The mid-to-late ’90s are by far the peak of creativity and ingenuity for legendary development house Squaresoft. Buoyed by Final Fantasy VII‘s success on the PlayStation in 1997, Squaresoft created a wide range of experimental titles for the platform, blending genres like survival-horror (Parasite Eve), 3D platforming (Brave Fencer Musashi), and even shooting games (Einhänder) with refined RPG mechanics, resulting in some of the most inventive games ever released. One such experiment is Racing Lagoon, melding the fast-paced action of racing games with the structure, presentation, and narrative focus of an RPG. Produced by SaGa series veteran Akitoshi Kawazu and directed by Hitoshi Sasaki (lead game designer and graphic director for Bahamut Lagoon), Racing Lagoon is bold and boisterous, not quite delivering a perfect lap but still offering an exhilarating and worthwhile ride.
The setting and story of Racing Lagoon is a significant departure from most Squaresoft titles, forgoing the typical fantasy or science fiction RPG settings in favor of a hyper-stylized version of Japan, specifically Yokohama in 1999. The story takes place over 12 nights and follows groups of street racers competing in races to win car parts and bragging rights. Protagonist Sho Akasaki is new to the Bay Lagoon Racing (BLR) team, led by veteran street racer Ikki Fujisaki. The game begins with Sho and his buddy Kenzo arriving at a race with the NightRACERS, a rival street-racing gang led by Akira Tsujimoto. One of the NightRACERS, Keisuke Ishikawa, trash-talks Kenzo and Sho, ensuring that Sho enters the race and starts his journey in the underground racing scene.
While this premise might seem a bit silly and low-stakes at first, the narrative quickly ramps up as the competition between the rival gangs heats up, and a shadowy (fittingly Shinra-like) corporation named WON-TEC slides its tendrils around Yokohama’s street racing scene. Girlfriends are kidnapped, BLR members start dying from car crashes and suicide under mysterious circumstances, and new teams show up with suspiciously powerful cars they call “Diablo-tuned.” As Sho progresses through the ranks, he meets a mysterious woman named Aoi Kawashima who offers racers a powerful drug, faces off against a cadre of foreign racers competing in licensed racing events under the sponsorship of WON-TEC, and uncovers the truth behind the fabled Yokohama Racing Legend.
The game’s structure is split into chapters, usually a few chapters per the story’s twelve nights. In most chapters, you have almost full reign of Yokohama and drive around the city in a top-down, bird’s eye view. Various locations on the map are marked by a “P” parking sign, indicating that you can stop there for an event. Some events are related to the story, some are side races, and some are simply flavor text to make the world feel immersive. As you drive around, other racers may flash their lights at you, initiating Racing Lagoon’s version of a random battle. However, these battles aren’t truly random as certain racers are only available on certain nights, and the stretch of track on which you race is determined by your position on the city’s map when you stop for a race. As you progress, more sections of Yokohama and neighboring cities open up, though some chapters are more restrictive. An officially sanctioned Grand Prix racing event, which features more traditional circuit-based racing, caps off each major act of the game. Furthermore, there are a series of circuit-based UnOfficial Races (UOR) for rewards to improve your car, but most of these races are optional. I found it paid off to spend much of the early chapters engaging in street races and UORs to build up my resources and improve my car before the story picked up and the game became more restrictive.
Initially, the narrative remains fairly grounded, following young street racers just looking for thrills against the backdrop of post-economic bubble Japan. It quickly ramps up into a mystery involving corporate conspiracies, experimental drugs, and a tragic event 10 years past called the War of Yokohama. The character development is effective. Sho begins as a disaffected and aimless youth just looking to kill some time but becomes a dedicated street racer enchanted by the thrill of the race and entangled in Yokohama’s shadowy underbelly. He eventually becomes “married to the streets,” like BLR leader Ikki. His happy-go-lucky friend Kenzo, on the other hand, is eager to race for the thrill and rep but begins doubting himself and the street racing scene as more of his teammates are injured or killed.
The game’s greatest strength lies in the writing, which is equal parts poetic and evocative. Sho’s internal monologue narrates most of the game. His internal voice is novelistic and introspective, effortlessly describing what it feels like to be behind the wheel in the heat of a street race. His musings connect the game’s broader themes of corporate greed and the dangers of thrill-seeking in his descriptions of places, people, and events. This style contrasts severely with the dialogue between characters, which is suitably quippy and full of slang & street-racing-related jargon in a way that feels simultaneously authentic and larger than life. Fan speculation long held that this mix of styles and the game’s presentational quirks rendered it nearly impossible to localize. However, thanks to the efforts of the prolific PSX translation group Hilltop Works, we have a localization that renders the game intelligible to an English-speaking audience without losing the game’s esoteric identity.
If the game has a single weakness, it is in the core foundation of its racing gameplay. While Squaresoft did work on a handful of racing games for the NES in the late ’80s, their time away from the genre is deeply felt in the stiff controls and arcade handling of the cars in Racing Lagoon. The racing feels exceedingly simple: acceleration and sense of speed are adequate but not impressive, and car handling is acceptable but nothing truly feels great. Your car automatically drifts when taking a sharp turn while accelerating, and although there is a handbrake, rarely do you need to use it. The worst aspect is how the game handles collisions; despite the arcade-style handling and loose drifting, collisions with walls severely reduces your speed, and any collision with a rival driver sees you or them awkwardly and repeatedly shunting forward as if they were glitching. There is very little room for skill expression and few techniques to master. Instead, racing as cleanly as the stiff controls allow is your best bet, which leaves the whole experience feeling serviceable but never truly fun.
Thankfully, the depth and variety in the car tuning almost salvage the experience. Three separate units (the engine, chassis, and body) govern your car’s performance. As you win races, these units gain more experience, unlocking more part slots as they level up. The parts you slot into these three units determine the weight and power of your ride. Lower weight means faster acceleration and more power means a higher top speed. Furthermore, better brakes and tires can massively change the car’s handling, making tight turns easier. Some parts significantly alter the gameplay, such as navigation systems that warn you of upcoming turns and manual transmissions that complicate the controls in exchange for more agency over your vehicle.
Winning street races awards Race Points (RP) while participating in UORs awards Yen. You can use RP to steal parts from other drivers’ cars if you win a street race and Yen to purchase upgrades from various body shops dotted around Yokohama. There is even a bank where you can bet on your future race performance to earn more RP and cash, at the risk of losing it all if you fail. This satisfying progression loop saves the gameplay, and as you unlock more parts and move through the story, your car becomes much more capable, and races are a breeze. Although Racing Lagoon can’t offer the tight controls or skill ceiling of a pure racing title, the RPG layer of leveling up your car and acquiring more parts keeps things enjoyable. By the conclusion of Sho’s journey, you genuinely feel like the undisputed king of street racing.
The game’s music and general visual presentation are a highlight, showcasing Squaresoft at the apex of their aesthetic prowess. The cars are sleek and detailed, evoking the real-life JDM counterparts on which they are based despite the game not featuring licensed cars. The character models are the opposite, with exaggerated proportions that look more like action figures than real people. There’s a lot of dynamism to dialogue scenes, with characters popping out all around the frame, set against still-image backdrops of city skylines as they gesture wildly and make appropriately rude gestures and hand signs. This sense of heightened reality in visual presentation is aided by the delightfully jazzy soundtrack, serving as the first collaboration between veteran composer Noriko Matsueda and debut composer Takahito Eguchi. There are moments when the visuals and music reminded me of Namco’s racing masterpiece Ridge Racer Type-4, a monumental achievement considering the moment-to-moment racing doesn’t nearly compare.
I came away from Racing Lagoon incredibly impressed. What the game lacks in racing fundamentals, it makes up for with addicting progression mechanics, impeccable writing chops, and a presentation that oozes with style like a leaky engine valve. There’s often debate among racing game fans about whether narrative truly adds anything to the genre or if racing games should even have stories. As it turns out, Racing Lagoon settled that debate back in 1999. They absolutely can and should, at least if they are also RPGs made by Squaresoft.
