#literally if 5 specific people didn't work on SRR the game would've been miles better

[megafreeman]

TBH I don't think that's the case. Whenever I got a chance to talk to devs about this topic, they always talked fondly about being called a GTA clone, cause they considering an acomplishment to be compared to giant Rockstar's product as a relatively tiny studio (SR1 and SR2 had like 120 devs only working on it). In fact, the whole "GTA" comparison was first brought by their publisher's marketing (IIRC they described it in launch trailer as "Our GTA")

But I do think that the reboot has an identity crisis, and I don't think its born not out of devs lack of confidence for their, but rather their desire to please the fanbase. Saints Row as a series is in this unique position where they managed to make two popular games in the same series with worlds apart tones (SR2 and SRTT). And I think they're worried about not making a game that alienates one side of the fanbase too much, hell when they announced they're toning down from SRIV, I've genuinely seen posts on here that were raging about Volition "pandering to the annoying GTA fans", and not to mention how spoiled the so called "OG fans" can be.

And I think that's why the game struggles to pick a direction and stick with it. In the reboot, the tone changes every few missions. I feel like this is because they want a tone that pleases both fanbases. And I think in the end, that gave us an inferior product; because no plotline ever truly felt finished or fully explored except for Dustmoot (which is actually from what I hear an idea they wanted to do for a really long time). Panteros get destroyed in Neenah's personal mission, Marshall get destroyed in 2 missions. We get missions where they go into incredible detail how stuff work, like in Dustmoot where we get told half the rulebook, and then we got missions where its 2 minutes of meta jokes without any actual substance, like when Kevin teaches you about collectibles. It honestly feels like they were randomly deciding which mission they wanna lean into crazy and which into serious.

I don’t think Saints Row has an identity crisis as much as it has a confidence issue. Yeah that can fall into “identity crisis” but the series has always had “eccentric crime game” as it’s vibe.

Like “gta clone” really did something to their confidence and it makes them either not be fully like “THIS is what Saints Row”. It comes out like a whimper.

Even Saints Row 2 is guilty of this. “See we’re better than GTA cause we don’t make you go bowling.”

The thing is you’re open world crime game is ALWAYS going to be compared to GTA solely off of the fact that more people have played it. It’s not an insult as much as it’s a point of reference. My friends never heard of Saints Row when the reboot trailer dropped and telling them “it’s a crime game like GTA but you get to create a character and it’s more chaotic” was the best way to explain it.

of course, there are outliers who use GTA clone as an insult but those are just assholes who act like GTA invented the genre, who cares what they think? Like legit, who ACTUALLY cares?

The series doesnt need to figure out it’s identity, it needs to be confident in itself. Trust that it’s gonna find the audience that’ll gravitate towards it.

cause literally, Saints Row 2022 is not bad. When it released? Yeah, cause of the bugs but it’s hard to attribute that to the game itself when Triple A games nowadays seemed to be released when publishers and investors want them to be and not when the devs are ready. In Cyberpunk’s case, they tried throwing the devs under the bus.

Literally the game was just lackluster in certain areas but could be improved on. And it’s ironic that a series that has such “tits out” energy has a self-esteem issues.