Since its introduction in 1997, South Park has consistently been one of the best comedies on television, lampooning three separate presidential administrations and nearly every major current you can think of. But it wasn’t until Obsidian and Ubisoft brought the series into the RPG realm that we ever saw a great video game adaptation — The Stick of Truth delivered the art style, writing, and goofiness that fans expected and with the game’s follow-up, The Fracture: But Whole, Ubisoft San Francisco promises another true South Park experience.
Speaking to the PlayStation Blog, senior producer Jason Schroeder says that, as with the previous game, series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are heavily involved with the day-to-day production of The Fractured But Whole, primarily to make sure the jokes and atmosphere stay loyal to the source material.
“We have daily calls and I’m down there a few times a month just constantly trying to make sure that they’re getting the comedy they want in the game and making sure that it all makes sense moment to moment,” Schroeder says.
Schroeder also emphasizes that there is one large difference in the writing between the game and the show, however: the deadlines. He calls this a “brutally long” time for Stone and Parker, who are used to sprinting toward the finish line to get an episode completed before Wednesday night. This time frame is so short that occasionally episodes have to be edited after airing the first time; a character was misidentified in the episode “Bass to Mouth” and it was subsequently fixed during reruns.
While South Park has made a reputation for itself by utilizing a single joke over the course of an episode — often something ignorant spouted by Cartman — Ubisoft is aware that this formula will not work in a longer RPG. But don’t expect this change in style to ruin the writing.
“My aspiration is to make sure every South Park fan gets an unedited Matt Stone and Trey Parker experience,” Schroeder adds.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole hits Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on December 6.
