Victor Ireland's Return?

http://www.super-nes.com/2006/07/vic...-endeavor.html

This was posted way earlier this month but I somehow managed to come across it today. So Victor isn't finished just yet bringing awesome JRPGs to the US market. First of all, I must say this new company name sucks. It really really sucks. Second of all, didn't he say before that he wanted to focus now on bringing Japanese XBOX360 games to the US? I don't know what games in the Japanese 360 are worth bringing over here, if there are any at all. I always figured most Japanese developers ignored the XBOX since there is a much larger audience on the other consoles and handhelds there. But hey, if there are some unique games on the xbox360 then I guess it would be awesome to see them here with Victors style of localization.

Of course it isn't really specified what consoles this new company will publish RPGs for. They could focus on all the current consoles as this guy says. This could also be a load of shit. I'll be keeping track of the website anyway in the coming months just to see if anything pops up there. I would gladly welcome the return of Working Designs, even if the games are published under such a retarded company name.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I haven't played to many of working designs games but I have enjoyed those I have (Lunar 2, Growlanser, Alundra and Elemantal Gearbolt). This is certainly something to look foreward to if they get something good.

The name is kinda silly but I think it's alright. I mean you can make a silly slogan like "Silly gaijins play Gaijinwork games".

There's nowhere I can't reach.

The name is a little goofier than I anticipated seeing, but if they bring over games of the same quality as Working Designs did, I'll be buying them. Working Designs was my favorite company for years, and I was really saddened to see the end of them. I don't own an XBOX360 though, so hopefully it's not just exclusive games for that system. >_>

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Quote:

This was posted way earlier this month but I somehow managed to come across it today. So Victor isn't finished just yet bringing awesome JRPGs to the US market. First of all, I must say this new company name sucks. It really really sucks. Second of all, didn't he say before that he wanted to focus now on bringing Japanese XBOX360 games to the US? I don't know what games in the Japanese 360 are worth bringing over here, if there are any at all. I always figured most Japanese developers ignored the XBOX since there is a much larger audience on the other consoles and handhelds there. But hey, if there are some unique games on the xbox360 then I guess it would be awesome to see them here with Victors style of localization.

Which makes me believe it's not going to be an Xbox/360 project. He mostly went off on some rant about how it was all Sony's fault that he had a difficult time in bringing decade old RPGs to the latest system on the market.

Maybe he's settled down some and realized it was his own damned fault and realized his install base probably would not exist without Sony being around. I guess it could be a XBox 360 project but you make a good point that there really aren't any Japanese 360 games even in the works that would fit his traditional style.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Not to get into a "Sony versus whatever" debate, but how is Sony responsible for Working Design's fanbase? They became fairly "well-established" (as far as niche publishing goes) during the Sega CD's lifespan.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Generic Badass

Not to get into a "Sony versus whatever" debate, but how is Sony responsible for Working Design's fanbase? They became fairly "well-established" (as far as niche publishing goes) during the Sega CD's lifespan.

Because RPGs didn't exist before the Playstation and FF7.

Actually, most people who are (or were) fans of Working Designs seem to have jumped on the bandwagon when the Lunar remakes came out. At least those are the games that are most often mentioned. Those and Dragon Force. So it's likely that a good chunk of the fanbase did associate WD with Sony to some extent. Very few WD fans seem to have played the games they published for Sega CD. Nevermind the TG-16 and TG-16 CD games they published.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Megavolt

Actually, most people who are (or were) fans of Working Designs seem to have jumped on the bandwagon when the Lunar remakes came out. At least those are the games that are most often mentioned. Those and Dragon Force. So it's likely that a good chunk of the fanbase did associate WD with Sony to some extent. Very few WD fans seem to have played the games they published for Sega CD. Nevermind the TG-16 and TG-16 CD games they published.

Well, few people played the Sega CD period.

Lunar was the first game for me to really take notice of them, since it and its packing were hyped to hell during the time it was being delayed. Still, I bought a Saturn after it tanked and Rayearth was my first exposure to them (Dragonforce came later...I actually found a copy on clearance for $35). The Lunar delays basically ensured I would never get into the series, because I was knee-deep in other RPG's I was interested in by the time they finally came out and didn't want to drop $70 on another one.

My favorite game of theirs was definitely Growlanser Generations though. At least they went down with a bang.

FELIPE NO

Yes pretty much what I meant with my comment. Yes they established themselves with the Sega CD, however they only met mild success on the Sega CD if because of anything the Sega CD hardware sold horribly. They didn't exactly meet with a huge amount of success with their Saturn releases either.

Sony built a huge RPG fanbase with the PS1 and in turn likely built a large RPG niche fanbase along with it. If I remember correctly, wasn't that the reason WD decided to start publishing games (specifically RPGs) on the PS1 rather than sticking with the Saturn? Wasn't the Lunar remaked canned for the Saturn simply because Vick didn't believe the Saturn had a large enough RPG fanbase to make the remake worthwhile?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Cetra

Yes pretty much what I meant with my comment. Yes they established themselves with the Sega CD, however they only met mild success on the Sega CD if because of anything the Sega CD hardware sold horribly. They didn't exactly meet with a huge amount of success with their Saturn releases either.

Sony built a huge RPG fanbase with the PS1 and in turn likely built a large RPG niche fanbase along with it. If I remember correctly, wasn't that the reason WD decided to start publishing games (specifically RPGs) on the PS1 rather than sticking with the Saturn? Wasn't the Lunar remaked canned for the Saturn simply because Vick didn't believe the Saturn had a large enough RPG fanbase to make the remake worthwhile?

No, the reason for it being canned on the Saturn was because of Bernie Stolar, actually. I'm reaching back in the farthest depths of my mind from the first incantation of the Working Designs message board, but I believe it had something to do with Bernie Stolar and his progress into the Saturn age.

Plus when Magic Knight Rayearth was released on Saturn, it was about a year delayed because of missing/corrupted files and the Saturn was already on it's last leg, with them announcing their drift from Sega not long after. (I think MKR being the last Saturn game to be released.)

Lunar has always had a strong fan base since the Sega CD (me being one ) so when it was put on Playstation, alot of the old school RPG players loved it and even some of the post-FF7 generation did as well. But Vic sold the rights back to GA (or whatever he did) after Lunar Legends was announced, because he didn't feel like re-making Lunar yet again (With Legends being the 4th remake being handled, the 3rd the long delayed and then ultimately cancelled, Lunar: Silver Star Story PC)

The reason for the fall out from Sony had to do with the release of Growlanser. They wanted to release it as seperate games, but Sony refused to release it unless they released both in a package, and almost didn't release it then. The whole "3-D is the way and 2-D is moving backward, not forward" philosophy was what ultimately killed WD. I think the final straw though was when Goemon got canned by Sony. :\

Little known fact: WD was supposed to release the Samuari Showdown RPG over here on the playstation.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Quote:

Posted by Miles
So Victor isn't finished just yet bringing awesome JRPGs to the US market.

Do what? Working Designs did bring us the Lunar games, but they also ported an alarming amount of shit to the US, too. Part of what did them in was their inability to pick titles that would sell more than three copies here. I mean, fucking Goemon?

I wish Vic well, but I hope he's taking a different approach this time, because his old niche has long passed. The old reason to go with Working Designs was to get games that were in honest-to-God English - a true rarity in the 90s. These days, every company can afford professional localizations (holdout Capcom aside), so he's going to have to start banking on more than just Soup Nazi jokes.

How ya doing, buddy?

Notwithstanding the fact that in order to strike gold, you have to endure at least some failures with the US market in bringing over unknown titles, I'd say Working Designs accomplished a lot in beginning the standard of actually having games with an anime structure in them become popular stateside. If you put most of their hits together, it puts the shit to absolute shame in the end.

Where the Sony blame comes in is in the fact that Sony is tightening the noose around games that are relatively unknown, have a Japanese background (yes, this wrath spreads to 90% of RPGs we see), and games that are not 3D. Working Designs specialized in bringing over games that clipped the Sony standard before, but with that noose getting tighter and tighter there was little they could do being the company they were. They simply didn't have the budget to go in and do massive projects. Big company favoritism kills the small company. Want another example? Look at E3 now.

Starting over for Vic means nothing unless he has some nice financial backing from someone, because he's gonna need it.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Monkey King

Do what? Working Designs did bring us the Lunar games, but they also ported an alarming amount of shit to the US, too.

I wouldn't go that far. A lot (but not all) of the games they brought over were actually decent/good games. It was just that no one bothered to buy or play them due to it being on a dead console/everyone sticking to the Squaresoft crap:

Sega CD

* Lunar: The Silver Star
* Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
* Popful Mail

Sega Saturn

* Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean
* Dragon Force
* Magic Knight Rayearth

PlayStation

* Alundra
* Arc the Lad Collection
* Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
* Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete
* Silhouette Mirage
* Vanguard Bandits

They did have crappy selections for the PS2 though. They should have picked up the Atelier Iris series or something before NIS got it first.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?