In the 90s there seemed to be one company that certainly thought of its fans first. You could tell how much they loved their fans not only by the quality of their work, but by the quality of their collectors editions. Of course I’m talking about Working Designs, The People’s Champ ** Que the Lunar Silver Star Battle Music**
This is not meant to be a comprehensive Biography of Beloved Jrpg publisher, although I do love those. Its just a highlight of some of their works that i feel not only changed the state of JRPGs but gaming as a whole. With that said, I feel it would be improper to keep mentioning 90s rpgs but not pay homage to the company that brought me my favorite game of all time Lunar Silver Star.
This company is almost completely responsible for making me such a diehard Jrpg fan and possibly why I became so interested in anime as well. Im sure I’m not alone here so let’s dive into their history.
Unexpected Beginnings
What is Working Designs. What did they actually do?
Working Designs gained their fame as a video game publisher. Since Victor Ireland was a big gamer himself, he knew that there were a a lot of games in Japan that would do great in America if they were translated and released. He had a real talent for selecting and helping to develop great games. One such games was Lunar The Silver Star for the Sega CD.
The Lunar Effect
As I stated before and will continue to mention as many times as I can, Lunar The Silver Star is my favorite game of all time. This game was a truly magical experience. The story itself is amazing, but it is also your run of the mill Boy Saves world story ( that would be a great name for a Sitcom). Lunar was already a beautiful picture created by studio Alex and Game Arts. They crafted something wonderful. But the “colors that Working Designs added to it with their translation and localization made it breath taking. Lunar was the first videogame to make me laugh out loud. As a kid It made me want to remember the lines verbatim so that I could tell them to my grandfather Just so he could enjoy the story too.
Thats what Working Designs brought to their projects that I feel truly set them apart from other publishers. It was an almost tangible level of personality and quality which helped create an experience that few at that time could have imagined would come from videogames.
Something You Can Feel
The quality of their work did extend into the physical world with their collectors editions. These collectors editions were and are still the stuff of legends. Trust me when I say that an exaggeration. They added so many amazing collectables to their game releases that even though you were paying for it, it somehow manged to feel like a gift.
I think this can be explained with two examples. First we will use Lunar Silver Star Story for the Sony Playstation. Lunar was a big hit on the Sega CD so when they released 6 years later on the Playstation, as the Silver Star Story with all the benefits of the new technology, it was destined for greatness.
Growing up in Brooklyn at that time I didn’t know anyone who knew about the original Lunar. My friends were so surprised to hear that the game I talked about endlessy years ago was getting a remake. This remake was almost a validation of my summer spent finishing and replaying Lunar multiple times on the Sega CD because now everyone was going to see that this game was worth my time. Im saying all of that to emphasize what a huge deal this release was and how high my expectations were at that time. In today’s world, most videogame players, journalists and developers would say that its impossible to please that kind of fan. That a fan at the level I was in 1999 was just setting themselves up for disappointment with such high expectations. Well Working Designs managed to meet my expectations with only the standard edition of the game. The game came with a hardcovers artbook/instructions manual, a soundtrack CD, a making of Lunar CD , a cloth map and of course the game discs. That means everyone who bought the game at releases started off with a surplus of game materials whether they were just casually interested in the game or a huge fan like myself. I was so excited to get all of that along with a superb game but there is more. Here is where Working Designs dips into realm of legendary.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, there was actually multiple versions of art for each game disc. You and I could both buy the game at the same time, go home and open the packaging and have different art on our game discs even though its the same game. It was such a mind-blowing realization. It essentially turned the game box into a giant pack of trading cards. You don’t know what you’ll find inside. Ive ne heard of anything like that in the world of Videogames besides a special limited time release. But some how they managed to take it to another level
A Generation Ahead Of Its Time
The next level was reached with Growlanser Generations on the Playstation 2. Working Designs released many great games here in the west but I chose this as the second example because it really shows how dedicated they were to both quality and their fans. Growlanser Generations is collection of games including Growlanser 2 and 3. Working Designs wanted to bring both of these games over to western audiences separately but while pursuing perfection the encountered a number of delays that forced them to release both games together as a collection. Now where other companies might have simply scrapped the game and moved on, Victor Ireland and working designs felt obligated to keep their promise to there fans who were waiting for this game.
Once gain they exceeded Expectations. The game was released with a number of improvements over the original games and the physical media was a collector’s dream. There was the standard edition which had the games but then there was the deluxe edition which broke the mold. The Deluxe Edition had the games, soundtrack, card set, a ring with chain attached in a soft pouch, and a silver watch with case. Even more than a decade later, that’s an impressive collection.
15 year’s ago today on December 12th 2005, Working Designs officially came to an end. After having to release Growlanser 2 and 3 as a collection, the delays and having their next project denied approval, they could no longer continue. He explained that these were the reasons for the closure in an interview with Brendan Sinclair for GameSpot. You really get a sense of his character and his dedication to the fans in that interview when he says “Giving life to characters demands more than a straight translation. You must work in the spirit of the original, and that’s a tough domain in which to exist, let alone master.”
Working Designs was certainly a master of their craft not only for their skill but in paving the way for other great publishers to come and bring us even more great games. All of this and more is why they will forever be one of my favorite companies of all time and should be credited for setting the gold standard in localization and packaging.
Along with all this praise, Working Designs has my sincere thanks and im sure the thanks JRPG players everywhere for their contributions to the Genre.
Very interesting…
You got some knowledge!! Learned something today.