South Park: The Fractured But Whole

A fun tactical RPG that drags on for a bit too long but I'd still recommend it for South Park fans out there!

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The Coon. Mysterion. These superhero story arcs in the show are by far my favourites. I loved the Cthulhu three-parter. Professor Chaos is one of my favourite characters in the whole series. The Stick of Truth was a very competent although simple RPG but I still loved it. So I came into "South Park: The Fractured But Whole" with very high expectations.

I have to say for the most part, it delivered on my expectations. The authenticity of the show is recreated masterfully, whether it be visually or in its humour. Hearing bits of the show's songs when walking into a store always got me singing it. Of course, the visuals aren't high-end because of the show's construction paper look and feel but it is replicated wonderfully. The humour is very South Park-esque. Toilet humour and non-sensical plot points are on point.

STORY
// Interesting themes and story but drags on for a bit too long

The story is about two superhero alliances, "Coon and Friends" and "Freedom Pals" trying to create the ultimate superhero franchise there is. Obviously, this makes fun out of the DC and Marvel competition. It illustrates pretty well how ridiculous and overly complex the Universes they've created (or attempted to create). It also manages to demonstrate how just how banal racism has become this year. I was scared when the game started introducing this subject but I thought it was treated pretty well. It grows to ridiculous proportions while everybody denies that it's there which, to my opinion, reflect the current world and how racism as sort of infiltrated meme sites and blog posts with quotes like "I'm not racist but [...]". In South Park fashion, the kids' views of what's going versus the absurdity and proportions of everything at stake is perfectly executed.

For all its brilliance in treating its themes, I do have to say that I did feel the game was wearing out its welcome in the last part of the game. Although I was still having fun with the story, I felt it was degrading a bit and telling the story through fighting in a few uninteresting events slowly got me bored. I didn't rage quit, but I was paying a bit more attention to the world around me than the game itself.

GAMEPLAY
// Fun, but some unnecessary additions feel forced

The gameplay is reminiscent of Stick of Truth but it is a massive improvement in the battles department and character customization. That is, if you prefer more complex tactics-style fighting. Your enemies usually appear on the field and attacking them gives you a battle advantage. That means you get to move first on the grid that will appear. Placement is key to winning matches and having the ability to push, pull, swap places with enemies plays a huge role in victories. Using abilities triggers a quick time event which allows you to deal a bit more damage/healing. Getting attacked also triggers a quick-time event to lower the damage received. The cast is varied. There are 13 characters in total (including your own) and they range from fan favorite like The Coon (Cartman) and Professor Chaos (Butters) to lesser known characters like Captain Diabetes (Scott Malkinson) and Wonder Tweek. Each have their own abilities and superhero archetypes (like power characters and sniper characters) and are unlocked as the story advances. A lot of different types of statuses come back from the last iteration like Bleeding and Grossed out. However, I didn't feel they were different enough to warrant their inclusion besides the fact that they can stack. You also have a few fart moves that can be used at anytime (even during an enemy's turn) to give you an advantage but they have the drawback of having to recharge.

Your main character, nicknamed ButtLord, can be fully customized visually. His powers can also be customized according to the classes you have unlocked and, unlike The Stick of Truth, you can change classes at will by changing the abilites you are using right now. You can then mix and match every classes and make the most out of your character's powers. Each character, including ButtLord, has a special ability usable only once the power meter has been filled up through attacking enemies and defending from attacks. Those skills are powerful and trigger a cool heroic cutscene. However, that cutscene is unskippable and can get tedious after a few times. That special move can also be configured by ButtLord at will as you unlock more and more classes.

The overworld is pretty similar to the last game. It's a bit bigger and also includes additional things from the later seasons of the show like SoDoSoPa and ShiTPa Town. Movement is the same as before and you acquire new skills and farts to move around and uncover secrets as you advance through the story. Speaking of secrets, you can find a lot of items for crafting (more on that later) and a lot of Artifacts for upgrading your character's stats. Crafting seems interesting at first but I didn't feel like it was necessary. Since most of the available stuff to craft could have been made available at shops, I felt it was a mechanic added in for the illusion of depth.

Coonstagram, the social media "sidequest" of the game was fun... at first. Taking selfies with characters was nice as you make your character do multiple faces. After the 10th time, I was just pressing the button to take the picture right away because I just wanted to complete this part of the game and not because I had fun with it.

STABILITY
// A few minor bugs here and there but nothing major

Since this is a Ubisoft game, I think we need to talk about the stability of the game. I encountered a few bugs during the game but nothing game-breaking. A few voice clips cutting off in the middle (happened maybe twice) and a cashier that teleports itself in the middle of the store and becoming untalkable after a selfie taken. The worst I had was exiting my inventory and I couldn't go right. The direction was unresponsive and I had to exit the screen through the left side and come back to be able to move right again. The game didn't crash on me at all so that's a plus!

OVERALL
// I loved it

As a whole, I really loved the game. I'm not sure if it's better than the Stick of Truth but the portrayal of my favorite superheroes from the show is spot-on. The game does drag on for a little too long, a feeling I didn't have in the previous game. There are also a few things that felt unnecessary additions like Crafting. Other than the the gameplay is fun and it maintains the authenticity of the show. It's still a fun tactical RPG that I'd recommend for South Park fans out there!

STATISTICS
// For stats nerds out there!

My average playing time: 24 hours
# Playable Characters: 13 (1 always required)
# of Players: 1
Microtransactions: Nope