is a 1999 video game developed and published by Square

Square (company)

was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix...

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

Role-playing video game

Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...

 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

PlayStation

The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...

, the game is compatible with the Sony PocketStation

PocketStation

The is a peripheral by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation home video game console. Categorized by Sony as a miniature personal digital assistant, the device features a monochrome liquid crystal display , infrared communication capability, a real-time clock, built-in flash memory, and...

. The game's music was composed by Noriko Matsueda

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 at an early age, she began studying the piano and electronic organ...

 as a jazz/techno fusion; she was joined by Takahito Eguchi

Takahito Eguchi

is a Japanese video game composer and arranger. He is best known for collaborating with fellow composer Noriko Matsueda on numerous soundtracks, most notably The Bouncer and Final Fantasy X-2. He became interested in music when he was six years old after hearing his neighbor playing the piano...

 as his first compositional role, and the soundtrack was released as an album. The game received poor reviews in Japan and was never released outside of the country, but still sold over 100,000 copies.

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.

The game's plot takes place in the year 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.

Music

The game's soundtrack was composed by Noriko Matsueda

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 at an early age, she began studying the piano and electronic organ...

, with a few tracks contributed by Takahito Eguchi

Takahito Eguchi

is a Japanese video game composer and arranger. He is best known for collaborating with fellow composer Noriko Matsueda on numerous soundtracks, most notably The Bouncer and Final Fantasy X-2. He became interested in music when he was six years old after hearing his neighbor playing the piano...

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

Reception

Although the game was not well-received by the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese gaming publication Famitsu

Famitsu

is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Enterbrain, Inc. and Tokuma. Currently, there are five Famitsū magazines: Shūkan Famitsū, Famitsū PS3 + PSP, Famitsū Xbox 360, Famitsū Wii+DS, and Famitsū Wave DVD...

, scoring only a 21 out of 40, the game managed to sell over 100,000 copies within a few weeks of its release. The game was voted #45 for "most wanted sequels" by Famitsu's readers.

External links

• http://www.square-enix.com/jp/archive/rc_lagoon/ - Official Website (Japanese)