"That's right... I'm 'YOKOHAMA'S FASTEST LEGEND'... or so I'm told..."
Racing Lagoon is a Japanese-exclusive SquareSoft RPG for the PlayStation, originally released in 1999. Unlike any of Square's other RPGs, Racing Lagoon focuses on street races rather than battles with weapons and spells. The player freely explores parts of Japan (mostly Yokohama) at night in their car with numerous parking spots to stop at to progress the story, interact with characters, take part in optional challenges, or purchase new parts for their car. In place of random encounters, players are challenged to short races by other cars on the street that flash their headlights. Rather than traditional equipment and level ups, cars can be customized with parts and add-ons. The winner of each race can select a part in the owner's inventory to take for keeps—whether it is the player or the CPU opponent. Reward Points (RP) are also given to the player upon victory with the amount varying based on the opponent(s). There are three main part types that can be interchanged and level up through winning races while add-ons are static, much like equipment. Levelling a part will increase the number of slots for add-ons.
As one would expect, racing in Racing Lagoon is the forefront of the gameplay. Every battle takes into account your current setup and its respective stats, but the core racing still calls for skill... and even some luck. The racing can be rather stiff, and at times, feels downright jank. Unfortunately, this is no Ridge Racer, and simple bumps in the road like a sidewalk is more than enough to stop you dead in your tracks as if you collided headfirst with a brick wall. If you can manage to get used to its oddities while maintaining a powerful car, the game is more than doable, but it is easily one of the most difficult RPGs I've played solely on the basis of its core design.
"South Yokohama... Our home, our 'STREET'... This town comes alive at night... and our driving brings the 'HEAT'."
The story of Racing Lagoon is a wild ride that starts simple enough. Sho Akasaki is new on the racing scene and has joined the Bay Lagoon Racing team in South Yokohama. Showing great potential, BLR's leader Ikki Fujisawa takes him under his wing and helps him grow as a racer. BLR's dream is the Yokohama Grand Prix—a shot at professional racing. Shortly after Sho's first real jump into the big leagues, catastrophe strikes as a series of mysterious incidents begin to pile up without explanation. Rumors of Yokohama's Fastest Legend returning after ten years of absence brings great strife for street racers all over Japan. Sho takes it upon himself to find out the source of the chaos and put an end to it once and for all.
"Last night I had a dream... I was driving through the flames of a fiery hellscape, yet couldn't feel the heat. Stuck on a road with no exits, and no escape... On a night when dawn would never come... I wish I could have stayed dreaming."
The course of the plot takes place over eleven nights with each night effectively acting as a chapter with some additional, shorter chapters in between. The story is presented both through dialog during visual novel-esque scenes and in replays of the player's races with character interactions playing out during the action. What begins as a simple tale of seeking glory suddenly turns to surprisingly somber and evocative moments of self-reflection wrapped in an absurd sci-fi/fantasy tale of corporations, experiments, and lingering spirits. Nothing about this game is as it appears initially, and while it reaches critical levels of cheesiness, the CRAAAZY story is entertaining from start to finish.
"...I have a recurring dream... I find myself at the murky depths of the ocean floor... Within that darkness, I find a glimmering fragment of a star... And then I'm at peace, wrapped in the gentle embrace of the waves... The lights flicker across my eyes, coaxing me back into the waking world..."
The characters range from simplistic and stereotypical to straight up crazy. Sho Akasaki is an aspiring poet as he monologues and self-reflects in nearly every scene in the game. His colorful descriptions of his experiences and his feelings create an air of desolation and longing, though it often borders on being too melodramatic for its own good. Like many other great SquareSoft protagonists in the PSX era, there is more to Sho than meets the eye, and his story is worth exploring and finishing. While ridiculous, Sho's internal monologues breathe life into his otherwise blank persona, and there are plenty of twists and turns within his life that keep him compelling and entertaining in his own right.
The supporting cast are not as complex as Sho, but are all entertaining enough in their given tropes and moments. Their dialog (which in my experience is from a recent English fan-translation) is all equally humorous and quotable like Sho's. Many characters do little in regard to the main plot, but I would not necessarily consider this a negative as I believe it effectively builds the world of Racing Lagoon to be a believable, lively environment that does not simply revolve around the player's character.
"The roof of the hospital provided a breathtaking view of Yokohama. It was a vast blanket of darkness, studded with tiny specks of the city's lights... Within the dark abyss inside me there was also a faint, quivering light... The light... of hope."
The presentation of Racing Lagoon is, to me (and probably most others who have seen or played it) the strongest asset of the title. I am an avid enjoyer of early 3D FMVs and pre-rendered models. From FINAL FANTASY VII to GADGET, I cannot get enough of that style, and it is in full force in Racing Lagoon. Unlike the two aforementioned games, there is far less animation at play in Racing Lagoon. Many scenes are static or stiff with the animation limited to three frames on average. I, personally, do not mind this, but I can see many finding fault with it, thinking it lazy, cheap, or just otherwise unappealing. Despite these limitations, the game oozes with '90s urban Japanese style. Think Initial D meets FINAL FANTASY VIII with some unique flair in between. Do be prepared to see some very uncanny looking people contorting their bodies in all sorts of bizarre ways, though.
"The way the water reflects the lights of the city... It's stunningly beautiful. I have to ask myself which is real? The one in the sky or the one in the sea... When we dream and when we wake, it's as if we step out from one and step into the other..."
Similar in its visual presentation, the music of Racing Lagoon is a memorable, stylish roller coaster of fun. Mixing many electronic elements with various styles of jazz, Racing Lagoon's OST builds an atmosphere like no other. The raw sense of late night urban sprawl is another aesthetic I love, and it is unmatched in South Yokohama. If you cannot find yourself able to deal with the rough gameplay of Racing Lagoon, I suggest looking up its soundtrack on YouTube to enjoy some aspect of this game.
"South Yokohama... Our home, our 'STREET'... The starting line for this sordid story... Our own twisted legend of speed. On these streets we called home... With its thousands of people living thousands of lives... I found myself feeling alone."
Racing Lagoon is far from the storytelling marvels of FINAL FANTASY VII and Xenogears, but about halfway through my 20-odd hour playthrough, I decided it deserved a review on a similar scale. The sheer uniqueness of the title, coupled with its perfectly insane cocktail mix of style and melancholic drama make it an unforgettable experience—one I wish I could have gone through legitimately. If you are lenient on retro game jank and have an admiration for late '90s Japanese style, I recommend giving this game a shot. I think it's well worth your time baring witness to...
THE REVIVAL OF YOKOHAMA'S FASTEST LEGEND
Racing Lagoon is a Japanese-exclusive SquareSoft RPG for the PlayStation, originally released in 1999. Unlike any of Square's other RPGs, Racing Lagoon focuses on street races rather than battles with weapons and spells. The player freely explores parts of Japan (mostly Yokohama) at night in their car with numerous parking spots to stop at to progress the story, interact with characters, take part in optional challenges, or purchase new parts for their car. In place of random encounters, players are challenged to short races by other cars on the street that flash their headlights. Rather than traditional equipment and level ups, cars can be customized with parts and add-ons. The winner of each race can select a part in the owner's inventory to take for keeps—whether it is the player or the CPU opponent. Reward Points (RP) are also given to the player upon victory with the amount varying based on the opponent(s). There are three main part types that can be interchanged and level up through winning races while add-ons are static, much like equipment. Levelling a part will increase the number of slots for add-ons.
As one would expect, racing in Racing Lagoon is the forefront of the gameplay. Every battle takes into account your current setup and its respective stats, but the core racing still calls for skill... and even some luck. The racing can be rather stiff, and at times, feels downright jank. Unfortunately, this is no Ridge Racer, and simple bumps in the road like a sidewalk is more than enough to stop you dead in your tracks as if you collided headfirst with a brick wall. If you can manage to get used to its oddities while maintaining a powerful car, the game is more than doable, but it is easily one of the most difficult RPGs I've played solely on the basis of its core design.
"South Yokohama... Our home, our 'STREET'... This town comes alive at night... and our driving brings the 'HEAT'."
The story of Racing Lagoon is a wild ride that starts simple enough. Sho Akasaki is new on the racing scene and has joined the Bay Lagoon Racing team in South Yokohama. Showing great potential, BLR's leader Ikki Fujisawa takes him under his wing and helps him grow as a racer. BLR's dream is the Yokohama Grand Prix—a shot at professional racing. Shortly after Sho's first real jump into the big leagues, catastrophe strikes as a series of mysterious incidents begin to pile up without explanation. Rumors of Yokohama's Fastest Legend returning after ten years of absence brings great strife for street racers all over Japan. Sho takes it upon himself to find out the source of the chaos and put an end to it once and for all.
"Last night I had a dream... I was driving through the flames of a fiery hellscape, yet couldn't feel the heat. Stuck on a road with no exits, and no escape... On a night when dawn would never come... I wish I could have stayed dreaming."
The course of the plot takes place over eleven nights with each night effectively acting as a chapter with some additional, shorter chapters in between. The story is presented both through dialog during visual novel-esque scenes and in replays of the player's races with character interactions playing out during the action. What begins as a simple tale of seeking glory suddenly turns to surprisingly somber and evocative moments of self-reflection wrapped in an absurd sci-fi/fantasy tale of corporations, experiments, and lingering spirits. Nothing about this game is as it appears initially, and while it reaches critical levels of cheesiness, the CRAAAZY story is entertaining from start to finish.
"...I have a recurring dream... I find myself at the murky depths of the ocean floor... Within that darkness, I find a glimmering fragment of a star... And then I'm at peace, wrapped in the gentle embrace of the waves... The lights flicker across my eyes, coaxing me back into the waking world..."
The characters range from simplistic and stereotypical to straight up crazy. Sho Akasaki is an aspiring poet as he monologues and self-reflects in nearly every scene in the game. His colorful descriptions of his experiences and his feelings create an air of desolation and longing, though it often borders on being too melodramatic for its own good. Like many other great SquareSoft protagonists in the PSX era, there is more to Sho than meets the eye, and his story is worth exploring and finishing. While ridiculous, Sho's internal monologues breathe life into his otherwise blank persona, and there are plenty of twists and turns within his life that keep him compelling and entertaining in his own right.
The supporting cast are not as complex as Sho, but are all entertaining enough in their given tropes and moments. Their dialog (which in my experience is from a recent English fan-translation) is all equally humorous and quotable like Sho's. Many characters do little in regard to the main plot, but I would not necessarily consider this a negative as I believe it effectively builds the world of Racing Lagoon to be a believable, lively environment that does not simply revolve around the player's character.
"The roof of the hospital provided a breathtaking view of Yokohama. It was a vast blanket of darkness, studded with tiny specks of the city's lights... Within the dark abyss inside me there was also a faint, quivering light... The light... of hope."
The presentation of Racing Lagoon is, to me (and probably most others who have seen or played it) the strongest asset of the title. I am an avid enjoyer of early 3D FMVs and pre-rendered models. From FINAL FANTASY VII to GADGET, I cannot get enough of that style, and it is in full force in Racing Lagoon. Unlike the two aforementioned games, there is far less animation at play in Racing Lagoon. Many scenes are static or stiff with the animation limited to three frames on average. I, personally, do not mind this, but I can see many finding fault with it, thinking it lazy, cheap, or just otherwise unappealing. Despite these limitations, the game oozes with '90s urban Japanese style. Think Initial D meets FINAL FANTASY VIII with some unique flair in between. Do be prepared to see some very uncanny looking people contorting their bodies in all sorts of bizarre ways, though.
"The way the water reflects the lights of the city... It's stunningly beautiful. I have to ask myself which is real? The one in the sky or the one in the sea... When we dream and when we wake, it's as if we step out from one and step into the other..."
Similar in its visual presentation, the music of Racing Lagoon is a memorable, stylish roller coaster of fun. Mixing many electronic elements with various styles of jazz, Racing Lagoon's OST builds an atmosphere like no other. The raw sense of late night urban sprawl is another aesthetic I love, and it is unmatched in South Yokohama. If you cannot find yourself able to deal with the rough gameplay of Racing Lagoon, I suggest looking up its soundtrack on YouTube to enjoy some aspect of this game.
"South Yokohama... Our home, our 'STREET'... The starting line for this sordid story... Our own twisted legend of speed. On these streets we called home... With its thousands of people living thousands of lives... I found myself feeling alone."
Racing Lagoon is far from the storytelling marvels of FINAL FANTASY VII and Xenogears, but about halfway through my 20-odd hour playthrough, I decided it deserved a review on a similar scale. The sheer uniqueness of the title, coupled with its perfectly insane cocktail mix of style and melancholic drama make it an unforgettable experience—one I wish I could have gone through legitimately. If you are lenient on retro game jank and have an admiration for late '90s Japanese style, I recommend giving this game a shot. I think it's well worth your time baring witness to...
THE REVIVAL OF YOKOHAMA'S FASTEST LEGEND