Game-breaking Legend of Dragoon bugs are ruining the classic JRPG's return

Sony's beloved PS1 JRPG Legend of Dragoon is finally making its long-awaited return on modern consoles, but while fans were ready to celebrate, game-breaking bugs and glitches are spoiling the party.

If you're not familiar with Legend of Dragoon, it was a late-era PS1 role-playing game from Sony's first-party Japan Studio. The game saw mixed reception at launch, failing to measure up to the broad appeal of the Final Fantasy games coming around the same time, but it eventually found its fans and took on cult classic status. But despite a growing reputation over the years as one of the best RPGs of its time, it never won a proper follow-up.

That - and a slim selection of PS1 classics on PS5 - is a big part of why fans were so excited to finally see Legend of Dragoon revived as part of the PS Plus February line-up. That excitement built as players learned the game would feature trophy support, and that it would be available for standalone purchase - not just as part of the PS Plus subscription. Heck, Sony even did the right thing by giving the game away for free to people who'd already bought it on PS3, PSP, or Vita.

That excitement's all come crashing down now that players have actually had a chance to play the game. There are visual glitches like odd pixel lines and audio bugs that are cutting voice lines short. Threads running down all the bugs are starting to coalesce, and it does not paint a rosy picture for this version's playability.

Even worse, using Dragoon magic - one of the game's core combat mechanics - consistently causes battles to lock up. You can technically still beat a battle with a spell by using it at the very end, but then you're going to get stuck in an inescapable black screen. It seems this is mostly a problem with multi-target Dragoon magic, but trying to figure out which spells will and won't crash your game is no way to play an RPG.

For now, players are hopeful for a patch, but the first impression for this release has not lived up to the expectations of retro fans.

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