Ridge Racer V really unique entry as the beginning racing game in PS2 years with unique driving style, cozy neat city racing and ofc amazing tunes from Namco Sound Team
The Boom Boom Satellites were a really big group back then. Did songs for anime as well. But sadly, no more. One member had cancer and passed on. But, they made great music. MadCapsuleMarkets is/was another group that made these interesting, albeit noise tracks with hard beats. Best way I could describe them. Of course, I think Mijk van Dijk did some bangers for the music too for RRV.
As someone that grew up with the series, it can't be understated how much of a mindblowing jump things were from Type 4 to V. That game was my childhood, and the sole reason I wanted a PS2. I still love playing it to this day.
First time viewer here. You absolutely get the draw of RRV, but without going into length I think DRFTDVL genuinely has a time and a place in the soundtrack that it's deserving of.
Ridge Racer V was the last proper Ridge Racer game. The different drifting mechanics and nitro boost feature changed the series drastically from this point on.
Your script writing and editing have improved consistently since I first subscribed. Excellent work dude! I've only ever played ridge racer type 4 and loved it to death. Might have to play this one a bit to see how it holds up against R4 and your view!
If you loved Type 4 then 5 might not be much fun for you. I still recommend it, but type 4 was such a different game to the others in the series at that time.
I played this for the first time in 2023. In the 2000s I was a Sega fanboy pissed that Sony beat the Dreamcast so, yeah it took me about 20 years to admit the PS2 is absolutely worth owning. This game blew me away for everything you mention - presentation is top notch, music is pretty damned good, the cars handle well in their arcade-y manner, and there's enough challenge to be fun. I actually like my arcade racers to be lighter on content (though not RR1 light) so you can focus on getting good and mastering what's there. I wish I would have discovered it 24 years ago!
Thanks for speaking about the UI and menus. I don't think we would see such stylish menus again until Persona 5. I really like that you mentioned how this game took a few steps back, because that is why I loved it. RR type 4 was such an odd departure from the series in its look, feel, and music. The game never felt right to me, and despite its popularity it didn't feel like Ridge Racer at all. Coming from Rage Racer to type 4 was like meeting an old friend that has completely changed... When I finally got RRV about a year after launch (along with GT3) I was blown away by how it felt like Ridge Racer again. It is a game I still play a few times a year, and I am so glad it exists as a return to Ridge Racer and a nice upgrade at home when compared with the sit down arcade version, Ridge Racer V Arcade Battle!
Ridge Racer V didn't have an Easy mode. In practice, it had Normal, Very Hard, and Painful. Even better, I didn't play this game on an emulator, but instead on a PS2. I lost count of the number of times that I had to start all the way back at the first race of a Grand Prix because the AI is so aggressive and capable of taking a perfect racing line on Painful. Over time, I had memorized every single racetrack in this game so I could get at least 3rd in each race, and I completed all the Duels, too. I believe I might've unlocked the 99 Trials (can't remember. It's been years since I played it). Unfortunately, I never had the patience to get 1st in every race. The only thing that makes RRV easier than F-Zero GX is that car physics are easier for me to understand than hovercraft physics. A car is easier to drive than a hovercraft because at least I feel like I'm connected to the ground, and a car is just more familiar to me than a hovercraft is. Otherwise? Both of these games are 2 of the hardest racing games I've ever played, and it was the intense challenge that made it 10x more satisfying to conquer a Grand Prix in these titles. I doubt we'll ever see F-Zero come back, but I have somewhat more faith in a new Ridge Racer title at some point. Namco Bandai's been returning to some of their old series from their "Namco days", like Klonoa and Mr. Driller.
You called Fogbound cringey? 🤔 That song singlehandedly started my friends and my love for the Boom Boom Satellites. In that era quirky Japanese music/styles were such a breath of fresh air (think jet grind radio). Maybe you just had to be there. Interesting generational take!
Sorry, wall of text, because well, RRV is special imo. 1:28 I always get confused by that sentiment - and it's wide-spread. Ridge Racer V wasn't particularly hard except for the optional last 99 lap challenge. I do agree on the first part being too easy and slow, which is a bit of a bugger. Ridge Racer was guilty of that from 3 onwards. It was probably meant as a tutorial as the mechanics of the game don't really map well onto real world experiences or expectations on driving. Arcade Racers of the 90ties are a different genre than Burnout or Asphalt. The game doesn't get difficulty from enemies - obviously. In it's core, Ridge Racer - and to some extend stuff like SCUD race are much more like a puzzle game to figure out which lines and approaches to perfect against the track. The enemies are a bit of a randomizer and punisher if you can't pull off a well-executed race. It doesn't do racing in the sense that you go head to head with an opponent. It does the feel for speed really well (Rage Racer being the most insane one imo) and provides tracks that are specifically designed for the few cars there are. That's why there is so few cars & so few tracks. That art of really designing a track for these specifically designed cars to be a challenging puzzle is completely lost in time. Even Ridge Racer 6/7 lost that. I really miss that approach that had to make way for lots of cars, chill difficulty and shiny upgrades that usually don't transform the driving experience. Not sure if I can get my point across, but in a way - the memorization of the track is the fun part that let's you close in on that perfect run, not the initial barrier that let's you race against opponents. Another thing I want to point out is that there is a difference to the driving styles in RRV, so grip or drift aren't just names. You're not suppposed to drift with grip cars as you do with drift cars. In it's simplest form you initiate drift with accelerate on drift cars and with brake on grip cars. Ridge Racer V had the usual varying steering angles, acceleration & max speed to balance that out as well as different pivot points on the drifts. I was a bit let down after Rage Racer when they ditched shifting as a mechanic and lost a lot of depth there. But Ridge Racer V is the swan song to these kind of arcade racers. It is the love letter to Ridge Racer like Final Fantasy 9 was Squares love letter to classic Final Fantasy. In that sense, the game design was intentionally oldschool. In my opinion it's sad that that genre completely died out, but the market decided. Wholeheartedly agree with you that the menu is absolutely sublime. One of my favorites to this day. Specially as the music intensifies the closer you get to a race. It's an interesting track too that can be chill in the background at first and slowly build that excitement deeper into the menues. The silhouette dancing of Ai is a lovely touch as well. I doubt though that Ken Yoshimitsu already went with motion capture here. If you want the movements, they are all rather strange and dreamy. Afaik they still animated the characters by hand - which noone does nowadays. Those handcrafted movements are charming on one hand as well as doll-like and unhuman on the other. Specially Reiko on the 1999 PS2 demo reel is a good example. As someone else already pointed out - the music in RRV was more a back to the roots to techno as well after the deviations of Rage Racer (more drum'n'bass and industrial influences, completely unique) and Type 4 (the lucid jazz, groovy chill lounge sound of the 2000). Specially Type 4 is the outlier in the series, but it heavily defined perception of the series. RRV was an outlier in taking in so many musicians instead of relying on their own inhouse soundteam. On RRV, specially Gammon was an outstanding track. But taste in music varies wildly for people. On presentation, yeah. The feel of Ridge City was great (supposedly they had a vast 3D model of the virtual city to make it feel more like a place), the design had it's own flavor. But even with 60fps the game was critizised for rather disappointing visuals & lack of content back in the day. So it ended up being seen as a rather mediocre racing game instead of the last entry with which the genre died. After all, it was planned to be the new system seller for the PS2 as it was back on the PS1 launch. I'm really still booting up SCUD race, Rage Racer & Ridge Racer V after all these years because there was no game after this to scratch that itch. I always hoped it would get some lower budget entry for a more niche market. I would never have believed that it would die that way.
Ridge Racer V is a good game but the first one I played was the PSP game. Ridge Racer Type 4 is actually my favorite in the Ridge Racer series. I also have Ridge Racer 6 and 7 which I started playing again.
I'd say Ridge Racer V returns back more to what the Soundtrack of the original titles was, not move away from it, I get the feeling people think RR identity comes only from Type 4 when that game is still probably the biggest stylistic move away from what RR is... Gotta say tho, the announcer is the weakest of all games, he sounds so uninterested with 0 energy.
Thank you so much for this comment! It drives me crazy that it seems like everyone sees type 4 as true Ridge Racer when it really didn't feel like Ridge Racer at all. It is interesting that Namco seemed to be changing everything at this time period. First type 4 and then Ace Combat 3. This made the return to form with RRV even more special for me.
I've been with Ridge Racer since the start of the series, and honestly, V is my least favorite of the series. It lacks the depth of Rage Racer and the sophistication and atmosphere of R4, which are my personal favorites. I picked up R5 day one, and honestly, I wasn't wild about it, but speaking honestly, Rage and R4 are really tough acts to follow. It did have a decent OST, though. Anyway, great review. I enjoyed revisiting the game through you. It was very nostalgic.
IIRC Japanese arcade racers like Ridge Racer, Initial D, and Maximum Tune were significantly more punishing compared to Western ones. Speaking of which, what are your thoughts on the Initial D and Maximum Tune games, provided you've even played them?
Ridge Racer V really unique entry as the beginning racing game in PS2 years with unique driving style, cozy neat city racing and ofc amazing tunes from Namco Sound Team
24 years after release, RIDGE RACER V still a 8.4/10 overall game.
The Boom Boom Satellites were a really big group back then. Did songs for anime as well. But sadly, no more. One member had cancer and passed on. But, they made great music. MadCapsuleMarkets is/was another group that made these interesting, albeit noise tracks with hard beats. Best way I could describe them. Of course, I think Mijk van Dijk did some bangers for the music too for RRV.
As someone that grew up with the series, it can't be understated how much of a mindblowing jump things were from Type 4 to V. That game was my childhood, and the sole reason I wanted a PS2. I still love playing it to this day.
First time viewer here. You absolutely get the draw of RRV, but without going into length I think DRFTDVL genuinely has a time and a place in the soundtrack that it's deserving of.
Fun fact the announcer is a real life radio dj called ken ayugai
Ridge Racer V was the last proper Ridge Racer game. The different drifting mechanics and nitro boost feature changed the series drastically from this point on.
Type 4 is still my favourite. I sometimes play it.
Your script writing and editing have improved consistently since I first subscribed. Excellent work dude! I've only ever played ridge racer type 4 and loved it to death. Might have to play this one a bit to see how it holds up against R4 and your view!
If you loved Type 4 then 5 might not be much fun for you. I still recommend it, but type 4 was such a different game to the others in the series at that time.
I played this for the first time in 2023. In the 2000s I was a Sega fanboy pissed that Sony beat the Dreamcast so, yeah it took me about 20 years to admit the PS2 is absolutely worth owning. This game blew me away for everything you mention - presentation is top notch, music is pretty damned good, the cars handle well in their arcade-y manner, and there's enough challenge to be fun. I actually like my arcade racers to be lighter on content (though not RR1 light) so you can focus on getting good and mastering what's there. I wish I would have discovered it 24 years ago!
Thanks for speaking about the UI and menus. I don't think we would see such stylish menus again until Persona 5.
I really like that you mentioned how this game took a few steps back, because that is why I loved it. RR type 4 was such an odd departure from the series in its look, feel, and music. The game never felt right to me, and despite its popularity it didn't feel like Ridge Racer at all. Coming from Rage Racer to type 4 was like meeting an old friend that has completely changed...
When I finally got RRV about a year after launch (along with GT3) I was blown away by how it felt like Ridge Racer again. It is a game I still play a few times a year, and I am so glad it exists as a return to Ridge Racer and a nice upgrade at home when compared with the sit down arcade version, Ridge Racer V Arcade Battle!
Ridge Racer V didn't have an Easy mode. In practice, it had Normal, Very Hard, and Painful. Even better, I didn't play this game on an emulator, but instead on a PS2. I lost count of the number of times that I had to start all the way back at the first race of a Grand Prix because the AI is so aggressive and capable of taking a perfect racing line on Painful. Over time, I had memorized every single racetrack in this game so I could get at least 3rd in each race, and I completed all the Duels, too. I believe I might've unlocked the 99 Trials (can't remember. It's been years since I played it). Unfortunately, I never had the patience to get 1st in every race.
The only thing that makes RRV easier than F-Zero GX is that car physics are easier for me to understand than hovercraft physics. A car is easier to drive than a hovercraft because at least I feel like I'm connected to the ground, and a car is just more familiar to me than a hovercraft is. Otherwise? Both of these games are 2 of the hardest racing games I've ever played, and it was the intense challenge that made it 10x more satisfying to conquer a Grand Prix in these titles.
I doubt we'll ever see F-Zero come back, but I have somewhat more faith in a new Ridge Racer title at some point. Namco Bandai's been returning to some of their old series from their "Namco days", like Klonoa and Mr. Driller.
My favourite Ridge Racer games undoubtedly are R4, RIDGE RACER REVOLUTION, RR7, and both PSP RIDGE RACER games. RRV also is great.
Great video, I 100%'d the game all on hard recently and had a blast! one of the very best racing games I've played
Rage Racer and RRV,RR7 are my faves
You called Fogbound cringey? 🤔 That song singlehandedly started my friends and my love for the Boom Boom Satellites. In that era quirky Japanese music/styles were such a breath of fresh air (think jet grind radio). Maybe you just had to be there. Interesting generational take!
Sorry, wall of text, because well, RRV is special imo.
1:28 I always get confused by that sentiment - and it's wide-spread. Ridge Racer V wasn't particularly hard except for the optional last 99 lap challenge. I do agree on the first part being too easy and slow, which is a bit of a bugger. Ridge Racer was guilty of that from 3 onwards. It was probably meant as a tutorial as the mechanics of the game don't really map well onto real world experiences or expectations on driving. Arcade Racers of the 90ties are a different genre than Burnout or Asphalt. The game doesn't get difficulty from enemies - obviously. In it's core, Ridge Racer - and to some extend stuff like SCUD race are much more like a puzzle game to figure out which lines and approaches to perfect against the track. The enemies are a bit of a randomizer and punisher if you can't pull off a well-executed race. It doesn't do racing in the sense that you go head to head with an opponent. It does the feel for speed really well (Rage Racer being the most insane one imo) and provides tracks that are specifically designed for the few cars there are. That's why there is so few cars & so few tracks. That art of really designing a track for these specifically designed cars to be a challenging puzzle is completely lost in time. Even Ridge Racer 6/7 lost that. I really miss that approach that had to make way for lots of cars, chill difficulty and shiny upgrades that usually don't transform the driving experience. Not sure if I can get my point across, but in a way - the memorization of the track is the fun part that let's you close in on that perfect run, not the initial barrier that let's you race against opponents.
Another thing I want to point out is that there is a difference to the driving styles in RRV, so grip or drift aren't just names. You're not suppposed to drift with grip cars as you do with drift cars. In it's simplest form you initiate drift with accelerate on drift cars and with brake on grip cars. Ridge Racer V had the usual varying steering angles, acceleration & max speed to balance that out as well as different pivot points on the drifts. I was a bit let down after Rage Racer when they ditched shifting as a mechanic and lost a lot of depth there. But Ridge Racer V is the swan song to these kind of arcade racers. It is the love letter to Ridge Racer like Final Fantasy 9 was Squares love letter to classic Final Fantasy. In that sense, the game design was intentionally oldschool. In my opinion it's sad that that genre completely died out, but the market decided.
Wholeheartedly agree with you that the menu is absolutely sublime. One of my favorites to this day. Specially as the music intensifies the closer you get to a race. It's an interesting track too that can be chill in the background at first and slowly build that excitement deeper into the menues. The silhouette dancing of Ai is a lovely touch as well. I doubt though that Ken Yoshimitsu already went with motion capture here. If you want the movements, they are all rather strange and dreamy. Afaik they still animated the characters by hand - which noone does nowadays. Those handcrafted movements are charming on one hand as well as doll-like and unhuman on the other. Specially Reiko on the 1999 PS2 demo reel is a good example.
As someone else already pointed out - the music in RRV was more a back to the roots to techno as well after the deviations of Rage Racer (more drum'n'bass and industrial influences, completely unique) and Type 4 (the lucid jazz, groovy chill lounge sound of the 2000). Specially Type 4 is the outlier in the series, but it heavily defined perception of the series. RRV was an outlier in taking in so many musicians instead of relying on their own inhouse soundteam. On RRV, specially Gammon was an outstanding track. But taste in music varies wildly for people.
On presentation, yeah. The feel of Ridge City was great (supposedly they had a vast 3D model of the virtual city to make it feel more like a place), the design had it's own flavor. But even with 60fps the game was critizised for rather disappointing visuals & lack of content back in the day. So it ended up being seen as a rather mediocre racing game instead of the last entry with which the genre died. After all, it was planned to be the new system seller for the PS2 as it was back on the PS1 launch. I'm really still booting up SCUD race, Rage Racer & Ridge Racer V after all these years because there was no game after this to scratch that itch. I always hoped it would get some lower budget entry for a more niche market. I would never have believed that it would die that way.
glad to hear you don't play it in chase cam... it just feels wrong in ridge racer!
Ridge Racer V is a good game but the first one I played was the PSP game. Ridge Racer Type 4 is actually my favorite in the Ridge Racer series. I also have Ridge Racer 6 and 7 which I started playing again.
I'd say Ridge Racer V returns back more to what the Soundtrack of the original titles was, not move away from it, I get the feeling people think RR identity comes only from Type 4 when that game is still probably the biggest stylistic move away from what RR is...
Gotta say tho, the announcer is the weakest of all games, he sounds so uninterested with 0 energy.
Ken is goofy but he grew on me
Nah, Rave Racer's announcers are probably the worst out of all of them. Their fake enthusiasm just kills it for me.
Thank you so much for this comment! It drives me crazy that it seems like everyone sees type 4 as true Ridge Racer when it really didn't feel like Ridge Racer at all.
It is interesting that Namco seemed to be changing everything at this time period. First type 4 and then Ace Combat 3. This made the return to form with RRV even more special for me.
this game kinda good i had similar thoughts on the game and picked it up for RA
"perfect on HARD ultimate GP" -
the AI just block u
i wana kkms
-lego
HOW MANY YEARS LATER?!?!??!?!??! WTF
I've been with Ridge Racer since the start of the series, and honestly, V is my least favorite of the series. It lacks the depth of Rage Racer and the sophistication and atmosphere of R4, which are my personal favorites. I picked up R5 day one, and honestly, I wasn't wild about it, but speaking honestly, Rage and R4 are really tough acts to follow. It did have a decent OST, though.
Anyway, great review. I enjoyed revisiting the game through you. It was very nostalgic.
any reason as to why are you playing /emulating pal ver?
IIRC Japanese arcade racers like Ridge Racer, Initial D, and Maximum Tune were significantly more punishing compared to Western ones.
Speaking of which, what are your thoughts on the Initial D and Maximum Tune games, provided you've even played them?