South Park: The Fractured but Whole will feature twelve superhero classes: Brutalist, Blaster, Speedster, Elementalist, Gadgeteer, Mystic, Cyborg, Psychic, Assassin, Commander, Netherborn, and Karate Kid.
Unlike The Stick of Truth, the game allows the player to choose their gender of their character which will affect how other characters react to the player. The Fractured but Whole also features race customization, which is jokingly labeled as a difficulty level slider. The slider doesn’t affect combat difficulty, rather how the player talks to other characters and the amount of money the player receives.
The Fractured but Whole takes place after the events of South Park: The Stick of Truth. The children begin a new adventure, again set in the town of South Park in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, this time becoming role-playing superheroes. However, a falling-out over Cartman’s planned film franchise splinters the boys into two groups. Those who side with Cartman join Coon and Friends, while rival group Freedom Pals, led by Mysterion, call for their own franchise, starting a civil war between the two groups. The player again controls The New Kid, though now has the option of choosing the gender of The New Kid.
In March 2014, South Park co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker stated they were open to making a sequel, depending on the reception for South Park: The Stick of Truth. A sequel, South Park: The Fractured but Whole, was announced in June 2015. The game is being developed by Ubisoft San Francisco, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows, replacing Obsidian Entertainment.
The original title planned for the project was The Butthole of Time. However Matt Stone and Trey Parker were informed that the retailers would not place a product with the word “butthole” on their shelves. This caused Trey Parker to go back to his office and work for a few hours on how to sneak the phrase onto the game without upsetting retailers, and eventually settled on “but whole”.
