When Ubisoft announced it was publishing a licensed game with Obsidian set in the South Park universe in 2012 there was some skepticism. Previous titles under the South Park name had been released by that point, and all with mixed-to-negative reviews. However, something was different with South Park: The Stick of Truth. The creators of the show, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, were reported to be directly involved in the scriptwriting and premise, as well as voice-acting. This was done with the goal of creating a classic fantasy RPG set in the South Park universe; it wanted to be a game that felt like a playable episode of the TV show.
With a new South Park title in the works, The Stick of Truth should be a model for this upcoming game. South Park: The Stick of Truth used the show's Game of Thrones parody and characters as a basis for its story. It released to near-unanimous praise from critics, who complimented the combat system, immersion, and writing. With all this success a sequel was inevitable, and South Park: The Fractured But Whole would release in 2017 and ditch the high-fantasy tropes to instead lampoon the MCU and DC Universe superheroes. However, the sequel no longer seemed like an interesting novelty, and instead just felt like an ordinary sequel.
The Problem With Sequels
South Park: The Stick of Truth retained and expanded upon the best of the edgy humor that the show has become known for. For example, its class selection has standard fantasy classes like Mage and Fighter, but the player can also choose to be a Jew, which is similar to the holy-wielding cleric in more typical games. Design choices like this are what set apart South Park: The Stick of Truth from its RPG contemporaries, and especially its sequel - which can't help but feel tamer by comparison. Most of the brilliance of The Stick of Truth comes from bold design choices.
Just like the TV show, the South Park games are at their best when heavily satirizing a chosen source. The Stick of Truth made fun of fantasy RPG gaming tropes while filling the plot with plenty of references to South Park's well-known moments. While South Park: The Fractured But Whole improves on some aspects of its predecessor like with a new grid-based combat field, it can't help but feel overshadowed because it wasn't as groundbreaking as The Stick of Truth. The new South Park game must be bold in the same way as The Stick of Truth, rather than playing it safer like The Fractured But Whole.
The Next South Park Game
It was recently confirmed that there will be a new South Park video game, this time as an in-house project. It will also be 3D, which means it likely won't be a direct follow-up to the 2.5D RPGs. The next game in the South Park franchise could do the same thing as The Stick of Truth but with a different genre. It would be great to see Trey Parker and Matt Stone's take on the overly serious first-person shooter genre, for example, or even put together a South Park racing game. Though the franchise is seemingly now tied to RPGs, South Park should still consider taking a risk and branching out as it did with The Stick of Truth.
If this new title wants to see the same kind of success as The Stick of Truth, it should model itself and its ambitions after the first game instead of The Fractured But Whole. Bold design decisions that challenge pre-existing genre conventions, as well as fearless writing, are what set The Stick of Truth apart from its sequel. What exactly Trey Parker and Matt Stone have in store remains under wraps for now, but with the related news of the South Park Viacom deal, it's never been a better time to be a South Park fan.
A South Park game is in development.