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South Park: The Fractured But Whole is a role-playing game based on the popular TV series South Park. It was released for the Nintendo Switch in April 2018. Like the show, the game has a lot of meta-narrative and crude commentary in its story and mechanics.

Gameplay[]

The game is played in a 2.5D perspective similar to the TV show with the player able to explore South Park with a grid based battle system with attacks able to hit rows and columns. The player and up three allies work together on one side of grid with enemies on the other. The grid can also have hazards like exploding barrels and "lava". Attacks can be boosted with well timed button presses and restore HP, There is also a status effect system with certain moves.

In this game, the player plays as the "New Kid", a fully customizable character with the choice of one of 10 hero archetypes being the Speedsters, the Brutalists, Blasters, Elementalists, Cyborgs, Psychics, Assassins, Gadgeteer, Plantmancer, and Martial Artists though only 3 classes are available from the start. Each class has proficiencies and weaknesses and an Ultimate attack that can be used by filling the bar during battle with timed button presses. Attacks can be mixed and matched with classes after being sufficently learned.

The game has DLC content that can be purchased on its own or as a season pass.

Plot[]

Cartman and the other children decide to play superheroes with the goal of launching a superhero media franchise by finding a missing cat and claiming the $100 reward. The New Kid joins the game and Cartman provides them with a tragic backstory; having witnessed "your dad fuck your mom", with Cartman apparently not realizing that this is normal, not an act of betrayal.

The children's search uncovers a conspiracy led by a new kingpin who has united the police; the Italian, Chinese, and Russian crime families; and the sixth graders to steal cats and use their urine to contaminate drugs and alcohol, making the townspeople act crazily and raising crime, which will be blamed on the mayor. Coon and Friends defeat the kingpin's henchman Professor Chaos and Cartman surmises that the mastermind is Mitch Conner, a crude hand puppet drawn on Cartman's left hand. The New Kid and Chaos are sent to infiltrate the Freedom Pals to gain more information, culminating in the two groups co-operating to take down the police department, who are helping Mitch become the new mayor so they can have fewer restrictions on fighting crime. Afterwards, the children join Freedom Pals after learning they have developed a franchise plan that is more inclusive than Cartman's.

The next day, Mitch kidnaps the New Kid's parents and destroys the Freedom Pals' franchise plan. The Freedom Pals capture Cartman, who insists he has no control over Mitch and reveals that the New Kid's parents are being held at a genetic engineering lab. There, the Freedom Pals learn Mitch has been funding the creation of an army of mutated cats and sixth graders, which Mitch unleashes on the children. Battling through the mutants, the New Kid finds their parents and is forced to kill one of them to continue. At the exit, the Freedom Pals are ambushed by Kyle—the mutated clone of Kyle's cousin—and Mitch. The New Kid uses a powerful fart to defeat the clone, which accidentally transports the Freedom Pals one week into the future, where Mitch is the mayor.

With aid from Morgan Freeman, the New Kid learns to time travel with their farts. They travel to the future where Mitch has completed his master plan to make every day Christmas Day, causing drunken anarchy throughout the town. They then travel to the past and confront Cartman before he can start the superhero game. Mitch reveals himself and punches the New Kid, causing a fart that sends them back to the New Kid's superhero origin. Cartman and the New Kid's interference prevents the New Kid's father from having sex with their mother, changing the past. The New Kid's parents reveal their secret; they have the superhuman ability to amass social media followers. The government kidnapped the parents to harness their powers, during which time they fell in love and had the New Kid. They escaped to protect their child and gave them medicine to suppress their powers, causing extreme flatulence.

Knowing the truth, the New Kid time travels with Cartman to the day of Mitch's inauguration. Cartman escapes a confrontation with the Freedom Pals and prepares to be sworn in as Mitch. The Freedom Pals use social media to publicly reveal Mitch's plot and accuse Cartman of raising crime so the Coon would have more crime to fight, giving him a bigger franchise. Mitch confesses he was traumatized as a child because "someone fucked my dad." Mitch's mother appears on Cartman's right hand and reveals that it was her and asks for forgiveness. They fight and both "die", ending Mitch's plot, while the townspeople resolve to obtain clean drugs and alcohol from the neighboring town.

After the credits, the New Kid returns home to find both parents are alive and, unburdened by the secret they were keeping, their relationship is happier. While the New Kid's parents go upstairs to have sex, Professor Chaos confronts the New Kid with the truth that no matter how much they change the past, "your dad will always have fucked your mom." Chaos offers the New Kid a chance to take an alternative path.

Reception[]

South Park: The Fractured but Whole received positive reviews from critics.

External links[]

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