R.I.P Working Designs. I say farewell today to one of the few companies in the gaming industry that was bringing unique and classic RPG games from Japan to America. *Prepare for a long post with a lot of screenshots.*

They were bringing things that would never have seen the light in the States. Without them I would never have lost 160 hours of my life into Lunar: Silver Star, and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete. I would not have been able to play Aludra or Growlanser. So thank you Working Designs for all the things you did manage to bring over, and not only bring over but enhance upon. Not only did they bring great RPG games to our shores but they went above and beyond the call releasing them with exceptional additional content that the Japanese releases did not have. They released the games in packaging with style and class seldom found in games anymore. For those who do not know what they brought to this market I include a list of their games in this farewell from oldest to newest on consoles ranging from the TurboGrafx-16 all the way up to the PS2.

1991 - Cadash
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1992 - Exile
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1992 - Lunar: Silver Star
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1993 - Vasteel
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1993 - Exile: Wicked Phenomenon
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1994 - Popful Mail (One of the first games with a real boss battle ever.)
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1994 - Vay
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1994 - Lunar: Eternal Blue
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1995 - Shining Wisdom
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1996 - Iron Storm
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1996 - Dragon Force
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1997 - Sega Ages
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1997 - Alundra
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1998 - Elemental Gearbolt
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1998 - Magic Knight Rayearth
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1999 - Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
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1999 - Silhouette Mirage
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2000 - RayCrisis: Series Termination (Screenshots from GameSpot)
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2000 - Vanguard Bandits(Screenshots from RPGGamer)
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2000 - Gungriffon Blaze
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2001 - Arc the Lad: The Collection
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2000 - Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete
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2001 - Silpheed: The Lost Planet
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2004 - Growlanser: Generations

It is very unfortunate that they have had to shut their doors, and I see this as a huge hit to the Japanese -> American market. Nearly every single one of the games they brought over was a treasure to many american RPG gamers from some of the very first consoles created. They stated that Sony would not allow them to bring all of the games they truly wanted to bring over as one of the reasons things ended how they did. One can only hope a company will pop-up and take over where they left off in the market bringing such games here, though with the way the market is, focusing on sequals and non-risky ventures, hopes are slim.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 15th, 2005 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Cory, Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.