Former PlayStation Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, who produced The Legend of Dragoon, has recently denied that the cult classic PS1 JRPG was intended to be Sony’s answer to Final Fantasy VII. In a new interview with gaming personality Kyle Bosman, Yoshida stated, “No one told us to make any kind of game. We wanted to make this game.”

This statement came after Bosman had previously suggested that Legend of Dragoon was meant to be Sony’s “own Final Fantasy 7,” prompting Yoshida to initially correct this misconception in a Twitch chat before elaborating in their recent interview.

Yoshida explained that the game’s development began when Yasuyuki Hasebe, a former Squaresoft employee who had worked as a battle designer on Super Mario RPG, joined Sony. When asked what he wanted to do, Hasebe simply replied, “I want to make a new RPG,” which sparked the beginning of The Legend of Dragoon’s development.

While Final Fantasy VII’s announcement and its use of 3D graphics and pre-rendered backgrounds was “amazing” to the team, Yoshida described their approach as being “young and naive” rather than deliberately competitive. The game’s substantial $16 million budget and 100-person development team happened almost organically as Yoshida was “given a free budget, almost, to hire people” to grow Sony’s internal studio.

Despite Yoshida’s clarification, The Legend of Dragoon has often been compared to Final Fantasy VII since its release. Critics and players have noted similarities between the games, with some publications even referring to it as a “Final Fantasy VII clone.” The game featured several JRPG tropes that were also present in Final Fantasy VII, including a spiky-haired protagonist and a silver-haired villain.

Released in December 1999 in Japan and June 2000 in North America, The Legend of Dragoon went on to sell more than one million copies worldwide, with most sales coming from North America. Despite mixed critical reception at the time, it has since developed a dedicated cult following among JRPG fans.