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.
You may have seen that PlayStation Move Ape Escape launches today in Europe. We’re excited to announce that we’ll be bringing all of the monkey-capturing mayhem to the US soon! On June 28th, you will be able to download a demo of the game on the PlayStation Store.
In PlayStation Move Ape Escape, you’ll be tasked with fending off a monkey invasion after a UFO crash-lands into your house. This latest installment takes the fan-favorite franchise to the next level by allowing you to use the PlayStation Move motion controller to wield a variety of gadgets while capturing the mischievous monkey invaders.
I’m excited to announce that the next chapter of the Ape Escape franchise will be heading to PlayStation Move this summer in PlayStation Move Ape Escape.