"South Park: The Stick of Truth" - Best Game for Franchise, Too Short!

      I’m a bit late to the party on this game, but I wanted to do a review on Obsidian Entertainment/South Park Digital Studios game South Park: The Stick of Truth. Overall I felt this game was well executed with great gameplay and staying true to the source material. The only drawback here was that the game was quite short for a full length RPG experience. 

      The game places you as a new kid in South Park Colorado heading out into the town to meet new friends. Once in the world you meet the main characters from the show and get thrown into a war between the kids of South Park over the Stick of Truth, which enables the holder to do whatever they want. 

      Throughout the game you get to learn of the expanded plot much a like a typical television episode. In that regard this game shines, as it feel like you a participating in an actual episode of South Park. There is plenty of fanservice in the game for both the casual fan and the hardcore fanatic of the show. For me, not really being too much of a fan of the show, I wanted to see how the gameplay faired.  

      The gameplay was quite solid, it didn’t have the depth of your traditional JRPG games, but it would have been out of character for the game/show if it did. The battle system was just complicated enough to keep the battles fun and to not feel like a monotonous grind fest. Summons were entertaining but not required in any way. Magic was more for the puzzle aspects of the game than actual battle prowess. In battle it was a combination of skills and ranged vs. melee attacks for the most part. 

      As with the television show, there were certainly elements that went into the gross out range as opposed to comedic. Overall I was surprised to see this really only happened twice in the game, more would have certainly turned me off. I found myself trudging through these sections just to move on with the game. 

      The verdict on this game is that if you enjoy South Park and traditional turn based RPGs you will enjoy this game. I would recommend to wait for the price to drop, as this game clocks in around under 20 hours for the main storyline, which is well under the standard for this genre. At it’s current price point I would only recommend this to the hardcore fans (who likely already have it and played it.)