Severed Chains – Legend of Dragoon Community (2024)

**This project is currently seeking help! To learn what coding help we need or to apply as a tester, tag @lordmonoxide in the #severed-chains channel of the LoD Discord server.

Press Kit for journalists – Coming Soon!

This project is a reverse-engineered (unofficial) PC port of Legend of Dragoon and a full reconstruction of its game engine, pushing the boundaries of traditional emulation software. In fact, it’s not emulation because this rebuild doesn’t rely on mimicking the PS1 hardware! For that reason the game runs faster, leaner, and has breakout modding capabilities. Please note that SC only works with the North American release of the game at this time. After the next major release we will look into supporting the other regional releases.

Project lead: Corey (Monoxide)

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Useful Links

• Download (Recommended Build)
• PC Setup Guide (SteamDeck Setup)
• Github Repository
• Known Issues

Coming Soon

We are working hard on the next major release, featuring a huge graphics overhaul. 4K native resolution, 60 frames per second, fullscreen, and optional widescreen support. This upcoming release will run much faster than the current RB2.1, by using your graphics card instead of just the CPU. The performance gains will vastly outmode what can be achieved on emulation, so SC will run great even on older machines or budget builds. We expect to have this build ready in the coming months.

Pros & Cons

A list of the current ways Severed Chains stands out, along with transparency on which parts still need work to reach parity with retail and standard emulation. Note that every item in the Current Issues column can and will be addressed in due time.

Gallery

Future

This is a long-term project – many things are planned for it. The exact order of these components being made are subject to change. For 2023, some of the major goals include the hardware rendering (looks better and runs faster than our software renderer, but takes a lot more work to code), much more powerful modding support, and many more.

Although various mods may become available in the near future, most of ourwishlist itemswill not be addressed until later. We’d like to get the core functionality in great condition first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is this available to download and play?
A: Yes. View the Setup Guide link above, in the Project Summary section.

Q: Does SC change the gameplay?
A: No, generally speaking. Apart from core improvements like bugfixes, better rendering, and reduced load times, changes to the game will only be present via mods and settings that a player must opt into.

Q: Is this project legal? Can I get in trouble for using it?
A: Yes, the project is legal. Illegality comes from rebuilding the game via leaked source code, whereas this project uses reverse-engineered assembly code and creates a new game engine out of it. You cannot get in trouble for downloading and using the Severed Chains platform. However, your disc image files or “roms” must be obtained by making legal backups of a physical copy that you own. We will not provide downloads of LoD disc images.

Q: Do I still need a PS1 bios file?
A: No. The creator made a coding update that removed the need for bios entirely!

Q: Why isn’t this considered emulation?
A: The general purpose of emulators is to act as a platform that imitates the original hardware – how it works, the processing power it can use, et cetera. This is why, although LoD can run with many improvements through Beetle or Duckstation, it still doesn’t have faster loading times even with overkill processors and graphics cards. Rather, the Severed Chains project doesn’t try to imitate the PS1 at all. This allows for many enhancements that are either not feasible or borderline impossible with standard emulation. This is the only way to play LoD with rapid load times, among other upgrades in the future.

Q: How long has this project been in development?
A: Since December 2020.

Q: When can we expect a given feature or mod to be added?
A: It is hard to create predictable timelines for each component of Severed Chains, as the team is very small and it is a volunteer project. You can follow the latest updates in theLoD Discord server‘s #modding channel or study theIssues sectionof our Github repository.