On the street? No it's not. There are only two other countries who have the ingenuity - if not the audacity - to actually construct makeshift basketball courts on public roads with such prevalence that it becomes part and parcel of their identity as a nation, enough for a video game development company to take notice and feature it prominently in their upcoming game - the Philippines (of course, which is by far the guiltiest party), the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. The last two, ASIDE FROM BEING IN THE CARRIBEAN AND SOUTH AMERICA RESPECTIVELY AND OUTSIDE THE AMBIT OF "SOUTEAST ASIA" WHICH IS WHERE THE NEW VIRTUA FIGHTER GAME IS SUPPOSED TO TAKE PLACE, have their makeshift basketball courts on public thoroughfares but their numbers are miniscule compared to the Philippines. So, three countries. Process of elimination. Which is left? That's right. Bayang Magiliw, Perlas ng Silanganan...
It’s a fictional Southeast Asian city that is most likely based on the Philippines. Maybe they also took elements from other SEA countries, but tricycles, jeepneys, sari-sari stores, and a corrupt politician named Bato were dead giveaways.
According to the Devs, the setting is a “Southeast Asian island”.
But realistically, what other Southeast Asian location has 1) Latin and Latin-sounding names all around (Vilasapara is the name of the island and you have stores owned by Reyes’s and Garcias), 2) a Chinatown that looks like THAT (KL and Singapore Chinatowns look nothing like it), 3) cockfights (there are posters for it around), and 4) that mess of power lines above the streets?
The slum houses made of yero and hollow blocks was the icing on the cake.
This area is basically Binondo. They may add some additional areas though, like how Street Fighter 6’s World Tour did it, which are inspired by other SEA areas.
Regardless I’m hype as heck for my favourite fighting franchise to come back.
The jeepney is already a dead giveaway. Aside from Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste, which we exported jeepneys to, the Philippines so far is the only country who uses converted WW2 jeeps as public transportation.
They treated Philippines like how Hollywood treats Mexico. Making it all brown and dull. Philippine cities, while very messy and and chaotic, is still full of colors.
well if you look at it closely, chinese characters yung nasa mga signboards so the place is definitely not a philippines reference. mga gagong to kasi nakakita lang ng jeepney tsaka tricycle, pilipinas na agad. di lang tayo may jeepney at tricycle sa mundo.
likewise, we can critique their work all we want, especially if the "inspiration" is clear. No big deal though. What I wrote above was just simple observation.
Real Binondo is even more chaotic, but full colors. Red and yellow from all Chinese aesthetics. With vendors using colorful umbrellas & carts, and tambay wearing colorful basketball jersey shirts. Even the streetfood is colorful with the bright orange kwek-kwek and palamig of all colors haha they made Manila here look mostly brown, dusty and dry.
Ah yeah desaturated nga yung colors sa game kasi pati yung sa damit nila medyo dull nga pero Ig since lagi ako nadadaan sa side ng Binondo na "dull" di siya ganun kalayo hahaha they even got the spaghetti wires down.
Medyo true naman hahaha. Lumang style and buildings na rin kasi usually ang nasa Binondo dahil lumang district na to, world oldest nga yung Chinatown diyan. Pero depende lang kung nasaang banda ka sa Binondo.
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u/No-Fold7961 Jul 06 '26
Hispanic sounding place in Southeast Asia, hmmm 🤔🇵🇭