Pinoy heroes in videogames

Given that most blockbuster videogames are made in the US, Japan, and Europe, it’s no surprise that the most famous videogame characters aren’t Filipino.

 

Certainly, characters whose nationalities represent major players in world events —American, Japanese, Russian, Mexican, African, Chinese, German, French, etc— populate most games.

 

But this doesn’t mean that the brown and proud are non-existent in the hallowed annals of videogame mythos. 

 

Fortunately, there are a few titles that recognized people from our “Lupang Hinirang” —not withstanding our real-life boxing hero, Manny Pacquiao. 

 

And, no, these characters are not just incidental; these Pinoys played very vital roles and added some Filipino flair to their respective games:  

 

Jose Astrada/Estrada

Jose is arguably  the first Filipino character to ever appear in a major videogame title. He was introduced in Front Mission 3, a tactical mecha RPG released in 1999 by Squaresoft (now known as Square Enix).

 

The story of Front Mission 3 is set in Southeast Asia in the year 2112, where some of its events transpired in the Batangas area, more specifically Taal —housing the formidable mobile sea-fortress “Dagat Ahas”.

 

Jose is a 35-year-old Philippine Navy sniper who was convicted for insubordination. He refused to take up arms after he mistakenly killed his wife, and has then disobeyed any combat orders from his superiors.

 

The player may recruit Jose to his party after following a series of events. His role in the party as a sniper enables the player access to one shot kills with his rifle once he reaches higher levels.

 

Jose’s surname in the English version is “Astrada”. But it was later found out that this was a mistranslation, as the Japanese version used “Estrada” in its manuals.

 

 

Pham Luis

The role of the Philippines in Front Mission 3 is so relevant that one major Filipino character was not enough. Pham is another Pinoy character in the game, who was encountered shortly after meeting Jose.

 

Pham was born to a wealthy family and lived a relatively comfortable life. But her idealism has led her to join the Philippines Liberation Front (PLF), a separatist group that seeks the country’s cessation from the Oceania Cooperative Union (OCU), at the young age of 17.

 

She is also a playable character that may be recruited to the player’s party after recruiting Jose in Taal. Her brash attitude matches her melee specialization. She’s definitely more comfortable going in-your-face; very useful against units that use rockets.

 

 

Talim

Talim is probably the most popular Filipino video game character to date. She first appeared in Namco Bandai’s popular 3D fighting game Soul Calibur II in 2002.

 

In the Soul Calibur universe, Talim was born in the Village of the Wind Diety (referred to as “present-day Philippines”). Her name in itself is very Filipino, as it is the Tagalog word for “sharp edge”.

 

Tagalog words are also present in the names of her moves, such as “Tuhod slicer”, “Tagga sa kamay”, and “Sunggab throw”. She fights using “The Wind Dance” style, which is described as her village’s version of escrima, and uses dual tonfa blades as her weapons.

 

She has been present in the all of the Soul series games since her first appearance. The latest installment, Soul Calibur V, was released for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on February 2012.

 

 

Santos

Def Jam: Fight For NY is a hip-hop-themed fighting game that was set in a gritty urban gangland. Among the many characters, which features some famous rappers like Ice-T, Busta Rhymes, and Warren G.,  is a Filipino kickboxer named Santos.

 

According to Santos’s profile, he’s an immigrant who got banned from the professional kickboxing circuit when he almost killed a “soft” American in a match. Since then, he’s been fighting the underground circuit.

 

Though Santos’s in-game fighting style is Muay Thai, he is undeniably Filipino. Aside from the obvious Filipino looks and a Philippine Flag on his trunks, his Blazin’ Move is called “Filipino Pride.” How’s that for representing?

 

Def Jam: Fight For NY was released for the Playstation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube in 2004.

 

 

 

Nicole-458

The popular fighting series, Dead or Alive, surprised its fans when a character resembling Halo’s Masterchief was shown fighting against the series’ trademark buxom ladies in its marketing material before the release of Dead or Alive 4 (DoA4) in 2005. Unfortunately for the Halo fans, it was not the iconic John-117 who was under the Mjolnir IV armor, but rather a new Spartan who was sent adrift to the DoA4 world via a cosmic anomaly. That Spartan is Petty Officer Second Class Nicole-458. And, yes, she is Filipino.

 

It’s very hard to tell if she has any Filipino features underneath that imposing Spartan armor; we couldn’t even tell that she was a woman, so we can only trust her in-game profile.

 

In the Halo universe, she was born in New Legaspi, Katagalugan, Mars. Apparently, Mars has become a settlement for most of Filipinos in the 26th century. She also loves to watch anime and specifies Halo-halo as her favorite dessert.

 

Nicole was created as a crossover character for DoA4 so she never appeared in any of the Halo games, but she still exists in Halo’s universe.

 

 

The appearance of these five videogame Pinoys happened within a span of 13 years. A simple mathematical calculation reveals that a Filipino character appears in a videogame around every two years or so. This may seem like a small number but that’s not really a reason to say that Filipinos can’t appear more often in these games over the next few years.

 

As the population of Filipino gamers grow, the reputation of the Philippines in gaming grows with it. So let’s just keep playing and let ourselves be known, be existent, in the gaming world. Maybe then, we can see more of our countrymen appear as characters in these games.

 

Will we ever see a Pinoy videogame character headline a worldwide hit game? We can only hope and play. — TJD, GMA News