The dream has ended for the fine folks at Working Designs. Per Victor Ireland’s thread on the WD message boards…
It’s a tough road ahead for games that aren’t of the least-common-denominator variety. The choices you make with your hardware dollars are more important than ever for the generation that is upon us.
Working Designs had been publishing niche games for what seems like forever, I use to play a lot of them on my Sega CD and Sega Saturn; games like Lunar and Dragon Force are at the top of my list. They also helped bring over Alundra and the better late than never PS1 release of Arc the Lad Collection.
What shocks me is that while it appears these niche titles aren’t being allowed to be published on the PlayStation 2 platform, why are we starting to see games like Popolocrois and The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion on PSP? Heck, there are a bunch of recent niche Japanese RPGs for PS2 like Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, La Pucelle: Tactics, and Phantom Brave. Something is amiss here.
Thanks for all the great memories Working Designs, you’ll be missed greatly.
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They seem to have gotten a lot of flack for not switching to another platform and saving themselves. At least on the ic boards.
I’m still playing through Alundra right now, and I think it’s the best Zelda alternative ever. (Other than Landstalker, which I have the fondest memories of.) But Alundra is a marvel. It looks like a graphically advanced Genesis title, (reminds me of Beyond Oasis and its sequel in a way), plays like an overhead 2D platformer, has difficult puzzles, no cutscenes, and no voices. Drama plays out in the same engine that the gameplay happens in. I wouldn’t have guessed that it could have been made for the PS, but it’s a fantastic game. Image-conscious Sony probably let it through grudingly.
We have more niche publishers these days, but the man kept WD down. Some say it was due to Vic’s atitude, some say it’s Sony’s fault. Some say that they sucked in the first place. There’s a lot of outpouring going out to them right now though.