Best advice for Working Designs Games?

[SoulBlazer]

Maybe Zach or someone else can help me out.....

Since picking up most of WD's games for the Playstation 1 and 2, I'd really like to play their other CD games.

I got Vay and Popfull Mail for the Sega CD at great cost because I allready had a Sega CD.

However, there's really nothing else that intrests me for the Turbo CD or the Saturn besides the WD games.

So what's the best thing to do? Is it worthwhile picking up the systems just to play the games? Should I just buy the games and wait for the systems to be emulated? Is either option possible without spending more then a couple hundred?

[zmeston]

Maybe Zach or someone else can help me out.....

Since picking up most of WD's games for the Playstation 1 and 2, I'd really like to play their other CD games.

I got Vay and Popfull Mail for the Sega CD at great cost because I allready had a Sega CD.

However, there's really nothing else that intrests me for the Turbo CD or the Saturn besides the WD games.

So what's the best thing to do? Is it worthwhile picking up the systems just to play the games? Should I just buy the games and wait for the systems to be emulated? Is either option possible without spending more then a couple hundred?

I hope you didn't pay TOO much for Vay, as it's a very average RPG. Popful Mail is great, and a game perfectly suited to WD's goofy sense of humor.

I wouln't pick up a Turbo CD just to play WD's games, since those titles haven't aged well (except Vasteel). WD's Saturn output is better, although Dragon Force is pricey, Shining Wisdom is so-so, and Albert Odyssey has too much combat (but a gorgeous CD soundtrack).

-- Z.

[SoulBlazer]

I think I paid something like $40 for Vay -- mint condition, with the box and manual and map and everything. I got your hint book at the same time. :D But something happned to my internal memory of my Sega CD and I have'nt restarted the game. >:( But I do like it. Popful Mail was a little more pricey, but also in great conditon.

There's still some WD TG games I'd like to try, like Vasteel, which I'm told is similar to Vanguard Bandits, a total favorite of mine. But emulation for that system seems more advanced then for the Saturn.

That means I'll need to set aside a few hundred for the Saturn and the games (sigh).

BTW, my first MA is in American History and I love war games. How is that WWII game for the Saturn that WD did?

[maxlords]

I totally disagree with Zach on this point. I'd say that the WD Duo games are great....well...a few of em are. Most notably:

Cadash (best home version)
Exile (awesome game!)
Exile: Wicked Phenomenon (great game, but a bit TOO hard)
Vasteel (great strategy game)

Anyway, there are a TON of great games for the Duo/TG16 besides the handful of WD games, so if you're interested, it's worth it to hunt one down! Just my $.02 :)

[zmeston]

There's still some WD TG games I'd like to try, like Vasteel, which I'm told is similar to Vanguard Bandits, a total favorite of mine. But emulation for that system seems more advanced then for the Saturn.

That means I'll need to set aside a few hundred for the Saturn and the games (sigh).

BTW, my first MA is in American History and I love war games. How is that WWII game for the Saturn that WD did?

Vasteel and Vanguard Bandits were both developed by the now-defunct Human, and they have some vague similarities, although Vasteel's combat is real-time and VB's, as you know, is turn-based.

I'd forgotten about Iron Storm! It's excellent. Victor localized it with great care, considering the subject matter, and even donated a portion of the profits to a Holocaust organization (the game unavoidably contains symbols of Nazi Germany).

-- Z.

[swlovinist]

You got a couple hundred? Well let me help you out.......1)do your laundry 2) make sure you eat a hearty meal 3)Give sweet gestures to your significant other.....4)lock yourself in a room with Iron Storm and Dragon Force 5)Have a nice month vacation!!!! No really they are worth the price!! Dragon Force and Iron Storm!!!! My two pics for Working Designs, other then Vanguard Bandits for the PS1(gotta love the unique sarcasm). Oh yeah, Im in the way minority but Gungriffon Blaze for the PS2 was a gem for me!

[SoulBlazer]

I just ment that's what it's going to take, at LEAST, to go to EBay and pick up a Saturn system with the WD games. Money I just don't have right now. I just recently got a Sega CD system, and I'm saving money for all the new stuff coming out this year.

Oh well, maybe at some year. :)

[Zaxxon]

I don't get the point of collecting WD games. AFAIK they never developed any games, just translate them into English for the NA market. Like the game is going to be good because WD had a contract to translate the text?

[SoulBlazer]

Ah, but WD has GREAT taste in what games they bring over. I've never been unhappy with one of their games. :) And I don't want to collect, I just want to play. :)

[zmeston]

I don't get the point of collecting WD games. AFAIK they never developed any games, just translate them into English for the NA market. Like the game is going to be good because WD had a contract to translate the text?

The packaging is part of it, at least for the Saturn and PlayStation titles. The translation used to be part of it, although the rest of the industry has long since figured out how to translate games into English instead of Janglish, and much more quickly than WD. And Victor's cult of personality is part of it -- a certain (ever-smaller) fanboy segment worships him and the games he localizes.

-- Z.

[Kid Fenris]

Of the Working Designs games that I don't have, I'm most interested in Cosmic Fantasy 2 and Vay, not necessarily because they're great games, but because they're curiosities of their era: anime-like console RPGs that were not only translated here, but done so with frequently risque dialogue and minimal editing.

Both games could be mediocre, from what I've heard, but I'm after them all the same, in the hope that at least one of them will make me wish I was playing it instead back when I was playing Breath of Fire and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

[maxlords]

I'm a big fan of the WD localizations, and I HATED Cosmic Fantasy 2...it's so unplayable...the enemies are way too hard, and way too frequent. I just couldn't stand it....too much hassle. Vay is awesome tho :)

[zemmix]

I've been meaning to pick up Iron Storm for the longest time now. How does it compare to the P.T.O. series though? I've been playing PTO IV lately now that its out on the PS2.

[omnedon]

The battery likely diesd on your SEGA CD. My popful mail wouldn't even load with the memory not formatted. The battery can be replaced. See here: http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14861