Racing Lagoon is a racing RPG. Your earn experience for your various car parts and racing points by challenging other cars on streets modeled after the actual roadmaps of Yokohama, Japan. After winning a race, you'll get a certain amount of "Reward Points" which you can then use to take a part from your opponent's car, anything from the engine to the paint scheme. The game is broken up into 10 nights of racing, with main character Sho Akasaki trying to become the king of the underground racing scene.
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This game rules.
Everything about the way this game looks and sounds is just perfect, and that’s saying a lot this side of PS1 town. All the 90s post FF7 Square pre-rendered goodness you could ever want, plus surprisingly sophisticated, moody 3D visuals during gameplay. The soundtrack—that is equal parts fusion, electronic and pop—combines with the visuals to create the perfect atmosphere.
The story is bonkers; I don’t wanna spoil anything, just play it.
The gameplay is what surprised me the most. It’s RPG mechanics are remarkably fleshed out for something that, on paper, reads like no more than a novel idea. Car handling feels really good, too—deceptively so for a game that, once again, sounds very gimmicky. The game also offers a diverse array of events, from street races, to rally races, to drag races, to chicken races, which might be my favourite.
It could use some refinement; for example, I got the impression from my playthrough that, despite the potential for many different builds, many didn’t seem too viable, so progression felt pretty linear. I’m also not a huge fan of having to relinquish a random part of your car upon losing a random race (and maybe the event races as well? I don’t remember). It’s such a harsh punishment, I would almost prefer a fail state. Additionally, the collision isn’t great; I never got used to the way you bounce off cars when you collide with them. It’s very jarring.
All of that is pretty minor when you consider what Racing Lagoon does achieve, however. The presentation is firing on all cylinders, and gameplay-wise, it’s far better than something with a premise this gimmicky should be.
And seriously, I cannot stress enough how stylish this game is. It’s unbelievable; worth playing just for that.
Everything about the way this game looks and sounds is just perfect, and that’s saying a lot this side of PS1 town. All the 90s post FF7 Square pre-rendered goodness you could ever want, plus surprisingly sophisticated, moody 3D visuals during gameplay. The soundtrack—that is equal parts fusion, electronic and pop—combines with the visuals to create the perfect atmosphere.
The story is bonkers; I don’t wanna spoil anything, just play it.
The gameplay is what surprised me the most. It’s RPG mechanics are remarkably fleshed out for something that, on paper, reads like no more than a novel idea. Car handling feels really good, too—deceptively so for a game that, once again, sounds very gimmicky. The game also offers a diverse array of events, from street races, to rally races, to drag races, to chicken races, which might be my favourite.
It could use some refinement; for example, I got the impression from my playthrough that, despite the potential for many different builds, many didn’t seem too viable, so progression felt pretty linear. I’m also not a huge fan of having to relinquish a random part of your car upon losing a random race (and maybe the event races as well? I don’t remember). It’s such a harsh punishment, I would almost prefer a fail state. Additionally, the collision isn’t great; I never got used to the way you bounce off cars when you collide with them. It’s very jarring.
All of that is pretty minor when you consider what Racing Lagoon does achieve, however. The presentation is firing on all cylinders, and gameplay-wise, it’s far better than something with a premise this gimmicky should be.
And seriously, I cannot stress enough how stylish this game is. It’s unbelievable; worth playing just for that.
--A WORLD BEYOND SPEED--
"Hidden Gem" is a term I believe to be thrown around way too frequently in the gaming community, rarely ever being used in a way I would say its "properly" applicable.
Racing Lagoon is a Hidden Gem, and also straight up one of the coolest video games ever made.
Finally being playable in English thanks to the hard work from the people over at Hilltop, Racing Lagoon is a stylish, raw, and just phenomenal racing based RPG made by prime Square during their insane PS1 days. Presentation is off the charts visually and sonically. The stealing parts mechanic keeps the gameplay engaging throughout the games whole runtime and the world kept opening and expanding to a point where I was just like "why did I only hear about this a month ago?"
The world of Racing Lagoon might be its most notable aspect. Yokohama just feels like home and all of its inhabitants are just so charming. The writing and story, while they go some out there places by the end, is consistently engaging and overall is just a very fun ride, with all your shenanigans you would expect from a Square RPG from this era.
if at any point you read me rambling about my love for this game and found it interesting, then please, do yourself and the game a favor and give it a shot, we need more Lagooners in the world.
"Hidden Gem" is a term I believe to be thrown around way too frequently in the gaming community, rarely ever being used in a way I would say its "properly" applicable.
Racing Lagoon is a Hidden Gem, and also straight up one of the coolest video games ever made.
Finally being playable in English thanks to the hard work from the people over at Hilltop, Racing Lagoon is a stylish, raw, and just phenomenal racing based RPG made by prime Square during their insane PS1 days. Presentation is off the charts visually and sonically. The stealing parts mechanic keeps the gameplay engaging throughout the games whole runtime and the world kept opening and expanding to a point where I was just like "why did I only hear about this a month ago?"
The world of Racing Lagoon might be its most notable aspect. Yokohama just feels like home and all of its inhabitants are just so charming. The writing and story, while they go some out there places by the end, is consistently engaging and overall is just a very fun ride, with all your shenanigans you would expect from a Square RPG from this era.
if at any point you read me rambling about my love for this game and found it interesting, then please, do yourself and the game a favor and give it a shot, we need more Lagooners in the world.
Wow this game has such an interesting genre-mix and outstellar presentation, the meta-narrative it builds is so layered and fascinating for a 1999 game, I sure hope the ending will wrap all of this up in a nice and concise way!
Would love a remaster or a straight-up remake of this.
Never knew why this never left Japan...
Never knew why this never left Japan...
racing gooning
I beat this before any final fantasy