SIDE NOTE: I made a short little album with some short little trap / trip hop (trap hop? trip? trop? trip trap?) beats. The whole thing's like 10 minutes long in total. Very cool. adolfnomura.bandcamp.com/album/00
For anyone coming to this video in the year 2021 there is a fan translation of Racing Lagoon in progress, a couple of chapters are already playable UPDATE: the patch is now complete! Amazing how quickly a dedicated team can work on something
Man, I miss the days when devs were throwing whatever shit they could think of on a disc just to see if it worked. The game industry was way more creative in the PS1/PS2 era and people actually took risks. Sometimes the games were more than little janky, but there's a certain charm to that, and when the ideas are cool people are willing to overlook wonky gameplay. Often times the most memorable games are the ones made by creative weirdos (Suda51, Yoko Taro, Hideo Kojima).
this comments old but i feel compelled to reply the main reason this aspect of the gamn industry changed was due to games costing too much to produce in the modern hd era if you want to compete amongst the mainstream. there is still some good indie games and some other smaller compamy's making interesting games though. just commenting this in case some one wonders why this isnt as common.
@@ixaac453 People who watch channels like this one tend to be older gamers so we know. Games used to be much more difficult to develop back then yet studios experimented so much, nowadays it's like all larger companies share blueprints as how to make and implement game mechanics and games in general. no one is innovating, large studios ( which make up most of games sold) rely solely on technological innovation not creativity in when making a game part of the innovation which was occurring back then was due to limited hardware and how developers can make the most of it by thinking outside the box. Yes games currently cost a lot more especially because of the larger marketing budgets, but that doesn't excuse bigger studios with great talent to stick to the beaten path, they're the ones who've the resources to go out of their own way and make different games.
I was actually working on a translation for Square's Racing Lagoon about 8 or so years ago and sorta stopped about half way through... maybe I should pick it up again as it seems there is some want for it.
I have plans to try and get at least 50% of the dialog finished up this weekend. Finished all menus after seeing this video. Not much left honestly. After I finish I'll proof everything then hex dump it so it can be patched to a .bin .cue
Yeah, I remember playing it through ePSXe back in 2010. I didn't even know what it was, I just saw it on a list on an ISO site and downloaded it. As soon as I saw and heard the intro, I was in love. I actually managed to get quite far through it, even though I don't know Japanese. It's one of the coolest and most unique racing games ever made in my opinion. I haven't played it in 9 years now, but I still regularly listen to the soundtrack.
Can't understand why I love these kind of videos so much since I never had a PS1 nor any console at all. I guess the retro style and the sense of discovery, since these kind of games are lost in time, are what keeps me hooked up. Thanks for these videos, you'll be great one day!
It's definitely a sense of discovery for me. There's so many PS1 games out there, digging in almost makes me feel like a type of games archaeologist lol
@@thorhighheels Almost 4000 games on that console. I've sold mine to buy a PS2 back in the 2000s but I bought a PS1 classic version to feeling the games from the past.
Aconcagua was PSX very last game, it was made in an attempt to capture South American players, PSX was highly popular back then but it was full of piracy. They eventually decided to ditch the translation as PS2 was already out by then. The game actually mimics some true facts about Argentine history mixed with fantasy, the character Pachamama is actually Evita Peron, if you finish the game you get rewarded by a picture of her standing on the balcony of La Casa Rosada and she is raising her arms in the air like Evita did.
God, I see what you mean about getting the creative juices flowing. King of Crusher's on to something. Fix all the jank and give the man a moveset and some combos that evolves as you transform, along with the usual unlockables like extra playable characters, wrapped in a ridiculous and fitting B monster movie plot, and you'd really have something here. Perhaps the new King of Monsters.
Wow, you talked about Racing Lagoon. I've been drooling over the style in that game for years. Still hopeful for an english translation. Great work. You just totally get it.
Your English is pretty funny. Like it makes sense but is just a little off every now and then. It keeps me on my toes just waiting for that one weird cadence or sentence structure hahah
The amount of nostalgia I felt at the options menu at 5:37 was immense. I actually felt a certain type of way that only old ps1 racing games make me feel.
Oh goodness, not the south american woman being called pachamama, that just feels like a slap in the face on my indigenous ass. I'm currently going on a marathon of your content and i'm loving it so far!! I hate not having found your channel earlier, your content is so good ahhh!
Man, Racing Lagoon looks like an alternate reality take on Gran Turismo if Kazunori Yamauchi got really into Street Racing and decided not to go down the “Real Driving Simulator” route. Like how his/Polyphony Digital’s first game was basically a Tex Avery/Chuck Jones cartoon as a racing game
Most of my PS1 to-buy list comes from these very informative and awesome Japan only videos. It helps that we have nearly the same taste too, so yeah thanks for the choice content my dude
I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I absolutely LOVE 90s marble and mahogany aesthetic. Especially in 3D 32 bit graphics. (Bonus points if it's on the Saturn or 3DO.)
Wow the Racing Lagoon soundtrack is awesome! In fact, after hearing just 2 songs I thought something about it sounded REALLY FAMILIAR about the sound and composition of the songs. They sounded just like the Final Fantasy X-2 soundtrack. A little googling and I found out that Racing Lagoon and FFX-2 have the same music composer! Funny how you even mentioned the first FFX in the video as well, maybe that is part of what made me notice the music sounded similar. Good stuff, thanks!
Japan used to make so many of these Japan only games it sucks that most of them went from consoles to handhelds and now mobile. ps1/Saturn/ps2 are a treasure trove of these type of games
Game Idea: King of Crusher Battle Royale 100 players randomly drop in a large city where you can destroy everything. All melee no guns. The things you destroy gets absorbed. The more you destroy, the bigger you get. You develop monster attributes based on the things you absorb. When you meet another player, you either fight like a fighting game if your sizes are similar, monster hunter-like, or colossus-like if you're smaller, or godzilla-like if you're bigger. NPCs either shoot at you or run away. You win when everybody else is dead.
It's amazing to see people put the effort in to translating a game. I am currently watching Thorhighheel's ps1 videos. And Moon (the anti RPG) has been translated as well as the prologue of racing lagoon. Also King of crusher
6:38 Damn this music and Megaman network transmissions music sound really close to each other. That one song anyway. 12:07 wow you don't see that every day. Great video Thor! Some of the game titles sounded right out of a horror game though.
Racing Lagoon finally got a fan translation by Hilltop, you should check it out (little tip: always use the side brake instead of the normal brakes, it's just much better)
You say that these games can't be played without knowing Japanese, but Russian game journalists played games in Japanese in the 90's, obviously without knowing the language. They didn't even speak English in the first place, and no games were translated into Russian back then, so they determined the controls and gameplay via trial and error. Then they just applied the same approach to the Japanese games. I still have a journal lying somewhere with a walkthrough for some Phantasy Star game, obviously in Japanese.
As a Russian I can confirm. We couldn't be stopped by some text. Now Russian gamers are whiny. "Game isn't localized in Russian = I'm not playing it" attitude
I think this is the first time i have heard someone say FF10 had "flaws" and they had to "look past them" to enjoy it. Everyone i know holds that game in the highest of regards.! Learn something new everyday
The ps2 had a Japan only game called sunrise world war a super robot wars game the craziest thing is they had tons of characters from translated anime so its weird why they never translated it some examples #1 cowboy bebop # big o #3 various gundams #4 ronin warriors Etc
Back then were not expecting games to be perfect unlike now so the shitty controls add up to the experience , its annoying when you cant kill the enemy easily due to the controls but it makes you want it more and keep trying until you figure it out and beat the shitty controls
I cannot believe just how stellar that point and click looks, it's some of the most detail you see on PSX models, I man hell I don't know of any game this old either PC or otherwise that had lip sync on actual models.
what is the music in the background that starts at 19:59 ? i am gonna go with one of the resident evils but i can't remember. (and damn i had some hope on night cry, just heard about it 1st time for vita release)
He was in entire control of the FF XIII story development (and we know how well that went), and has an almost borderline creepy obsession with this OC Lightning. He also pushed the few fan service-y elements in Final Fantasy from VII. He doesn't have the best reputation in FF fanbase.
Hemang Chauhan Ah, gotcha. Now I can't wait for the fan tran knowing that the story might be a mess. I already have an idea of how weird it is, with an evil megacorp making demonic car parts and drugs.
I’ve just discovered your channel today and I’m binge watching at work. Your videos are well researched and presented. I’ve found them very interesting and entertaining.
Jesus the Racing Lagoon main menu gave me a nostalgia boner. Not because I played it, in fact this is the first time I even heard its name, but the menu and the music are so fucking PS1.
SIDE NOTE: I made a short little album with some short little trap / trip hop (trap hop? trip? trop? trip trap?) beats. The whole thing's like 10 minutes long in total. Very cool. adolfnomura.bandcamp.com/album/00
👌
Have you considered making more music? I like what you have going here so far.
Interested in collabs?
Very cool
Pretty damn chill
For anyone coming to this video in the year 2021 there is a fan translation of Racing Lagoon in progress, a couple of chapters are already playable
UPDATE: the patch is now complete! Amazing how quickly a dedicated team can work on something
Link?
@@KaMidesune it was done by Hilltop Translations, Thor did a follow-up video on the translation and that one should have a link to the patch download
@@blackwatchbandstudio thanks!
Man, I miss the days when devs were throwing whatever shit they could think of on a disc just to see if it worked. The game industry was way more creative in the PS1/PS2 era and people actually took risks. Sometimes the games were more than little janky, but there's a certain charm to that, and when the ideas are cool people are willing to overlook wonky gameplay. Often times the most memorable games are the ones made by creative weirdos (Suda51, Yoko Taro, Hideo Kojima).
Nowadays all the games are the same
A Discworld fan eh?
this comments old but i feel compelled to reply
the main reason this aspect of the gamn industry changed was due to games costing too much to produce in the modern hd era if you want to compete amongst the mainstream.
there is still some good indie games and some other smaller compamy's making interesting games though.
just commenting this in case some one wonders why this isnt as common.
I agree, back in the 90's was a bit more experimental though also considering games nowadays cost millions to make
@@ixaac453 People who watch channels like this one tend to be older gamers so we know.
Games used to be much more difficult to develop back then yet studios experimented so much, nowadays it's like all larger companies share blueprints as how to make and implement game mechanics and games in general.
no one is innovating, large studios ( which make up most of games sold) rely solely on technological innovation not creativity in when making a game part of the innovation which was occurring back then was due to limited hardware and how developers can make the most of it by thinking outside the box.
Yes games currently cost a lot more especially because of the larger marketing budgets, but that doesn't excuse bigger studios with great talent to stick to the beaten path, they're the ones who've the resources to go out of their own way and make different games.
I was actually working on a translation for Square's Racing Lagoon about 8 or so years ago and sorta stopped about half way through... maybe I should pick it up again as it seems there is some want for it.
I would be super grateful if you did.
You should definitelly do it!, if i knew japanese i would help
I have plans to try and get at least 50% of the dialog finished up this weekend. Finished all menus after seeing this video. Not much left honestly. After I finish I'll proof everything then hex dump it so it can be patched to a .bin .cue
@@mkonji8522 fucking sick lad, anywhere i can stay up to date on this?
In the words of ThorHighHeels in this video
HRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG~
I think that means a yes.
Wow Racing Lagoon is oozing with style
The Graphic looks amazing for the time!
Why is there no fan translation?!?!
BGM sounds great!
Yeah, I remember playing it through ePSXe back in 2010. I didn't even know what it was, I just saw it on a list on an ISO site and downloaded it. As soon as I saw and heard the intro, I was in love. I actually managed to get quite far through it, even though I don't know Japanese. It's one of the coolest and most unique racing games ever made in my opinion. I haven't played it in 9 years now, but I still regularly listen to the soundtrack.
Indeed
I swear to god I’ve played Racing Lagoon before. The weirdest shit made it to Brazil via bootleg CDs.
Can't understand why I love these kind of videos so much since I never had a PS1 nor any console at all. I guess the retro style and the sense of discovery, since these kind of games are lost in time, are what keeps me hooked up. Thanks for these videos, you'll be great one day!
It's definitely a sense of discovery for me. There's so many PS1 games out there, digging in almost makes me feel like a type of games archaeologist lol
@@thorhighheels Almost 4000 games on that console. I've sold mine to buy a PS2 back in the 2000s but I bought a PS1 classic version to feeling the games from the past.
Aconcagua was PSX very last game, it was made in an attempt to capture South American players, PSX was highly popular back then but it was full of piracy. They eventually decided to ditch the translation as PS2 was already out by then.
The game actually mimics some true facts about Argentine history mixed with fantasy, the character Pachamama is actually Evita Peron, if you finish the game you get rewarded by a picture of her standing on the balcony of La Casa Rosada and she is raising her arms in the air like Evita did.
God, I see what you mean about getting the creative juices flowing. King of Crusher's on to something. Fix all the jank and give the man a moveset and some combos that evolves as you transform, along with the usual unlockables like extra playable characters, wrapped in a ridiculous and fitting B monster movie plot, and you'd really have something here. Perhaps the new King of Monsters.
Wow, you talked about Racing Lagoon. I've been drooling over the style in that game for years. Still hopeful for an english translation. Great work. You just totally get it.
There is an english patch
The jazzy drum and bass in the racing lagoon map menu was nice
Your English is pretty funny. Like it makes sense but is just a little off every now and then. It keeps me on my toes just waiting for that one weird cadence or sentence structure hahah
7:17 “look at it and feel things” and i’m staring at the six foot porpoise stuffed animal my wife won at the carnival
The amount of nostalgia I felt at the options menu at 5:37 was immense. I actually felt a certain type of way that only old ps1 racing games make me feel.
R4 Ridge Racer still has some of my favorite menu/UI designs ever.
@@thorhighheels I'm actually disappointed just as you were in the video that I can't play that game. An Rpg racing game.
u got a new sub. 2 and half years later. i need this kind of sht that i never played
Oh goodness, not the south american woman being called pachamama, that just feels like a slap in the face on my indigenous ass. I'm currently going on a marathon of your content and i'm loving it so far!! I hate not having found your channel earlier, your content is so good ahhh!
Man, Racing Lagoon looks like an alternate reality take on Gran Turismo if Kazunori Yamauchi got really into Street Racing and decided not to go down the “Real Driving Simulator” route. Like how his/Polyphony Digital’s first game was basically a Tex Avery/Chuck Jones cartoon as a racing game
Most of my PS1 to-buy list comes from these very informative and awesome Japan only videos. It helps that we have nearly the same taste too, so yeah thanks for the choice content my dude
I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I absolutely LOVE 90s marble and mahogany aesthetic. Especially in 3D 32 bit graphics. (Bonus points if it's on the Saturn or 3DO.)
Winback still holds up today. I've been replaying the campaign and still loving everything about it
Wow the Racing Lagoon soundtrack is awesome! In fact, after hearing just 2 songs I thought something about it sounded REALLY FAMILIAR about the sound and composition of the songs. They sounded just like the Final Fantasy X-2 soundtrack. A little googling and I found out that Racing Lagoon and FFX-2 have the same music composer! Funny how you even mentioned the first FFX in the video as well, maybe that is part of what made me notice the music sounded similar. Good stuff, thanks!
「SouthYOKOHAMA......
...俺たちのSTREET........」
「新しいPARTS」
I want to play this game just for the weird use of English.
Something about all CAPS english paired with Japanese characters looks so cool to me.
lol i was watching the vid saying "oretachi no STREET" to myself over and over
Gamers in Japan who played this game had begun to refer to this weird language use as Lagoonese (ラグーン語).
side note: the GOAT Hilltop has also now translated Aconcagua.
RACING LAGOON FAN TRANSLATION IS A GO, LESSGOOOOOOOO!!
As of this comment, Racing Lagoon, Aconcagua and Project Laika have released patch translations. If only we could get Kowloon's Gate...
Racing Lagoon looks a nostalgic game that I never played
You know what's a REAL hidden gem?
Your channel, keep it up
Japan used to make so many of these Japan only games it sucks that most of them went from consoles to handhelds and now mobile. ps1/Saturn/ps2 are a treasure trove of these type of games
God, I wishs they still made games as stylish as smooth as Racing Lagoon. Everything now uses the same dry minimalistic style.
Love your transitions and cuts, very much fits the strange mid-late 90s Suda 51 type feel you mentioned some of these games having
I was mildly shocked by the thumbnail for a second
Game Idea: King of Crusher Battle Royale
100 players randomly drop in a large city where you can destroy everything. All melee no guns. The things you destroy gets absorbed. The more you destroy, the bigger you get. You develop monster attributes based on the things you absorb. When you meet another player, you either fight like a fighting game if your sizes are similar, monster hunter-like, or colossus-like if you're smaller, or godzilla-like if you're bigger. NPCs either shoot at you or run away. You win when everybody else is dead.
That MetalJesus joke had me dying lol.
The cameo?
It's amazing to see people put the effort in to translating a game.
I am currently watching Thorhighheel's ps1 videos.
And Moon (the anti RPG) has been translated as well as the prologue of racing lagoon. Also King of crusher
man i really need to play racing lagoon...drum n bass music, cool cityscapes, style and more style
Racing Lagoon is giving me extreme front mission 3 vibes I can't quite put my finger on it
You really bring in to the weirdness with the background music and final thoughts on each game :D that Africa cover...
6:38 Damn this music and Megaman network transmissions music sound really close to each other. That one song anyway. 12:07 wow you don't see that every day. Great video Thor! Some of the game titles sounded right out of a horror game though.
Racing Lagoon finally got a fan translation by Hilltop, you should check it out (little tip: always use the side brake instead of the normal brakes, it's just much better)
I just watched Space Pirate Cobra. It's basically like Total Recall. I'd recommend for anyone who likes Lupin the 3rd type Anime.
Sold.
A classic
Love these kinds of videos. I'm interested in the weird stuff out there but i'm not exactly jumping at the chance to try it out myself.
To be honest if it wasn't for this video I wouldn't be playing most of these either.
Just chillin with coffee..
* Evil Fly Enters *
*RAAGGGEEE!!!*
That MetalJesus in the intro tho. hahaha Love you both keep up the amazing content. I missed your videos man.
This kind of content is the reason i subscribed to your channel and i consider you my favorite youtuber.
aww thanks!
You say that these games can't be played without knowing Japanese, but Russian game journalists played games in Japanese in the 90's, obviously without knowing the language. They didn't even speak English in the first place, and no games were translated into Russian back then, so they determined the controls and gameplay via trial and error. Then they just applied the same approach to the Japanese games. I still have a journal lying somewhere with a walkthrough for some Phantasy Star game, obviously in Japanese.
@@MisfitoX wut
I played dino crisis in japanese
As a Russian I can confirm. We couldn't be stopped by some text. Now Russian gamers are whiny. "Game isn't localized in Russian = I'm not playing it" attitude
God damnit, I love the style of Racing Lagoon. I wish I could read and speak Japanese fluently...
i'm so glad i found this channel. it's like classics of game but with words.
I desperately want Racing Lagoon in my life.
Racing Lagoon's OST will now be gracing my car's speakers for the next, oh I dunno, ETERNITY.
Thank you.
Exactly what was saying!!!
Okay, but Racing Lagoon's title screen looks fucking awesome even by today's standards.
I love videos like this
You know that Racing lagoon is translated now right!
Another awesome channel...yes! Subscribed!
Great vid as always man. Hats off to you for the M.J cartoon at the end.
LOL That AVGN impression. XD
15:35 that COMPLETELY careless burp awarded you a new subscriber, my good sir
I know Tobal No.1 was bad but they improved many things on Tobal 2 and it became more polished and turned out good.
PS1 Quarantine Zone...nice
This is the "Regular Car Reviews" of video games.... I LOVE IT!
I think this is the first time i have heard someone say FF10 had "flaws" and they had to "look past them" to enjoy it.
Everyone i know holds that game in the highest of regards.!
Learn something new everyday
Racing Lagoon is AESTHETIC as fuck
RACING LAGOON ENGLISH TRANSLATION PATCH OUT NOW
The ps2 had a Japan only game called sunrise world war a super robot wars game the craziest thing is they had tons of characters from translated anime so its weird why they never translated it some examples
#1 cowboy bebop
# big o
#3 various gundams
#4 ronin warriors
Etc
Back then were not expecting games to be perfect unlike now so the shitty controls add up to the experience , its annoying when you cant kill the enemy easily due to the controls but it makes you want it more and keep trying until you figure it out and beat the shitty controls
Good video as usual Thor. Very informational. Racing Lagoon is very A E S T H E T I C. (The South Yokohama Joint is so good.)
This video was PRETTY GOOD.
Hands down these videos are the most fun and interesting videos on TH-cam.
The algorithm has smiled upon you.
That last one looks like the best game of the bunch... Too bad I don't have any way to play it, whatever it was called...
Glad I found this channel
Whooooah. Clearly I'm not the only one here thinking this but racing lagoon looks and sounds amazing
How do they get in the cars with shoulders that wide?!
I am officially addicted to Racing Lagoons OST. Thank You! ^_^
I cannot believe just how stellar that point and click looks, it's some of the most detail you see on PSX models, I man hell I don't know of any game this old either PC or otherwise that had lip sync on actual models.
Greetings from Memdoza, Argentina - where the Aconcagua actually is ;)
7:18 - 7:45 hits me hard with nostalgia:
the music, this game-directing, the atmosphere... this is pure gold!!!
Aconcagua is actually an argentinian mountain :)
I just found out your gem of a channel from Super Eyepatch Wolf. Your videos are amazing, keep it up!
Just started playing Racing Lagoon with English translation. So goood 😩
what a great thumbnail to see. very eye-catching and great video!
Holy SHIT! I thought that R4 was the best looking game on ps1! That racing lagoon game is INSANE
Why I love jazzy menu screens
Damn, Racing Lagoon looks amazing. And I'm not even into racing games.
I enjoy your channel very much .
what is the music in the background that starts at 19:59 ? i am gonna go with one of the resident evils but i can't remember. (and damn i had some hope on night cry, just heard about it 1st time for vita release)
It's the save room theme from Code Veronica.
Also Nightcry is still ok though mostly. It's really really jank but I still liked it for what it was.
Glad to see someone loves the works of Japan's eccentric collection of PS1 games. Makes me want to get a region-free PS1.
I miss the point and click games on PS1. Enjoyed Clock Yower II.
Man, even though it's ps3 you'd really like Wangan Midnight if you want a game like Racing Lagoon but with an actual sense of speed/fluidity
5:01
>Scenario Writer : Motomu Toriyama
(silently closes door)
lol. Can't believe I never noticed that.
Hemang Chauhan what does that entail what did he do?
He was in entire control of the FF XIII story development (and we know how well that went), and has an almost borderline creepy obsession with this OC Lightning. He also pushed the few fan service-y elements in Final Fantasy from VII.
He doesn't have the best reputation in FF fanbase.
Hemang Chauhan Ah, gotcha. Now I can't wait for the fan tran knowing that the story might be a mess. I already have an idea of how weird it is, with an evil megacorp making demonic car parts and drugs.
Racing Lagoon?! I had to subscribe , you know the truth man, glad I've stumbled across your channel, blessings upon you.
Man I love when you talk about obscure Japanese PS1 games. Always a fun time.
Think I wanna give Racing Lagoon a go at some point. Aesthetic as fuck.
Some of those Racing Lagoon models are strangely attractive.
7:17 about the time my jaw dropped
Midnight club 2 is the best version of Racing Lagoon
first time seeing your channel; Im 10 minutes in and i am really enjoying your content. Thanks and keep up the great work.
I’ve just discovered your channel today and I’m binge watching at work. Your videos are well researched and presented. I’ve found them very interesting and entertaining.
The Cobra manga is actually very entertaining.
Gonna need more of these videos, great stuff
Thank you for sharing those games. You totally made me wanna play Racing Lagoon. I think I'll get myself that game. ^^
Jesus the Racing Lagoon main menu gave me a nostalgia boner. Not because I played it, in fact this is the first time I even heard its name, but the menu and the music are so fucking PS1.
Everything about Racing Lagoon is done so well... Except the actual driving, it's really kusoge in that area.