Southtown: A Brief Geography, part III

Part I
Part II

The river running southward from the hinterlands marks the far eastern boundary of "original" Southtown locations, but it marks the western boundary of the locations that turn up in Mark of the Wolves' Second South. The map here, taken from the game itself, and labeled (not by me; I found this online) has all the locations that turn up in that game. Notably, you can see the river that runs near the edge of mainland Southtown, as well as East Island and Geese Island. While the Port town island and the bay area aren't shown in the map, because we know them well from other maps, that's not a big deal. The majority of the locations are on yet another island, about twice the size of East Island, and farther to the east (ironically) connected to the mainland by several bridges, at least one of which is a train bridge--if you fight Terry on his moving flatcar, you can see the train run along the beach at sunrise, stop in the station, and then cross the bridge from the mainland to the island (or vice versa--can't tell from the stage art.)

While Second South's relationship to Southtown is difficult to ascertain from the games, certainly they are close neighbors and probably work together in many ways. Like Southtown itself, Second South seems to be a large city with high rise districts, ethnic neighborhoods (Korean, in particular), and apparently gambling has been legalized. That's actually not that amazing of a claim to make now, but in 1999 when this game came out, it's important to remember that gambling was rare in the US other than in Vegas or Indian-owned casinos. Second South is also a crime-riddled city. Kain Heinlein grew up in the worst neighborhood in Second South, and rose to become a criminal kingpin. Oddly, Second South seems to be a bit more anarchic than any real US city could possibly be--it talks of seceding from the US, for instance, and Heinlein's goals of fomenting chaos so that the residents have to fight for their lives in some kind of Darwinian survival of the fittest test couldn't possibly ever fly. Of course, I've said before that that's obviously one of the main conceits of this genre overall, though--a very hands-off, laissaz-faire government that allows folks, including foreigners and minors, to travel around getting into super-powered fist-fights in all kinds of public places. Freedom!

Here's the known locations from Second South.

• Live House "Old Line" - Rock Howard's stage, and apparently his favorite hang-out. Although it supposedly welcomes hard rock musicians, based on the look, the stage BGM, the small size, and the older classic cars and hot-rods, I'd expect it to be the kind of place where middle-aged fans of Jimmy Buffet go to get drinks after work.
  
• Philanthropy Belfry - Far enough away from the Pioneer Plaza cathedral that it attracts a completely different clientele, the Philanthropy Belfry is named for the fact that the it was built on funds raised from charity. You can just see the front of it in the second phase of Terry's train stage, so it's near a passenger train station on the mainland. Although it looks nice, and has a peaceful relaxing feel (and BGM) I can't believe it's very fun to be up there in the Belfry when those giant bells are ringing. Hey, I still have a copy of The Amazing Spiderman #300 where Spiderman and Venom face off in the Belfry. Nice issue. The first real appearance of Venom was in that story arc, actually.
• Sarah Forest - The Sarah Forest is geographically quite close to the National Park swamps seen in Joe's Fatal Fury 3 stage, but it looks very different. This is probably attributable to its higher elevation--its a bit drier and cooler, and therefore looks like a typical temperate forest. Curiously, I think the karate bears are not meant to be taken too seriously, but the presence of a bald eagle sitting on a fallen tree is very atypical for the southern Florida climate.
• 5th Avenue and 2nd Street - A rather typical junction in the busy downtown area of the island portion of Second South. Also, a dramatic demonstration of why karate supers fighters should be careful about where they throw down--innocent people could be hurt in these car accidents!
• Oriental Casino "Woo" - Very close to the Korean Quarter, Oriental Casino Woo is a typical example of that particular attraction--a bit tawdry and full of flashing, blinking lights, and cheap superficially beautiful women. As casinos often are, this one is under the thumb of gangsters. Geese's criminal empire doesn't really go too far into Second South, but up and coming relative of his by marriage, Kain R. Heinlein, has been putting the squeeze on Mr. Woo for some time.
  
• S. S. P. Maneuver Field - Short for Second South Police Maneuver Field, but no municipal police force has the wherewithal to have a training facility like this, and those choppers are not police type choppers, those are military. Actually, the SSPD only lease a small portion of what is otherwise a fairly secretive government base run by the military. The headquarters of the multi-disciplinary task force to contain and control criminal superhuman fighters is also located here. Members of that organization include SSPD, like SWAT team member Kevin Rian, as well as federal agents (Mary Ryan, Vanessa, Seth), international agents (Hon Fu, Cammy White, Chun-Li), the US military (Guile, Charlie), and even mercenaries (Heidern, Leona, Ralf, Clark, Whip, etc.) In fact, former military now mercenary colonel Heidern is the head of the multidisciplinary task force, so his office is located here. Not that he's always in it, by any means.  In addition, the vast base has a number of other buildings, basement levels, and other hidden and top secret experimental facilities. While there's no warehouse housing the Ark of the Covenant in a crate, the Jin Scrolls have been relegated to just such an ignominous fate--lost in a bureaucratic paperwork shuffle and buried under hundreds of other, identical crates. Experiments and research into the illegal cloning and AI technology that the supervillain organization NESTS is so fond of takes place here as well, and when Cammy, K' and Maxima all defected from NESTS, they were debriefed here first.
• Slam "Free Field" - An extremely dangerous and run-down downtown district, full of criminal predators and the desperate. Second South also has an L-train or people mover of some sort, as demonstrated by the depiction of this neighborhood in Mark of the Wolves.
• Universal Arena - Second South has a large athletic complex that is used most often as a pro-wrestling venue. However, like all such arenas, it's frequently re-purposed for other events, and when Athena came through town on tour last, she played here as well (stages from console version of King of Fighters XI.)
• Blue Wave Harbor - This stage is under attack by a pirate band in a submarine when illustrated, but normally, it's a quiet marina and harbor, for commerce as well as personal pleasure craft. In this, it's a rival to the harbors and marinas of Sound Beach and Port town, but it staunchly faces away from them on the far side of Second South Island, as if unwilling to even look at its colleagues. This harbor is poorly patrolled, and because it's the closest to the open ocean to the east, drug smugglers on smaller yachts and other pleasure craft tend to favor Blue Wave Harbor over those in Southtown.
• Barbaroi Falls - While the Barbaroi River seems to be the final, most eastward boundary of the original run of Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting and King of Fighters locations in Southtown, it's the westernmost boundary for Second South. As the waters rush down from the cooler mountains of the Sarah Forest to the swampy delta of National Park and the river's mouth on the coast, it changes elevation rapidly, and Barbaroi Falls is the most scenic and dramatic of several falls.
• Yok Chong Market - In the Korean Quarter, this is an open air bazaar and market. Livestock and ethnic food can be purchased here, and most of the signs and conversation is in Korean. In addition, there are Taekwando dojos located here, and rivals from the various schools, easily set apart by their different-colored uniforms, often meet in this open air plaza for demonstration matches when the weather is good.
• Freight Express - Part of the same railway system that runs through Southtown, the Freight Express, it's motto "Running Wild" is a local branch of the nationwide railway, Orion Pacific. Seen in Terry's stage, this is really three different locations completely--the first phase is a sunrise ride along the mainland coast, showing the rural suburbs and environs around Southtown and Second South to the east and north. Stopping briefly on the mainland, near Philanthropy Belfry is a passenger train station, where commuters board to head to Second South Island. And the part mapped here (and shown in the third phase of Terry's stage in MOW) is on the long bridge that crosses the channel leading to the island. The Freight Express continues westward to Southtown as well. Besides passengers, one of its most common loads is lumber, from the forested foothills and mountains around Southtown and Second South to Port town, where it will be shipped around the nation and the world.