The Glory Days
1998 was simultaneously a grim and a glorious year for the Saturn’s fortunes. In Japan, the machine was going strong with just over 200 titles released during the year, and that’s despite the November launch of Dreamcast in the territory. Many of these games ended up being the greatest and most notable titles of the Saturn’s entire life-cycle. Even though sales of the PlayStation finally, decisively pulled ahead of the Saturn in the previous year, SEGA’s brilliant marketing campaign, featuring Hiroshi Fujioka as the indestructible Segata Sanshiro, helped ensure the Saturn held a comfortable 2nd place in the land of the rising sun. The Saturn was so strong in its’ native territory that rival Nintendo’s machine, the N64, was never able to catch the Saturn’s sales numbers. Further, between the three major systems, Saturn software had the best attach rate (more units of software sold in relation to units of hardware sold) which was a sign to publishers that Saturn owners were more likely to purchase software than PlayStation or Nintendo 64 owners. Yes, it was a great time to be a SEGA fan, in the glory days of 1998.
Darkness Falls
By contrast, in the West, the situation was utterly grim. Decimated by the PlayStation and further relegated by the N64, the Saturn’s market share sat at a mere 12% in North America, and was falling fast. Bleeding money, Stolar-led SEGA of America was first to wind the Saturn down. In January, EA Sports’ NHL ’98, dropped, becoming both the last third-party Saturn title and the last overall Electronic Arts game for any SEGA platform. It was followed by SEGA’s own final releases – Winter Heat, The House of the Dead, Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Shining Force III in that order – taking their curtain call by the midpoint of the year. Europe fought the good fight a little bit longer. In addition to the same games as America saw, Europe added Riven: The Sequel to Myst, Atlantis: The Lost Tales, Silicon Dreams’ World League Soccer ’98, and Deep Fear to their great send-off. Both the European and the American arms of the gaming giant then executed significant layoffs as the firm prepared for hibernation until the triumphant release of Dreamcast, to come over a year later. Things were suddenly very quiet on the SEGA front in the West, and in America, the once mighty company’s market share fell down to just 1%.
As SEGA faded from the Western gaming landscape, the dormant North American market saw one last title quietly sneak into retail on 30 November 1998. Working Designs, hemorrhaging cash on an absurdly long and difficult localization project and having virtually no market upon which to release their final Saturn game, made good on a promise to fans to see the game published. Bravely or foolishly (or both), perhaps as much to keep their word to their fanbase as to re-coup what development costs they could, they released a small print run of their translation of Magic Knight Rayearth. Surprisingly – though, not really – they didn’t put out a rush-job. Magic Knight Rayearth received the full Working Designs treatment – deluxe manual, extras in the form of stickers, and of course, three disc variants.
One Last Hurrah
I recall picking up my copy at retail – it was the only Saturn title on the game store’s shelf, sandwiched between a sea of PlayStation and Nintendo 64 titles. The lone longbox, with Working Designs’ trademark reflective foil and glossy cover, proudly showcasing excellent hand-drawn anime cover art, stood out like a shining jewel amongst dozens of PlayStation cases featuring ugly, primitive 3D renders, and family-friendly Nintendo 64 boxes. It was simultaneously bittersweet and exciting to be opening one last brand new Saturn game at its’ release, almost like paying final respects to an era of SEGA gaming that had come to its’ close. And when I played the game… Magic Knight Rayearth, whilst certainly not the best SEGA Saturn game, hit me right in the feels because it excelled in all the ways that made the Saturn experience such a phenomenal ride. The gorgeous 2D graphics in an era where 3D ruled supreme; the cutesy Japanese motifs when hyper-realism was the order of the day; the anime origin, at a time where American games were carefully curated to avoid anything too Japanese, and lastly, a lighthearted story coupled with a translation that never took itself overly seriously, in an age where players demanded life-changing 80+ hour epics.
Beginnings
Magic Knight Rayearth started as a manga series in 1993 before being adapted into two seasons of anime in 1994. In June of that year, the Tokyo Toy Show was held in Japan and SEGA first unveiled the Saturn to the world with very early alpha footage of 17 titles, including Magic Knight Rayearth. The game ultimately released in Japan in 1995 to lukewarm reviews, scoring 26/40 in Famitsu Magazine. Seeing a title they were perfectly suited to bring across the pond, Working Designs snapped up the rights to publish it here. It wound up being the longest and most arduous localization the team had ever undertaken, culminating in the much-delayed November 30, 1998 release date. From being featured at the world reveal of the Saturn in early 1994 to becoming the very last North American release in late November 1998, the story of the Magic Knight Rayearth video game had come full circle.
This has been, without a doubt or question, the most grueling conversion we have ever attempted.
Victor Ireland, President, Working Designs
The game is based on the entirety of the first season of the anime, and centers around three eight-grade schoolgirls who happen to be visiting Tokyo Tower with their respective classes on a fine spring morning. A series of unusual events lead the three girls to find themselves in close quarters up on the observation deck of the tower, when a sudden flash of light envelops them and whisks them to a far-away land in a magical realm. Having stood in Tokyo Tower just moment before, they find themselves free-falling in an impossible sky of floating emerald islands dominating a bright, cerulean horizon. With a thud, they land on a grassy hill, and are quickly greeted by Clef, the world’s royal magician extraordinaire. Clef informs them of their destiny to unlock the power hidden within them, activate the Machines, and rescue the captive Princess Emerald (Emeraude in the manga and anime) from her captor High Priest Zagat (Zagato) the Betrayer. So begins Hikaru Shidou, Umi Riuuzaki and Fuu Hououji’s adventure through the magical land of Cefiro.
The game plays like an overhead action RPG, in the vein of A Link to the Past or even more accurately, The Secret of Mana. The three girls are all controllable, though one at a time only (a three-player option would have been spectacular). Players can swap between girls at the press of the X button and this has the effect of sending the other two girls behind the first so that they make a triangle formation. The other two will follow the first, and only the active character can attack or take damage. The girls’ vitality is expressed by an incremental life meter, and should one of them expire, the game automatically swaps out to another character. The game ends if all three girls are defeated. Combat is real-time against enemies who litter the landscape of Cefiro. Defeated enemies sometimes leave behind crystals (the currency of Cefiro) or orbs, which refill either HP or MP. Nothing innovative here, but what is present works well.
The girls walk around the game world, picking up to a brisk run if heading in a straight line without interruption. They also have the ability to jump and eventually learn to swim. At various times, the game employs several ways to impede movement, such as the push of the wind or the pull of a vortex in the water. Often, the player will be engaging monsters whilst negotiating the winds or the currents, for added combat challenge.
Each of the girls is themed after an elemental force: Hikaru, in red, represents fire and wields a sword; Umi, in blue, represents water and brandishes a foil, and finally Fuu, in green, represents vomit and slime. Kidding, kidding… Fuu is the healer of the group, specializing in wind magic and making use of an enchanted bow and arrows. This is a slight departure from the anime where the three girls use swords of their color, and was likely changed for the game in order to introduce variety to the gameplay. Umi’s foil, for instance, is a strong forward-stabbing attack; Hikaru’s sword has a shorter but wider ark-like range, whilst Fuu’s bow is a great distance weapon but is weakest of the three. Like their HP meters, each girl has an MP meter along with unique magic attacks. Hikaru uses fire to devastating effect, Umi commands water as an offensive elemental force, and Fuu calls on the power of wind to heal the group. Each girl has just one spell, and as they progress in their adventure and experience moments of personal growth, they acquire stronger forms of their individual magic.
Aside from the broader goal of rescuing Princess Emerald and defeating Zagat, the girls are initially tasked with finding Escudo. Escudo is a legendary ore from which Precia (Presea), Commander of Cefiro’s forces, can forge Evolving Weapons for the Knights. The Weapons are key for the girls to have any hope of victory when they engage Zagat, and the Spring of Eterna is the only place in all of Cefiro where Escudo can be found. The player can be sure, then, of encountering Zagat’s forces at the Spring. As the girls journey along, the game is thus divided into sub-quests and micro-tasks, usually involving some kind of problem in the area they are visiting that must be resolved in order to continue. As such, the game is very linear and quite straightforward – nothing will surprise here; the game stays very close to the textbook action RPG template – though this does lend well to following the general plot of the first season of the anime. Ultimately, through their adventures, the girls must face and overcome their fears and shortcomings, and personally grow as individuals in order to revive and summon the Machines (Rune Gods) for the final confrontation with the nefarious Zagat.
Minor enemies include the typical one-eyed spiders, armored slugs, fire snakes, and the like. At the beginning of the game, one hit is usually enough to fell most foes, and as the game progresses, enemies become more resilient and focused on impeding the player’s progress. Still, even a reasonably competent player will breeze through combat sections. Boss battles are more intricate. Bosses not only have a variety of attack patterns, but there are usually other factors at play, such as moving platforms and the like. Dungeons range from simplistic to confusing and slightly irritating, though they are done competently, overall.
In Cefiro’s towns and villages, players encounter all manner of major and minor NPCs, as well as shops and fortune teller tents. The shops sell a very basic array of restorative HP and MP items, but not much else. The item inventory in the game is very limited to be honest. The fortune tellers are a waste of time, adding nothing of consequence and charging a small fee in the process, just like real life fortune tellers. NPC interactions are often humorous thanks to the Working Designs translation. Aside from conversing with the locals, the girls are also able to interact with almost all objects in the scenery, and will make comments about everything they can see and touch – just like real life girls! Kidding, kidding… Ultimately all this commentary has no bearing on gameplay, but completionists will want to experience every bit of dialogue. Incredibly, each girl has her own lines for everything, meaning, there is LOTS to read. A considerable amount of work went in to such a non-consequential aspect of the game.
Tucked away in various corners of Cefiro are mysterious Rainbow Amulets – essentially, crystals in the colors of the rainbow. There are eight Amulets of eight colors hidden across the land, for a total of 64 to find. These serve as the stretch goal of the game much like Chaos Emeralds do in a Sonic adventure: they are completely optional yet challenging to acquire them all. As players collect Amulets, they can pay a visit to the shop at the Rainbow Junction and cash in their Amulets in exchange for very special items. Some of the game’s most interesting items are accessible in this way only, such as the mysterious Black Diary sitting on the shelf at the Rainbow Shop. Also, a humorous side-quest can be initiated involving embarrassing photos of Precia in compromising situations (nothing as suggestive as the Bromides of the Lunar games, however… you filthy animals).
So far, the game has presented as charming, if not sticking to a very tried and true formula. Where the game absolutely stands out is in the visuals. The graphics are resplendent, being the finest exemplar of hand-drawn 2D pixel art. Various sections of the game feature parallax scrolling for added effect. Nice touches of animation such as trees swaying in the wind adorn various parts of Cefiro, and 2D transparencies are abound. It would not be a stretch at all to place Magic Knight Rayearth as one of the premier showcases of 2D art in all of 5th Generation gaming. Lush, vibrant and colorful, the game astounds and delights, thumbing its’ nose at primitive contemporary efforts in 3D gaming.
The sound effects in the game are clear and crisp, and the voicework comes across very well indeed. Unlike many games of the generation, the English voice work here is excellent – a staple of a Working Designs game. The soundtrack, composed by Ms. Yayoi Wachi (Panzer Dragoon Zwei) and Mr. Seiru Okamoto (Dragon Force), is snappy, well-paced and overall very solid, however, also completely conventional. Players will really enjoy it as they play but will never remember it as one of their favorite game soundtracks. At the time of the game’s Japanese release, a CD OST was released, featuring 32 of the game’s tracks. One of these, along with a few more tracks of Wachi’s work, was featured in our Season 2 Episode 8 podcast, “Dave’s Saturn Music Picks”.
No Working Designs game can be reviewed without discussing the quality of the translation. With the protagonists being three schoolgirls, this game really benefits from Working Designs’ penchant for humor and pop culture references. In particular, the girls use various pop culture references to insult Alcione (one of Zagat’s henchmen), but Alcione does not understand their strange expressions and it leaves her flummoxed. This happens several times during the game and it comes across very well.
Speaking of translating the game, Working Designs had a hellacious time with it. A hard disk crash back in Japan led to a loss of files, which took Working Designs a considerable amount of time to reconstruct. Further, the company ran into copyright issues and couldn’t use the proper English names for the characters, as they were used by the English dub of the anime releases. After a long attempt to keep some of the names as-is, they resorted to close approximations (Presea became Precia; Lafarga became Rafarga, Emeraude became Emerald and so on).
The Japanese game was notable for having a massive amount of voiced dialogue in the game – nearly all characters, as well as NPCs, spoke. Early in the localization, Working Designs made the decision to severely limit the spoken dialogue. The voice-work was kept as far as reaching Precia’s Manor – an early point in the game – but then switched to the more traditional dialogue boxes for all but the most pivotal of scenes. The explanation given for this change was that this amount of voice-work spoilt the pacing of the game (plausible), however one can’t help but think the cost and time required to re-record everything was prohibitive. As a trade-off, Working Designs implemented a Diary system, whereby the girls create diary entries as their adventure progresses. The player can view these diary entries at any time – all written in distinct handwriting – and listen as each girl reads her entry. Whether to improve flow or to save costs, the choice to proceed with dialog boxes and retain the voice-work for optional content was wise; it truly does improve the flow of proceedings. The Diaries add a very nice element to the game as well.
If it were only about money, WD would not have stuck with those other
– Tim Trzepacz, Programmer for Magic Knight Rayearth, Working Designs.
platforms (TurboGrafx-CD, SEGA CD) as long as they did (…). If it were only about money, WD wouldn’t even bother with RPGs at all. If it were only about money, WD certainly wouldn’t waste money producing such elaborate packaging for each game. It was a difficult and unpleasant decision for WD to leave Saturn, but monetary concern(s) were a smaller part of that decision than (one may) think.
All things considered, Magic Knight Rayearth is an enjoyable action RPG. The game doesn’t try anything new but it accomplishes what it sets out to do. It is decently long, and the diaries as well as the Rainbow Amulets add to the longevity somewhat. The music is solid, the story is good, and the visuals are excellent. The script is translated very well, too. It’s funny where it should be, and the girls come across as three believable, distinct personalities. The game really represents a strength of Saturn gaming: well-drawn 2D graphics with traditional gameplay. Should you play it? If you are an RPG or a Working Designs aficionado – or even a fan of the manga or anime – then the answer is, of course! For all others, the game is a very competent take on a traditional genre that doesn’t try anything too new but succeeds at what it is.
Shiro Challenges:
- Collect all Rainbow Amulets. This isn’t overly difficult for completionist gamers and is an engaging side-quest.
- Read / listen to all diary entries. As they are an option, many gamers ignore them, but they are loaded with personality and humor.
- Find every secret Heart Jewel and Magic Jewel, for maximum girl power!
- Once the game is complete, listen to the hilarious outtakes from the English recording process. The outtakes are a special bonus for those that have finished Magic Knight Rayearth.
- Super awesome challenge: dip into the Magic Knight Universe by either playing some of the other MKR games out there, or watching the anime itself!
The Working Designs Packaging Review
As with all their Saturn releases, Working Designs went a few steps further with the game packaging. The manual is made of a heavy stock of paper unlike the paper thin manuals of other late-release Saturn titles, and it is fully glossy and reflective. The manual is full color and even includes the lyrics to the opening song! At the end are the Translation Notes, a feature Working Designs liked to include in their games about the localization of each title, and the last page folds out to reveal a set of character stickers! There are also two stickers for Memory Cards. Lastly, the pages are scented to smell like a cross between spearmint and freshly mown grass. OK, OK. I made that last part up.
The discs themselves come in three variants – one for each girl. Which disc players received was a surprise when opening the game, as the discs were randomly placed and, according to Victor Ireland, were made in equal numbers. There were rumors of a special Mokona disc cover, and even of a cover of all three girls simultaneously, however this is not the case.
For the curious, when I opened my copy in 1998, I got the Fuu variant, and I have it to this day. I acquired the other two at a later date, and also snapped up an opportunity in 2007 to buy a sealed and signed copy directly from Victor Ireland for the princely sum of USD $99.99! How times have changed…
Data Loss, Backstabbing Betrayals, and A Promise Kept
The story behind the American release of Magic Knight Rayearth is one of the most intriguing of all localizations. The Japanese game was announced in 1994, produced by SEGA itself and released in 1995, and immediately snapped up by Working Designs for North American localization. Initially with an American release date of June 1996 (just before Working Designs’ planned American release of Lunar: The Silver Star Story Complete), the team was warned that a hard disk crash over in Japan meant that much data was lost. Undeterred, Vic Ireland’s main – and, at that time, only – programmer, Tim Trzepacz, set to work in recovering what he could. Very skilled at ferreting out data from a failed storage medium, he was able to recover enough for the project to proceed. As the localization progressed, Tim wrote several beneficial modifications to the original game code. Most notably, he wrote from scratch a complete map editor for the game, to re-create the towns and villages more efficiently. He was thus able to stabilize the frame rate and almost fully eliminate slowdown, which plagued the Japanese version of the game. He also wrote an algorithm to automatically synchronize lip movement to re-recorded, English vocals, for the game’s many anime cut-scenes. This not only sped up production but also saved time and money on manual re-synchronization.
Whilst all this was going on, management at SEGA turned over from the days of Thomas Kalinske to those of Bernard Stolar, and the close-knit relationship that Working Designs enjoyed with SEGA deteriorated. At the 1997 E3, SEGA relegated Working Designs to a small booth far away from the main show floor. At previous E3s, Working Designs would set up shop within SEGA’s floor space. This move really soured Vic Ireland – after all, a small company like his relied on the support it got from SEGA for much of its’ exposure. This was a major (but not sole) factor in Working Designs announcing that they would cease Saturn development and move on to PlayStation publishing.
There were legal hurdles to clear as well. Completely separate from Working Designs’ localization, CLAMP licensed the anime for release in America, and MediaBlasters began the process of dubbing the anime. This meant trouble in using logos and names. Working Designs got around this by using approximated names that were very close to the originals (for example, Presea became Precia), but this delay cost time.
The end result was that long after the first Working Designs PlayStation games were released, and long after the last first and third party Saturn titles had seen the light of day, Working Designs were still sitting on Magic Knight Rayearth. The decision to release the project was one of honor, to keep a promise to their fanbase. There was also the financial concern on recovering as much of the cost as possible, even if it meant releasing for a platform that had effectively left the retail market. Once back from the pressing plant, Victor made special arrangements to FedEx copies to fans that had pre-ordered the game through Working Designs, all at his expense.
The Glorious Japanese Titles of 1998
1998. This was the year of Battle Garegga, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight), Radiant Silvergun, GunGriffon 2, Dragon Force 2, Lunar: Eternal Blue… and the list of excellent 1998 Japanese Saturn titles goes on and on. All in, there were over 200 Saturn titles released in Japan in 1998, though it must be said that when Dreamcast launched in November, SEGA shifted all internal development away from Saturn and onto the new machine. The company’s final Saturn title was Segata Sanshiro Shinken Yuugi, released in late 1998. Third parties accounted for virtually all of the Saturn’s 1998 hits.
Saturn would finally lose steam in 1999 – though again, with absolutely stunning titles such as Street Fighter Zero 3 – before seeing its’ last titles show up in 2000.
Factoid: Working Designs has the odd distinction of releasing both the last Saturn title (Magic Knight Rayearth) as well as the last SEGA CD title (Lunar: Eternal Blue) in the North American market.
A serious bit:
One of the scenes between Zagat and Alcione near the beginning of the game has Zagat call for some ‘child abuse’. Obviously, a joke in extremely poor taste. I ended up calling Working Designs shortly after the game released to lodge a complaint; the receptionist I spoke with apologized and admitted that mine wasn’t the only complaint they had received on the matter. Here is the in-game dialogue:
——————–
Zagat: Alcione.
Alcione: Yes, Master Zagat.
Zagat: The time has come for a little… child abuse.
Alcione: Mmmm…. My pleasure, Zagat.
Magic Knight Rayearth games for Other Platforms
- 1994-12-16 Magic Knight Rayearth, Game Gear
- 1995-08-04 Magic0 Knight Rayearth 2: The Making of the Magic Knights, Game Gear
- 1995-09-29 Magic Knight Rayearth, Super Nintendo
Excellent read! I remember opening my copy of Magic Knight Rayearth on launch day and I too received the Fuu disc. I reserved that game and waited over a year for it to be released and I can relate to your story about picking it up. It really stood out amongst a sea of what is now mostly forgettable shovelware from Sony and Nintendo. I have since gotten full copies of the other two discs as well as a Japanese copy and the Super Famicom release. I even got the new boxed set release of the original manga and the Blu-Ray anime set. Such a great series and such an awesome story about the game’s translation. Viva Sega Saturn!
Isn’t it amazing what the game goes for, nowadays? I ended up getting the remaining two discs on the cheap, and shelled out a (at the time) whopping $99 for a sealed, signed copy. Today, that would run me millions of dollars.
Awesome memories with this title, and the anime in general!
Thanks for reading, Jason 🙂
It is crazy. I dropped $500-$600 on each of my Hikaru and Umi copies. I even opened a sealed copy and got Fuu again 21 years later! I just completed my NTSC retail set a few days back that I began collecting last August. I have all but one of the Working Designs variants (one of the 4 Dragon Force discs). Spent a small fortune on them. But I’ll tell you this, it was worth every penny. Curating the set was a labor of love and revisiting these games after 20+ years has been an incredible experience.
I love every single line of your comment! I also went for all the WD variants, but luckily, in the mid 2000s. Prices were not nearly as insane. But the experiences were and are unlike anything else today.
I Loved this Game… My Copy was stolen along with Most of my Saturn games when i moved . I Just wish there would be a Away to have it Re-made or Re- Released