After finishing the game (probably around 10-15 hours or so) on hardcore mode (one of two difficulty settings in the game) here are some strengths and weaknesses to the game in case anyone was thinking about trying it out.
The good:
-The storyline and humor is top knotch. If the south park show makes you laugh then you definitely don't want to miss this game. So many parts of this game had me laughing out loud which I cant recall a game ever making me do.
-The graphics and art style is so true to the show and high quality that if you looked at a screenshot of the game you would actually think it was an episode of the show.
-Voice acting 1000X better then all the elder scrolls games and fallout games combined.
-The battles themselves are extremely entertaining and not once did I feel that dreaded "tedious" feeling when you enter a battle in so many other RPGs. Each battle felt like a scene from south park and was fun.
-Exploring south park was fun and felt a lot like exploring a town from a good 90s adventure game.
The bad:
-Difficulty: I've only completed the game on "hardcore" mode and I haven't encountered anything that was remotely "hardcore" about the gameplay. The battles were moderately challenging for part of the game, but that does not last long.
-While the battles are genuiniely entertaining and not at all tedious, money is generally too easy to come by. I was usually able to go and mostly every single weapon and armor piece that was available to buy each time I came across a merchant npc. I was also able to fully stock myself on every single potion without trying. This was all without grinding for money at all or using the armor attachment that gives you even more money drops.
-When you get to a certain part (about halfway between the mid point and the end), you will eventually hit around level 11 or 12, and for some reason at this point your damage output goes through the roof. Combine this with the fact that you fully recover your PP after each battle, battles become nothing more then eye candy as you effortlessly destroy all the enemies on the screen often before the enemies even get a chance to attack. Boss battles are also trivialized somewhat at this point as well. The sad thing about this is that for a long while after starting the game, it actually looked like and made me believe that the battles would be challenging, and they were for a certain amount of time, before being let down. Remember this was on "hardcore" mode and I'd hate to see how easy things are on normal difficulty.
-Absolutely no replay value. While I usually don't return to single player games like these after I beat them, having some extra stuff to do after you beat the game would have been nice. Sure, you can go and collect the friends and chinpokemon, but I didnt see any point. I guess this is what DLC is for nowadays.
Anyway, if your a fan of south park and a fan of RPG's, this game is a must have. Don't go expecting mind blowing complex battles or 50+ hours of RPGing to do. This is like a very well made and hilarious south park movie with console RPG gameplay. I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing, although I wish they had balanced the difficulty better toward the end of the game, especially on "hardcore" mode.
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