Hey everyone. Vic Ireland contacted me with a few clarifications that I'd like to share: 0:37 - Ireland wrote mostly for Turbo Play, which was a sister publication from the folks who made VG&CE. I only have one issue of that magazine sadly. That and the other one available for download on the internet do not feature him credited, so I had to go with my observations. I would've loved to show his name on an article or review. EDIT: Found and instance of an Ys III review written by Vic in the December 1991 issue of Videogames & Computer Entertainment (after or around the same time as the first TurboGrafx-16 releases from Working Designs came out, so I didn't look far enough ahead in my search). archive.org/details/vgce_91-12/page/n45/mode/2up?view=theater 18:31 - I say that they re-recorded the cut scenes since they couldn't get the isolated audio tracks. This is not true. They re-recorded them because the Japanese version's audio was weak. I certainly agree with that assessment. 20:52 - Vic says he implemented the pay to save mechanic to prevent "save scumming back when I cared how people play". He seems to regret its inclusion. I still say that it didn't affect my playthoughs at all, though I can see why people would object to it. 23:00 - There is actually some Working Designs humor in Iron Storm. According to Vic "if Japan wins where the US eventually stages an economic invasion of Japan, flooding it with inexpensive autos, TVs, radios, and gadgets. The resulting trade imbalance enslaves Japan to the US. " I would've loved to show this. 34:12 - Regarding the increased difficulty in Alundra, Vic says "I didn't only buff monsters in Alundra. It was more of a balancing. For the final boss I reduced its HP and increased its attack power. The Japanese version took FOREVER to kill. It was a tiresome attack sponge. I made it easier to kill, but more deadly if you got hit so the battle was a more reasonable length. Someone who formerly complained bitterly about WD "meddling" on Alundra wrote me an apology letter after they played the Japanese version and realized that I did inarguably change at least some of it for the better. Also, the opening animation with the rock music was just for the US version. Did not exist in the Japanese." 39:44 - Magic Knight Rayearth. I probably should've mentioned that the hard drive crash happened at Sega in Japan before Working Designs got the game. I did when I talked about this one in the "Last Officially Released Games 2" episode. Regarding if it was just FMV data or not, Vic clears things up with "Rayearth source code was absolutely partially lost on the Japanese side in a crash before we got it. Anyone that says it was just FMV lost has no idea what they're talking about. Tim had to really jump through a crazy amount of hoops and hack out chunks of binary, already compiled code from the retail Japanese release to fill in the gaps in code libraries that were lost or damaged to eventually get the English version to actually work." 45:45 - I said Vanguard Bandits' Japanese title was Epic Stella when it's actually Epica Stella. Vic adds some more fun trivia about the game: "Vanguard Bandits" was actually called Epica Stella in Japan, not Epic Stella. Vanguard Bandits was an accidental title. We were spitballing after we got the legal notice from Midway about Detonator Gauntlet infringing and someone jokingly said "Panty Bandits" to someone else some distance from me and I misheard it as "Vanguard Bandits." It actually was a way better title than Detonator Gauntlet, so it worked out OK. Also, the surround assist feature of the game (where if you have allies adjacent to an enemy you are attacking, that helps you) that really improves the strategy did not exist in the Japanese version. Ken worked a long time on that to get it right and it turned out great. I'll add to this post if Vic adds more clarifications.
@Ruddskies2 жыл бұрын
Hi Vic!
@AltimaNEO2 жыл бұрын
Hah, thats awesome that he watched and added some more info!
@PixelPhoenix2 жыл бұрын
Whoa, Vic contacted you? Awesome. I tried to get a hold of him a while back, but I guess I was reaching out to a dead email...or maybe he never saw it. Oops. Still, that's really cool. I know Coury of My Life in Gaming tried reaching out to him a few times too, in the hopes of getting an interview with him or history about Working Designs in general.
@cj_iwakura2 жыл бұрын
@@PixelPhoenix He's on twitter, but he largely vanished from the internet after the disastrous launch of Summon Night 6.
@SuperOtakuKyo2 жыл бұрын
@@cj_iwakura Why was it disastrous? Poor sales?
@BladeBlur2 жыл бұрын
This is probably one of the most anticipated episodes of Game Sack for me, and seeing the duration of it, I applaud your hard work Joe. Thank you for making my Saturday nights great!
@slycooper40672 жыл бұрын
Glad I’m not the only one so pumped for an hour long episode hell yeah let’s go baby
@BladeBlur2 жыл бұрын
@@slycooper4067 Hell yeah my Thievius Racconus :)
@slycooper40672 жыл бұрын
@@BladeBlur ❤️ been my username/gamer tag since the first game dropped. (Cooper is also my name IRL) Quick story I hope makes you laugh: My mother purchased a new Chrome Book. I drove over to help her get started and get some of the stuff she needed on the thing etc. I initially used my google account to set it up, added hers after, forgot to log out before I left. She called me a little after and said “uhh why did you make my Google name SPY COOPER Or something?” 😝
@BladeBlur2 жыл бұрын
@@slycooper4067 haha cute story :)
@mrdeatheli2 жыл бұрын
I immediately clicked on this before seeing your comment, and couldn't agree more!
@GameSack2 жыл бұрын
What do you think of Working Designs? Love 'em? Hate 'em? Do you wish they had localized Chrono Trigger? Final Fantasy 7?
@Vulpas2 жыл бұрын
Glad they didn't touch Chrono Trigger but I liked them well enough, better than no translation at all.
@Walczyk2 жыл бұрын
sweet video drop! i love working designs more than dislike, and their nsfw jokes snuck into magic knight rayearth got me so confused when i was a teen playing it for the first time.
@AfterBurnerTeirusu2 жыл бұрын
Hate them. I'd rather have the original voice acting in my games and I don't really enjoy their usual gameplay changes. Doesn't help that the games are super expensive nowadays.
@jasonhubbard67752 жыл бұрын
Oh, the things they would have made Barret say! "I pity the fool who don't fight for the planet!"
@technofeeliak2 жыл бұрын
Are you having issues with your microphone or did you compress the audio too much?
@Mick2K2 жыл бұрын
Working Designs was the only reason we could play these games outside of Japan and back in the days that was awesome but nowadays i mostly patch the games with un-worked patches because they often changed and rebalanced to much in my opinion.
@ProfKisuto2 жыл бұрын
Have you actually tried playing some of the games unpatched? Popful Mail specifically becomes a complete joke to get through. They made the game a LOT more interesting difficultly wise.
@Mick2K2 жыл бұрын
@@ProfKisuto i played the unpatched game many years ago and after that video i started to replay Popful Mail on my RG351 and I must say I prefer that its easier.
@johnbewty2 жыл бұрын
It's so weird that Working Designs clearly loved these games, and also decided to mangle them. It's like... "hey! I feel so passionately about these niche Japanese games that Americans don't get to enjoy! I strongly feel they would find fans here! I want Westerns to enjoy these cool treasures! BUT ONLY IF I MANGLE THEM FIRST"
@AzureSymbiote2 жыл бұрын
Good idea. I should do that as well.
@brandonbentley54532 жыл бұрын
My best friends family in HS sponsored a foreign exchange student from Japan. So I got to play Japanese titles...with live Japanese to English translation!
@HeruruMeruru2 жыл бұрын
As a Lunar fan, I have a love genuinely/love ironically relationship with Working Designs. I will admit that a lot of their earlier translations have aged poorly... but a lot of translations from that era have aged even worse. And yeah, the changes they made to the diffculty is unacceptable. Their PS1 era translations were honestly fine, though, aside from a few questionable line changes. Personally I think their song dubs were great, the boat song in Lunar Silver Star Story in particular I think is better than the Japanese version. Their packaging and collector's editions are absolutely gorgeous though, you can't deny that.
@PaleHorseShabuShabu2 жыл бұрын
And now Lunar is getting a release on the Sega Genesis Mini II coming in October! The Sega CD versions of the Lunar games are confirmed for the Japanese version, but I'm hoping they'll come to the American version and help flesh out the roster of rpgs.
@mark63022 жыл бұрын
lunar needs to be on steam
@maxxdahl60622 жыл бұрын
@@PaleHorseShabuShabu I wouldn't get your hopes up.
@MelodicEntity2 жыл бұрын
I'm trying to find a way to pitch my 'Lunar story.' Hopefully, Victor Ireland will turn up soon. I feel very confident that he'd enjoy this!
@RodddPO7 ай бұрын
I wouldn't say so. Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, EarthBound, Pokémon Red and Blue, Final Fantasy IX, Vagrant Story, Phantasy Star IV... all of these games had great translations by that time. Games like FF7, Tactics and Legend of Dragoon were certainly lackluster in this regard, but it's not like every game was still incomprensible like Breath of Fire 2 by then.
@marcosdheleno2 жыл бұрын
"they even made french people seem normal", i almost spit my coffee over that one.
@tartrazine52 жыл бұрын
18:28
@Will45_2 жыл бұрын
Everyone loves a good french joke. EVERYONE!!! I bet there's someone in Cambodia laughing at french people right now.
@toryficarola2 жыл бұрын
Love Popful Mail and its legendary English dubbing and I especially like that line. The voice of said purple gargoyle thing sounds weirdly similar to the Big Brother show's Zingbot and like he sucked helium outta balloon.
@remka2000 Жыл бұрын
@@Will45_Except maybe french people 😊 They mostly make jokes about U.S. : fun things mass shootings, opioid crisis, rampant racism etc.
@chuyuen441 Жыл бұрын
@@remka2000 frog detected
@Pewpewpew1822 жыл бұрын
I miss them so much. I don’t have many things left from them, except my Growlanser ps2 release. Thank you for making this episode. I loved how they snuck little messages in their magazine ads in the copyright section :)
@jeffersonderrickson53712 жыл бұрын
I was lucky to snag a copy of each lunar for PS and well, wish upon a star.
@2Plus2isChicken20132 жыл бұрын
Working Designs brought some pretty great games over here. Their translations don’t bother me. As long as the basic idea of the story comes across I don’t care if some random NPC says some dated 90s humor. Alundra is one of the best games ever. I’m definitely glad we got that one. It out-Zeldas some Zelda games, and I think the music is really good. The puzzles get way too convoluted at times, though, sort of like Lufia II. Those puzzles where you push blocks on ice and they only stop when they hit a wall or something are just bad.
@alucardvania9862 жыл бұрын
Alundra is an amazing game. Very dark, incredible music and challenging puzzles and enemies. I hold it up there with Story of Thor/Beyond Oasis and Soleil/Crusader of Centy as my top 3 action adventure games.
@lubenretrolletarios79012 жыл бұрын
Alindra is better than any 2d Zelda. Also is more mature and dark, with great story, puzzles, top graphics, platform elements, secrets. This game have everything. Best 2d action adventure ever.
@xGolbezx2 жыл бұрын
I don't remember any convoluted puzzles in Lufia II. Then again I haven't played through it in about a decade, maybe it's time to give it another go.
@AmberShort2 жыл бұрын
Best episode ever! Thanks Joe. I miss Working Designs. They really brought alot of the rpg games out here. Not to mention the love they put in their product cases. Especially when it came to collectors sets. We really don't see them much anymore which is sad.
@banginyo2 жыл бұрын
My friends and I were obsessed with that Lunar theme song when it first came out! Hearing it brings back memories!
@kacamac2 жыл бұрын
lot of nostalgia in this one for me. I always enjoyed the dumb and silly translations. Sometimes you get a chuckle sometimes you don't, its all good
@12ealDealOfficial2 жыл бұрын
It's like the original English dub of Sailor Moon; at the time, maybe I rolled my eyes at the '90s-ness of it all, but you start to really, really love it as more time passes. Working Designs' humor is so unique and fun when you compare it to the slick, polished, and either overtly political or overly sanitized stuff we have now. I can only imagine many early Japanese localizations with that 90s flavor now, especially Popful Mail and Vanguard Bandits.
@Blink_____2 жыл бұрын
I hope the script writer for Albert Odyssey's translation never apologizes to anyone. That thing was a masterpiece
@Mister_Clean Жыл бұрын
The ebonics joke made me spit out my drink The 90's were a wild time
@dwood78part232 жыл бұрын
I remember hearing this game company's name despite never playing a game from them. As it's over an hour long, we're in for the long haul!
@kidfazer2 жыл бұрын
Joe I know you’ve never been one to overly flex your collection but I know it’s gotta be incredible. You actually inspired me to collect because of how knowledgeable you are. It’d be cool to see your collection. Maybe a montage style video going through your shelves. Thanks again for your content as always!
@drunkensailor1122 жыл бұрын
Yes please
@MarcoMazziniYT2 жыл бұрын
I second this.
@renbelmont2 жыл бұрын
Yeah Joe and while you're at it, can I borrow your snatcher
@ILikeGoils2 жыл бұрын
Wasn't there a GS episode where Joe and Dave would show us around their houses and show the games/consoles/gaming related stuff? Or was it like a fever dream of mine? 😀
@drunkensailor1122 жыл бұрын
@@ILikeGoils no you're right and you can still view it. Great episode. Must be like 10 years old at least
@TheStolken2 жыл бұрын
Popful Mail's translation is so powerful. I hope video games go back to insanely funny translations like that. This episode definitely got me interested in some of their other games. Exile has always been on the radar so good to know there's more to it than I thought.
@remka2000 Жыл бұрын
I hope not, and I am happy that there seems to be a bit more of QA these days, even when translations are not done in-house. I understand that some local references might be hard to translate but this is the nature of the job. Blatantly changing them "because its funny" shows a clear lack of respect of the original material.
@Sarahm2261 Жыл бұрын
@remka2000 what if it was a extra with a game you can use after the 1st playthrough?
@chuyuen441 Жыл бұрын
@@remka2000 ACK!!!
@Vanity066610 ай бұрын
@@remka2000do you feel this way about Ghost Stories and MXC
@Longlius2 ай бұрын
@@Sarahm2261 A bonus "abridged" gag translation would be fine with me. I just don't like translations pulling in dated gags as part of the main translation. It was cringe when WD filled their games with Bill Clinton and Wheaties and it's cringe today.
@rojovision2 жыл бұрын
This might be the most expensive episode in GS history.
@Sagi.Baten.Kaitos Жыл бұрын
In terms of the total cost of the games covered or just the overall production value?
@rojovision Жыл бұрын
@@Sagi.Baten.Kaitos I'm guessing I was talking about cost of games covered.
@Bloodreign12 жыл бұрын
More continues can be earned in Parasol Stars, they are hidden well though. The bubbles, or enemies when thrown into certain spaces on each stage, and you uncover hidden items. You can hit each area multiple times with bubbles or enemies, and each time the bonus items you uncover increase in point value, eventually you uncover a 100 yen coin, collecting it earns you a continue. Bonus doors in boss rooms (like Rainbow Islands) can be uncovered by collecting 3 "miracles" in each world, if you get 3 of the same, you get a bonus door on the boss stage, entering it and you can actually find a large Yen coin that awards you 99 continues, finding a rainbow necklace which pops up every 77 levels played, within the stage, also awards you 99 continues.
@Katzii2 жыл бұрын
Came here to say this, but while I knew about the Miracle Doors, didn't know about the large Yen coin or the rainbow necklace! Been playing this game for going on three decades and still learning new things, no wonder it's my all-time favourite.
@MarsofAritia2 жыл бұрын
oh so that's how i kept getting 99 continues lol
@Kain5th2 жыл бұрын
Pretty odd i was just watching sega lord x’s video on working designs on the Sega CD. Now this drops? Cool 😎
@HoodedChaosProductions2 жыл бұрын
This was one of the best episodes of GameSack I've seen in a long while.
@PonderingGhost2 жыл бұрын
Joe, you are without a shred of a doubt a true, honest, genuine soul. This episode is by far one of your very best. Working Designs games have always been really special to me. I have had many adventures and journeys with various titles, Dragon Force being number one for me personally. You have brought light to many in a world full of chaos just with this episode alone. I just wanted you to know this. Thank you Joe and we miss you Dave. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. BTW, I am heading over to my local BlockBuster Video to go rent Iron Storm I have always wanted to play and Beyond The Beyond really blows. Same story with me too. Damn you, Samson and your curse!
@CarmenOfSpades2 жыл бұрын
The translation notes were the best thing and I really wish others had done it back then (or even now)
@GuestZer02 жыл бұрын
I was first made aware of Working Design thanks to Game Sack, so this is perfect.
@slycooper40672 жыл бұрын
Same! I knew of Lunar and maybe another game but didn’t know a lot of other games I’ve seen/read/heard about were from them as well.
@lifespanofafry15342 жыл бұрын
Never heard until now 🤷🏽♂️ Ignorant fool I am…
@slycooper40672 жыл бұрын
@@lifespanofafry1534 not at all they weren’t exactly a hot topic of conversation back in the day and even now
@slycooper40672 жыл бұрын
@@lifespanofafry1534 and now you do know more about them so that’s a huge win in my opinion
@lifespanofafry15342 жыл бұрын
@@slycooper4067 🤗🤗🤗
@anthonylira47392 жыл бұрын
That ending skit alone earned the thumbs up. Thanks for the trip down amnesia lane!
@cody88042 жыл бұрын
As always, top notch. Every single week I’ll take a peek for however long a sack needs to be
@Retro_Royal2 жыл бұрын
The Iron Storm translation drops the ball hard when it comes to naming the german units, especially the Navy. It´s a garbled mischmasch and more like a wordle task to figure out what is what.
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
Chances are it's romanized Katakana. Japanese gets weird when it translates foreign words. Ex: Google is officially Gugulu in Japan. Everything has to fit the syllables laid out in the kana. Definitely sounds like it was out of their wheelhouse and they should have got someone to find the correct German spelling.
@Retro_Royal2 жыл бұрын
@@Furluge only reasonable explanation but still a huge fail. How hard could it have been to look up the names back then, internet was already around.
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
@@Retro_Royal Internet in 1995-1996 was not the same as it is today. Internet access would have been on a per hour in the USA as AOL didn't start offering $20/month internet until later in the 90s, around 96 or or 97 or so. Wikipedia, inaccurate as it is, didn't exist yet. At some libraries you might be able to get access to some online encyclopedias like Britanica or you might have some CD Rom based encyclopedias. Regardless if they had really put forth their best effort they could have likely found someone or gone to a local library and researched names I imagine. I'm sure plenty of wargames in the 80s had already done the legwork there and I easily found books on them in my library at the time. Another possibility I just thought of is they may have run into character limit issues with unit names. I remember that was one of the problems with Lunar and a lot of Retro games have issues like that in the English versions. In either case, probably not their best work. It's a bit hard to guess which one it is without seeing the names. I did notice an obviously abbreviated name in the clip shown here though.
@jmarra072 жыл бұрын
Vanguard Bandits is one of my favorite games ever, and it's great to see someone else even know it exists, let alone appreciates it's quality
@Nathan-rb3qp2 жыл бұрын
Technically the reason they went out of business was because they were going through the localization equivalent of development hell with the unreleased English version of Mystical Ninja Goemon Zero that they spent over 2 years on but was cancelled shortly before completion.
@Progearspec2 жыл бұрын
Thank you scea :p
@TheBardOfTheRedHand21 күн бұрын
Just listened to the interview with Vic Retro Hangover did where you were a guest. It was great to publicly hear to from Vic after so long and it's clear that he still has a passion for this work but the realities of the modern market make the kinds of releases Working Designs did very difficult. Especially as most companies brought their localization efforts in-house or shifted to larger publishers.
@TheMicWillExperiment2 жыл бұрын
I always wanted to fall asleep hearing about the entire Working Designs catalog, thanks Game Sack!
@brianpaul68542 жыл бұрын
Hahah... This was my Sunday and Monday night. Some of the best sleep I've had recently
@irfanafendi48372 жыл бұрын
"Games with good stories cannot be made without CD-Rom." Chrono Trigger: *farts*
@Choralone4222 жыл бұрын
I had a love/hate relationship with Working Designs in the 16-bit era. On the one hand it was great to be able to play games from Japan that no-one else dared to bring to the US and I really enjoyed Cosmic Fantasy 2 on the TG-16 CD even if it's a SUPER basic and grindy RPG. On the other hand I absolutely hated how WD decided to make many of the games they translated unfairly hard with Exile 2 in particular basically being broken. I didn't realize that they managed to hang in there until 2005. Well done on this video! I really enjoyed it!
@maxxdahl60622 жыл бұрын
I liked their sega cd stuff, they mostly fell out with me afterwards in the PS1, etc era.
@Nocturne_Duskclaw2 жыл бұрын
[REDACTED] This is why you don't make a comment while the video is still running.
@Jofe0002 жыл бұрын
My thoughts exactly. I would add some of the stuff in the translations is quite cringe worthy and most probably not really faithful to the original text.
@f937r2 жыл бұрын
They did it to combat the video game rental market. It's one of the reasons why games brought to America had unnecessary difficulty increases.
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
@@f937r Yes for those are are reading this and don't realize, video game rentals are illegal in Japan. It's also part of why the second hand market for video games is so big in Japan. If you're really curious you can for example see line by line examinations of the translation for Lunar 1 & 2 on LunarNET. They're not exactly massive changes overall. If the localization is ruined for you because a fairy NPC says Ghaleon has an ABBA collection then you probably aren't enjoying the story to begin with regardless of who did the localization.
@XB3Gaming2 жыл бұрын
Another thing of note for Growlanser is that the nicely animated opening cutscenes from the Japanese version were replaced with generic character art portraits and music. That always saddened me cause Satoshi Urushihara's artwork is always a sight to behold, and his animation is stellar too.
@KaskelotenZebbe2 жыл бұрын
I love the fact that they existed and brought over many games which would have stayed in Japan otherwise. Their packaging was also great, especially for the Lunar games on PlayStation. I didn't care for all those pop cultural references, which really just break the immersion. I have to be honest I'm glad they didn't localize Phantasy Star IV. Imagine Professor Holt hating to miss Melrose Place or a Zio's cult member sorting his ABBA collection... yeesh!
@jeremybowers31812 жыл бұрын
Wow. Hats off to Gamesack, I only grew up playing a handful of these titles and had NO IDEA of the rich history of Working designs. Thanks again Joe for an amazing video man!
@johnnybee86912 жыл бұрын
Personally I like fan translations most of the time a lot of love goes into them.
@EsperHubb2 жыл бұрын
The VA for Popful Mail is wild. Thanks for covering this, was really curious about what other titles they had done other than Dragon Force and Silhouette Mirage
@NaviciaAbbot2 жыл бұрын
It's best to mention that Magic Knight Rayearth was directed by Rieko Kodama, the character artist of Sega Ninja, Phantasy Star, Phantasy Star II, one of the artists on Sonic the Hedgehog, the director on Phantasy Star IV, and the producer of Skies of Arcadia.
@kmosiejcАй бұрын
One thing I noted about Vasteel, the sound vastly improves if it's in mono rather than stereo. I used to merge the two channels when playing vasteel.
@ShadowArtist2 жыл бұрын
It was more than a "spat" between Bernie Stolar and Victor Ireland. Sega of American's management and then Bernie Stolar once he became Sega of America's CEO, blatantly delayed and hindered Working Designs repeatedly with every 2-D JRPG game Ireland wanted to localize and publish for the Sega Saturn because of some kind of "approval" and "quality assurance" process Stolar demanded of Working Designs, and Stolar having yelled at Ireland that 2-D Games and RPGs "don't sell in the US".. which was very wrong as 2-D fighting games like Marvel Vs Capcom and Street Fighter Alpha were HUGE in the arcades, and then FF 7 on the PS proved that RPGs can become a huge success with the right marketing and big time ad campaign. The arguments between Victor Ireland and Stolar and all the special "conditions" were major difficulties and are **why** Working Designs did NOT localize and publish the original Sega Saturn remakes of Lunar and Lunar 2 (named Lunar Silver Star Story and Lunar 2 Eternal Blue) in the US, and instead WD then started localizing the Playstation ports of those two Lunar remakes... Me and all the gamers that LOVED the Sega Saturn and RPGs back then were lucky we even got Dragon Force, Shining Wisdom, and the repeatedly delayed Magic Knight Rayearth action rpg localized for the Saturn in the US at all.... many were disappointed about the LUNAR remakes (the original Saturn versions) not getting localized back then... Most of this clash between Victor and Bernie Stolar and what was going on was revealed via EGM and Gamefan magazine interviews with Victor Ireland and many of Ireland's posts on RPG and Lunar fan Newsgroup message boards back in the mid 90's
@Mospen2 жыл бұрын
What an absolute treat and undertaking! This is a fantastic episode! Your hard work shows and was enjoyable from beginning to end. Your knowledge of Working Designs also shows in your skit at the end. I LOL'd! Keep up the excellent work!
@3dmarth2 жыл бұрын
While WD's rewritten dialogue might be a bit over-the-top, it looks like it makes the games more enjoyable, interesting, and memorable. JRPGs are notorious for their overabundance of dry, repetitive dialogue (depending on the game, of course), and I can think of a bunch of more recent games that could probably benefit from some punched-up translation work (whether WD or Woolsey-styled).
@xGolbezx2 жыл бұрын
The Romancing SaGa remasters could really use some Vic Ireland translations. Decent games anyway, despite the boring dialogue.
@tigerfestivals51372 жыл бұрын
I disagree, I'd like the product to be as close to the original as possible and within reason (translation isn't a perfect 1 to 1 especially with different languages). Anything else is essentially censorship imo
@ryun.80722 жыл бұрын
"dry", sometimes happens to eng to jpn translation too
@12ealDealOfficial2 жыл бұрын
This episode is one of Game Sack's best. I LOVE Working Designs, and the coverage here goes into the awesome guides and manuals you'd get with these old games (which very, very few channels have). And if anyone is wondering what the rule is for localization, like, "when is it okay to add humor and such," the answer is this: it is pretty much only okay when Working Designs and ADV do it.
@kekeke89882 жыл бұрын
Every WD localization was basically like Ghost Stories.
@LainK19786 ай бұрын
@@kekeke8988 Not even close to what Ghost Stories was. WD changed fluff dialog, not the plots of the games.
@OverpoweredGun2 жыл бұрын
South Park, Beavis and Butthead, Blink-182... I have no idea why fart jokes were considered the pinnacle of comedy in the 90s.
@deraykrause45172 жыл бұрын
Fart = Funny. It's just basic mathematics.
@madgigahz7 ай бұрын
“She’d teach me about modern art, And I’d show her it’s ok to fart” -Blink 182
@chrisd62872 жыл бұрын
My intro to working designs was Alundra and that is one of my all time favorites. The manual and map that comes with the game are beautiful! Great video Joe.
@masterquake72 жыл бұрын
I fall into the latter as well. I never get angry at translation changes unless they change the story. I liked their stuff.
@starlitalpha72 жыл бұрын
They changed an entire character in Vay from having wind based teleportation, to being cursed with Eternal Seismic Flatulence. This also gave them the "clever" idea to change the name of the bronze helmet to a "filtration mask" and forced you to put it on all of your characters before being teleported, or you get a game over. If that isn't "changing the story", I don't know what is.
@chrisjones68682 жыл бұрын
Just so happy to see Game Sack finally mention Space Harrier.
@Level1Sword2 жыл бұрын
"Japanese versions of games are almost always the harder versions." Working Designs: "Hold my beer..."
@audiovisual512 жыл бұрын
Actually the Western versions of retro games are usually harder, since the US allowed game rentals while Japan didn't, so they were made harder to deter beating a rented game. There are exceptions though.
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
It generally depends on genre and other factors. For genres popular in the USA often those had harder versions as game rentals are illegal in Japan.
@3dmarth2 жыл бұрын
@@Furluge Release date seems to be a factor as well. Most of the games that were made harder for the US are from the '90s, whereas the ones that were made easier for the US are more likely to be older (and games of that era were already tough enough on their own). But this is not a hard and fast rule, of course!
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
@@3dmarth Yeah definitely not a hard and fast rule. You definitely pegged a correlation with difficulty in the 80s vs 90s. 90s was when game rentals started becoming more common. Devs were also figuring things out and the US version was often the first chance to do patches and changes. One example of this, or what seemed like one just based on guessing from what we got is Rockman/Mega Man. It seems like the devs were transitioning to an easier difficulty between #2's JP and US release. JP&US1 are the same. Its hard. JP2 has one difficulty which is the same as US2's hard mode. Then 3 to 6 are all the same and they're all easier than 1 and JP2. Seems like after JP2 came out they decided to lower the difficulty and implemented it in US2 then stuck with that that the entire series.
@3dmarth2 жыл бұрын
@@Furluge Interesting... I didn't know (or just forgot) that MM2 didn't have an easy ("Normal") mode in Japan. I wonder if the Japanese devs always intended to add an easier difficulty, but implemented it after the "gold" build had already gone out (wouldn't be the only time something like that happened), or if the US devs came up with the idea, but then the JP devs saw the positive reaction to MM2's gentler difficulty and decided to tweak the series going forward. Or maybe the most likely case is that games were getting a little easier in general, so the Mega Man series started to move in that direction. The US team just happened to be a little ahead of their time.
@kubiakWU2 жыл бұрын
I wouldn't have been able to babe a single Working Designs game prior to watching this video. This is one of the reasons I love this channel. I learn so much about gaming history watching these videos. Really great stuff!
@turbinegraphics162 жыл бұрын
Sony considered 2D to be absolute crap despite starcraft, age of empires and pokemon being the most popular games of the time.
@CalrissianSteele2 жыл бұрын
It's a good day when a new episode of Game Sack blesses my timeline.
@Genethagenius2 жыл бұрын
I know they get a lot of hate these days, but those Working Designs’ games are some of my favorites! I love the packaging and translations! And back in the 90’s, they were one of the few companies bringing over Japanese games that might not have been localized otherwise.
@oldking82762 жыл бұрын
The only thing i've ever owned from them was Arc The Lad Collection and it was solid, why are they getting hate now?
@MaidenHell19772 жыл бұрын
Never heard or seen them get hate. They are rather fondly remembered.
@oldking82762 жыл бұрын
Yeeeah, watching the video, I can understand why they got critiques for messing with some games.
@Will45_2 жыл бұрын
I don't get how these can be called working Designs games when they created almost none of them.
@Genethagenius2 жыл бұрын
@@Will45_ They localized and published the games over here in the U.S. I think it’s just a tendency of the language, for example, we call a ton Nintendo properties “Nintendo games” even if they’re not developed by Nintendo, but only published by them.
@afk4lyf2 жыл бұрын
Really glad you covered this! I still love playing Alundra and Elemental Gearbolt, and I definitely agree that Working designs brought some real gems to this side of the world, even though they needlessly cranked up the difficulty. I for one am very thankful for those Un-worked Designs patches.
@anthonyjohnson90882 жыл бұрын
I love Working Designs so much...the best collector edition's EVER!!!
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
Those are just the regular versions of the games.
@anthonyjohnson90882 жыл бұрын
@@Furluge no sh*t
@rickylovesyou2 жыл бұрын
@@anthonyjohnson9088 so your first comment makes no sense then Sherlock.
@anthonyjohnson90882 жыл бұрын
@@rickylovesyou thank you Holmes
@hikaruk.9812 жыл бұрын
Interesting timing, bringing this out just as the Prototype of their Goemon PS2 translation was leaked!
@dragonchaserkev2 жыл бұрын
Can you imagine back when the internet was so slow it took overnight to send a game? Yes Joe I am old so I remember those days, my first internet usage was in 1992 or 1993 so there wasn't any pictures, video, audio at all. None of the students were at all impressed but our teacher said it'd be big. Guess Mr. Savard RIP knew what he was talking about. I had bought an ink jet a year or so later and he was impressed with it's quality and cheapness compared to laser printers. That was with my $2000 386 which had I believe like a 120 MB hard drive.
@Chaos89P2 жыл бұрын
Some of us had to deal with a dialup modem well into the mid 00's. Imagine watching Dumbass Mario with a 56 kb/s bitrate.
@wussup123452 жыл бұрын
Sounds like you need to get a colonoscopy
@dragonchaserkev2 жыл бұрын
@@wussup12345 :D They do suggest I get one, however it doesn't sound that enjoyable.
@solarstrike332 жыл бұрын
Wow, you were even before Eternal September!
@dragonchaserkev2 жыл бұрын
@@solarstrike33 Had to look that up. Yup, all thanks to one teacher that loved computers. The school always had a computer room but he got a whole new room renovated and air conditioned with all new macs and laser printers. Honestly it was more than your average Jr High school had at the time. Looking back I wish I had learned more about computers in the 80's and 90s, maybe I'd have been making video games instead of just playing them.
@Dojonpachi2 жыл бұрын
I grew up in Redding CA, and Working Designs was someone of a source of local pride. I was working at a Software Etc (now Gamestop of course) when Magic Knight Rayearth came out on the Saturn, and they hand-delivered us 3 copies. I was able to snag one, but holy hell I wish I had just taken the whole case. :)
@JoeyJ0J02 жыл бұрын
Working Design is like the 90s version of Xseed
@PsychomachineryEBM2 жыл бұрын
But better
@slyguythreeonetwonine31722 жыл бұрын
Holy Cow! This must have taken a while to do. Thanks for the hard work and effort Joe this was a fun episode!
@Risperdali2 жыл бұрын
Alundra is one of my most favourite games... ever!
@lukegto2 жыл бұрын
I just started playing alundra two weeks ago. My first time playing a working designs game. I’ve heard of their legendary status for years. There is a character named Bonaire in it. And when I realized what Bonaire sounds like if you say it out loud after the character says “that girl is real Bonaire material” I knew I was in for something special.
@brankomilenko44372 жыл бұрын
Personally I hated them, changing dialogues and sometimes story was bad enough but cutting or censoring games was annoying, but thanks to them I learned japanese.
@Screwy2 жыл бұрын
Very funny that you upload a full WD retrospective right after their near-finished Goemon Zero PS2 beta leaks out
@NightWolve752 жыл бұрын
Oh really ?? What's the story on that ?
@yittmashups2 жыл бұрын
Nothing better than just over an hour of checking out Joe's Sack!
@BlownMacTruck2 жыл бұрын
It has a lot blondish, stubby hairs.
@BasementBrothers2 жыл бұрын
In Silpheed The Lost Planet, I believe the voices in the cutscenes were English already in the Japanese version. That's why they don't sound like Working Designs' work. Amazing video, by the way. So much work... (and designs!)
@Chicomite2 жыл бұрын
Yessss!!!! You did an overview of Silhouette Mirage PS1, thank you, been recommending it for years. I feel the exact same way when I play it, I pop it in ready for a run n gun, but then you remember you kinda gotta play by the game's rules/mechanics, but after 1 level, I'm sucked back in and can't wait to get to the next level. I love this game. And apparently in Japan, this game was much more religion based, Silhouette and Mirage being good and evil, I remember reading somewhere the entire story was changed(due to possibly Sony being scared people would think it's a Christian game or maybe there was too heavy an emphasis on it, I'd love to know the full story). I would really like to see how deep they went with the religious stuff, how far the rabbit hole went in game. I love games where the goal is to kill the devil, Ghosts n Goblins series, Cursed Castilla, Castlevania series, Cuphead, it's a fun sub genre I collect. And it goes with my absolute favorite sub genre to collect and play of all time, 32-bit 2D beautiful sidescrolling action games. What a video, more Sackaltine, please.
@starlitalpha72 жыл бұрын
Did you know that in the Japanese version, the weapons you buy in the shop don't drain your spirit? Also, everything was cheaper so you didn't have to wail on nearly every enemy for gold coins? I love SM and I'm glad we at least got to play it, but I can't forgive Wrecking Designs for how dirty they did it.
@Chicomite2 жыл бұрын
@@starlitalpha7 Really? No, I didn't know that, and I love SM. Thanks for letting me know, I can't believe Working Designs did that, I had no idea. In hindsight, it totally hurts the game, if you want to get anywhere in the NTSC version, you MUST collect those coins, constantly balance and choose which shot to power up and purchase, I can see how it's artificially made harder. That part of the challenge wasn't baked into the gameplay from the start, it was inserted after the fact, wow, I see that now. I need to play the original Japanese version. Looks like I'm gonna buy a Japanese copy for PS1 or Saturn, though I'm not gonna feel bad if I play a burned copy on my modded Saturn or PS2 first, since I own the American PS1 release. Who am I kidding, I usually never feel bad playing a burned copy of a game, especially when it's something super expensive that I'll never buy, like Super Tempo on Saturn(which I think is a very fun game that not many will experience).
@recorderdude2 жыл бұрын
I'm sure someone else has mentioned it before, but in parasol stars throwing enemies/water into thin air reveals pickups that increase in points, with the last one being a 100 yen coin that gives you an extra continue, after which it resets the item order again. I COMPLETELY understand why you weren't sold on Parasol Stars beforehand now as that one thing takes it from an overly punishing panic to an addicting exploration/secret finding game! Highly recommend giving it another shot with that in mind!
@KyokujiFGC2 жыл бұрын
Love it or hate it, they definitely made random NPC dialogue a lot more interesting.
@GameSack2 жыл бұрын
Very true!
@biz0unc32 жыл бұрын
Zach Meston and I used to talk about games a lot on AIM back in the day. He was a member of a game collectors group on a forum we all used back then. I have both of those Lunar game guides still. He let me know that all the pictures were in them were taken with a digital camera off of one of their Dev machine monitors.
@FrancoisRoy2 жыл бұрын
Here's hoping we'll get the Lunar games on the rotw's Sega Genesis Mini 2..
@FredHerbert999 Жыл бұрын
Still my favorite games publisher. Still grieving their closure. Thank you for making this video!
@chrissiqueira69662 жыл бұрын
Working designs is the reason why restoration patches exist.
@drunkensailor1122 жыл бұрын
Yeah they ruined so many games
@taben9jake2 жыл бұрын
YOU BROUGHT BACK THE FART! AND ON A VIDEO ABOUT ONE OF MY FAVORITE GAME COMPANIES. God bless you! I picked up a few of Vic's own copies in the mid 2000s signed by him, some of my most treasured possesions.
@skins4thewin2 жыл бұрын
Glad as usual to see Popful Mail here. I freaking ADORE that game! And I 100% agree with everything you said, I love the liberties they took with the translation and I welcome the added challenge too. You must be quite the gamer to not consider this game to be too tough. For the average gamer I imagine this game will be tough as freaking nails. Most seem to get stuck on the Golem boss, and for good reason. He is freaking TOUGH! Good news is if you can beat him then you should be able to beat the game as it doesn't get much tougher than that guy.
@Chaos89P2 жыл бұрын
Yeah, as long as the "spirit" of what was said wasn't botched, I don't have an issue with off-the-wall localizations, either.
@joelg.76222 жыл бұрын
Man hood episode, thank for showing all Working Designs software they did and game play footage, your time is certainly appreciated.
@mercurysorbit51382 жыл бұрын
The question isn’t whether a translation is literal, the question is the translation faithful to the source. People might not appreciate a translation that isn’t faithful to the themes, messages, tone, and characterization of the source material. People might enjoy a translation that isn’t faithful to the source but other’s may have wanted the original story faithfully told. Framing the issue with translation as whether it is literal misrepresents the issue. A parody translation might be popular and fun but desiring a faithful translation is a legitimate desire. I played these games in my youth and I don’t remember the translations well. Now that I’m older I have grown fatigued with reference humor and would appreciate faithful translation.
@SkakinBaconMedia2 жыл бұрын
Elemental Gearbolt is a magnificent light gun shooter. My friend had introduced me to it awhile back, even gave me a physical copy with the manual (which actually explains pretty much everything, because of course)the most wonderful section was when arriving at the last level, and then, this chorus kicks in, and, wow. Just wow. In a light gun shooter no less, I think I dang near teared up, dang you Working Designs. How dare you be this awesome...
@GameSack2 жыл бұрын
That music is outstanding.
@BETMARKonTube2 жыл бұрын
I hate when who's just supposed to port/translate takes too much liberties. If you're so "creative" just make your own game already.
@CatMandiano2 жыл бұрын
Comfy video time. Im grateful these are still being made. Also, anyone else hear Kraftwerk at 5:38 ?
@dorbei2 жыл бұрын
Working Designs - making perfectly balanced games impossibly difficult since 1991
@usmanchughtai17512 жыл бұрын
It always makes my day when you release a new video. Thanks For the content Joe
@imwatchingvideoz2 жыл бұрын
This will be controversial, but I don't see the problem with spicing up random NPCs like they did in Alundra and such. I don't think they ever drastically changed the stories in any of their games. Although, I do have a problem with them screwing up the game balance in nearly every one of their releases.
@maxxdahl60622 жыл бұрын
Yeah it never really bothered me either. If it makes things more fun, why not?
@Chaos89P2 жыл бұрын
@@maxxdahl6062 Some people are just huge sticklers for accuracy, perhaps not realizing that a lot of figures of speech and wordplay do not translate 1:1, if ever. As for me, as long as it isn't completely butchered to appeal to a "wider" audience, I don't have a problem.
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
No they didn't really change the story.
@danchristian72822 жыл бұрын
Just got home from a long day of work, shower and ready for bed.. New episode of Game Sack Every time. Thanks for the consistently great content Joe 👍🏼
@jeangabrielcotto5082 жыл бұрын
Límited run games is the Working Designs of our time, but without the Quality 😂
@GameSack2 жыл бұрын
They don't localize or alter any of the game code like Working Designs did. Limited Run just publishes physically. That's it.
@plezurhounds2 жыл бұрын
Joe, Dale from Melbourne Australia here... As a 51 year old, decade lomg Game Sack subscriber who has played maybe four games you've reviewd within said period I thank you for the colonoscopy appointment reminder....
@HybridAngelZero2 жыл бұрын
As a huge RPG nerd, I have such mixed feelings about Working Designs. Predictably, I'm not a fan of their humor or localization decisions, though I have more issue with them fundamentally altering a game's balance than the dialogue changes, but also, if it weren't for them, many of these game would have never had any release outside Japan at all. They also made some amazing box sets with collectables as standard releases, the Lunar Complete games being excellent examples. But I still feel like they made each game they touched worse in some way or another... it's like they both deeply respected the source material while simultaneously doing the exact opposite xD Either way, that ending skit was spot-on
@12ealDealOfficial2 жыл бұрын
I can enjoy their localization decisions more in some games than others, but I feel the dated references in particular have become more endearing with time. Political jokes and such tend to age very poorly, but a movie quote or mention of a pop-culture figure from the day (without a loaded or obvious intention) is at least inoffensive at its worst and vaguely nostalgic at its best.
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
Those aren't limited editions, those are the normal editions. That's just how they rolled. The difficulty changes are, except for perhaps one game, not that big a deal a deal and pretty on par for the era. If you find Lunar 1 on SGCD there's no way you're finishing anything in that time period as it is quite easy even after the changes.
@HybridAngelZero2 жыл бұрын
@@Furluge I know they aren't actually LE's, but they very much have the same energy as modern limited editions, I was more going for ease of conversation. And it isn't that they made the games "too hard" for the most part, just that the changes they made just seemed arbitrary or unnecessary. It's more the principle of changing things because they felt like it without the knowledge of the original creative team, rather than what those changes were. I'd feel the same way if they had made the games easier
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
@@HybridAngelZero It's really just a product of the games market at the time. Lots of changes to difficulty between region were common. If you play retro games you have to learn to accept it.
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
@@HybridAngelZero Oh but seriously though, I think it was important to point out these are the regular releases because we got all that for standard price. And this was in an age where releases like this weren't a thing.
@ichemnutcracker2 жыл бұрын
I remember really treasuring the Working Designs games back in the day. Not only was the packaging always top-notch (for instance, even the *plastic* for the Saturn cases was of higher quality than most games for the system), but they had a 'feel' that love and care was put into them and that they weren't just shovel-ware cash grab ports. I was a bit late to the Saturn scene, but I managed to buy both Magic Knight Rayearth and Panzer Dragoon Saga when they came out, and, honestly, I enjoyed Rayearth more because it gave the impression of being the result of a labor of love. Even though I know I'm *supposed* to think Saga was the best thing on the system, it just felt hollow by comparison. On the other hand, the translations could sometimes be a bit irritating. I remember watching the Silver Star Story Complete "Making Of" disc and being extremely annoyed when they mentioned that they decided that a character, who was a hermit in the original Japanese version, actually needed to live alone because he "had bad gas". I think I actually rolled my eyes when they said that.
@ChaoticHoly2 жыл бұрын
On one hand I appreciate WD for giving gamers a chance to play games we might never have played otherwise. On the other hand...they had a nasty habit of writing script wholecloth, introducing nasty bugs (like NISA), and cranking up the difficulty for _reasons._ Bill Clinton jokes. In _Lunar._ Seriously?
@GamingDelight2 жыл бұрын
I'm betting the main reason for the added difficulty was to prevent rentals from hurting sales (though they could have made it difficult exclusively for rental stores while leaving the original difficulty for retail).
@mrselfdestruct23262 жыл бұрын
Nothing better, then waking up from night shift to new gamesack video.
@TheSwede3212 жыл бұрын
Yes, I love collecting Working Design games. They were great!
@danielscott70x72 жыл бұрын
This was thoroughly entertaining, and super informative. Thank you!
@DaveVoyles2 жыл бұрын
There is an “un-working designs” patch for nearly all of these games. Removes the terrible grinding and difficulty. Cool roms
@zenoslime2 жыл бұрын
i only wish they'd also remove the dumb shit like references to barney (the purple dinosaur)
@Rimurutempest88332 жыл бұрын
@@zenoslime got something against Barney ?
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
They really aren't with bothering with except in perhaps one instance. They're not particularly hard. Also keep in mind that video game rentals are illegal in Japan but not in the USA which is where some of the changes stem from. Regional differences in difficulty like this were very common at the time.
@zenoslime2 жыл бұрын
@@Rimurutempest8833 you should be asking vic ireland, since the reference i mentioned is a line about using barney tapes for target practice...
@garagelifee34602 жыл бұрын
The amount of enjoyment I get out of this channels videos is honestly priceless. Fantastic work and thank you for your efforts as always.
@delta78902 жыл бұрын
The translations are one thing, but Working Designs' arbitrary gameplay alterations (often making the games substantially more difficult than their Japanese counterparts) have kept me from seriously diving into their releases.
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
Have you considered changing hobbies to knitting? With perhaps one exception they aren't hard at all and are about on par with other releases at the time. You dont ever need to grind in the Lunar games for example.
@delta78902 жыл бұрын
@@Furluge Not big on knitting. Model kits are more my speed. Glad you enjoy the added challenge of Working Designs' releases. Generally speaking I just prefer to enjoy things as close to their home territory release as possible.
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
@@delta7890 You're gonna have to cut out a lot of retro games from your list then. This was a common practice at the time. No US FF4/FF2 for you.
@delta78902 жыл бұрын
@@Furluge Luckily there's no shortage of patches out there to restore such games to their original states. 😃
@Furluge2 жыл бұрын
@@delta7890 There's literally only one set that's no longer maintained and it only exists because of one autist who does nothing but shit on WD, because, like you he came to retro games later and thinks they're all too hard.
@shibaj14012 жыл бұрын
Great episode. Lots of fond memories. Working Designs had a quirky flavor, but their undying support for the early CD based systems was a highlight of that generation.
@PepsiMan6662 жыл бұрын
I really hate the dichotomy that you either want hyper literal translations or super liberal translations that play fast and loose. The fact of the matter is that Japan and its culture isn't incomprehensible to English speaking audiences. Cultural references and quirks should only be removed if absolutely necessary. My problem with Working Designs' translation philosophy is that, for the most part, they just made a bunch of stuff up and weren't adapting anything for English speakers. They just felt clever adding in their lame jokes and writing.
@apoplexiamusic2 жыл бұрын
That quote from Thunder Force V reminds me of a line from the original dubbed version of the Ghost in The Shell film (1995), where a character in the market says " It's a bargain at twice the price!"
@cubeflinger2 жыл бұрын
In the UK a spaz is a derogatory term for someone suffering a significant disability or learning difficulty. Not great.
@LordelX2 жыл бұрын
Popful Mail...if I ever travel back in time to 1994, I will move heaven and earth to get a Sega CD and a copy of this. Popful Mail was way ahead of its time.
@mrbump1979a2 жыл бұрын
European spelling? It's called English Joe! 😂
@GameSack2 жыл бұрын
Have you ever heard of the United States? You should check it out. We don't spell it that way here, and we speak English.
@mrbump1979a2 жыл бұрын
@@GameSack we'll agree to disagree. Love your videos mate!
@GameSack2 жыл бұрын
@@mrbump1979a There's nothing to disagree on. We don't spell it that way, and we speak English.
@jacobn85092 жыл бұрын
If nothing else, it's interesting to see how influential their work was in certain segments of nerdery--lots of miniature RPGs made by English fans read like Working Designs translations. Either that or they had their fingers on the pulse of nerd humor at the time.