The Legend of Dragoon Coming to PSN: RPG Classic Reborn May 1st

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The Legend of Dragoon Coming to PSN: RPG Classic Reborn May 1st

The Legend of Dragoon for PS3 and PSPps3_xmb

The Legend of Dragoon was one of the last projects I worked on as a producer in Japan Studio and by far the biggest team I managed hands-on. We started the project in 1996 with only a handful of people, hired one by one as we were building up teams for Ape Escape, The Legend of Dragoon, and Ico simultaneously. During the peak of the game’s development, we had well over 100 people working internally in the studio on The Legend of Dragoon — for a PSone game! We had roughly 10 artists dedicated just to drawing concept art for this gigantic RPG. As the game contained lots of pre-rendered maps and full-motion videos, we were forced to spread the content over four CDs, which was the maximum number of discs that the fattest PSone game case could hold.

It took nearly three years to build the team and develop the game, which was released in December 1999 in Japan and June 2000 in the US. As I moved from Japan to the US in March 2000, I was able to personally handle the game’s release in both Japan and the US. Following the game’s launch in Japan, we learned from players that certain parts of the game were too difficult. The team re-balanced the gameplay for the release outside of Japan, so the US version was the complete version of the game that we were all proud of.

I still occasionally hear from fans of The Legend of Dragoon, and many want to know if there is a sequel. LOD2 was put into preproduction after I left the Japan Studio, but was eventually cancelled for some unknown reason, and the team members moved on to different projects. Some people still work in the Japan Studio, so we talk about the memories of developing LOD when we see each other at company functions.

It’s great to see the game being prepared for release as a PSone Classic on PSN, which means that fans can revisit the world whenever they want. Maybe it’ll make a new fans, too. Long live LOD!

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253 Comments

  • Oh my word… people are going to be excited…

  • Yes! It’s about time.. Can’t wait :D

  • Yes, yes, YEESSSSSS!!!!! xD

  • oh my god i have never bought a PSone game, not even the great Metal Gear Solid but this i must buy , hey Mr President how about The Legend of the Dragoon on ps3 and ps vita? this seems a little bit fishy that you come here to post that this game is coming to psn ,a ps3/ psvita announcement anytime soon?

  • ‘m exited for this, I never got to try this game and I have heard nothing but good things, plus people have been begging for this classic for YEARS now, so it must be good. So now’s my chance to finally give it a go!

  • oh and please we want ps vita youtube app and better web browser, any news on little big planet release date? avatars on vita? i really love the system but it needs a little bit more support

  • Very nice.

  • This game is the greatest RPG I have ever played, can’t way to play it again.

  • Well Well Well. What do we have here. Looks like sony just made alot of gamers happy with this news. Cant wait to see Ape Escape PsOne classic released here in the US.

  • Let the celebration commence! Now all of the people who have been persistently asking for this can dance with joy.

    I won’t be buying this, though, since I still own the original version on PS1.

  • I own the original so I won’t be buying either. Now…if this were an HD remake, then my money would be ready for a day 1 purchase. Oh well. Still good news :) LOVED this game!

  • This was one of my favorite games on PS1. I would definitely like to buy this again. When will the PS Vita have PS1 Classics support? I want to play my PS1 Classics on the Vita!

  • This was definitely asked for. Thank you, Shu!

  • I’m ot buying this until PSOne Classics are supported by PS Vita.

  • AWESOME!! I’ll be picking this up once the Vita will accept it! Great News!

  • oh now that you are posting here Mr President the vita is seriously lacking online multiplayer games

  • people requesting more support on vita’s browser and youtube support go to the PS.BLOG.SHARE page and submit your request there, quite sick of seeing all the requests on EVERY game blog!!!!!

  • Awesome news. Can’t wait to get it! :D

  • YES!

    This is brilliant news. I can’t wait.

  • Cool, I only seen my uncle play this many years ago, I think I’ll consider buying this once it is compatible on Vita.

  • YUS! cAN’T WAIT!

  • So when are we getting ps1 classics support for the psvita? Don’t like playing ps1 classics on big screens as they look like crap but on the small screens like psp and psvita they actually look good.

  • Sweet Jesus, the only thing better would be an epic HD remake. But THIS IS SO MUCH WIN! OMG! Imma hype the HELL out of this…

  • So excited! LOD is my favorite game of the PS1 era. Been waiting for the chance to get digital copy for years!

    Reading the comments I just found out that the Vita doesn’t support PSOne Classics? How did this get by? I’ve been saving up for a Vita, and now I can’t believe I wont be able to play LOD on it!

  • Awesome news. Would love to be able to play it on my Vita…

  • @22 I want to know the same thing. I want to play some of the old school classic on my Vita. And after seeing this I want Sony to add PS1 support on the Vita Soon.

    Make it happen Sony, Please!

  • I’ll get it once the Vita has ps1 support, and hopefully they re-start production for LOD2

  • What will the price be?

  • Shame about the sequel. :(

  • YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

    Oh, and if you guys re-start LOD2 Production for VITA we’d be very grateful ;-)

  • Dear Yoshida,

    Thank you for delivering the news of the LOD being added to the PSN personally. I still have my copy of the game so I think it’s great that other people will finally get to play this game.

    That aside, will there ever be plans on bringing back the G.A.P?

    ありがとう

  • Definitely deserving of the re-release! Amazing game, and one I’m excited to see find new fans.

    That being said, Vita NEEDS to be able to play PSOne Classics. Please do not pull a Nintendo and add this as a feature to future Vita models, shafting the early supporters. We definitely need this feature addd ASAP.

  • What happened to SCEJ this generation Shuhei? GT5 was a big disappointment for many and has been surpassed by Forza. 84 on Metacritic for your flagship racing game is nothing to boast about. The Last Guardian has turned into vaporware and an Internet joke. We’ve seen a few small titles of limited appeal coming out of Japan Studios but they are not really pulling their weight compared to SCEA and SCEE. You really need to get cracking the whip because the Japanese side is increasingly looking behind the curve and even redundant.

  • Time for a sequel.

  • Definite download! THANKS!!!

  • I hope Allan Becker and co.’s reorganisation of Japan Studio starts to bear more obvious fruits later this year.

  • Oh my… I never played it but I was always very curious to do so. This might be my chance! :)

  • LOD was too easy. I think your team short changed us on the release in the US.

    Ultimately I’m happy to see fans of this game finally getting the release they’ve been clamoring for since PSOne classics first started showing up on PSN.

  • Awesome, it’ll be great to play this as soon as Sony keeps their promise and adds the ability to play PSOne Classics on the Vita! Any day now, I imagine, as promised!

  • day one purchase for me!!!

  • I see a pattern here so I’ll join too: When will Vita get the long awaited PS1 classic support?! I have so many awesome free PS1 classics from PS+, but I would much rather play them on my Vita than on my big screen.

  • I really enjoy playing this game both JP and US. Wonder if the PSN will retain its original released version or will there be any fixes such as the voice-acting and… a little bit of the translations and dialogue? I like how you had the US reward you with better money, but didn’t really like how all the foes got powered down compared to the JP version, which gave me a more challenging experience. I’m OK with the Forest area monsters being a little weaker, especially with the evading monsters there, but the rest… I mean, you powered up the throw spell damage, which is nice.

  • Awesome! Please let me play this on my Vita!!!

  • A friend of mine lend me this game for the weekend so many years ago back in middle school. I always wanted to finish it and now I have the chance! :)

  • Bout time. I have the original, but I’ll buy the digital version just because. Dart FTW!!!!!

  • Finally! I can’t begin to tell you how happy this makes me. I’ve been wanting to play this game for a long time and now I will get the chance.

    Thank you Mr. Yoshida for your work on making this game a reality!

  • wow mr yoshida come to the blog, very epic day

  • THANK YOU Mr. Yoshida and Sony! I have been hoping you guys would do this eventually, and I’m so HYPED right now. I haven’t played this game in so long, and I need motivation to go back and finally complete the game (yeah, I was only a kid when I first bought the game. Sadly, I don’t own the original discs anymore).

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