South Park: The Stick of Truth (with Adam Rivera)

Adam 00:50

Yeah, like yeah, my niche is like weird rpgs I guess that come with huge caveats.

Dave 00:51

So third time on the show by my count. Yeah, good to have you back? Yeah, yeah, this is another niche rpg with a huge caveat. We're talking about today. We're talking about South Park, the stick of truth Which is an rpg developed by obsidian entertainment and South Park Studios and published by Ubisoft for contemporary systems in 13 now if you're playing it in modern times that you can probably play it on whatever console or. You know the gaming system that you have it's just about everywhere now if you haven't played South Park the stick of truth we are going to have the normal breakdown of the show a non spoiler section and then a clearly marked and shouted out spoiler wall and then after that we'll stick to the story spoilers but like.

This is an episode of southpark this is not a story that's gonna change your life or anything like that we are gonna keep specifics and specifically like some of the the shocking stuff I suppose the memorable stuff into that spoiler section so you can jump out if you don't want to be spoiled if you think you want to play this game for yourself. So. Elevator pitches for South Park the stick of truth for people who don't know I say again I go first I'm the host I take the easy 1 play through an episode of South Park for real this time compared to the old games.

Adam 02:15

Um. Ah, yeah, exactly and I remember my first initial thought when I weighed when I booted up the game way back when this looked exactly like the show like you could play a contemporary episode right next to it. They would look exactly the same.

Dave 02:28

Yep. Exactly.

Adam 02:35

Also I don't know um know I don't know if this is just worth saying up top. Ah, it is an episode of South Park. It's a very funny but crude kind of game. So subject matter wise if there's some stuff here that people may be uncomfortable with ah.

Dave 02:42

Oh yeah. Yeah, absolutely yeah, um, a little you know I think it's a fairly standard you know content warning as far as anything South Park does you know there are jokes about abortion. There's.

Adam 02:53

So just up the top. No, that's coming.

Dave 03:07

A lot of casual racism. You know the Hallmark standards basically going on here. Yeah yes, nudity Yeah South Park Nudity which is a very special brand of nudity. Um, I played this.

Adam 03:10

Yeah, a lot of sex stuff in general. Yeah, so weird.

Dave 03:25

On my ps 5 when I replayed the game just now it took me 9 hours to beat. I did a good number of side quests. Not a very long game. This is my second time playing it. But I had played it a long time ago. So it's not like I was super familiar with how aware everything was this time around. 9 hours not a long game is that about how it went for you Adam.

Adam 03:45

Um. I pretty much followed the same kind of trajectory I bought it on 3 60 not at launch probably like a year or 2 after um, fell off it for whatever reason like not that it wasn't doing anything for me I don't know just one of those things. Um. Replayed it now also on ps 5 through the Ps plus service, and I put in about 11 hours and did most of the side quests as well. Ah, damn if I'm going to hunt down all the chinpokomon but most of the other actual content I did see.

Dave 04:14

Right? Yeah yep, yep, same I feel like I was pretty completionist other than the chin pokemon. Yeah, same here. So. Back when you first played it on the three sixty because that's where I first played it to um, what made you want to play this are you a fan of South Park I know you're a fan of rpgs so was it more the rpg or was it more the south park.

Adam 04:38

Ah, it was definitely more the Rpg this kind of South Park in general had like a weird reputation at the time of like any game about it is trash ah kind of like the same thing like the batman games had going for a long time prior to arkham. Um, so I forget where it was but I did read like a making of kind of interview about the game pre-re Release and it just sounded like something that might be cool and fun and it looks like I so like we've said like like the show. So there's definitely a hook there.

Dave 05:16

Yeah, absolutely like so for me, the draw was South Park and it was like when you first saw the trailers back when it was being promoted as soon as they showed the gameplay. You're like oh that's exactly like this show which is not the case.

Adam 05:16

Here's something unique and interesting. Ah.

Dave 05:34

With the old south park games before this um I had the one on the n sixty four the the one that's just called South Park I never played South Park rally that game looks like trash but the one on the n64 is also trash a terrible terrible game and I actually replayed it last year

Adam 05:44

Um, yeah.

Dave 05:53

Ah, because I went on the Remember 64 podcast to do an episode about it so that was one of those games where like even when I was 11 I played it and I was like this sucks like this is bad. Yeah, so.

Adam 06:05

Yeah, um I played that way back when I don't remember the quality of it I do remember just being really enamored by the weapons that it was using like yeah like using a.

Dave 06:15

Creative weapons for sure. Yeah, like the cow launcher and wheezing a chicken to shoot eggs and stuff like that. Yeah yeah, everything I wanted when I was 11 for sure. So.

Adam 06:21

Yeah, the cow launcher. Yeah, peeing on a snowball. Yeah.

Dave 06:32

I'm a longtime fan of the show. I would say a long time but like I stopped watching the show at least ten years ago but for the 10 years and or like 15 years prior to that I was a big fan of the show and one of the things that I like.

Adam 06:41

Ah.

Dave 06:51

I guess it would maybe be a leap of faith but I thought that this game would be like the old style of the show. So that's why I was as excited as I was plus I also love rpg so when it came out that they announced it was a turn-based rpg. Didn't know anything about obsidian at the time and that name meant nothing to me. But the fact that it was a turn based rpg that looked like the show maybe want to replay it or maybe you want to play for the first time rather.

Adam 07:09

Um, yeah. Right? Um I yeah I kind of did the same thing I watched the show off and on for like the first 10 seasons or so I caught most of the major like landmark episodes like the lord of the rings stand becoming a goth.

Dave 07:33

Yeah

Adam 07:35

You know Chimp Pokemon All the all the all the classics and then in terms of the game like that same article I mentioned of like the making of it they had mentioned that they weren't doing so much topical humor as they were doing kind of evergreen humor about video games in general and that kind of angle like yeah South Park. Writers have like really good points to make sometimes not lately. But you know like those same early episodes like they're great examinations of random things. So like I figured through that lens there could be some good stuff here about like you know the video game industry Trends and whatnot.

Dave 07:55

Yeah, if I. The name. Yeah, yeah, exactly and this game does have a bunch of like Meta video game humor in it which is part of its lasting appeal I think that's one of the things about this game that's going to work for. Ah. Most people who play it and then like the south park humor like that crude stuff that's going to be very up to the individual person. How funny they still find that this was in 2013 so we have like a combination of um, just. Society being or like elite society at least in the groups that like we hang out in you know, being less tolerant of this and also I am 10 years older than I was the first time I played it I was you know 25 rather than being 35 now and it's a big and I've seen and experienced a lot and it's a.

We just have a different outlook on South Park Humor At this point. Um I Want to make note at the top if anyone is interested in playing this on playstation if you have Ps plus like the one with the extra tier.

Adam 09:04

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Dave 09:20

You can play this on there because they have an agreement with Ubisoft where you can play all the Ubisoft plus games on there so that was nice. I did not have to rebuy this on playstation and I also want to shout out our friends over at the retro hangover podcast in their discord server. They do a monthly. Book club game club thing called the retro hangover review crew and this was the game of the month in November so that kind of gave me the push to play it. The fact that it's not a very long game. So. Playing along with them and then I started playing ah then then you started playing it I was like hey let's just let's just do an episode. This is fun.

Adam 09:57

Um, yeah I've been meeting to come back to it like since I fell off it. However, many years ago just to finish it. Um, so it was a good little kick in the pants to get going.

Dave 10:03

Yeah. Yeah, takes and you went on to play the sequel the fractured butt hole right? you.

Adam 10:12

Yeah, they're both on ps plus I enjoyed both of them deeply amazingly. This is not a derision of either 1 but like they're about the same in terms of quality like jokes gameplay everything some.

Dave 10:23

Mean.

Adam 10:28

1 does some things better than the other. The other one does other things better than the other ah but they're both equally worth your time. Um I will probably drop some changes and things that worked for me better in the sequel throughout our conversation here just to see if anyone was looking for opening thoughts on that. But yes, they are both worth your time.

Dave 10:40

Sure.

Adam 10:48

So much so that come this recent black friday sale I already played both of them. I rebought them again. Both games were $20 for a bundle of both games with the dlc. So I enjoyed them enough and hadn't played the dlc yet that I figured it was worth the money.

Dave 10:58

Nice. Nice. Yeah I Also played this sql couple years ago. Um I Also thought it was good like the kind of like what you said they're very similar. It's just I think what it really comes down to is if you like. Fantasy role-playing theme then play stick of truth and if you like superheroes then play fractured but whole they're otherwise they're very similar I wasn't able to finish the fractured butthole because the switch version kept crashing after a story cutscene No matter What I did uninstalled reinstalled. Whatever.

Adam 11:22

Um, yeah.

Dave 11:37

Didn't work so I never finished it but I did like it. So um.

Adam 11:38

And that sucks. Yeah, ah I don't know if it's an issue on the Xbox but PS five does have an issue of like randomly popping up that it can't connect to the server I don't know why it's trying to connect to a server but you'll just get a random popup every.

Dave 11:52

That's probably yeah.

Adam 11:55

Couple minutes that you just have to press a button to get through. It's annoying but you know didn't obviously break the game for me.

Dave 12:00

It's probably Ubisoft nonsense with their you know online stuff I'm mean it's gonna go ahead and blame them. Yeah, um so this game the stick of truth before we really dive into it just some ah quick.

Adam 12:05

More than likely. Yeah I do too.

Dave 12:17

You know, opening thoughts I think we've already said we both think this game is good. Um I think that as far as video game adaptations go this is probably you know top tier as far as I'm concerned for fans. Yeah for fans of South Park like

Adam 12:31

Oh yeah, one of the best.

Dave 12:37

I guess if you want to study this scientifically as an adaptation of a different medium into video games. This is really good for South Park fans. This is excellent like this is everything you could possibly want from a South Park video game. Um, it really plays out like a. You know, 9 or 10 episode special or special series or something like that. It's like a really long episode of the show. It's like they took that order of the rings episode and blew it up into 9 hours instead of what with 30 minutes or however.

Adam 13:08

Um, yeah.

Dave 13:16

Long it was and.

Adam 13:17

Yeah, I think the plot itself could probably fit into like a Netflix movie of South Park. A lot of the gameplay does come from battles and exploration and everything but the actual story content like it can make a good movie.

Dave 13:25

Yeah, yeah for sure and it did remind me a bit of the South Park movie which I also really really like as south park content. So you know as an adaptation this is as good as it gets as far as I know and. As far as the south park stuff goes I still found a lot of it pretty funny and the 1 thing that I really came away from this experience like thinking was that everyone involved took pride in making the best south park game that they could. Which again if you came from the South Park N 64 game that was not really the case with that one. I Am really happy with this game as a South Park fan and as a fan of rpgs like this. This is a fine rpg. It's not bad at all in the rpg department and it's not going to like blow your pants off.

As like a great role-playing game. But as a South Park RPG, it's really good stuff.

Adam 14:27

Yeah, this is hands down 0 caveats. My favorite game is made by obsidian um, which is a big statement considering they've made things like new vegas and outer what outer worlds I yeah.

Dave 14:41

Pentiment from last year yeah

Adam 14:44

Sentiment I have a lot of issues with those games that I end up coming out on like they're okay to me for me. Ah, but this zero caveats I would recommend this to someone to play as an Rpg I would recommend this to someone just to have like an entertaining few hours with it. Ah, it's a great piece of work. It's a great feather in the hat of art design over raw graphical power as we mentioned because it looks exactly like an episode and in terms of looking good like if you look exactly like a Tv show.

You don't need tons of power in your game graphically like you have an established look. You're going for and they nailed it.

Dave 15:27

Yeah, absolutely and a lot of the little stuff like the fan fan service you know references to stuff in the past of the show. All of that is done really really? well. So yeah I can't really ask for more as a fan of South Park that once. You know South Park video games so we are going to listen to a little bit of music from the game and when we come back, we're going to set up what this extended South Park episode is all about in South Park the stick of truth you play as a new kid.

Adam 15:48

Yeah.

Dave 16:05

Who moves to South Park to escape from a mysterious past that your character's forgotten. You hear your parents talking about it and stuff like that be like what? What do you do? Do you think he knows stuff like that? It's it's a really weird setup but it's funny because South Park pulls stuff like.

Adam 16:12

Um, yeah.

Dave 16:25

This off really well I think so you play as a new kid you create a character. Ah you can dress up your character, you can give them a name and then you pick a starting class rpg classes fighter mage thief and because this is South Park the fourth character class is jew.

Adam 16:27

Ah.

Dave 16:45

Which I picked I think I played as like a fighter or a mage. My first time playing I don't know it was ten years ago but jew this time around which class did you pick.

Adam 16:57

Ah I first time around back on 63 I did go wizard as well. Our mage this time I went fighter ah for just character creation terms. It's pretty robust in terms of making a South Park character like there was.

Dave 17:02

Nice up.

Adam 17:14

Simulations of this on the internet forever ago. Um I basically modeled mine after me in little school.

Dave 17:21

Yeah I made my character a little golf kid which was funny but when you pick your character class. They replace your starting clothes with special class specific clothes. So I had like ah a little golf kid with.

Adam 17:27

Awesome.

Dave 17:39

You know the goth haircut and um like black glasses but then he was draped in all the you know the Jewish clothes and stuff like that. So it was pretty funny. Um.

Adam 17:45

Right? Yeah, aside from the outfit. The only other thing classes seem to dictate is what status effects you get to right away but we'll get to it later when we talk about the combat but like status effects are huge so it actually is a meaningful choice.

Dave 17:53

Yeah. Yeah I don't remember this game being that Hard. It's not like you're gonna screw yourself over by picking a thief and not knowing how to use it or something like that. But yeah, yeah for sure.

Adam 18:10

Oh yeah, not everything's equally as useful. It's actually really fun that way.

Dave 18:18

Um, this I thought because I remembered one of the South Park games had the difficulty selector based on what color your skin is and that's not this game. It's the sequel that does that? yeah.

Adam 18:29

It's the sequel but it's not actually game difficulty. It's just how difficult your life is and employees out like the cops actually like to talk shit to you if you're darker because I am darker in real life life I pick like.

Dave 18:32

okay okay gotcha not Jesus I mean.

Adam 18:44

Not the darkest but next to darkest shade of skin and like literally I got like Barks from cops ever like they were suspicious of me. But but.

Dave 18:51

I think I picked a class that is similar to my own skin color which is just the most alabaster white that you could possibly imagine and I don't remember that So I think that ah that tracks Nice ah nice observation there South Park Um, so. In the stick of truth you arrive in South Park your parents kick you out of the house. They tell you to go make friends so you go outside and you see the local kids are all role-playing this giant war between humans and elves so they're like larping outside.. Basically if you've seen the.

Ah, Lord of the rings episode of South Park it's basically the same thing they're outside playing they got you know wooden swords and stuff they're smacking each other with um, you quickly meet butters and Cartman Cartman Dubs you douchebag so they get around the thing of like um.

Adam 19:37

Um, yeah.

Dave 19:47

You know in a lot of rpgs you create like final fantasy you create a name for your character and then voice acted characters. Don't know what your name is so they just avoid it in really awkward ways. This game doesn't do that because what's up. Yeah, right.

Adam 19:57

Yeah, they play the pronoun game. They play the pronoun game like he her. They.

Dave 20:06

Ah, this one doesn't they just call you douchebag for the entire game. So um, so you join the human side in this eternal struggle the humans and the elves are locked in the struggle for this powerful Relic known as the stick of truth and it's a.

Adam 20:08

Yeah.

Dave 20:24

Powerful weapon that can control the universe.

Adam 20:28

Um, real quick about your character too. You are a silent protagonist and everyone treats it weird. It's amazing like usually rpgs though this kind of keeps the conversation flowing around your character not talking this one.

Dave 20:29

Yeah, that yeah, the.

Adam 20:43

Absolutely acknowledges that you're not talking like your people will stare at you waiting for a response like are you going to say anything are you going to say anything Well then fuck you.

Dave 20:48

Yeah, yeah, it's very good. Um this ah this story set up with the kids roleplaying is really really well realized and well thought out I feel like so it's like.

Adam 21:05

It's amazing.

Dave 21:06

Yeah, it's like imagine what you and your friends would do if you were doing this when you were little kids like you would use stuff around the house as weapons So like the kids are fighting with Nerf guns. They have like wooden swords and because it's South Park they also have hammers and stuff they're hitting each other with.

Adam 21:15

A.

Dave 21:26

Um, but all the.

Adam 21:27

Yeah Hammers Ah Brooms I've seen like Lacrosse ah sticks.

Dave 21:32

Yeah, all the stuff armor is just stuff that they found around the house and like repurposed to be these fantasy weapons. Um, it's awesome because you know if you're not super familiar with South Park you're a group of fourth graders. That's it. The age group. We're dealing with it here.

Adam 21:48

Yeah, yeah, ah and it extends even to the combat like the attacks um are all coded as fantasy things like Cartman's a wizard. He's wearing a bathrobe that's his wizard rope. Um.

Dave 21:59

Um, yeah.

Adam 22:04

But he casts fireballs and his fireball magic is he pulls out a can of hairspray and a lighter and literally like blow torches somebody and it's a fireball and like everything is committed to that kind of bit and it's amazing and charming.

Dave 22:10

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's very good and this is like this is so nostalgic for me as like someone who liked South Park a long time ago because this is the kind of stuff they used to do. They used to write stories for their episodes that were like we're going to write a story about some mischief that fourth graders would get into that's like semi-realistic that kids might get into and then there's going to be some weird stuff along the way there's going to be like a celebrity.

Adam 22:50

Have.

Dave 22:53

Cameo parody but it's still very grounded in like little kids doing little kid stuff and then eventually along the line. They made a change and it's like I'm blaming their famous one week development cycle for an episode. They made a change where they were like our episodes are about.

Adam 22:57

Yeah. Um, yeah.

Dave 23:12

Current events and then there's gonna be little kid stuff sprinkled in there and this game and this story is the older style so there are celebrity appearances. There are callbacks to pass things on the show but this is not about a current event.

Adam 23:17

Um, yeah.

Dave 23:31

In 20 like Facebook is the only thing I can really point to as a current event thing that they are making fun of.

Adam 23:40

Um, ah, larping in general I think hit like kind of a popularity spike around this time as well. Ah, but it doesn't it never comments on you know that as a culture or anything. It's just using it as a backdrop.

Dave 23:43

Mean. Right? Yeah, and so like I think Modern South Park rightfully gets criticism for just making fun of everybody equally when in my opinion, not everything should be made fun of equally out there.

Adam 24:05

No.

Dave 24:07

But this is not that kind of story and it it's so for this reason, it's a very enjoyable south park story because it's just kids getting into weird nonsense and like there's there's weird stuff like fucking you know Nazi zombies and um. All this stuff. We talked about before like there's a whole level in an abortion clinic and there's a level like involving Mr slave and stuff like that. Um.

Adam 24:37

Yeah, ah, mostly like the big ninety I would say like 80% of it is just kids being shitty to each other and it's amazing.

Dave 24:42

Yeah, that's the core of South Park is those 4 kids being shitty to each other and then you throw in the side characters like butters and Jimmy and Craig and all of them.

Adam 24:55

I Love butters So God damn much.

Dave 24:58

Ah, Butters is so good in this game. One of my favorite characters. He was, um, my favorite party member for most of the game. Yeah, great.

Adam 25:06

Um, he's the best. He is the best um he likes he penetrates armor. He heals you, his ultimate attack is he turns into Professor chaos. He's amazing.

Dave 25:14

Um, yeah, his healing attack is great. He just like walks over and you know gives you a back rub. Basically it's very yeah. Um so yeah, the story here.

Adam 25:23

Yeah, a backrobe and a Pep talk.

Dave 25:31

It's all really rooted in this roleplay and there's like we said there's a lot of those Meta Rpg jokes about um rpgs. But also how kids would be you know playing like this so to give you an example when you beat an enemy a lot of the enemies are just fighting other kids. So when you beat an enemy. They just lay there on the ground and play dead and you can go um of their stuff. You know, classic video game stuff. Ah, but if you do anything to the body. It's quickly like a parent. They're not dead. They're playing.

Adam 25:54

And who.

Dave 26:05

And so if you go over and hit them. They'll be like out Dude what the fuck.

Adam 26:06

Yeah, ah when you unlock the ability to fart. Um, you can fart on them and they'll comment on it like just not cool bro. Not cool. Um, there is 1 part later.

Dave 26:14

Yeah, yeah, it's another thing about like they.

Adam 26:23

Ah, there's one part later I forget who it was but like it's part of a story battle so you beat them and they're like they're down but they're not dead. So like you try and click on their course. They're like I'm not dead so you can't loot me go away.

Dave 26:34

Yeah, yeah, a lot of good stuff like that. Um, speaking of farts, that's another kind of crude aspect of the story. There is a lot of fart humor in here. In fact I would say it's probably the most common type of joke. Fart related stuff. Ah but farts are funny So I'm into it.

Adam 26:58

Farts are amazing. It actually also plays into the sequel story of why farts are so important. Um, yeah, they pinned a lot on farts in this game and I think just in the franchise in general like I'm pretty sure the movie was about. Like the Terrence and Phillip fart movie and that's why everyone's up in arms.

Dave 27:18

Yeah, um. See completely lost my train of thought that's all right? not your fault and the other kind of big thing about you know the way the story goes you're progressing through this story where you know the kids are fighting over the stick of truth and then.

Adam 27:41

Oh.

Dave 27:43

Ah, a bigger threat emerges and stuff like that. But a lot of the story does take you from place to place to have little at least conversations with a lot of the side characters from the story like you go to Jimbo's gun shop. You go to city hall and talk to the mayor. Um, you go to tweaks coffee like tweaks coffee is very funny to me. Mr. Tweak gives his little monologues whenever you talk to him to buy coffee from him. Um, you just meet. It's basically kind of like South Park's greatest hits with the people you meet and also like.

There's underpants gnomes and Mr Hanky and ah like all of those really pop like Al Gore and ManbearPig are prominently in this game? Yeah Jesus yeah.

Adam 28:29

Ah, Jesus shows up. Ah the woodling creatures that worship satan make an appearance.

Dave 28:38

It's it's a it is kind of like a playing the hits of the the what I consider to be like the golden age of South Park um

Adam 28:47

Um, yeah.

Dave 28:50

The thing we kind of talked about at the top is how this game feels like a South Park episode. So let's kind of dig into that a little bit. We mentioned the visuals just picture South Park in your head. That's what this game looks like with no qualifiers whatsoever. Um, sounds exactly like the show too like I think the music is um, very south parky with all of the little background music that goes on in the show. It feels like that's here too. I thought it was funny that um, you're walking around a lot of times and there's something dramatic like this.

Adam 29:15

Um, yeah.

Dave 29:27

Fantasy music playing in the background just kind of like you know setting like a serious tone and it has like these choral vocals that are just doing this Ha Ha ha like that. But it's cartman singing it and I thought that was very funny. The whole game.

Adam 29:39

Yeah, yeah, it's just imagine like a lord of the range track but replace any person singing with cartman singing.

Dave 29:49

Yeah, it's very good. Um Trey Parker and Matt Stone the 2 creators of South Park were heavily involved in the making of this game which was apparently not the case with past South Park games before this? um. They were not involved in those and those games were so bad that there is at least an anecdote that I saw that they basically said we're not making any more games because they suck and we're like embarrassed by them so when this eventually got greenlit and they started it. They wrote the script.

They consulted with obsidian like several times per week on what was going on with the development and they did most of the voice acting for characters that they normally voice act like the kids like ah like Carmen of course the most famous one. So all of that goes a long way into like we said. Just giving the exact feel that the show gives when you watch the show.

Adam 30:46

Yeah, it. It's part of the authentication of like this feeling like an episode or a movie of the shows like it's the same you know, However, many voice actors they normally have all doing the roles. They normally do.

Dave 31:01

Ah, except for one character which I will try to remember and talk about in the spoiler section if you're a longtime fan of South Park you might be able to guess who that is but when they showed up later in the game that made me laugh the way that they did it. So. I mentioned before like one of the things I don't really like about Modern South Park is how topical it is and how current events focused It is. Um, and they said that the long development cycle of a video game basically forced them to not do that stuff and to just make a grounded story a more timeless story about the kids. So Um I think that.

You know, video games take forever to make but that is an unqualified win for this game like it other than the Facebook app that you're using throughout the game. Nothing else about like the references that they make really feel dated unless it's like. I found a Jennifer Lopez related thing in the game and was like oh I haven't thought about Jennifer Lopez in 15 years like stuff like that. But there's no like huge celebrity references other than Al Gore um

Would make this game feel dated and no current event stuff that would make it feel dated kind of gives it that timeless feel.

Adam 32:29

Yeah, just al gore Antonio Banderas has a small mention. Um, and yeah, it's.

Dave 32:33

Yeah.

Adam 32:41

And even then the Al gore thing is like in the context of the show like he's doing what you know him to do in the show. So it's not like he's suddenly showing up and like talking about modern politics or anything. No, it's like it's all the stuff they already have him in the show doing like talking about Man Bear pig.

Dave 32:41

Yeah, exactly right? yeah. Yeah, um, so since they are kind of focusing on this more timeless I don't want to use the word grounded because it's not a grounded story in the least. It's a ridiculous story but I don't have a better word for it. So it's like a.

Adam 33:11

Um, no.

Dave 33:15

But just stick with timeless I suppose I should have written down better words in the notes. Um, yeah, it's evergreen. Yeah, and it's just like an old style South Park episode. So.

Adam 33:17

Um, focused I guess would be a good way to put it focused in evergreen.

Dave 33:31

Since they're not lampooning current events or whatever celebrities in the news is more focused on like what I would call South Park humor. We already talked about the farts. We talked about um you know the Al gore and the man bear Pig and stuff like that. Um, how does. South Park Humor hit for you now.

Adam 33:53

Um, there's some stuff that makes me cringe a little ah like the city wok guy is a little rough. Um, but some of this stuff like the more crude like fart jokes and like general crassness I'm okay with.

Dave 33:53

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Adam 34:08

Um, just because that's kind of my style of humor anyway, like I'm never gonna get tired of hearing Kyle just yell fuck you fat boy at Cartman um, but mostly um, there's some stuff that makes me cringe a little bit like ah, there's a part where you're getting your passport.

Dave 34:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, yeah I remember that? yeah right.

Adam 34:27

That made me a little icky but ah we could talk about later behind the square of the wall and there is a similar situation in the Sequel. Ah, that I thought was going to be really bad based on a screenshot of a shot I saw of it. Um. It's in the sequels now like you're giving a dude a lap dance to get information out of them and like on paper that sounds terrible because you're a fourth grader but the whole time you're just farting in his face like crazy loud.

Dave 34:47

Oh I Remember that? yeah. Right. Yeah I can see that's one way to get around that is just to yeah, just just have him farting the entire time. Um, yeah.

Adam 35:01

And it made it legitimately funny. Yeah, it wasn't in any way titating. It was just funny.

Dave 35:13

I agree about the City wok guy being the thing that is weird the city like the city wok guy is not the quote worst thing that you'll see your experience in this game but it is the thing that you know made me cringe the most maybe because it involves just it. It involves.

Adam 35:30

Um.

Dave 35:32

Racist depiction and voice acting and like a whole thing. Um, yeah, exactly so that kind of gave me pause but also in that same scene when you're talking to the City walk guy. There is a literal Mongolian horde.

Adam 35:35

Yeah, like the joke about him is purely a racist one.

Dave 35:50

Sitting and eating lunch in his restaurant and like they cut over to the hoard and I thought that was very funny just these Mongolian warriors in full armor just sitting in there eating lunch.

Adam 35:58

Yeah, and they're still in the South park like art style but they're way more high res than anyone else in the game like they still look like paper cutouts but they actually have lines in their faces. They don't just have the circle head that everyone else has.

Dave 36:10

Right? yeah.

Adam 36:15

The armor has details to it.

Dave 36:18

Ah, yeah, but you know I was a little bit worried coming back to this. I don't like not saying that south park gets a pass. Maybe I'm just conditioned to everything that South Park is doing a lot of. if I played another game that had um well I was going to say the canadians but even like every canadian I know thinks that that's funny too. So um, but like yeah if I played another game that had just like a super racist depiction of an asian character I'd be like what the fuck is this.

Adam 36:42

Um I think yeah.

Dave 36:51

Maybe I'm just used to it in South Park but that was the thing where I was like yeah they're still doing this huh? yeah.

Adam 36:55

I think it is just a matter of expectation and like South Park kind of did like fill out this niche for itself with all these things like the city walk guy isn't new and so like he's kind of been established kind of.

Dave 37:09

Right? Kind of the same as Jimmy and Timmy in the as far as like the kids go they I don't remember Timmy's not really a big part of the game like he's barely there. He's your fast travel system. Yeah so.

Adam 37:16

Um, yeah. Is your fast travel. It's amazing.

Dave 37:28

Yeah, there's there's that joke that the the kid in the wheelchair is your fast travel system but um, like no one talks about it or anything like that they do give Jimmy in his speech impediment like several scenes where he's giving big dramatic speeches and then like just can't get the last word out. Um.

Adam 37:44

And he is a party member too and actually a pretty useful one. He's a bard. Yeah.

Dave 37:46

But yeah, he's a bard. Yeah, and he's very funny. The songs that he sings are great. Yeah, very crude, but Good. So yeah, it is. It was not like I played this game expecting to be mad about, you know, insensitive Stuff. And I came out of it mostly thinking. It's still pretty funny. The way they do it. There's a couple things where I was all right. That's a bit much.

Adam 38:13

Yeah I landed around there too like there's a lot of stuff that's like if you're already on board with South Park you're kind of ready to like roll with the punches but a lot of things they make as jokes are legitimately funny jokes.

Dave 38:22

Right? Yeah, a lot of the shocking things that they put in the game I thought were like so outrageous that I felt like I I. Didn't have it in me to be upset I was just like this is fucking wild that this is what you're like I I Hope no one walks in the room and sees what's happening right Now. Um, and then there were some shocking things that I thought were legitimately very Funny. We'll talk about some of those later. Um I think a lot of the.

Big shocking stuff was good and then like South Park as a show just has a bunch of like jokes in the way people talk to each other and like just jokes about how the world of South Park works and this game is full of jokes like every minute or so. You're hit with something so I thought a lot of those like more basic jokes worked you know.

Adam 39:25

Yeah, there's stuff every like every few steps in this game like every screen there's some kind of reference for you to find be it to an episode of the show or just a joke that they're making of this in the game like there's a community like billboard. Ah.

Dave 39:30

Yeah.

Adam 39:43

Like pinboard with flyers on it but 1 of the fires is for Timmy's band the lords of the underworld like amazing. Um, but also like ah just ah ambient dialogue of like people you pass will like.

Dave 39:45

Um, yeah, yeah.

Adam 40:00

Talk shit to you about how you're dressed weird. Yeah, it's There's a lot of good humor here like outside of being worried about ah being grossed out or offensive or any of them I thought.

Dave 40:09

Right? Yeah, it's not you know in South Park I think doesn't get enough credit for being funny in those aspects I think it's always been a very funny show. It's not just like you know, shocking and offensive funny. There's also just legitimate jokes in.

Adam 40:18

Okay.

Dave 40:28

Every south park episode um early in the game you open up Cartman's closet and you just get like a just kind of a bunch of objects from old episodes of the show like the awesome o robot is in there the faith plus one platinum record is in there which is one of my favorite episodes of the show.

Adam 40:39

Um. It wasn't a platinum record. It was like a mauve or whatever that that's why you get? That's why he quit because it's like it's literally impossible to get a platinum record in Christian in christian music or whatever so he freaks out.

Dave 40:46

Um, oh oh yeah, like myrrh, That's right, yeah am so they're they're full of that stuff and then yeah like the.

Adam 41:03

Um, yeah.

Dave 41:04

Classic South Park you know joke stuff aliens and underpants gnomes and crab people and all that it's It's kind of just like a celebration of the show.

Adam 41:12

Yeah, and a lot like I said I haven't watched a show in a long time but like enough things were highlights or just known through osmosis that like there were so many references that I caught like a mile a minute you know.

Dave 41:26

Yeah, absolutely yeah, so um, the story that the kids are on like going after the stick conflicts with each other and then like the greater conflict that that you know spins off from there. Because it does you know it stays within like the framework of that fight over the stick of truth. But there's like bigger stuff that happens. Um I thought that was fun like not noteworthy really but like fun to just.

Adam 41:58

Are.

Dave 42:01

Beyond that ride I suppose kind of like the South Park movie

Adam 42:03

Yeah, it's really great to me because every kid is committed to the bit like they're all in this fantasy role playing thing. So even when stuff goes like absolutely wild in the real world with real stakes. They're still worried about the stick.

Dave 42:08

Yeah. Yeah mean yeah, and worth noting to like the adult characters are also very funny because they're like the adults in South Parker are portrayed in a really fun way like throughout the show but in this game too where like.

Adam 42:23

It's only about the stick.

Dave 42:38

There's something really big going on in the show and they're just hyper focused on something so like some small part of it and just totally ignoring the bigger problem in the city. You know so you know you see Randy Marsh and all of the other adults. Just. Being themselves also so they're worth shouting out as well and it all just kind of coalesces into this just fun ride of a south park story um, without a lot of that stuff that I find bad about modern south park I got dude I watched there.

Adam 43:03

Yeah.

Dave 43:13

Covid special that they put out legitimately some of the most embarrassing Tv I've ever seen like legitimately terrible.

Adam 43:22

Yeah I don't think I've seen a South Park episode that was made within like the past six seven years like ah.

Dave 43:26

Yeah, true.

Adam 43:30

Just I haven't heard anything good. If there is anything good I usually catch it through osmosis. But I think the last most recent one was like the member berries.

Dave 43:37

Yeah, and even that is probably more recent other than that Covid special. But I've seen clips you know like the commercials or trailers or whatever and I'm just like ah ah but this is the good stuff this ah the stick of truth This is the good stuff.

Adam 43:52

Yeah, all right? So let's talk about this as a game.

Dave 43:57

Let's do it. Let's listen to a bit of music and then we come back. Let's talk about that Rpg game. So in the stick of truth it is turn-based Rpg combat.

Adam 44:01

Yeah.

Dave 44:09

When you're not in combat, you're kind of you have free reign of the city for the most part you can go just about anywhere. Go into all the shops and stuff like that see all the characters. Um, but the most notable part about the game is the combat. So combat is you. As your character and then you get 1 buddy character that you can switch out in combat throughout the game you will have access to butters Kenny Kenny's roleplaying as a princess Kyle Cartman who's a wizard. I'm just going to guess that Kyle is a Jew class character and Jimmy.

Adam 44:44

Yeah, he's the Jew Elf King is his class and it ah you didn't have him was here. But there's also Stan who plays a ranger barbarian guy.

Dave 44:45

Who's a bard that's right yet the jew Elf King yeah um Well, right, right? That's right? Stan yeah um I played with stan sometimes but mostly butters like 95% butters because butters is a healer.

Adam 45:04

Yeah, it was either butters or Kyle for me because Kyle has some good area effect moves like he attacks multiple people at once.

Dave 45:12

Nice, Yeah, yeah, um, you can switch your buddy character out in combat it costs a turn to do so. But if you're playing someone you're like I need a healer. Ah you can switch in butters and the next turn he'll be able to act. The combat is timing based with timed hits and blocks to either get extra damage or to reduce damage kind of like the Mario rpgs or sea of stars more recently if you played that um the timing I thought was yeah paper mario.

Adam 45:43

Yeah paper mario.

Dave 45:47

Though the timing was pretty forgiving.

Adam 45:48

Also they color like they have a little flashes on screen. It's not just about watching animations and and they color code them to for like if there's particular buttons you need to press. It's a really friendly system.

Dave 46:02

Yeah, yeah, um, friendly is kind of like a word that I think will use a lot for this combat system like there is strategy to what you do, but it's not hard I think this game wants you to use a little bit of strategy. But ultimately just have fun.

Adam 46:12

I have.

Dave 46:20

Using these crazy abilities that each class has.

Adam 46:20

Oh did I lose you? um I don't know if I make a no I think I lost you here I can hear you now but you froze up like right when you started talking about the ah classes.

Dave 46:28

Oh Can you hear me now. Okay, okay, um, yeah I Just basically said something I said um, they want you to just kind of It's a friendly game. They just want you to have fun with them. Crazy abilities that each character class has that's right? So I played as the Jew class which has basically all of the moves either involved Actually not now that I think about it they all involve status effects.

Adam 46:48

Yeah, okay sorry about that.

Dave 47:04

Um, the Jew class has like a kind of boomerang style attack. You have the circumcision knife. I don't remember the proper Noun for it. But you that um, quote shaves some armor off of enemies and also causes the bleed status and then. The jew class also has like a call the 4 horsemen like the plague and fire and all of that to to cause other status effects. Um, you played as the warrior type this time.

Adam 47:29

I am. Yeah, the fighter he starts out with like um I Forget what it's called in the game but it's a baseball bat and a baseball and the attack is just teeing one off right in their face and if you get the timing right? It knocks him down and you just keep whacking them with the bat on the floor until it breaks.

Dave 47:48

Nice letter. Nice.

Adam 47:58

Um, it doesn't start out with the status effect but it gains 1 as you level it up and it adds on the bleeding um status effects like we're gonna get into it later. But like if you do this 1 right? It stacks like 4 stacks of bleed on someone which is huge. Um.

Dave 48:00

Right.

Adam 48:17

Another one of theirs is you play a game of rock paper scissors with them and if you do it right? You get to kick them in the nuts and that causes the stun. Um, there's another one that is you put on like football pads in a helmet and just go charging at a group.

Dave 48:24

Ah, that's pretty good. Yeah.

Adam 48:35

And that helps break down armor like it's really silly, but like what you're doing is actually effectives in terms of like Rpg stuff.

Dave 48:41

Yeah, another thing that's cool is like so I'm playing as the jew class you played as the warrior class stan is also kind of a warrior type Stan has a big sword that he fights with but stands moves are not the same as what you just described stands are all unique to him.

Adam 49:00

Um, no yeah, yeah, like they really did a good job designing each ah party member to like fill a niche. Well not.

Dave 49:01

Which is cool. Right? Yeah, exactly and the enemies that you fight, especially like the unique bosses and stuff like if you're fighting a named character that you know from South Park like say you're fighting al Gore Al gore's attacks are all based on like.

Adam 49:12

Copying a move set that you would get access to.

Dave 49:29

His character from the show and like jokes and weird shit that he yells in the show like his big attack is he just Yells excelsior and runs at you and hits you um, all that stuff is great.

Adam 49:34

Um, and then. Yeah I don't know if I was under level for it or what but Al Gore was the hardest fight in the game for me.

Dave 49:47

Very funny as just a take this out of Context Al Gore was the the hardest. But yeah, exactly yeah this. Ah.

Adam 49:54

Al Gore is the toughest boss just that sound bit. Ah.

Dave 50:02

I Think the most important thing about this combat system other than timing your hits and blocks is status effects like I think by the end of the game just about every move I had would use status effects and like butters had a couple that didn't but. They would be like okay so it doesn't do a status effect but it hits like 4 people or it hits everyone in a row or something like that. Um, but status effects are great. It's um, it's always fun when an rpg gives you a bunch of status effects and then actually lets you use them.

Adam 50:22

Yeah.

Dave 50:37

Which is a novel concept for some famous Rpg series. But this one is actually like it doesn't matter you fight any boss you can use any status effect for the most part you can't use like the berserk status effect against bosses but you can poison them or gross them out is what it's called in this game.

Adam 50:47

Um, yeah.

Dave 50:55

You can put bleed on them. You can light them on fire. All that stuff works all the time.

Adam 50:59

Yeah, they're really big. They're huge for this game as like easy as the game ends up being like you could probably get away with never using them but using them it makes it so much easier. They're so effective. They do huge amounts of damage if you're able to stack them up. Stunning enemies is huge because you're almost always outnumbered. You have you and 1 party member most of the time sometimes you're solo.

Dave 51:24

Yeah.

Adam 51:31

So anything you do to like take someone off the board Even temporarily, is huge.

Dave 51:34

Yeah, absolutely and even if you're not using the special abilities that have status effects on them. You get these like I think they call them badges that you can put on your weapon that can add status effects or stat boosts or anything like that. So there's some customization too. Like it's not, you're not making a build per se but like I was playing as the jew class that had um 1 attack that did fire status to everybody. So I also just stacked my weapon up with a bunch of extra fire damage. So whenever I hit them. You know I put.

Extra fire damage more stacks of fire and you know things just kind of melt if you pay attention to that stuff.

Adam 52:20

Yeah, you're not like building building but you can definitely emphasize stuff like there are add-ons that like add in like oh you do extra damage if you hit someone who's stunned or you do extra damage if you hit someone that's bleeding like things like that. So like you can get bonuses off the back of status effects. Which makes them important that way but also for their effect like I mentioned before bleed the 4 stacks you get just off the one move though that was like taking out three fourths of someone's hp when it triggered. It's huge.

Dave 52:48

Right? Yeah, so those status effects are like part 1 of why I think the combat is easy part 2 of why the combat is easy is every turn you can use an item and. You can attack every single turn you just get a free use of an item or your characters all have like this special skill butters is special free skill is to heal your your ah your dude your I your created character. So every single turn.

Adam 53:10

Ah. Ah.

Dave 53:25

My character can use an item to give me an extra attack or heal me or do anything and then I use one of these super powerful abilities with a bunch of status effects and then Butters can heal me for free and then Butters can do one of his attacks which are also great like. Butters has this call lightning attack that hits a bunch of people. He's also got this thing where he spins in a circle and throws his hammer and like hits someone and it gives them the berserk which they call pissed off in here gives them that status and butters always.

Adam 53:48

Um, yeah. Um, yeah, also just just yeah and even his normal attack where you don't use like your special points or whatever like his normal attack is really good.

Dave 54:02

He always apologizes after the Hammer hits them too. He's like oh sorry I was just trying it out. Yeah, yeah.

Adam 54:16

Like it's designed to break through armor and stuff like for being the first party member you get. He's useful through the whole game.

Dave 54:23

Yeah, he's really good. Um, so oh the other thing about combat and I forgot to mention it because I did not use it. The entire game is the fart magic. So your special abilities consume Powerpoints Pp abbreviated. Um, and then you also have another type of Manna I think it's just called Manna for fart magic and I did not use this the entire game did you do this.

Adam 54:53

Ah I did sometimes ah it's if you use it with your normal attacks. It's slightly better than a heavy attack and then using the actual spells is a good way to just use the poison status on somebody.

Dave 55:07

Oh true. Yeah.

Adam 55:10

Ah, that's like their biggest use. Ah, but I'm already like we already mentioned like customize for bleed and stun because that was the thing. My regular abilities had so I didn't really get much use out of that it either plus like something that we didn't know. Know is that every battle you start with a full pp bar like you never have to recharge it between battles. It recharges on its own same thing with your health. Another reason why this game is really easy like you get full health full pp every battle. So.

Dave 55:32

Right. Yeah.

Adam 55:48

If you want me to use special abilities giving me basically infinite points to do. It is a way to go. Um Mana however does not fill on its own. You have to drink or eat the potions quote unquote that give it to which is usually like ah burritos tacos basically anything that stereotypically makes you fart.

Dave 55:51

Right. Yeah, right? yeah.

Adam 56:08

Um, so I wasn't really loaded up on those too much and so I didn't usually have a lot of points to spread around and use it. So it's usually just using my normal abilities and when normal attacks.

Dave 56:22

Yeah, and the game is like we said it is. It's pretty easy. It's not like you need to incorporate these in your battle strategy at all. Um, the main reason I didn't use these fart attacks is they have out of combat use as well. They're used as. Like abilities that unlock you know, um ways to open up paths and stuff out in the world but they tutorial they give you these tutorials for them and they are like some just.

Worst in-class tutorials at teaching you how to do it. They're super strict about it like you have to do these you know pull the right thumbstick rotate the right thumbstick to the right position and then like move up the left thumbstick but it's like somehow harder than that. So.

Adam 57:11

Yeah, and like you never have to actually do that outside of the tutorial once you do it in this tutorial. It's basically unlocked and it's just a menu command but like that tutorial is really confusing and bad.

Dave 57:24

Yeah, ah so I thought you had to do those in combat to like the weird you know, jiggling the weird you know, moving the thumbsticks in those precise ways. So I just never did it. Um, there is a way if like enemies are. Preparing like a giant attack. You can do one of the fart spells and like interrupt them which I only found out on like the final boss or like the penultimate boss or something like that because they actually told me hey do it and I was like oh okay, that's right, you can fart in this game.

Adam 57:48

Um, yeah. Yeah, um, going back to what you mentioned about learning the abilities and how they're used in the overworld. We didn't really talk about it but this is like a weird kind of Metroiti exploration based game when you're in the town. Um.

Dave 58:12

Yeah.

Adam 58:17

Same way like the combat harkens back to like mario rpg the open world gives me like um like a combination of metro in like River City ransom where it's a small intimate space that you get to know really well and then the metro part comes in because you're unlocking things that let you explore around like.

Dave 58:24

Okay, yeah.

Adam 58:36

You get the farts which usually are used to either open up passages because like there's a gas tank on fire and if you fart on it it explodes? Ah yeah, or you'll unlock things that will break stuff in the background to like.

Dave 58:42

Yeah, and it'll block but you know a wooden palette. That's blocking the entrance or something.

Adam 58:54

Lower ladders or you get a weird teleport for a weird reason. We'll get into it later.

Dave 59:01

Yeah, um, yeah, those are funny in the open world. It's a good point. It's small and open from the beginning but you won't be able to explore everywhere until you get those abilities.

Adam 59:13

Um, kind of.

Dave 59:14

Small in the way that like the open worlds in yakuza games are small but this game has way more exploring and you know stuff to find than a yakuza game has like you'll explore around you'll find side quests but you'll also find tons of treasure. Ah, new weapons. Even if it's not like useful items you'll find like you said like that Antonio Banderas blow up doll which is just it's it's a joke that you find your reward for searching Cartman's mom's nightstand is you find a blow up doll of Antonio Banderas

Adam 59:49

Among many many other toys, so many toys. Ah and they're all just worth like thirty cents or whatever at the junk retailer like it's just money for you to spend on your character but it is like a quick chuckle just for looking around in people's stuff.

Dave 59:51

Yes, yeah. Right? Yeah, exactly. But you will find some good stuff like a lot of those badges that you can use to customize your weapons. You'll find them as just rewards for exploring or for doing side quests and. Um, you also get summons for doing side quests for a lot of like the famous side characters like Mr Hanke for example, um, summons are only they're limited use. You can only use them once per day like in game day. And you can't use them against bosses. This is another like fun meta rpg thing like Mr Hanky will say like summon me whatever you need, but not against a boss I'm not an idiot you know? yeah.

Adam 1:00:48

Um, yeah, they're scary. Um, this is probably my biggest hangup with the game on a mechanical level just personally um, like because it is. Like these summons are powerful. They will like clear out a field but something like that personally I don't want to use that just against scrubs. You know like it feels like a waste and then and then they're only useful once a day but the days only advance on Story beats.

Dave 1:01:08

Right? right? it? yeah. Right.

Adam 1:01:21

Like it's not like a time system of like oh you know 20 minutes later it's another day I'll go back and get another one. No like you can only get like 3 the whole game and so it's like you're not really incentivized to use them at all unless you want to just see like a visual joke.

Dave 1:01:28

Yeah, exactly. Right? It is. It's just set up in a perfect storm kind of way where it's like if I want to save a summon for something that's difficult. I'm not going to use it like you said I'm not going to use it when I'm just fighting like some other kids So I'm going to save it for something difficult, but the only things that ever approach being actually difficult are the bosses and you can't use them against bosses I actually never used one in the entire game.

Adam 1:01:56

Ah. Yeah, exactly.

Dave 1:02:09

Ah, and like you said there's like yeah like three days in the game story and you never know when it's coming like sometimes they'll just be like okay time for bed go home and go to sleep and you're like okay that's the end of the day but you never got any indication.

Adam 1:02:19

Um, yeah.

Dave 1:02:29

That it was getting late or whatever.

Adam 1:02:29

No no, the only time it happens is like you can't ah you don't have time to explore but it does like turn night at one point. Um, but at that point you're locked into whatever the quest that's happening is so you can't.

Dave 1:02:37

Yeah. Yeah, it is kind of funny. There was one point in the game when ah oh like some characters like giving some evil speech and they're like and you'll never stop me and you're like well why? why won't we stop you and they're like cause it's bedtime and like someone's parent comes right out and is just like.

Adam 1:02:46

Go out and explore anything at night. Um, yeah, and it's like no one can stop us now get your ass back in the house God Damn it.

Dave 1:03:04

Kids come to bed you're like ah and the kids all walk home. Yeah yeah, ah yeah, great again that commitment to like the little kids playing outside like you can do whatever the hell they want.

Adam 1:03:19

Yeah.

Dave 1:03:23

But when their parents say it's time for bed. They're like all right.

Adam 1:03:28

Yeah, ah we did kind of skip over this in the notes but like the enemy types in this game are amazing and very fun to interact with its other kids ah older kids ah Aliens gnomes zombies.

Dave 1:03:32

They're great. Yeah.

Adam 1:03:45

Amazing. Um, and this kind of goes tax on to the charm for me because again like everyone most of the other kids you're fighting they're in on the game. They're role-playing with you the adults and aliens and stuff you're fighting aren't in on the game. So the reason like combat still works is because.

Dave 1:03:54

Right.

Adam 1:04:04

You're using actual weapons against them like how we mentioned Butter's hammer. It's an actual ball peen Hammer like even if he's playing he hits that someone with that it hurts. Yeah, so like it's a cool little charm.

Dave 1:04:07

Um, yeah, yeah, even if he hits al gore with it. It's going to hurt. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's great like you start out with all the kids fighting with you know, like we said Wooden Swords or like butters has the hammer but you you start out with household objects and then. Later on you do find just literally like weapons of legend and shit like that that you're fighting with which is very fun. Yeah, exactly Jimbo would be the kind of character to give a fourth grader thought.

Adam 1:04:43

Um, Uncle Jimbo gives you an actual katana. It's amazing. Heck yeah, yeah.

Dave 1:04:51

Like there's no suspension of disbelief there. He would do that, he's that kind of person.

Adam 1:04:55

Like he actually likes I'm pretty sure it's a line of dialogue like the only reason I'm not giving you a gun is because legally I can't.

Dave 1:05:00

Yeah, um, yeah, those enemies are great and a lot of the enemies are ways for them to like you know like I said do that kind of greatest hits parade of things you're fighting So like there's a section where you fight the underpants gnomes and then. Fight the aliens like the very first episode of South Park. The aliens that are near um the fifth graders are really funny like I always found South Park's depiction of older kids really funny. They all have like sideburns and shit.

Adam 1:05:19

Yeah. Yeah, and like weird squished faces of like because they're not adults but they're not kids so they're like weirdly in the middle.

Dave 1:05:36

Right? Yeah, ah it's great. So and then um, this game has ah super bosses that you can fight and those are also very funny enemy designs. Jimbo actually sets you on the hunting quest to go around and find these optional bosses. There's like ah fuck I feel what animal it is but it is just a penis animal. It's like ah forget if it's a rat or something like that. But yeah.

Adam 1:06:05

Oh I forgot what it was too. It's like a mole ride or something but like it. It's just a dick. Ah, there's that and then like when you go into Canada which like has its own art style like.

Dave 1:06:09

It is just a piece. Yeah yeah. Yeah, yeah, very good stuff. So the references and stuff are all part of the story but they are all really well integrated into the gameplay too. It's just all this stuff it. It shows dedication and the love to.

Adam 1:06:21

The superbuss there matches that art style. Yeah. With.

Dave 1:06:40

Love of South Park to to put it all in the game in this like just really satisfying and fun way.

Adam 1:06:46

Yeah, yeah, they put a lot of thought into it you and you could tell.

Dave 1:06:51

Did you go out of your way to find people to add on Facebook? Was there a benefit to it that you found?

Adam 1:07:03

Ah, the biggest benefit I found which the game does ah outright tell you is you get perks for your character like the more you have um perks and skill points skill points come when leveling up you will never have enough to max out everything so you are kind of.

Dave 1:07:07

Right? right? it.

Adam 1:07:19

Picking and choosing what's most beneficial to you Ah, but in terms of chasing people down unless it was like a bespoke side Quest I literally just talked to everyone around me as I ran into them and if I got added I got at it if not I didn't super chase it down unless it was something simple like. 1 person won't add you until you knock a ball out of a tree to get it back for them and then they'll add you? Um I think the hardest 1 is like getting the kindergartners because yeah, that you play a game of hide and seek with them and they're spread all throughout the world map. Um.

Dave 1:07:39

Yeah. Oh yeah, because you have to go find them.

Adam 1:07:54

Side note there I think the kindergartners are made super cute like they're super small and have big as eyes. Ah.

Dave 1:07:57

Yeah, very cute. Yeah they're very cute. Yeah, that ah you're finding all the kindergartners reminded me of just like you know, walking around on that playground especially um. If you're with butters if butters is your companion. He'll like point out places around town where people bullied him but it's funny because it's butters saying it and then if you have Cartman as your buddy character. He will point out places around town where he bullied butters which I thought was also.

Very funny.

Adam 1:08:29

Yeah, yeah, it's real good. Um I didn't really wander around with anyone else I don't know if anyone else has incidental dialogue like that. No.

Dave 1:08:39

I'm sure they do. There's not that many of them so they probably do. But yeah, um, anything else about the gameplay. That's what's noteworthy here.

Adam 1:08:52

We pretty much covered it like if you've played you know a jrpg ah pretty much around the N sixty four to late Super Nintendo Era You have a basic understanding of how this combat works and it's a really good, Really good basic expression of it.

Dave 1:09:07

Yeah, the combat is fine. It's not that hard. There is a hard mode you can like you can up the difficulty if you want. I didn't try that, um I was mainly just in it for South park rather than this combat system. I Guess before we finish I do want to reiterate how fun it is to explore around the town and just find you know all the stuff that you can unlock and treats. You can find and references Npc's side quests like.

Adam 1:09:33

Um, yes. Yeah, like just in the same kind of vein of exploring like the way they put together the puzzles with movement and character abilities. You get like a lot of them are really clever like there's some good stuff here in terms of like.

Dave 1:09:39

All of that stuff is really well done. It's really satisfying. Yeah, this is Obsidian that we're talking about here. These are like longtime high class video game developers and just because it's a south part game doesn't mean that they like it.

Adam 1:09:56

Simple environmental puzzle solving.

Dave 1:10:10

Took this one off or something like that like this is a really well-made game. I cannot agree with you there but I do like I'm not going to argue that this game is anything less than really good. It's good. So.

Adam 1:10:10

Yeah, and it and again I'll reiterate it. This is their best game? yeah.

Dave 1:10:27

That gives us a little transition into final thoughts here and then we'll do some housekeeping before spoiler time. So um Adam this I feel like this is a pretty simple question to answer for this game but who would you recommend South Park the stick of truth to.

Adam 1:10:44

Anyone over the age of 16 who wants to play a simple rpg.

Dave 1:10:51

Um, okay, yeah, fair enough. Um.

Adam 1:10:53

Yeah, if you want to play just you know here's simple turn based combat. It's a quick you know, quick little story and adventure lots of jokes you know I'll let you powerless here's here's my 360 copy.

Dave 1:11:08

Ah, here's a question for you which I am just not able to give an answer to. Do you think someone who has either never watched South Park or is indifferent to it would enjoy this.

Adam 1:11:24

Um, I think they would need a primer if they're not familiar with South Park like just give them a heads up like hey it's not a family show. Don't play it with don't play it with kids in the room. Don't even play with your spouse in the room unless they're cool.

Dave 1:11:33

Yeah.

Adam 1:11:44

But I think if you make it probably up to the underpants gnomes is probably as bad as it gets Um, so if you can make it through the underpants gnome. You're probably good for the rest of the game.

Dave 1:11:49

Yeah , that's one of the parts. Yeah. Yeah, um I asked that question because I think if you really don't like South Park there's no way you're going to like this game I just just straight up.

Adam 1:12:06

Oh yeah, if you're like if you're already on the f on the position of you think South Park sucks I don't think this is gonna turn you around at all. But if you're more on like the whatever side or you kind of like it side this has more to offer.

Dave 1:12:22

Yeah, and then if you're someone like me who has a lot of like nostalgia for South Park and especially that older era of South Park this is great like this is exactly what you would hope for. Um, so for South Park Fans really easy recommendation. Like I said you can get it on like every modern console I played the sql on switch this is available on switch to there's no reason to think it wouldn't you know run Well, it's not a super graphically demanding game. You can play this.

Adam 1:12:53

No yeah, eyes you have.

Dave 1:12:56

On Ps Plus for free if you're already paying for Ps Plus that is but it's on there.

Adam 1:13:02

Yeah, in general ps plus I think is a pretty good deal like I bought it when I got my PS 5 and like basically was able to burn through a few of the exclusives on there. It's a pretty good price for what it's asking now is gay's game pass but it's pretty good.

Dave 1:13:15

Yeah, it's not as good as game pass but I do think it gets pretty unfairly shit on like the game catalog that they have is pretty damn good.

Adam 1:13:25

Yeah, it's more bigger names where game pass has more interesting stuff if that makes sense. We're diverging pretty hard right now. It's general stuff but ah yeah, um I would recommend this for sure. Get it on a sale like I did like twenty bucks is ah.

Dave 1:13:28

Um, yeah, yeah, it's all right? That's all right.

Adam 1:13:43

Not a bad price for you know, 20 to 30 hours if you buy both games.

Dave 1:13:48

Right? Yeah, the last kind of just thing about recommending it is if you really love rpgs of this type like I think that this is a pretty fun one but it really does depend on how you feel about South Park first and foremost in my opinion. So.

Adam 1:14:02

Yeah, because it is. It's everywhere like you're there's no escaping the south park of the South Park game

Dave 1:14:08

No no and like you might be able to get through like you said like the first four hours or so without a bunch of like really intense south park humor. But it's coming and we'll talk about that in the spoiler section here in a minute but um, yeah, pretty pretty simple recommendation here at the end.

Adam 1:14:17

Yeah.

Dave 1:14:26

Ah, little housekeeping before we get into the spoiler section. Um, see if you would like to support the show. The best thing you can do is just tell someone that you like it. That's really helpful sharing. The show is great. You can also leave a rating and review that's also helpful if people search for podcasts about the South Park games they might find this episode and that's cool because I think this is fun so far. Um you can also join the discord server that we have open. You can come in there and chat with me and with Adam and lots of other really cool people about video games. We've got a great community. That's one of my favorite places to hang out on the old internet and if you want to support monetarily you can do that at patreon.com/realdavejackson you can vote in polls for what games I do on the show. Lots of other treats as well. Also you get the knowledge that you're supporting someone named Dave. And that's priceless as far as I'm concerned. So um, oh I also have my other show. It's called a top 3 podcast and a special note in this episode. That's a top 3 list podcast if you like South Park we did do an episode of top 3 South Park episodes that was.

A year or two ago it was a while ago but it was fun if you like south park go check that out. So with that being said, Adam and I are going to take a break and when we come back full spoilers for south park the stick of truth.

Okay Adam and I are back and it is time for the full spoiler discussion for South Park the stick of truth and in this spoiler section. We are not going to you know, dedicate a ton of time to like. Actually what happens in the story. Ah, instead there are just a bunch of fun and or memorable moments that I want to talk about and we might get into the developing plot because I mean the plot is pretty funny so we'll talk about it but this is not going to be a beat by beat story breakdown by any means. So.

Adam 1:17:17

Yeah.

Dave 1:17:20

Um, we mentioned at the beginning or in the gameplay section. We mentioned a traversal ability that you get which is you get an anal probe shoutout to the very first episode of South Park um and the anal probe like.

Adam 1:17:32

See.

Dave 1:17:37

Activates these teleportation devices around town and this becomes like your first traversal ability is you can teleport onto a roof or something like that whenever you see one of these things around but the aliens come to South Park They give you an anal probe. You have a big thing on the.

Adam 1:17:46

Yeah.

Dave 1:17:55

The ship with Randy Marsh who also gets ah probed and he if I remember right? he kind of just says like yeah this happens all the time. Yeah yeah, um, during that.

Adam 1:18:03

Yeah, like he's totally nonplussed about bowl thing like this is a Tuesday for Randy.

Dave 1:18:13

Part and this was like the only notable thing I wrote down about this is during that anal probe scene. There's a cut scene where the aliens all right? So your character is becoming like this legendary farter around town like with your park magic. And people start to compliment like your amazing like butthole control and stuff like that. So when they're trying to drill into your ass to like anal probe it. It's like not working like you, your control is just so great.

And there's this cut scene where there is a drill not like a drill but like ah um I don't know a fucking dildo or something that's just like pounding your character's ass My new fourth grader. Um, yeah, just just yeah, just pounding the shit out of your character's ass drilling in there.

Adam 1:19:03

Fourth grader but all out.

Dave 1:19:11

And you're supposed to do something during that cut scene. You're supposed to do like your fart magic or something like that. But I didn't hear a mash a button. Yeah okay I didn't know you were supposed to do something and so for literal minutes I just sat there like I thought it was like I thought it was just a.

Adam 1:19:18

Um, think you're supposed to mash a button. Yeah. Um, ah.

Dave 1:19:30

An unusually long cut scene I was like and then after like 3 or 4 minutes I was like am I supposed to do something here. This is taking I mean even for South Park too long.

Adam 1:19:41

Um, yeah, um, yeah, the way the absolute ridiculousness of this story and the way it actually ties into how the game works is pretty great like how he mentioned the teleporter like it's. Straight up like when you activate the teleporter. The giant satellite thing that comes out of cartman’s butt in the very first episode. It's like scaled down a little bit but it's obviously referencing that and then activating those teleporters like gets you access to treasure. It gets you access to like other character references.

You know you make friends on Facebook can unlock perks and stuff like it's a solid system.

Dave 1:20:22

Yeah, it lets you go down in the sewers where you meet Mr Hanke and his family. You can do a side quest to find their kids and then get Mr Hanke as a summon. It's , yeah, good stuff. Um. Yeah, so you wrote a note here about finding Professor Chaos's layer being a highlight of the game and I did not find this So what's going on with Professor chaos.

Adam 1:20:49

Um, so you walk into I think it's in butters' house that you go into his room and if you like search through all this stuff. You can find a key that unlocks and 1 of the storage units where al gore hangs out.

Dave 1:20:56

Okay, oh right.

Adam 1:21:04

Yeah, so like 1 of those is professor chaos's la and you walk in. It's pitch black and like you see a little alarm going off in the corner. It says like the chaos alarm or whatever and he starts giving you a countdown saying like the world is going to end in 10 nine Eight but blah blah and then when it hits 0 all the lights turn on and it's. Literally his base from the show like the evil base that he made ah his little buddy is there ah professor disarray you can add him on Facebook um, and the plan is because you trip this alarm all the electricity in the storage unit turned on.

So now it's going to stay on until the world is drained of power because that's the level of super vm professor chaos it is and I think it's amazing Paul. Yeah.

Dave 1:21:41

Oh nice, right? Exactly that is yeah, that's really good. Good stuff any butters content is usually good in South Park and in this game. Especially yeah.

Adam 1:21:58

Yeah, and then shout out to like the sequel like you go. He is Professor Chaos in the sequel because it's all superheroes and that's his superhero identity. Well super villain and his layer that you go to in the sequel is in that storage unit. Yeah.

Dave 1:22:04

Writing right. Oh nice. Ah so the plot I guess the plot kind of develops the kids the humans versus the elves war you pick a side at some point during the. Show like they make you pick and all it determines is just like for a couple hours you have you're on this side. So I picked Kyle and Stan, who are the elf side because I think it's funnier when Cartman is the villain in South Park. I think it's real mad at you. It's really funny.

Adam 1:22:37

Um. Um, yeah, like even from a role playing side like this guy just calls me douchebag all the time. Why am I going to be on his side.

Dave 1:22:49

Right? exactly so you pick their side eventually. Both sides join up because the ufo that you were on and getting anal probed crashes into the South Park mall and then there's this big government cover up. There's a giant.

Adam 1:23:04

I think.

Dave 1:23:07

Flying saucers sticking out of the ground but the government comes in and just pacifies all the adults in town by telling them that it's a new Taco Bell being built and the adults are obsessed with the.

Adam 1:23:16

Um, yeah, ah.

Dave 1:23:22

New Taco Bell that's coming in I thought that was great just like this is exactly how they would handle it in the show. They would all be just talking about the Taco Bell

Adam 1:23:26

Yeah, like ah like they start probing the government eye with questions not about the ufo that's clearly in sight like about the Taco Bell menu like will it have doritos locos taco. Will it have the gordita or whatever.

Dave 1:23:35

Right? right.

Adam 1:23:44

And like it gets to a point. The government guy is tired of asking questions so he has someone shot in the crowd.

Dave 1:23:48

Yeah, exactly it's very good. Ah, um, and then from that ufo it leaks this toxic liquid that turns people into nazi zombies. Um, first of all. Nazis and zombies both extremely played out as you know evil forces but nazi zombies in South Park I still thought this is really funny and I mostly think it's funny because they all have these old clips from hitler speeches as their dialogue.

Adam 1:24:08

Yeah.

Dave 1:24:25

When they go into battle or when you see them in like a cut scene or something they don't have voices. They just play like a three second clip of Hitler doing a speech and that like with that old timey like you know it sounds like an old radio message stuff.

Adam 1:24:35

Um, yeah. Yeah, like this weird static of like the recording technology of that time like very clearly spoken into a low quality microphone of the time like if you watch like ah.

Dave 1:24:44

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so because of that it's really funny.

Adam 1:24:56

Yeah, it's like ah like anything you would hear on the history Channel How it sounds like crap is just coming out of a South Park character.

Dave 1:25:01

Yes, yeah, exactly in even like um when you meet the Nazi Zombie aborted fetuses or like Nazi Zombie cats that you fight they have that dialogue too. It's great.

Adam 1:25:11

Um, and they all do it. Yep committed to the bit which is like the shining idea of this game is everything is committed to the bit.

Dave 1:25:24

Yeah, yeah, um, ah, let's see so let's talk about that underpants gnomes scene ran I had for I had remembered the part where you go in Mr. Slave's ass later in the game I remembered that from ten years ago I Forgot about the underpants gnome section and this just made me cackle like I thought it was just so over the top that it was very very funny.

Adam 1:25:53

It's like I feel like this is a litmus test for how tolerable you're gonna be for how crazy things get later like this is the most insane thing they could show you without being like as insane as they get later.

Dave 1:25:57

Yeah. Yeah, and like yeah I think it does get more insane later. But yeah this, you're right? This is the point where someone might tap out. But honestly I think this is really well done. So I don't I don't like anticipate people being like this is the breaking point.

Adam 1:26:11

Um, yeah for sure.

Dave 1:26:26

You know? Um, so if you're just listening and you didn't play it. You meet the underpants gnomes. The underpants gnomes are from the show; they're little gnomes. They steal. People's underwear. They have a great song that has been stuck in my head for at least 20 years now that they sing while they're out working got to go to work. Work god day me at the end of a yay that song? Um, so you get shrunken down by the underpants gnomes as you're trying to chase them from stealing your underwear. You go inside the walls of your house and your parents in the next bedroom start to have sex and it starts out.

Adam 1:27:01

Yes.

Dave 1:27:04

When you're just going through the wall. You can just hear them kind of like in the distance having sex. Um, yeah, and but you're busy, you're fighting rats inside the walls and stuff like that then you emerge from a hole in your parents bedroom wall out onto their dresser.

Adam 1:27:07

Yeah, you hear people having sex through the wall.

Dave 1:27:23

Where you like the the focus is on the foreground where you are but in the background on the bed you see them having sex. Um, yeah, they're going at it. Yeah, very funny here. Um, and then like you fight some battles.

Adam 1:27:30

Yeah, and they are fucking they are they are getting down.

Dave 1:27:42

When you are like on that dresser you fight a battle and that's just the background of the battle is them on the bed in the distance and so like I started to remember I was like okay I remember this part but I didn't remember that it just keeps escalating because after that you the gnomes.

Adam 1:27:50

Yup.

Dave 1:28:01

Takes whatever it takes your underpants or whatever and like runs and gets up on the bed with them and so you chase them and you have a fight with the gnome when your parents are right there and the boss battle music against the no morelock is just this like sexy time R&B music So good.

Adam 1:28:10

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's like a porn jam. Yeah, ah, you're chasing him because he has like the magic powder or whatever that will turn you back to normal size. Yeah, so he runs onto your parents' bed just trying to get away from you and when the boss battle starts like.

Dave 1:28:20

Yeah. That's right? yeah.

Adam 1:28:35

There's I Want to say like your mom's hands because they are you know getting down and you can see the by like you see them like gyrating but you don't see anything yet. Yeah.

Dave 1:28:49

Yeah, ah, there's a QT in the middle of the boss fight where you have to dodge your dad's balls as they swing past you and you do like a matrix dodge to to dodge them. It's very funny.

Adam 1:28:58

Yeah, they swing like a pendulum through and you have to dodge them. Yeah.

Dave 1:29:07

Um, and then after you win the boss fight. You just get smashed by your dad's balls at the end and that's how that scene ends.

Adam 1:29:14

Yeah, like it's a complete non sequitur of like it has nothing to do with any plot that's going on with the kids with the aliens anything they just randomly show up but you get like a cool power afterwards or like being able to shrink down and find hidden shit.

Dave 1:29:27

Yeah, and it's just like this is the kind of thing that old South Park thought was funny like what if we had this joke about like you know, parents having sex. But then we escalated it so much like to the point. The only. Way could have escalated more is if you got involved somehow. Basically yeah ah.

Adam 1:29:50

Yeah, like ah I don't even want to think of how but yeah, that's the line they went up to um, another favorite of mine I didn't write it down is like there's a whole ah subplot of part of the main quest where you're trying to get the email kids on your side.

Dave 1:30:03

Yeah, yeah.

Adam 1:30:06

Golf kids oh man like that's one of my favorite episodes of the show in general is when Stan gets broken up with and becomes goth because I was a goth kid in high school and it's just it's absolutely needling that little subculture and it's amazing.

Dave 1:30:18

Ah, ah yeah.

Adam 1:30:25

So like the whole thing is like you have to go to like this homeless guy that's selling clothes, get all black clothes, get eye makeup and like you have to basically prove yourself to them through all these weird little tasks and it's very funny because like if you want to be anti-conformers. You have to be exactly like us and like.

Dave 1:30:27

Man. Yeah. Exactly Yeah, that didn't that it also involved like you have to like dance to like ah like a the cure sounding song to respect.

Adam 1:30:44

That Joke is amazing. Oh yeah, yeah, and the way you dance is literally is hold a coffee and smoke a cigarette and Bob your head and like I, one of them was like oh man, he's good.

Dave 1:31:04

Yeah, yeah, you have to ah you have to go get the coffee from Mr. Tweak and he just I love his little Monologues when you when you talk to him. He's like welcome to tweaks coffee I see you've selected. Light roast light like the sunlight bouncing off the snow on a winter's morning and.

Adam 1:31:20

Yeah, and like every single time like a little like Naturey like light guitar Acoustic guitar starts playing in the background.

Dave 1:31:26

Yeah, yeah, ah man. Um, yeah, that part with the goths was good. Um, let's see after that. That's the abortion Clinic level is after that which includes. Such hits as a Qte mini game to give Randy Marsh a fake abortion so that I forget why he's in there like on the like in the stirrups and shit. But he's there and in order to like keep his cover and ah. Think it's the government agents you're trying to escape from. Um, yeah, you have to pretend to give him an abortion which is a Qte mini game that comes back later in the game.

Adam 1:32:11

Yeah, ah this during the abortion part was ah this was the part. My wife decided to look at my TV because our setup is like we do have two Tvs in the living room. I'm usually playing video games while she watches Tv shows or whatever.

Dave 1:32:24

Yeah.

Adam 1:32:27

Not really involved with whatever the other one's doing and this was the moment she chose to look and see what I was up to and.

Dave 1:32:31

Yeah I Forget yeah I Forget what I had a couple times I mean it's not like you know it's not like anyone like gets mad or something when they see it. But it's just like ah come on of all the times when you're going to look at the Tv it's. Part um I had it I think my wife walked in during the part where you're in Mr. Slave's ass later and there's just like there's come all over the place and it's gross. So yeah, a lot of stuff like that. Um, yeah, and then you. You fight a giant aborted fetus nazi zombie because it's South Park and you spend they they really hammer that joke in um, that's right because it was the biggest one they'd ever seen I guess that's as much of a celebrity dig as you get.

Adam 1:33:12

Um, yeah, specifically it was Khloe Kardashians in dialogue. Yeah. Which like that's basically nothing. I'll laugh at those jokes all day. Also a special achievement if you beat that boss and then fart on it. You get a trophy or achievement or whatever.

Dave 1:33:28

Right? Yeah, um, and then. Um, of course. Yeah.

Adam 1:33:43

Because like like and then I think these humans even call like that's a little far. Yeah, it's going too far because you're farting on an aborted fetus. Ah.

Dave 1:33:52

Rain. Ah what a game? Um, after this you have to go to Canada and before you go to Canada you have to go to that passport you have to get a passport and this is one of the parts. You talked about earlier as like.

Adam 1:34:00

Yeah.

Dave 1:34:05

A little. Um, yeah.

Adam 1:34:08

This gave me a little bit of the Ick um because it is played for last but it's very real of like you walk into the photo studio. The guy is obviously kind of a creep just based on his ah like Mannerisms and stuff.

Dave 1:34:20

Right? so.

Adam 1:34:24

So it's like oh yeah, let me take you into the back room where I'll take your picture and then he starts asking you to like take your clothes off bit by bit as he's taking your pictures and it's like.

Dave 1:34:25

No. keep saying like oh you know the light just isn't working with your shirt. We're gonna need you to take your shirt off and so like you you can say no but he'll just keep insisting so then you take your shirt off and then he's like you know what? that.

Adam 1:34:38

Yeah. Um, yeah, it.

Dave 1:34:47

The light. It's just not working with your pants. Why don't you go ahead and take your pants off and then I think and he tries to say like you're going to have to take your underwear off too and then you actually just have a boss fight against him.

Adam 1:34:52

Um, yeah. Like the actual cause he I guess broke in and kidnapped the guy who actually runs the photoshop. So like that guy like pops out of the back room and like all beaten up is like what the fuck and like then you end up fighting the the pedophile guy like that was the only part.

Dave 1:35:04

Right? yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Adam 1:35:18

That gave me a little bit of the hankle just because of like how real it was and like I was like I've sat there and said like no like 8 times like no I'm not going to do that. But like yeah yeah, do it.

Dave 1:35:25

Yeah, now. Yeah, it won't let you yep, but the good news is after this you go to like I I think maybe other than like the abortion clinic. Like the Canada part is probably the most famous part from this game that gets shared around interesting.

Adam 1:35:45

I actually I had never heard or seen this before like I didn't get this far in my first time playing it. I had no idea this existed and it's amazing.

Dave 1:35:54

Oh, it's great. So like yeah, the first time I saw it too was a big ah big shock because you go to Canada and Canada is an 8 bit like and nes rpg with those graphics and stuff like it reminds me of.

Adam 1:36:05

Yes.

Dave 1:36:11

Like ah like a dragon Quest or something like that.

Adam 1:36:15

Yeah, like dragon quest or like any of the ah like indie revival of that style like could Cthulhu saves Christmas or whatever. It's called a very simple rudimentary rpg everything is squares. Um, yeah. Like there's no depth like everything just looks like a flat sheet of paper with squares on it. It's amazing.

Dave 1:36:35

Yeah, South Park has always just had like I don't know there they just had like a long track record of making fun of Canada and this is just such a really funny and novel way to just like make fun of Canada but like.

Adam 1:36:45

Yeah.

Dave 1:36:54

What are you really making fun of by making them an 8 bit. You know rpg like it's just a visual joke and it's really good. Yeah yeah, but.

Adam 1:36:58

No it's just it. Yeah, it's a land of mystery. That's all you've said about Canada at that point. Also I think it's hilarious that there's an entrance to Canada in Colorado which is famously in the middle of the country.

Dave 1:37:11

Right? Yeah, yeah, exactly? Um, so yeah, you go to Canada there's like this whole and it even feels like playing an old rpg because it's basically like you go to this town. You talk to this person then they tell you to go to the other town and talk to this person. Then they're like oh well, you know in order for me to help you. You got to go to this town and talk to this person and it's just a big runaround but all the like South Park's depictions of Canadians are just so funny to me like the voices and the mannerisms like they're always just slapping each other for no reason.

Adam 1:37:43

Um, yeah, the prince of Canada is very funny like every time someone tries to interject on him. He just looks at him. He goes quiet.

Dave 1:37:51

Yeah, yeah, so yeah, that section's very fun and just like a really fun surprise to.

Adam 1:38:04

Yeah, like it. It feels almost kind of like a weird pacing thing because randomly you now have to go to Canada but ah, it's such a good. It is a break a visual style break and then just a lot of good jokes there of like how not act.

Dave 1:38:07

Yeah.

Adam 1:38:21

Like clearly this isn't how Canada actually functions. But it's portrayed in such a backward way like they have the prince they have like 1 town is ruled by like a religious fascism kind of thing. Another town is under the thumb of an evil duke and like.

Dave 1:38:31

Me.

Adam 1:38:38

Obviously none of that maps to Canada proper. But it's so funny.

Dave 1:38:41

Yeah I just feel like ah shout out to all of our friends in Canada but I just feel like it's very funny for the for south park to just hammer on Canada for like 20 years now 25 years yeah

Adam 1:38:51

Yeah, it's amazing. But like it's like 2 of the most beloved things of the show like Terence and Philip are canadian like I feel like at this point they're in on the joke.

Dave 1:38:59

Yeah, and Ike yeah, yeah for sure and like I said ah like I have talked with some canadian friends around discord land about this section in particular they all think it's hilarious which you know how could you not.

Adam 1:39:14

Yeah.

Dave 1:39:17

So yeah I forget why you needed to go to Canada but it was like your journeying to the mystical land. Ah up north to get some artifact or something like that.

Adam 1:39:26

Um, yeah I totally forgot why you went up there but like yeah it seemed like a weird non sequitur at the time but it was worth it.

Dave 1:39:32

Maybe you're learning some of it. No, you know what it is is you needed a certain kind of fart magic because okay right I Just remember the.

Adam 1:39:41

Um, you get that while you're there I don't know if that's the reason you went.

Dave 1:39:47

I think the second kind of fart magic. You learn you learn from Randy Marsh okay

Adam 1:39:49

oh oh I know why it's because it's when you are trying to get an alliance with the council of girls. They find a note that's written in french. Yeah, so you need to get it translated so you go to Canada.

Dave 1:39:57

Oh right? Oh yeah, you need a translation. Ah that part where you go talk to the alliance of girls is very funny because I love when South Park does this sometimes they will have posters. They are like real life photos but they're like so they stand out so much from the South Park art style and the council of girls just has a poster of Orlando bloom in their meeting room and it's very.

Adam 1:40:23

Yeah, it's just um, like ah it's Orlando Bloom Johnny depp and like I forget who the third one is but it's like 3 heart throbs but like you know magazine pictures of them.

Dave 1:40:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that gave me a good laugh. Um, so let's see in the plot after this the government puts a nuke in Mr. Slave's ass. So the next big shock level is going inside of Mr. Slave's ass.

Adam 1:40:38

That you would see like in real life. Yeah.

Dave 1:40:55

To to go in there and disarm it um inside of Mr. Slave's ass. You meet lemmiWinks which is one of my favorite episodes of the show is the Lemmiwinks episode.

Adam 1:41:02

And yep, famous famous episodes like all the characters you basically recreate his journey that he went on in that episode.

Dave 1:41:08

Yeah, Mr. Hats in there too. You hadn't seen Mr hat until now that's where he is and then you disarm the bomb by doing the abortion mini game on the bomb. So it comes back.

Adam 1:41:15

Yeah. Yeah, which is like such a weird like it makes sense why they did it because further writing like the way they designed the bomb is that you have to give the bomb an abortion and you're the only one who knows how to do an abortion because you did it earlier.

Dave 1:41:39

Right.

Adam 1:41:43

So that's why you end up there. Obviously it's nonsense but it's worth it to see like this weirdo kind of level and you're even fighting like other people that were put up there like I.

Dave 1:41:58

Yeah, yeah, they're complaining about how they get the worst post on their job. Yeah yeah, ah.

Adam 1:41:59

Like there's government agents up there that also got shrunk down somehow. Yeah, they get the shit posts literally.

Dave 1:42:13

This is definitely one of those parts where like it's gross. Um, yeah.

Adam 1:42:16

Yeah I think this is like the pinnacle of like the gross out meter in terms of like if this is what you need to be able to handle this is your maximum of like cringe I guess.

Dave 1:42:27

Yeah, because you're like it's not just that you're in his ass like you're like blasting like webs of cum so you can like walk through and like open passages and stuff. It's gross. There's a, but it's like a flashlight in there. Yeah.

Adam 1:42:39

Yeah, there's like cum cake dildos in the background. Yeah, there's a flashlight. Ah.

Dave 1:42:46

Actually a ton of good visual jokes about all the stuff that's up there.

Adam 1:42:51

Um, like there's a phone like actual pieces of poop that you have to blow through like it's really gross.

Dave 1:42:55

Yeah, yeah, um after this Clyde is like the villain for this part in the story. He's the one who's giving this evil speech and he's he's He's the one who says like none of you will be able to stop me why.

Adam 1:43:11

The way.

Dave 1:43:13

Like because it's time for bed and then someone's parent immediately comes and calls everyone. Oh yeah, yeah, so you confront Clyde they have a really good joke here I thought Clyde has this evil plan to.

Adam 1:43:17

All the parents are there because it's like super late at this point like they're all looking for you.

Dave 1:43:32

Use the green liquid that turns everyone into nazi zombies. Um, and he's like trying to say it's Taco Bell sauce and they have this big argument. They're like dude when is Taco Bell Ever had green sauce and I just thought that was a very fun argument. Bringing back that obsession with Taco Bell that's pervasive here. Um, and then Clyde uses that to revive him. There's a coffin there that he's like pumping the goo into and said oh go shit who's in the coffin and it's chef.

And so this is how they bring Chef back.

Adam 1:44:08

Yeah I This is something I didn't catch you out of as osmosis I didn't know Chef was dead um, not really because I'm not super like worried about it. Um I just.

Dave 1:44:15

Oh yeah, they so did you look up like the story of what happened? Okay, um, yeah, so the story was actually that Isaac Hayes who is the voice of chef.

Adam 1:44:26

I Figured something like that would happen.

Dave 1:44:32

Got into scientology and then South Park did an episode about how stupid scientology is and he got really mad so they wrote him off the show like I think he either quit or they wrote him off. Um, so there's a whole episode about him dying in a super brutal way. And then yeah they bring him back here. But it's not him. Actually he obviously didn't come back to do the voices so he just has those Nazi barks. Yeah, but yeah that that story with Chef was ah kind of a bummer because I always liked.

Adam 1:44:59

Yeah, he just does the Nazi Zombie Barks that everything else does.

Dave 1:45:11

Chef as a character in South Park But yeah, but ah yeah, so they brought him back for that and he's a boss fight that you fight that's pretty good. Um, so the dark secret that your character had.

Adam 1:45:12

Yeah, yeah, there is good double entendre jokes with him.

Dave 1:45:30

Which I had forgotten about for most of the game is that your character is the Dovahkin like literally from skyrim which we kind of dates the game also from 2013 um and ah the government wants you. Ah, for your social networking skills because you have so many Facebook friends and you're like this freak of nature and apparently this happened before like you were memory wiped or something and you had like billions of Facebook friends before something like that. That's your character's dark secret.

Adam 1:45:48

Um, yeah. It Yeah like and it's actually something that's explored in the sequel like they get deeper into it. Um, like the reason your memory wiped is because the moment you came out of your mom's womb. You have like.

Dave 1:46:05

Okay.

Adam 1:46:18

5000 instagram followers like just for existing and like I guess like the story is like your parents are actually like the 2 most successful influencers that have ever lived so their baby is a super influencer and so.

Dave 1:46:29

Okay.

Adam 1:46:36

They want you to have like as close to a normal life as you can so they keep moving you town to town. But no matter where you go you end up making a ton of friends on social networks like in this one. It's Facebook and the sql it's the equivalent of Instagram. Um, so yeah, that's how the government.

Dave 1:46:47

Yeah, yeah.

Adam 1:46:54

Keeps finding you as they want you for your social media powers. So spread propaganda.

Dave 1:46:58

And then also just happened to call you the doakine from ah from skyrim.

Adam 1:47:02

Ah, yeah I don't know why like there's no reason why it's just that's the name they picked for joke reasons to call you.

Dave 1:47:08

Yeah, yeah, just you know what? whatever was hot back in 2011 when they were writing this. So um, there's like a government agent that steals the stick of truth and like you had said 1 of the cool things is even like.

Adam 1:47:14

Yeah.

Dave 1:47:27

There's like a government conspiracy and there's aliens and there's like real zombies around but the kids are still role-playing so like they're fighting over the stick and like that government agent shows up and he's like well what's this you know this stick and Cartman's like

Adam 1:47:31

This.

Dave 1:47:42

That's the stick of truth whoever has that controls the entire universe and so he believes it of course because it's South Park um yeah because all the adults are idiots. Yeah, um and he like I thought this is really funny like they all the kids give like.

Adam 1:47:46

Um, yeah, because he's an idiot.

Dave 1:47:59

Ah, speech about the power of friendship. Ah you know classic like jrpg shit. Um, but then Kenny's like no fuck. You guys are all assholes and Kenny leaves to go to the other side and Morgan Freeman comes out to give like a big speech about Kenny's backstory and why he's. Defecting and they ask Morgan Freeman like why are you here and he's he basic. He has some joke about like if someone's giving a long winded backstory I just I can't help myself.

Adam 1:48:29

Yeah, every time he explains something in his Morgan Freeman voice he earns a freckle.

Dave 1:48:31

Yeah, that's right, yeah and then Kenny says that he wants to use the stick to create a perfect princess wonderland and it switches to like an anime cutscene like anime style and like a j-pop song. Which is very funny. I Love one South Park does this.

Adam 1:48:53

Yeah, yeah, it's so good.

Dave 1:48:57

You have a boss fight against Kenny he drinks the nazi goo and becomes like Nazi zombie Princess Kenny and every time you kill him. He keeps reviving but your friends all jump in to help during the fight so like butters turns into professor chaos to kill. Like death, like literal death. Um Kyle brings Ike in and there's like a flask of goo that Kenny's going to drink and Kyle plays kick the baby like in the show kicks ike to break it. It's a fun like you know.

Adam 1:49:27

Yeah.

Dave 1:49:32

All your friends joining together to help in the final boss fight etc.

Adam 1:49:33

Yeah, if you use Kyle like throughout the game, kick. The baby is one of his moves like yeah, he just kicks ike into the crowd. But like if you get it perfectly I could see him on the playground with the other kindergarteners.

Dave 1:49:38

Is it? That's very good.

Adam 1:49:52

Ike is dressed as a pirate like that's the role play that they're doing like they have their own pirate game going on while you have your fantasy game. So like if you do the quick time event or whatever perfectly when you're playing with Kyle when you kick Ike he like pulls out like these 2 giant swords.

Dave 1:49:53

Um, right? yeah. Oh ah, that's good. Yeah, um, at some point you get to point in the fight where you have to um, like pull out the ultimate move.

Adam 1:50:10

It starts cutting people up. It's really good.

Dave 1:50:24

Ah, which the entire game every time you've been learning the fart magic. They keep telling you that that teaches you a fart move whether it's cartman I think the first time and then Randy Marsh and then the canadian at the the last one they teach you this and then they give you this speech about like. Make sure you never ever fart on somebody's balls. That's yeah, that is like yeah that breaks the code. Yeah, um, but that's how you have to be Kenny you have to fart on Kenny's balls to to finally win the fight I thought this is a good joke. They um.

Adam 1:50:46

Do not fart on anyone's balls. It's not cool.

Dave 1:51:02

All the zombies in town turned back to normal and so like a little boy and his dad turned back to normal and the little kid says dad. We're all right and the dad goes That's right son a dragon born must have farted on a princess's balls like that's ah it's a thing that this is.

Adam 1:51:17

Um, as if that's a thing like you know.

Dave 1:51:21

But at least this is spoken of like this is folklore or something like that.

Adam 1:51:24

Yeah, you learned 2 things in South Park schools: how to count and what happens when a dragonborn prince farts on a princess balls. Maybe you get to 10 and call it good enough.

Dave 1:51:33

Exactly yeah and learning to count. Maybe maybe not miss. Mr. Garrison's your teacher. So yeah, so that's the final conflict. The kids all take the stick to Stark's pond and um. Throw the stick in the pond kind of we're done playing this game and they talk about what they want to play next and then for the first time in the entire game. Your character gets a prompt to speak. Um, after you've been a silent protagonist the whole time. What is your kid say.

Adam 1:52:09

Screw you guys, I'm going home.

Dave 1:52:11

Yeah, very good I love it this always catches me by surprise like every j and silent Bob Movie has this basically you know silent Bob talks at the end this very funny into bring back cartman's line. It's good stuff. Good way to end the game.

Adam 1:52:28

Yeah, yeah, it is. Um, it was a good wrap up especially it's like that's such a famous line I feel like they made a lot of like pop culture capital basically just off Carman's catch phrases.

Dave 1:52:36

Yeah.

Adam 1:52:45

Like that one screw you guys and went home respect my authority like all that stuff from the late 90's so not only giving you some kind of closure on your character actually finally speaking but like stealing one of the greatest lines from their most famous character.

Dave 1:52:46

Yeah. Yeah, it's a great way to end the game Um, is there anything else noteworthy that you wanted to shout out. Fun stuff.

Adam 1:53:13

Um, like I said , the sub charm of this is the commitment to the bit of like everyone all the kids are in this fantasy world. But everything is weirdly grounded.

Dave 1:53:27

You.

Adam 1:53:31

They're saying I'm casting fireball but they're throwing a flaming tennis ball at somebody like just the general kids being shitty to each other and it makes sense in the world in such a charming way that it does a lot for the flavor of the game for me.

Dave 1:53:33

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely and you know all the way to the end when you have the government conspiracy and Nazi zombies they're still as committed as they can be in those ridiculous situations.

Adam 1:53:49

Yeah. Um, yeah, which is ah that's actually like to get into the sequel a little bit. The Sequel does it a little worse because like.

Dave 1:54:08

Yeah.

Adam 1:54:09

Sql it's all superpowers and for all intents and purposes they have superpowers like Jimmy who is famously not able to walk or talk fast. Ah, he's the flash and he actually like zips around and carries people around and.

Dave 1:54:17

Right? ah. Man.

Adam 1:54:24

There's no kind of like diegetic reason why he's doing that other than he is this superhero which kind of breaks the charm of this game is like yes Cartman's a wizard but he's actually just lighting a fart on fire or something which is like charming to me in a way that just having superpowers doesn't do the same kind of thing. It's still a good game like I said but.

Dave 1:54:26

Yeah, yeah.

Adam 1:54:44

For charm. This one has it in spades.

Dave 1:54:47

Yeah, absolutely, which is why it was such a you know when I played it back when it first released I loved it back then for that exact reason and it um like we said like some of the humor doesn't hold up but like that type of humor is just.

Adam 1:54:53

Now.

Dave 1:55:03

You know, not as funny as it used to be and maybe it should have never been funny in the first place but like the stuff that really matters like you said that commitment to the role-playing bit just the way the kids you know treat each other and stuff that stuff is evergreen and yeah. Just a really fun game.

Adam 1:55:21

Yeah, I'm glad I played it. Glad I ended up buying it like all around net positive.

Dave 1:55:28

Yeah, for sure. So thank you man for coming on and I didn't know if we got to 2 hours but I am me so we're at 2 hours about so I appreciate you as always coming on and talking about games with me. This has been fun.

Adam 1:55:44

Absolutely anytime, please don't put me back in Podcast Jail we'll see how the audio comes out this time I'm crossing my fingers.

Dave 1:55:51

Ah, don't It'll be Fine. Don't worry about it. But yeah, always a blast talking with you. So Thanks again, Thank you to everybody who listened all the way to the end. If you're considering playing this game even knowing hearing what happens is just doesn't quite compare to seeing your dad's nut sack swinging in almost taking you out.

Adam 1:56:14

Yeah, even as this even us describing these events. There's so much incidental dialogue and just quick like quick jokes and things that still happen that we didn't touch on. It's going to be entertaining even if you know what's going to happen.

Dave 1:56:21

Yeah. Yeah, like we didn't even talk about before every item description is a joke So like it's just jokes jokes on jokes on jokes. Yeah, so even if you have been spoiled by the plot seeing it.

Adam 1:56:34

Oh so much in the item descriptions so much.

Dave 1:56:45

Is still going to give you something so again, recommended to play if you like south park, easy easy recommendation to play and then yeah, um, maybe sometime I'll replay that sequel I'll try and beat it because I never did beat it. The first time probably not anytime soon. But next time I get the hankerin for south park. Um, I know I have something to do, something to play.

Adam 1:57:06

Yeah, I recommend it.

Dave 1:57:09

Oh yeah, so yeah, again, thank you everybody for listening and let's see no I don't know what's coming up next week so I will just say tune in next week for the next game to come out of the backlog.