Look at that. Nice and shiny case with a foldout pocket on the front cover with a velcro latch. Inside you had the CD case, along with a hardcover full-color instruction manual. Then you have an audio CD packed in with the game. Then you had posters, a map, and in the case of Lunar 2 a replica pendant that one of the characters in the game wears. You should see how much these games in their original packaging sell for online. Of course it helped that these games themselves lived up to the same immaculate quality of their packaging. Lunar 2 was easily what I would call a magical game. A straightforward RPG about a hero having to slay the big bad guy, without all of the horrible bloat that RPGs these days tend to come with. But the packaging helped to make the game feel even more special. Like the people who brought the game over knew how special it was and wanted to put that on display.
Nowadays the closest we get to that same kind of quality would be with Atlus and lately Xseed, and NIS to a degree. Ys Seven’s packaging is very close to what you are talking about lately. Look at that cloth map of the game’s world. Unlike Zelda where the reset button gets hit with almost every installment now, this game’s sequels actually expand on the game’s world. Six games later you can have that cloth map and see everywhere that the silent protagonist’s adventures have taken him throughout the game’s world. (Btw if you ever get a PSP you should definitely check out Ys 3 and Ys Seven, they’re as close as you’ll get to the action of the older Zeldas without the puzzle BS).
Atlus does a pretty good job of packaging their games. Like Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha Vs. King Abaddon That game also had a very nice instruction manual where one of the characters in the game is explaining everything to you, and since the game takes places in the 1920s in Japan, they talk in the slang that people spoke in that era. And it’s in color. A lot of game companies wouldn’t put that effort into their instruction manual. In fact, Mass Effect 2 comes with a pathetic instruction manual that really isn’t an instruction manual at all. Disappointing.
What’s always irked me is that Japan will get special game cases and stuff with their games, while over here we get nothing. It always peeves me off when this happens. They put the extra effort in over there. Why can’t they do that over here? Am I not good enough for their packaging? Is my money not good enough? Or is it just laziness?
I’m sure what I’ve shown you pales compared to the standards of gaming of your time, but I own all of these games I’ve showed you. And I owned them all in large part because their packaging helps make the game feel special and stand out from the rest of the stuff out there. In the case of Ys Seven and Working Design’s stuff, those game cases just ooze quality and actually make me excited for the game without even playing it. And to be honest in many cases new games dispense with that, and it seems to cheapen the game along with it.
I like buying movies and such for the packaging. Especially for special editions with extra features and especially for shiny packaging. Check out this packaging for the recent rerelease of Blade Runner. I wish I’d bought that when I had the chance. I think one of the things that has diminished my interest in movies, games, and music is the desire to cut the quality of the packaging when it may actually be the most important thing. Like I said before, all these games I mentioned may pale compared to the games of your time, but for me growing up, they were my magical games. They were special, and very different from the other stuff I played because the effort and care put into packaging them heightened that feeling for me. And as a result I remember these games more fondly than I do other games I’ve played at the time.
The reason why you don’t hear about it is because publishers want to decrease our expectations about the packaging, not increase them. I’m someone who still demands every game console to come with a flagship game and two controllers. I also want the game experience to be more than just a disc in a shell. It is a big reason why I no longer play games today.