Video games with references to the Philippines

How many games do you know have references to the Philippines? Probably not a lot. If you read the article I wrote last time (which most likely nobody read), then you'd know one of them. That game is Yakuza 4 (or Ryu ga Gotoku 4 in Japan). Apart from this game, I could only think of two others.

The very first game I can remember that had some kind of Filipino content is Front Mission 3 for the original PlayStation. One of the missions depicts an attack on a military installation in Taal Lake. I bet the developers had gone to Taal Vista Lodge Hotel one day, looked at the view of Taal volcano and said, "hey, we can put a mech/naval base right there!"

Here's a video of someone's walkthrough of that mission:



The second game I've seen with refrences to the Philippines is Katamari Damacy. I was a bit surprised at this one as the reference happened just a moment after I popped the disc into my PS2. Before you start a level, the King of the Cosmos starts talking to you about random nonsense, and it just so happened that the very first thing he said was "Magandang tanghali po!" After seeing that I wondered, could this be a Filipino version of Katamari?!

Below is a video of that moment in Katamari Damacy, and as you will see, the King of the Cosmos continues by saying "Have you ever been to the Philippines? We stopped in the day before yesterday."



And that's pretty much it. Those are all the games I know that mention something related to the Philippines, though you could probably also add the other games in the Katamari Damacy series, as they usually have stages in which you as the Prince must roll up every country in the world, one of which being our wonderful nation.

Yakuza 4 has arguably the most "Filipino content". There are two sub-stories in the game about Filipina characters, and the developers even went as far as to creating a special CG cutscene for one of them. There is also an area in the game called "Little Asia" where only those who can speak other Asian languages such as "Chinese, Korean, and Tagalog" can enter.


Other games that may possibly have references to the Philippines are likely any games set in the Pacific theater of operations during World War II. Unfortunately, I haven't played much of those games. Oh, and no, Anito: Defend a Land Enraged doesn't count; that was made locally.

If you know of any other games with some interesting references to the Philippines, I'd like to hear about it.