History VideoGame / RacingLagoon

* DarkerAndEdgier: To ''Chocobo Racing'', Squaresoft's other racing game.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: [[spoiler: The two foreign Drivers,]] John Truth and Forza Rush.

''Racing Lagoon'' is a night racing game from Japan mixed with RPG elements ("High Speed Driving RPG") created by Squaresoft in 1999. It [[NoExportForYou never got an international release]], and it's one of many awesome games Squaresoft created, with a rather dark story, interesting characters, an exciting racing system and [[DesignItYourselfEquipment fully-customizable cars.]] The game uses a drifting technique as the main cornering technique, and the player has to master drifting to beat the game.

** Some engines has very high power output, but they have no part socket at all and can't be leveled up. With the correct parts, even the slowest engines can outperform them.
** Bus and truck fits into this too due to huge body size.

* BlandNameProduct: All cars (and their parts) are renamed ''just'' enough to avoid licensing issues, so instead of Celica you have Celines, [=X1800S=] instead of [=180SX=], and so on.

* CoolCar: You can access to more than 40 bodies of the obviously licensed cars, modify their body with different body modifier parts, and the car's look also changes when you put a body into different drivetrain chassises. For example, the Aero-Old chassis is a minimal tune-up, the Aero-GT makes the car look like a GT race car, the Aero-C makes the car look like a FREAKING Le Mans Prototype, and the [[ArtifactOfDoom Aero-Diablo]]? Let's '''NOT''' get started on the Aero-Diablo.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Street racers consider Yokohama a heaven and the racing itself is officially sponsored, but deaths isn't uncommon [[spoiler: and the sponsor is exploiting street racing for their own purposes.]]

* {{Fauxrrari}}: All the cars are fictional though clearly modelled after real ones.

* PipePain: Pipes seems to be the weapon of choice for many characters. [[spoiler: Keisuke and Gamou confronts Sho in the Diablo Tuneshop wielding pipes, and Sho himself grabs one to defend himself. It's later revealed that he also beat the Diablo drivers to death with a pipe ten years ago.]]

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: The Hokkaido segment is the only part where snow tires are relevant. It also only contain two courses, one of which is restricted to story races, and the whole area cannot be revisited afterwards.

* SpiritualSuccessor: Received one early in the Playstation 2 era in form of ''Videogame/DrivingEmotionTypeS''. Unlike ''Racing Lagoon'' however, ''Driving Emotion Type-S'' is more of a conventional racing game in vein of ''Gran Turismo''.

* WideOpenSandbox: When you're not racing, you're free to roam Yokohama in top-down view. One of the first racing games to have this, only beaten by VideoGame/{{Vette}}.

* BadassDriver: Every named racer qualifies, but Sho especially, being the main protagonist and all. [[spoiler: Even 10 years before the main game, he was beating WON-TEC Drivers in Diablo Zettas with a ''stock'' Zetta. Some of the feats attributed to the "Fastest Legend" was in fact his own doing!]]

* InfinityMinusOneSword: The R26B-TT33 engine can be acquired as early as [=6th=] Night. It provides excellent power when stock, decent weight, good amounts of sockets, and has twin turbos by default, which matters when some [=UORs=] require your engine to have 8 turbos. Other engines beat it in one or two parameters, but the R26B-TT33 is so reliable it can easily become the basis of endgame builds.

* BlandNameProduct: To some extent. All the cars are renamed to prevent licensing costs, such as:
** Sprinter Trueno = 86-Thunder (''Trueno'' is Spanish for Thunder)
** Corolla Levin = 86-Lev
** Celica = Celine
** Porsche 911 = [[spoiler: [[NationsAsPeople Germany]]]]

* HearingVoices: After the Yokohama GP, several drivers began to hear a "voice", tempting them to drive and achieve even greater speeds than before, [[spoiler: eventually leading to their death. Kyoji and Ikki are the most notable victims, and even Sho isn't safe. This is later revealed to be the side effect of the "Diablo" drug.]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: Keisuke's brother, Shinsuke, disappears halfway through the plot.]]

* MoodWhiplash: [[spoiler: Right after you win Yokohama GP Qualify, Nanba and Sawaki die. After you win the Yokohama GP Final, you suddenly go mad and then [[NiceJobBreakingItHero you race Fujisawa, leading to his crash]].]]

** [[spoiler: Sawaki crashes into a corner during Chapter 2's Taiman battle and dies after Yokohama GP's qualify round, around the same time Nanba dies.]]