diff --git a/src/legacy/java/net/neoforged/moddevgradle/legacyforge/internal/LegacyForgeModDevPlugin.java b/src/legacy/java/net/neoforged/moddevgradle/legacyforge/internal/LegacyForgeModDevPlugin.java
index 68eec319..2c6caa13 100644
--- a/src/legacy/java/net/neoforged/moddevgradle/legacyforge/internal/LegacyForgeModDevPlugin.java
+++ b/src/legacy/java/net/neoforged/moddevgradle/legacyforge/internal/LegacyForgeModDevPlugin.java
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ public void apply(Project project) {
         project.getDependencies().getComponents().withModule("net.neoforged:forge", LegacyForgeMetadataTransform.class);
         project.getDependencies().getComponents().withModule("net.minecraftforge:forge", LegacyForgeMetadataTransform.class);
         project.getDependencies().getComponents().withModule("de.oceanlabs.mcp:mcp_config", McpMetadataTransform.class);
+        // For legacy versions we need to relax the strict version requirements imposed by the minecraft-dependencies,
+        // since Forge upgrades especially log4j2, but we have no way of fixing its metadata fully (besides doing it statically).
+        project.getDependencies().getComponents().withModule("net.neoforged:minecraft-dependencies", NonStrictDependencyTransform.class);
 
         var depFactory = project.getDependencyFactory();
         var autoRenamingToolRuntime = project.getConfigurations().create(CONFIGURATION_TOOL_ART, spec -> {
diff --git a/src/legacy/java/net/neoforged/moddevgradle/legacyforge/internal/NonStrictDependencyTransform.java b/src/legacy/java/net/neoforged/moddevgradle/legacyforge/internal/NonStrictDependencyTransform.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f911b7ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/legacy/java/net/neoforged/moddevgradle/legacyforge/internal/NonStrictDependencyTransform.java
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+package net.neoforged.moddevgradle.legacyforge.internal;
+
+import org.gradle.api.artifacts.CacheableRule;
+import org.gradle.api.artifacts.ComponentMetadataContext;
+import org.gradle.api.artifacts.ComponentMetadataRule;
+
+/**
+ * Relaxes all strict version constraints to just be required.
+ */
+@CacheableRule
+public class NonStrictDependencyTransform implements ComponentMetadataRule {
+    @Override
+    public void execute(ComponentMetadataContext context) {
+        context.getDetails().allVariants(variant -> {
+            variant.withDependencies(dependencies -> {
+                for (var dependency : dependencies) {
+                    dependency.version(version -> {
+                        version.prefer(version.getStrictVersion());
+                        version.require(version.getStrictVersion());
+                        version.strictly("");
+                    });
+                }
+            });
+        });
+    }
+}