies may release something simular, but they won't replace WD.

Judging by this post on message board, it looks like Sony basically killed them. They probably wanted teh graphics, not the real gameplay and good games, and while WD tried to release some unknown (in the USA) 2D gems like growlanser, they couldn't win this fight...

So say hello to even more EA crap and next-gen visuals ©. Surely all you need is 10000k poligons per model, who cares about storyline or gameplay now ?

Well, now excuse me, I'm off to replay Lunar 2. Now we can only hope that some of the staff from WD can do something on X360 and that M$ will _care_ about gamers and let them play good games, not the usual EA sh!t. Sad day, truly sad day...
 
I can't say I'm all that sad... ok, the Lunar games were great, but WD had a way of messing with dialogue and gameplay that always ticked me off.
 
ummm... oh.... God

::breaks out into tears::

Is this happening? Did the armageddon of classic RPGing finally come? Did I just pee my pants?

::falls out of chair::

I am destroyed now!

::calls boss::

I have to go home; yes there was a loss in the family again... this time my beloved WD.

Yes WD... you know WD! My favorit video game translator... what? I'm fired? Why? Oh, its 4:30 in the morning. I'm sorry... well atleast I still get to go home!

[EDIT]Now watch as Growlanser Generations sky rockets in value.
 
its to bad i loved some of their games and the artwork on the cds was great

i figured it would happen sooner or later though seems like everywhere i go all people want is insane gfx or sports games *sigh*
 
Was I the only person that thought that while some of their games were decent, the majority of their work was crap? Pretty toys coming with games doesn't mean you can mangle the translation.
 
That's messed up. anybody on here that played Dragon Force as much as I did would know. The Lunar games were great too. Popfull Mail wasn't bad.....

But I'm glad that the staff found other places to work and that they'll still work on translations, but the fact that the name "Working Designs" is gone is just weird.
 
Though I'm disappointed by this, can't say I'm surprised. A company can't survive releasing a game every couple of years. Though Ys on the MS is what got me started on RPG's, Lunar is where I fell in love with the genre. The best days of the company were the SCD and Saturn days. So many great games.
 
Originally posted by SkankinMo

Was I the only person that thought that while some of their games were decent, the majority of their work was crap?
Click to expand...
No.

Frankly I think Vic had great taste in games, but the translations were plagued by juvenile jokes and they had an attitude of the games they localized being "their" games that really bugged me (I really like how virtually all acknowledgement of original dev houses for most of their games is on a page titled "Legal Crap"...). In particular from what I heard about their release of Silhouette Mirage, it sounds like they ruined the gameplay.

Even so, it was better than not having the games come out in the US.
 
Originally posted by ExCyber+Wed, 2005-12-14 @ 12:07 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ExCyber @ Wed, 2005-12-14 @ 12:07 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-SkankinMo

Was I the only person that thought that while some of their games were decent, the majority of their work was crap?
Click to expand...
No.

------deleted stuff----

Even so, it was better than not having the games come out in the US.

[post=142533]Quoted post[/post]​

[/b][/quote]

Exactly!

I put up with the childish jokes (and giggle at them as well) because atleast the game came here. It isn't like the game is really ruined either. In some cases I feel it enhances the game because sorry, but I've played some dry translations where they translated word for word and some of the jokes or other stuff in it don't make much sense... atleast they try to make everything make sense.

They did go a bit to far at times, but I'd rather that then nothing at all for great games like:

Lunar (which they and GameArts squeezed every God damn penny they could out of)

Dragon Force

Popful Mail

Alundra

atleast one of the Albert Odyssey games (may of been a Gaiden, but I always wanted to play one)
 
well, their main problem is that vic was doing all the translations himself, thus slowing the process down greatly. he did all the Arc games in a span of 13 months. Then had to wait for Sony approval.
 
Its sad to see WD go. I mean the didnt always do the best translations, take Magic Knight Rayearth for example. Those that know of the anime/manga may not enjoy the game as much. Two of my friends couldnt stand the game after watching the intro and hearing the names being butchered and everything. I am new to the whole Magic Knight Rayearth scene and still enjoy it.

Having a poorly translated game released here is better than no game at all.

I really enjoyed Lunar, Vay, popful mail. Some of the jokes were quite childish as you all have mentioned before but I still would rather see games like those than the crap MS or EA Sports is flooding the market with.
 
Their localization work was hit or miss, but the packaging, man. The packaging. Modern publishers could learn a thing about so-called "limited editions" from WD.

Plus, Vic gave the impression that he was really into what he was doing and how much he liked it. He had an ego, for sure, but he gets major cool points for publicly slamming Interact's shitty Saturn products back in the 32-bit era.
 
Originally posted by Sixfortyfive

he gets major cool points for publicly slamming Interact's shitty Saturn products back in the 32-bit era
Click to expand...
Can't argue there. Gameshark carried Interact for the longest time; pretty much everything else they sold sucked really really bad.
 
Originally posted by KuKzz@Wed, 2005-12-14 @ 03:45 AM

Judging by this post on message board, it looks like Sony basically killed them. They probably wanted teh graphics, not the real gameplay and good games, and while WD tried to release some unknown (in the USA) 2D gems like growlanser, they couldn't win this fight...

So say hello to even more EA crap and next-gen visuals ©. Surely all you need is 10000k poligons per model, who cares about storyline or gameplay now ?

[post=142516]Quoted post[/post]​
Click to expand...

Except the "Sony hates 2D games" argument is tired and false. Nippon Ichi sure doesn't seem to be having any problem with their 2D games.

There are many reasons to dislike Sony, but this situation really isn't one of them.
 
None of Nippon Ichi's PS2 games that have been released in the US are purely 2D. They all either render the scenery in 3D or the battle sequences. It's just the sprites that are always 2D.

It's worth noting that it's not Sony as a whole that is accused of this, but only Sony's American division.
 
Well the conspiracy theorist seem to believe that bigger developers (Sega included) aren't given the same kind of hassle that the smaller folks are. I'm not sure I'm entirely convinced; however, it does seem suspicious that relatively high profile 2D games would have trouble meeting Sony's "quality standards" without having their prices lowered or bundled while many crap 3D games get by with no trouble.
 
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