Winter Surprise #1 – Upcoming Developer Interview!

Good day everyone! Drew here with the first of many exciting reveals for Legend of Dragoon fans this winter. Yes, you read the title correctly, one of the original LoD developers has agreed to an interview! Hype it up!!

If you liked the developer messages we got for the 25th anniversary of LoD last year, you’ll love this interview. We’ll get new insights about the game, and learn more about this developer as a person. Who is it? You’ll find out when the interview is published in the very near future.

While most of the questions are already determined, we have room for a few questions from the community at large. From now until December 27, any LoD fan is welcome to submit one question via the form linked below. On Saturday the 27th, I will blind-pick some questions on livestream and add them to the interview. Then the questions will be sent off to the developer. We’ll come back with the published interview as soon as possible – probably sometime in January 2026.

Be aware that there will be many submissions and few will be selected. Only send in a question if you’re okay with very low odds of it being chosen.

Ask A Question!

1. Come up with a question. Ask for something we don’t already know about LoD or its development process. Story, voiceovers, art style, technology used, et cetera.
2. Use this form to send in your question.
3. A small amount will be selected during this livestream on Saturday Dec 27.

Questions will be screened in advance. Any that we happen to have an answer for already, will simply be answered during the livestream. Questions that are inappropriate or waste the developer’s time will not be counted. Please be respectful!

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Current List of Questions (Working Draft)

Some questions have been omitted to keep the surprise intact, but this is most of them.

Life Before Legend of Dragoon

1. What was life like for you before making video games? Any particular hobbies?
2. Did you take a specialty in school?
3. What did you imagine for your future, before working with Sony?

Creating LoD

1. How did you end up working for Sony and Legend of Dragoon? Did you send in an application, or was it special circumstances?
2. Were all the employees or their departments isolated from one another? Which departments or individuals did you interface with the most?
3. Do you have any stand-out memories of funny or “wow” moments, either with your coworkers or about the game’s development?
4. What is the #1 thing you or the team wish could have made it into the game, but had to be cut?
5. In 2012, the producer Shuhei Yoshida confirmed in a PS Blog that the second game was in pre-production, but got scrapped. In a separate interview, Director Hasebe confirmed that the second game would be a prequel focusing on the Dragon Campaign. Perhaps our biggest question: Do you have any surviving knowledge or materials relating to this canceled game? We only know the glimpses from game 1.

After LoD / Personal Life

1. Have you always stayed in Japan? What do you like about the area you live?
2. What skills or passions have you picked up over the years?
3. What is your advice for anyone who plans to visit the country? General tips, food, etc.?
4. Is there anywhere you’d like to travel, or any bucket list items in general?
5. What else would you like LoD fans to know about you?
6. What is an example of an ideal day for you?

Community Efforts

1. The fandom has grown a lot over the years! All sorts of fans continue to come together to talk about the game, replay it, make fan content, create events, and more. How does it feel for you, that instead of the game fading into obscurity, it becomes more and more alive?
2. One of the projects we’re most proud of, is the fan port “Severed Chains”. Have you heard of reverse-engineered ports before (i.e. Spaghetti Kart for Mario Kart 64), or is this your first time hearing about it? What is your impression?
3. We are working to preserve as much of the game’s history as we can. Knowledge of the development process, the game itself, artwork, lore, and so on. We also preserve at least one copy of merchandise and promotional items for posterity. Do you have any materials you would be willing to donate to our collection? (merch, promo, or production materials)

Specific / Technical Questions

1. Are the gaps in the list of monsters and submaps considered cut areas? Why choose Scissorhands for the default placeholder monster?
2. Did they have a specific design/reference while creating scripting engine? What tools were used to create it?
3. In the game, archers do not have additions. However, our community found evidence of this in the game files (Miranda’s VA). There are abilities such as Kekkai, Silver Rain, and Dragon Needle. Can you speak to why archer additions were canceled?
4. In what order were the discs worked on? Was it different teams working on each disc across years or was there a grand process behind it?
5. What challenges were being solved with all the different file formats used throughout the development?
6. What was the process to debug new builds? What was the hardware and software setup like for development?

Questions from the Wider Community

1. Question 1
2. Question 2
3. Question 3
4. Question 4
5. Question 5

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That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, and we have more rad news on the way.