Attempted Working Designs localizations?

jarrod

Banned
Just curious since Vic vistits the board, what are all the games over the years that WD has tried/wanted/looked into getting localized? So far I've got...

Turbo CD
-Record of Lodoss War
-Cosmic Fantasy 3
-Neo Nectaris
-The King of Monsters
-World Heroes
-Shubibinman 3

Sega CD
-3x3 Eyes
-After Armageddon

Sega Saturn
-Thunder Force Gold Packs 1&2
-Thunder Force V
-Hyper Duel
-Sengoku Blade
-Soukyugurentai
-Lunar: Silver Star Story
-Sakura Taisen

PlayStation
-Metal Slug
-Samurai Showdown RPG
-Grandia
-Tales of Phantasia
-Policenauts
-Generation of Chaos (various)
-Nectaris
-R-Type Delta
-Tear Ring Saga

Dreamcast
-Puyo Puyon
-Grandia II

PlayStation 2
-Goemon: Neo Age
-Venus & Braves
-Tengai Makyou II: Manjimaru
-R-Type Final
-Generation of Chaos (various)

GameCube
-Tengai Makyou II: Manjimaru

XBox
-Advanced Daisenryaku VII

...anyone know of anything else (I'll add it)? Vic?
 
I believe the "secret RPG" that was touted on their website was at one time planned to be the Samurai Shodown RPG, but SNK's asking price was too high. Probably not surprising coming from a company that thinks $300 is a reasonable price for a single cartridge.
 
ToastyFrog said:
I believe the "secret RPG" that was touted on their website was at one time planned to be the Samurai Shodown RPG, but SNK's asking price was too high. Probably not surprising coming from a company that thinks $300 is a reasonable price for a single cartridge.

Oh god you're killing me.... a friend of mine showed me that game on his Saturn waaay back... I wanted it to come to the US SO bad......
 
NotMSRP said:
I really wished those games had transmigrated across the pond.


I think that half that list has been released in English in some way shape or fashion (be it legitimate releases, different consoles, or emulation)
 
What is funny tho is that "pirate" translations done by amateurs with primitive tools, in their spare time, with roms, are much faster than Working Design could ever wish to be.
 
Less jokes, more revelations.

Thanks Toasty, I remember that too. SCEA was also interested in the SS RPG at one point (before the SNK honeymoon broke down and all SCEA's published SNK games tanked hard) iirc.
 
ToastyFrog said:
I believe the "secret RPG" that was touted on their website was at one time planned to be the Samurai Shodown RPG, but SNK's asking price was too high. Probably not surprising coming from a company that thinks $300 is a reasonable price for a single cartridge.

This makes me burn with rage.
 
jarrod said:
-Puyo Puyon (Dreamcast)
-Grandia II (Dreamcast)

are you sure about that? I could've sworn Vic wasn't planning to support the DC, I remember all the flames he got for being anti-DC
 
Link316 said:
are you sure about that? I could've sworn Vic wasn't planning to support the DC, I remember all the flames he got for being anti-DC
Skipping DC was the ultimate decision though both games were looked into iirc. Puyo would've been on the Spaz label.
 
What is funny tho is that "pirate" translations done by amateurs with primitive tools, in their spare time, with roms, are much faster than Working Design could ever wish to be.

Riiight. The vast majority of hacked roms read, and in many cases look, like - surprise - hacked roms and are "faithfully" translated to a fault. I could probably count the ones that were impressive on one hand. There's no controls on hacked roms, no submissions for approval to original publishers, no submission to licensor, no manufacture time, no manual, no physical distribution, and no way of telling how well it really did - all limitations we deal with. But if that floats your boat, keep downloading them. All it does is make it LESS likely you'll see more of that genre/series in the US legitimately, since theres no concrete way to track its popularity. It's the same mentality from the crybabies that downloaded Growlanser Generations and are whining that their warez copies lock up when you try to change gems. The warez version is the only one that does it and they have the balls to call our customer support to fix the "problem". You can rationalize it all you want, but illegal is illegal.

Back on track...some on the original list that started this thread were "casual interest until I played it extensively" like Daisenryaku for Xbox. Here's some other ones that were casual interest or actually tried to get:

Generation of Chaos (various chapters - none made the cut)
Venus and Braves (PS2)
Lodoss War TG-CD
3x3 Eyes SEGA CD
A couple other Tecnosoft shooters that slip my mind (Saturn)
King of the Monsters TG (still have a E3 sample rom of a walking demo from this)
World Heroes TG (still have a E3 sample rom of a walking demo from this)
Shubibinman 3 (TG-CD - GREAT game for the time, TTi messed this up)
Cosmic Fantasy 3 TG-CD
R-Type Final - bidding got out of control on this
R-Type Delta - out of control bidding
Nectaris PS (until I played it, horrified at what it had become)
 
Link316 said:
are you sure about that? I could've sworn Vic wasn't planning to support the DC, I remember all the flames he got for being anti-DC

Yeah, that's what I thought too. I recall Vic being VERY anti-Dreamcast.

While I certainly did not approve of his stance on the DC (as it was an AWESOME system), I DO understand why they didn't support it. I mean, Grandia II was released by Ubisoft during the last major holiday of the DC. If WD had been chosen to release it, the extra time needed for them to finish it would likely have prevented it from ever seeing US release and they would have wasted their time.

It was smart to avoid supporting the DC for WD's sake...

The warez version is the only one that does it and they have the balls to call our customer support to fix the "problem". You can rationalize it all you want, but illegal is illegal.

Heh, did you guys actually do that on purpose or was there some fault in the illegal version as a result of the source? :P

R-Type Final - bidding got out of control on this

That could have been interesting as some of the problems could have been addressed. The original release as well as the US release were plagued with some SERIOUS slowdown problems. The framerate was bad enough that it keeps me away from the game sometimes. IREM's other recent games have been filled with slowdown issues as well. They really need to work on that.
 
Hey Vic, ever look into Gradius Gaiden on PS1. I know Konami's always been a bit iffy about letting others localize their games, but did you ever give it a try?

Oh, and any word on DS or PSP support by chance? :)
 
I hope they will bring a remake of Dragon Force 1+2 as their next release.

I only hope they dont need 3 years for it although I always appreciate their effort.

DF 1 was released stateside so they shouldnt bother with too much translation work.
 
GermanOfficer said:
I hope they will bring a remake of Dragon Force 1+2 as their next release.

I only hope they dont need 3 years for it although I always appreciate their effort.

DF 1 was released stateside so they shouldnt bother with too much translation work.

A remake? I don't think they'd be up for creating new graphics engines and all that in order to remake an old game. :P
 
dark10x said:
A remake? I don't think they'd be up for creating new graphics engines and all that in order to remake an old game. :P

Which would be even better :)

I read rumors about it but I seeem to forgotten most of it. Can somebody fill me in with the newest information about this?
 
dark10x said:
A remake? I don't think they'd be up for creating new graphics engines and all that in order to remake an old game. :P
Drgaon Force is already being remade by D3/Sega for their PS2 buidget line. And yes, WD is looking into bringing it over (maybe).
 
jarrod said:
Drgaon Force is already being remade by D3/Sega for their PS2 buidget line. And yes, WD is looking into bringing it over (maybe).

Oh yeah? I had no idea. That's kinda cool. :)
 
ToastyFrog said:
I believe the "secret RPG" that was touted on their website was at one time planned to be the Samurai Shodown RPG, but SNK's asking price was too high. Probably not surprising coming from a company that thinks $300 is a reasonable price for a single cartridge.

I think I remember they were also going to do Metal Slug 1 PS, but their contact for SNK stuff flaked, so...

EDIT: I think there was a Goemon game in there as well...
 
The slowdown in R-type Final wasn't "bad", it just felt like the typical "intentional" slowdown that devs put in shmups to make them playable.

And god knows, i could have done without the Blue Man Group song at the end.
 
A legitimate copy of Growlanser 2 doesn't even boot up; I tried my own unit which is in perfecting working order and several units at my local EB which includes a variety of models.
 
The End said:
The slowdown in R-type Final wasn't "bad", it just felt like the typical "intentional" slowdown that devs put in shmups to make them playable.
Nah, it was pretty awful by my standards. Stage 3... -_-;
The End said:
And god knows, i could have done without the Blue Man Group song at the end.
Amen. I mean, WTF?
 
The End said:
The slowdown in R-type Final wasn't "bad", it just felt like the typical "intentional" slowdown that devs put in shmups to make them playable.

And god knows, i could have done without the Blue Man Group song at the end.

Oh no, this was not typical slowdown. I mean, stage 3, for instance, literally ran in slow motion almost the entire time. The game RARELY held 60 fps for any significant period of time and there was even tearing to go along with it. Stage 3 was a CHORE to play through due to the framerate problems. I enjoyed the game, but it really could have used some more work...

Zettai Zetsumei Toshi/Disaster Report was even worse. The game would never simply "drop frames" in order to retain a certain speed. No, it would draw every frame even if it meant slowly the game speed down by 50%. I often forgot just how fast the main character could run. I'd turn down an alley and be shocked by his sudden burst of speed. I wonder if the sequel has those problems?
 
Ok, Stage 3 was pretty slow, but it was definitely still playable. We're not talking like Sky Gunner here or anything.
 
The End said:
Ok, Stage 3 was pretty slow, but it was definitely still playable. We're not talking like Sky Gunner here or anything.

I dunno, I'd say they are about on par (though Sky Gunner's field rendered output looks nasty when the framerate dives...)
 
Wasn't Hyper Duel one of these? Also, I remember a Usenet post about you being interested in/attempting to bring over Sengoku Blade and Soukyugurentai.

Yes, thanks. All three of those were going to be licensed and bundled into a single Shooter Super pack. The contracts with Tecnosoft were done. Then E3 happened and we saw that Bernie and Co were actively seeking to kill the Saturn (prematurely). We cancelled that and all other projects not already underway. It was a sad time.
 
A legitimate copy of Growlanser 2 doesn't even boot up; I tried my own unit which is in perfecting working order and several units at my local EB which includes a variety of models.

Two possiblities:

1. a bad disc (unlikely since the failure rate is far less than 1%.

2. a DRE error. It's pretty widely known that some PS2 units can't boot CDs after a while. G4 has a method that I've heard works for many units, and you can also send a system that doesn't boot CDs to sony and they will fix/swap it - sometimes for free.
 
Heh, I'm suprised you guys didn't consider releasing it on DVD just to avoid the hassles of the disc read error (which mostly commonly occurs with the CD lens). It's usually just a case of the lens voltage screw vibrating out of place or a little dust, though...
 
Heh, I'm suprised you guys didn't consider releasing it on DVD just to avoid the hassles of the disc read error (which mostly commonly occurs with the CD lens). It's usually just a case of the lens voltage screw vibrating out of place or a little dust, though...

We did, going so far as to create a unified boot menu version internally to test. Unfortunately the decision came down to technical considerations (DVD would have been 1 SLUS, changing the save system and requiring a rewrite/rethink of the game importing system, amongst other things). We just decided to leave it as it was.
 
Didn't WD attempt to localize Goemon (Mystical Ninja) for PS2 but Sony blocked it?

Hey Vic, I remember reading many moons ago that WD attempted to acquire Radiant Silvergun with the intention of porting it to PS1. Any truth to this and if so what happened?
 
Mr_Furious said:
Hey Vic, I remember reading many moons ago that WD attempted to acquire Radiant Silvergun with the intention of porting it to PS1. Any truth to this and if so what happened?
That was Crave iirc. They had an early build that SCEA rejected outright.
 
I love WD! They seriously have like the cutest logo of all time ^_^

Hopefully they will go for the Dragon Force remake (and fix it since Sega is bound to mess it up somehow)!
 
Originally Posted by jarrod:
That was Crave iirc. They had an early build that SCEA rejected outright.




BOOOOOO.

No, Yay! It was extremely ugly on PS1 and deserved to be rejected. No fan of the original game would have been satisfied. Killing it was the merciful thing to do.
 
vireland said:
No, Yay! It was extremely ugly on PS1 and deserved to be rejected. No fan of the original game would have been satisfied. Killing it was the merciful thing to do.
Well, it was early wasn't it. Btw, happen to know if Crave was porting themselves or were Treasure handling things?
 
Growlanser on PS1?

Didn't know WD tried getting TOPPSX approval... wonder what happened on that one? I love that game...
 
Two words-

Popful Mail.

They don't even have to do anything to it. Just re-release it for a current generation system.


Vic, I'm begging you.
 
Growlanser on PS1?

Well...kinda. By the time we realized Atlus USA wasn't doing it (we assumed, wrongly, that they would because it rocked), it was too late to do it for the US, and we were polishing off the PS with Arc the Lad Collection with no desire to jump into an EXTENSIVE localization that late in the game that would compete with games selling for $9.99 by the time it came out.

I still hope to do it somehow, someway, somewhere else...

And to answer the other Q, yes it was early for RS, but it showed absolutely NO promise, and would have looked much worse than the original.
 
I tried this with 3 copies of Grow. Only Grow 2 fails to boot up. This is the only game to have "DRE". Movie DVDs, audio CDs, PS2 DVDs and PS2 CDs, CDRs and DVDRs all work minus Grow 2. There have been other reports of legitimate users having difficulty of booting up Growlanser. I can't exchange it at SCEA cause I removed the plastic outer case to do a flip-top. I needed a way to play imports. The system is very clean including the lens and voltage level. I said before that I tried it at my EB on various units they have there ranging from early models to the slim model. I haven't tried this one method yet but it would be funny if it is true. I'll make a CDR copy of it and if it boots, what a laugh. But first, I need to purchase a CDR spindle.
 
Mr_Furious said:
Didn't WD attempt to localize Goemon (Mystical Ninja) for PS2 but Sony blocked it?

Hey Vic, I remember reading many moons ago that WD attempted to acquire Radiant Silvergun with the intention of porting it to PS1. Any truth to this and if so what happened?

From what I understand Mystical Ninja was crap. that why Sony blocked it. Vic was the game really that bad?
 
NotMSRP said:
I tried this with 3 copies of Grow. Only Grow 2 fails to boot up. This is the only game to have "DRE".
seems like there's no legit way to blame WD -- they don't manufacture the games. sony does.
 
I'm still saying that it's probably the system(s). Growlanser II and III are PACKED, almost to the very edge of the disc, with less than 5% of the usable disc area not covered. That gives systems a workout traversing the whole disc to access index points primarily in a single giant data file. It will expose problems that other games do not because they are either not CD, not full on the CD, or don't use an indexed giant data file on CD.

We haven't had any non-modified sytems with problems booting either game that weren't solvable.

one or more of these techniques fixed every issue of this kind reported to us:

1. cleaning
2. swapping system via Sony customer service
3. the G4techTV DRE fix
4. turning the system on its side or upside down

We only recommend 4, 1, 2 in that order, but users have reported good success with #3, so I'm mentioning it for people that have hacked up their system and it's not a good candidate for free warranty repair from Sony.
 
From what I understand Mystical Ninja was crap. that why Sony blocked it. Vic was the game really that bad?

I was disappointed that you couldn't play as Yae, Sasuke, or Ebisumaru and Impact isn't in there, but all those characters are in there and you DO interact with them quite a bit. It's a prequel of sorts, so that's all understandable. If you're a Goemon fan, it's extremely hard not to like it. I definitely do, but I really hope the next installment (non-DS) goes back to the "wacky" goemon style I prefer.
 
Two words-

Popful Mail.

They don't even have to do anything to it. Just re-release it for a current generation system.


Vic, I'm begging you.

The crazy part is Popful Mail is the worst-selling title we've ever done (something like 15-18k copies) post-TG. It gained a serious following AFTER it tanked, and is indeed one of the best games we've published. I love that game.
 
vireland said:
But if that floats your boat, keep downloading them. All it does is make it LESS likely you'll see more of that genre/series in the US legitimately, since theres no concrete way to track its popularity.
I'm confused. How does playing an amateur translation of a game not regularly available make it less likely more of that genre/series will be translated legitimately, unless you're actually choosing an amateur translation over purchasing a legitimately released version? It might hurt the eventual sales of a game that only gets translated and released years later, but thus far only Final Fantasy V and II come to mind.
 
How does playing an amateur translation of a game not regularly available make it less likely more of that genre/series will be translated legitimately, unless you're actually choosing an amateur translation over purchasing a legitimately released version?

For many, that IS the scene, and choose that over legit purchases hurts the prospect of anything ever changing. You only have so much time, and if you're putting it into a game that was hacked, it's not going into a game that was licensed and localized. I realize it's not black/white, but it DOES have a negative effect, and rationalize it anyway you like, but the practice is wrong and does hurt the legit scene.
 
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