South Park: The Fractured but Whole
Watch the Trailers
Check out the following selection of kickass trailers for the game!
- South Park: The Fractured but Whole E3 2015 Announce Trailer
- Watch the 2016 trailer South Park: The Fractured But Whole Trailer â E3 2016 Trailer
- Watch the Gameplay Trailer South Park: The Fractured But Whole Trailer â Gameplay Trailer
- Watch the trailer South Park: The Fractured But Whole Trailer â "Coon Conspiracy" Trailer
- Watch the 2017 trailer South Park: The Fractured But Whole Trailer â "Farting Vigilante" Trailer
- Watch the E3 2017 "Take a Stand" Trailer
Additional promotional footage has also been released:
- Watch the Civil War unfold with Gameplay Footage from IGN at Gamescon 2016.
- Check out the Peppermint Hippo in the new E3 2017 Gameplay Walkthrough!
- There's also a Behind the Scenes video with Matt and Trey!
Official Description
From the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, comes South Park: The Fractured but Whole, a sequel to 2014's award-winning South Park: The Stick of Truth.
Players will once again assume the role of the New Kid, and join South Park favorites Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman in a new hilarious and outrageous RPG adventure.
In South Park: The Fractured but Whole, players will delve into the crime-ridden underbelly of South Park with Coon and Friends. This dedicated group of crime fighters was formed by Eric Cartman whose superhero alter-ego, The Coon, is half man, half raccoon. As the New Kid, players will join Mysterion, Toolshed, The Human Kite, Mosquito, Mint-Berry Crunch and a host of others to battle the forces of evil while Coon strives to make his team the most beloved superheroes in history.
Story
Crime is on the rise in the hapless town of South Park, and the abduction of the missing cat Scrambles, suspected as part of an international conspiracy, draws the Coon back into crimefighting, at the helm of Coon and Friends, an ambitious up-and-coming superhero franchise. While the mysterious benefactor behind the crime wave enlists Professor Chaos, bringer of destruction and doom, to take out the superheroes for a hefty sum, the heroes themselves are divided by a 'civil war' over the future of their franchise plan, with the possibility of a Netflix series at stake... and only the return of the New Kid, aka the 'Farting Vigilante', can help bring balance and save the town.
Assigned as the sidekick of Captain Diabetes, the New Kid is forced to accompany him to infiltrate the Peppermint Hippo strip club and pose as a stripper in order to locate a woman with a penis tattoo, who may hold a clue to Scrambles' location... after questioning to wealthy regulars, and mixing up a fart-laden drink for the Peppermint Hippo DJ, they discover Classi is the woman in question.
Character Classes
Though only a few classes are available to the player at the start of the game, a total of twelve classes can be unlocked altogether, and the player has the option of occasionally changing their class or eventually being able to dual-class or further. Abilities can be upgraded individually, allowing the player to establish a custom, one-of-a-kind hero unlike any other that fits their playing style.
The classes include:
- Speedster: The 'fast' class, which boasts abilities connected to moving at supersonic speeds, heavily modeled on DC Comics' the Flash and Marvel Comics' Quicksilver.
- Blaster': The ranged class, based on characters who use energy charges or projectile weapons.
- Brutalist: The brute strength base class, which is more similar to the superhuman strength of characters like DC Comics' Superman or Marvel Comics' the Thing.
- Additional classes will include Elementalist, Gadgeteer, Mystic, Cyborg, Psychic, Assassin, Commander, Netherborn, and Karate Kid.
Gameplay Mechanics
Combat System
While the previous game featured a straightforward, traditional turn-based combat system akin to most fantasy role-playing games, this game has a new grid-based combat system that remains turn-based but is much more refined. The player can now move their characters every turn, as well as build larger parties of allies that can be in play at once, against larger groups of opponents. This system encourages strategy from player and opponent alike, as attacks now knock back, or even forward, characters, which can make them more or less succeptible to certain attacks. Movement on the grid opens up some attacks and closes others.
While the 'magic' system of the previous game is discarded due to the shift in theme to superheroics, the player's farts remain a valuable asset, with the capability to alter time and space, by for example re-arranging the order of attacks in battle. (The exact details of this power have not yet been laid out or confirmed.)
Every character also has an 'Ultimate' ability linked to their most powerful attacks, which is fueled by every hit made against an opponent over the course of a battle - these attacks are often accompanied by over-the-top and outlandish visuals, such as the Human Kite flying to space to shoot laser beams.
Collectibles and Items
While the last game expected the player to collect Chinpokomon toys, this time around the player will instead focus on collecting valuable Yaoi art pieces featuring Craig Tucker and Tweek Tweak, which has become a collecting hobby for Craig's Dad since the episode where the two began dating.
The social media element of the previous game returns with Coonstagram replacing the Facebook-like system, with the same objective to make friends with other characters, as well as to fill out a 'character sheet' with information on the player's character, such as class, gender, race, etc.
Although details are scarce so far, the game will include a new crafting system, ensuring that all loot is valuable to the player.
Factions
Like in the previous game, the main characters are divided into two main, competing factions, and it is expected the player will be given a choice between them, although the demo video shows the player only working as a member of Cartman's original Coon and Friends team. Although not selectable, Professor Chaos also has a faction of minions at his bidding, although some clips suggest he will ally with the player later.
Memorable Quotes
- "Why did we choose this life? Why did we become super heroes? We dedicate our lives to fighting crime for one reason... to make a billion dollars on a superhero franchise." - The Coon
- "There's nothing wrong with rehashing the same material in order to start a franchise!" - Toolshed
- "Go ahead, I bet you don't even get halfway through Phase One on your franchise, DC Comics!!" - The Coon
- "Everybody's dad FUCKED everybody's mom!" - The Human Kite
- "I guess you have farts that stop time or something?" - Toolshed
- "Eric, you must listen to me. Right now I am speaking to you telepathically. Your franchise is going nowhere. Face the truth. You guys are kind of douchebags." - Professor Timothy
- "He just called us douchebags, in my mind." - The Coon
- "How long before Daredevil becomes the Punisher? Oh, three seasons...? THREE SEASONS!" - Concerned Citizen
Main Characters (Buddies)
- The following characters are expected to be playable allies within the player character's party, although details may change.
Characters
Summonables
- Some of the town's friendly faces are happy to provide the player assistance in their quest to save the town. (We'll see on details.)
Bosses
- Watch out for these guys. They're not so nice, especially in combat. (We'll see on details.)
Additional Characters
- The following characters have been seen in gameplay footage or mentioned in official news coverage, but their exact role in the game has not been defined.
Character Debuts
The game will probably contain some characters new to the South Park universe, and whoever they are, they'll be included here.
Locations
- The following locations have been seen in gameplay footage or mentioned in official news coverage, but their exact role in the game has not been defined.
- Although some locations from South Park: The Stick of Truth have not been seen, news coverage has suggested virtually all of these locations will return, and some, such as the Park County Police Station, will have new rooms.
Quests
Day One (Main Quests)
- Origin Story
- Civil War
- Desperately Seeking Dick Tattoo
Side Quests
Release Date
The current official release date for South Park: The Fractured But Whole is expected to be on October 17, 2017.
The game had previously been set for release on December 6, 2016 before undergoing and indefinite delay towards "spring", but despite media speculation over distribution platform placeholders, these were the only two dates ever officially released by South Park or Ubisoft.
Behind the Scenes
After the successful release of South Park: The Stick of Truth, development for South Park was shifted from the critically acclaimed Obsidian Entertainment, to the more recently established Ubisoft San Francisco. Matt Stone and Trey Parker remain firmly involved and wrote the game's script as they had the previous entry, and Jason Schroeder serves as the game's Senior Producer at Ubisoft San Francisco.
While the previous game had been acclaimed for replicating the show's iconic construction paper style, the original South Park elements had to all be re-created and re-animated in Flash for use in the game, requiring collaboration between the developers and South Park' artists. For the sequel, Ubisoft San Francisco aimed to simplify this process by building an entirely new game engine that is fully capable of not only replicating the show's trademark art style, but also importing the original art assets used in the show. This enables not only total accuracy, but the ability to lift new characters, props, locations and other assets created for Season Twenty, while the game is still in production.
The game consequently incorporates a number of elements introduced in seasons (S17 on, largely) that were created shortly before or after the release of the previous game, such as PC Principal and Classi, who both debuted in Season Nineteen, and the layout of the map has been changed to include the gentrified ShiTpaTown, although other classic South Park locations are still being added, such as the Peppermint Hippo strip club. The game's development also effected the show, as it was Senior Producer Jason Schroeder who brought Matt and Trey's attention to the fan art about Tweek and Craig that became the cataylist for the episode "Tweek x Craig", which in turn informed the game's development.
It is not currently known how Herbert Garrison will factor into the game after his unforseen election as President, although some development videos depicted him being used for scale.
Pop Culture References
With its focus on Coon and Friends, the principal focus of the game's satire is the popularity of Superhero films and cinematic universe mega-franchises. New aspects of this satire include:
- Fastpass is a 'speedster' just like DC comics' the Flash and Marvel Comics' Quicksilver...
- ..but his name is actually a double reference to Disney's Fast Pass, which allows patrons to move further in lines, as well as the fact that Jimmy is sometimes allowed to move to the front of the line because of his disability..
- Professor Timothy (replacing Iron Maiden) has telepathic abilities that are inspired by Professor Charles Xavier from the X-Men film franchise.
- The 'civil war' concept at the game's center was the focus of a controversial Marvel Comics' storyline that was loosely used as a basis for the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War, which splintered the Avengers into factions lead by Captain America, and Iron Man.
- Cartman's reference to not introducing solo films for "the black superhero" or "the chick", in "phase three", is a reference to the upcoming release of the 2018 film Black Panther by Marvel Studios, the first solo film about the titular black superhero, and the later 2019 release of Captain Marvel by the same studio, which will be Marvel Studios' first solo film with a female superheroine. They are considered part of Marvel's own third phase of films.
- DC Comics released the first major film to focus on a female superheroine with Wonder Woman in June 2017, after a string of failures in previous attempts at Supergirl and Catwoman spin-offs.
- The focus on Netflix is actually in reference to the critically-acclaimed released of Daredevil, Jessica Jones and other series via their platform, which are still within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- This is referenced more directly when a citizen questions "how long until Daredevil becomes the Punisher?" to which he is informed three seasons. Punisher is set for a release on Netflix in 2017, while the third season of Daredevil is set to be released after the game.
- Super Craig and Wonder Tweek's names, at least, are taken from DC Comics' iconic Superman and Wonder Woman.
- The two source superheroes have occasionally been teased for a potential romantic relationship in the past, only becoming a serious relationship from 2012 to 2016.
- A movie entitled Professor Chaos Squad is included among the Coon's detailed plans - a pretty easy nod to the 2016 film Suicide Squad.
Additional pop culture references:
- Toolshed and The Human Kite briefly argue over whether or not it's "okay to rehash the same material to start a franchise", which is compared to the work of J. J. Abrams, who had recently released Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015, which was widely seen as a 'rehash' of the original film.
- This criticism would be echoed significantly in Season Twenty's storyline, which features Herbert Garrison claiming the film is "more like a Happy Days renion special than a movie".
- Abrams had also previously been involved with the Star Trek reboot, and Star Trek Into Darkness, which underwent similar criticism for being similar to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which has been quoted in previous episodes, such as "Spontaneous Combustion".
Bonus Factoids
Pointless Observations
- In most episodes of the show, Main Street is depicted with businesses along both the northern and southern sides of the street, including in cutscenes for South Park: The Stick of Truth, but here, even in cut scenes, there are only buildings on the northern side, while the south is lined with trees.
- The Peppermint Hippo strip club is now ironically located not far behind the Park County Police Station, a change for the game that was first glimpsed in "Not Funny".