is a 1999

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed and published by

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

. The game is unique in that it combines street racing with

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...

elements. The game's story follows a new member of a street racing team in 1999 Yokohama, Japan as he tries to learn about his forgotten past and a mysterious race that took place ten years prior to the game's opening. Released for the PlayStation, the game is compatible with the Sony PocketStation. The game's music was composed by

Noriko Matsueda is a Japanese former video game composer. She is best known for her work on the '' Front Mission'' series, '' The Bouncer'', and ''Final Fantasy X-2''. Matsueda collaborated with fellow composer Takahito Eguchi on several games. Composing music ...

as a jazz/techno fusion; she was joined by

Takahito Eguchi is a Japanese composer, orchestrator, and musician. He is best known for collaborating with Noriko Matsueda on ''Final Fantasy X-2'' and with Tomoya Ohtani on several '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' games. Eguchi became interested in music when he was si ...

as his first compositional role, and the soundtrack was released as an album. The game received mixed reviews in Japan and was never released outside of the country, but still sold over 140,000 copies. An English

fan translation Fan translation (or user-generated translation) refers to the unofficial translation of various forms of written or multimedia products made by fans (fan labor), often into a language in which an official translated version is not yet available ...

for the game was released in November 2021.

Gameplay

The game features street-races that are initiated by flashing headlights at other drivers. Players are able to customize their car colors and other parts, and beating another driver entitles the player to pieces of the defeated car. The game features two modes: a "High Speed Driving RPG" mode, where the player drives around taking missions and racing other drivers, and a "2 Warriors Battle Mode", where the player simply competes in races. The RPG mode is the primary portion of the game.

Story

''Racing Lagoon'' plot takes place in Yokohama, Japan, in 1999, and centers on several groups of street racers. 10 years prior to the game an event called "Fastest Legend" took place. One night, Team Bay Lagoon Racing (BLR), a five-member team led by "The Ace", Ikki Fujisawa, holds a race against Night Racers Honmuku (NR). The story follows one of BLR's newly joined members, Sho Akasaki, who is just beginning his racing career. Akasaki is determined to find out about the mystery of the "Fastest Legend", as well as his forgotten past.

Development

The game's story was greatly influenced by the illegal street racing that occurred in Japan during the 1980s, and many of the cars used were recreated exactly for the game, although it did not feature any automaker licensing. The game is also noted for its linguistics, where monologues and dialogues (including loading screen quotes) are written in a poetic manner and often features words written in English; this accent, called , has been cited as a challenge in creating a fan translation for the game.

Music

The game's soundtrack was composed by

, with a few tracks contributed by

; it was Eguchi's first compositional role. The music has been described as a jazz/techno fusion, with "fast-paced" music that includes live recordings of saxophones.

Release

''Racing Lagoon'' was released on June 10, 1999 for the Sony PlayStation. The game managed to sell over 141,000 copies in Japan by the end of 1999. The soundtrack was released as an album on June 19, 1999 by DigiCube. The two-disc album features 62 tracks and covers a duration of 2:31:03. The game was re-released on March 20, 2002 for the PlayStation under the PS One Books line. In 2014, a ''Racing Lagoon'' event was held in Square Enix's mobile game ''Spirit Yankee Soul''. ''Racing Lagoons scenario writer,

Motomu Toriyama is a Japanese game director and scenario writer who has been working for Square Enix since 1994. He initially worked on cutscenes in ''Bahamut Lagoon'' and ''Final Fantasy VII'' before serving as one of the 3 directors on ''Final Fantasy X'' u ...

served as scenario director for the event.

Reception

The game was not well received by the Japanese gaming publication ''

Famitsu PS formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'', scoring only a 21 out of 40. ''Weekly Famitsu'' was a bit more favorable, giving it a score of 26 out of 40. The game was voted #45 for "most wanted sequels" by Famitsu's readers. A retro review by Kotaku noted that the game's jazz-fusion soundtrack was one of the best of the PlayStation era.

References

External links

Official website
{{in lang, ja 1999 video games Japan-exclusive video games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation (console)-only games Racing video games Role-playing video games Square (video game company) games Street racing video games Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Takahito Eguchi Video games scored by Noriko Matsueda Video games set in 1999 Video games set in Yokohama Single-player video games