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Obsidian Entertainment - South Park RPG Details

A Neogaff forum member has recieved his copy of GameInformer and posted some details for South Park RPG. Here are a few snippets:

Quote:

Basics
-The first game Parker and Stone have directly participated in, writing the script and the dialogue.
-Parker has always preferred silent protagonists in RPG's, so the player’s character will be silent.
-The player’s character will be fully customizable.
-Your character has a smartphone that acts as the primary game menu and has a facebook-like app show your number of friends you have and your current standing with the various kid factions.
-There are five classes, which are wizard, paladin, adventurer, rogue, and a fifth unannounced class.
-Obsidian is using the Dungeon Siege III engine.
-Obsidian developed a dynamic lip-syncing tool to accommodate changes to the script.
-Parker and Stone gave Obsidian 15 years of assets used during the show and a detailed list of approved textures and colors.
-Critical hits, cash rewards, experience, and consumables are in the game.
-Parker hates unskippable cutscenes.
-The humor will be more focus on the games they have played in the past but Parker mentions that games have lampooned other games before so they don't want to do exactly that instead they are focusing more on RPG's on how big and bombastic they can get sometimes.
Story
-The player will play as the new kid in town, the main theme of the game is fitting in and being accepted.
Combat
-Many elements of the combat system are like Paper Mario and the Mario & Luigi games.
-If player initiates combat they will attack first and vice versa.
-X button is for melee attacks, pressing it in well-timed succession will result in multiple hits.
-Timed inputs occur for defense as well for reduced damage.
-Obsidian doesn't want the player to have to sit and watch animations play out; they're incorporating dynamic camera angels at certain times, such as a Ro Sham Bo attack that stuns an enemy.
RPG
-Enemy encounters are visible on the map.
-Soda are health potions and Tweak's coffee is a haste item.
-There are melee and ranged weapons, as well as a lightning powered Okama Gameshpere that is a magic item.
-There is a Final Fantasy Materia like system in the game to augment weapons with various abilities like fire, poison, and electricity.
-There is a Summon System but they are not able to talk about it.
Other
-When Obsidian were first coming up with ideas they show Parker and Stone a quest where you go into a cave and fight a giant bat boss that Ike is riding on, Parker and Stone said that the quest wasn't Southpark, that it was a generic video-game. Parker and Stone then mention a quest to get Kung Pao Chicken from City Wok, to readjust Obsidian focus.
-When they start making the town hub Parker and Stone realized that they did not have a true layout for the town, so they had fun figuring out where everything went.
-There will not be any platforming, they tried jumping early on but it didn't seem right.
-They talk about how they have had to scrap level because the perspective wasn't right because everything is hand illustrated and hand animated.
-They talk about the challenges of making a comedy driven game, Portal 2 is mention, they say if Portal 2 dialogue was on top of a shitty game it wouldn't be as good, so they want to make a game that is as good as the dialogue.

More information.

hmmm, it'll be interesting to see if this project will ever evolve to a serious RPG (in game play not humor). I see a 19.99 casual game. Obsidion gives me hope, Parker's involvment in game design does not.

That reads like a checklist by a kid. *MAH!* I want this.. and this… and this. OH! And this .. and this. This is going to be sooo coool!

I'm hoping they stick to the script and dialogue and let the big boys handle the rest. If not then you know that old saying, "too many cooks spoil the broth."

EDIT: This sounds like the Penny Arcade Game:

Quote:

-If player initiates combat they will attack first and vice versa.
-X button is for melee attacks, pressing it in well-timed succession will result in multiple hits.
-Timed inputs occur for defense as well for reduced damage.

Not too thrilled about that idea. I didn't care for their game. For the third one they have Zeboyd Games (Cthulhu Saves the World) making it so it might have a chance this time around.

Huh ? "New Kid in town/on the block" ??? And fighting ???

For once I kind of disagree with the comments here. It does seem like some of their adjustments and requirements are odd, but South Park is their marquee franchise, I can understand them being picky about it, especially considering they are involved with the scripting. This game's bread and butter will be the humor, probably not the in-depth RPG elements, so I don't think we should expect that. It will probably still be fun. It fits that they have drawn some elements from Final Fantasy, considering that the show has poked fun at Japanese animated shows (also where the classes come in to play).

Anyway, it's going to be a RPG, but I expect it to be more of a play on RPG's than anything. If we fall into the trap of critiquing gameplay elements too much, we will be just the group that Matt and Trey will be poking fun at. Like anything else they've done, it won't be fun if it's taken too seriously.

$19.99 casual game? Highly doubtful considering the name on the box. If they are going to tease the bombastic nature of many RPG's, I would expect their too be plenty of silly content. I am somewhat excited for this game, but more as a fan of South Park and humor than as a hardcore gaming experience.

The writing for Penny Arcade's game was good as well, but the combat was horrible. If they stick to what they are good at and leave the rest to Obsidian then it might be fun.

I don't think anyone here is under the illusion that this will be a serious RPG. I'll still buy it unless the reviews for it are horrible. I like South Park. I like Obsidian. I just hope leave the gameplay to Obsidian.

Quote:

elements of the combat system are like Paper Mario

What does this mean? I've never even heard of that before.

The more I hear about this game, the dumber it sounds. Like, the total opposite of how it should be, lol. I'm still waiting for someone to say it's an April's fool joke….

-Carn

Obsidian, what a waste…

Probably best RPG writters. And all they get is making Dungeon Siege , South park and odd sequels …

Quote:

Originally Posted by CountChocula (Post 1061110130)

What does this mean? I've never even heard of that before.

JRPG is my guess.

Paper Mario Battle

"-When Obsidian were first coming up with ideas they show Parker and Stone a quest where you go into a cave and fight a giant bat boss that Ike is riding on, Parker and Stone said that the quest wasn't Southpark, that it was a generic video-game. Parker and Stone then mention a quest to get Kung Pao Chicken from City Wok, to readjust Obsidian focus."

This right here, tells me that once again Obsidian have already failed with yet another great IP! Le sigh…

For any game to be fun to me I need to be able to lose myself in the immersion of the world. I rarely watch TV or movies as they are just not my cup of tea so an RPG I might play based upon a TV or movie would probably be difficult for me to enjoy. As an example, the recent couple of Batman (non-RPG) games seem fun but I just don't enjoy the Batman comics or shows and so I probably wouldn't enjoy those games. South Park has no interest for me but we'll see how it goes once this is released, if reviews are good enough and I feel like I can be immersed in this RPG's world then maybe. By contrast, make a Star Wars game and I'm there (I enjoyed the Star Wars movies).

There's been, maybe, 1 decent episode in the last two seasons. AND… The South Park movie sucked.

This has "tank" written all over it.

NLFed, I am with you on that. I really don't watch TV ever (don't even own one), but I make an exception for South Park and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and catch them online whenever I can. Movies, on the other hand, I love!

Chaos, I highly doubt it will be a failure, at least from a financial standpoint. The reason Obsidian said that this was a project they couldn't turn down is because they are aware of just how big South Park's following is. They have a nice-sized group of hardcore followers that never miss the show when it airs and a legion of more casual followers that will watch it when it happens to be on TV or when it is convenient for them. Plus, Matt and Trey are riding a wave of grammy nominations and numerous Tony awards from the Book of Mormon. I would say the game may not be a critical success, but I see very little stopping it from being a commercial success.

Season 13 was pretty good though. It wasn't that long ago - it's not like they suddenly became unfunny, most shows have good/bad seasons.

The fact that Parker and Stone seem to be very involved makes this more interesting.
That is in a not exclusively good way though, because there's no reason to assume they have any kind of skill when it comes to working on a game. However, the fact they chose to do an RPG of all things might be a sign that they're taking it seriously.

Quote:

Originally Posted by skavenhorde (Post 1061110129)

You and I are agreed. I think it's good that they are both involved in a sort of silly and fun experience. Obsidian is probably my favorite current RPG developer, so I am going to give this project a quirky thumbs up.

This has to be a joke. I like south park it's hilarious, but I have 0 interest in this game.
Who is it going to be targeted at? It seems like a kiddie game but south park is definitely not for kids. I know it has a huge following but will fans really want to play this? The simpsons have a huge following but those game weren't big successes.

Quote:

Obsidian is using the Dungeon Siege III engine.

Seriously? >:(

I was starting to have a glimmer of hope after hearing that Parker and Stone were doing the writing, but I was really hoping they would be using something better than the DS3 engine.