Meet the new Saints Row characters

The Saints Row series began in 2006, introducing players to a beloved cast of characters over the next decade. After 2013’s Saints Row IV, where players entered a computer simulation to fight aliens, and 2015’s Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, where players literally descended into the depths of the underworld to fight Satan, Volition knew that had taken the series to the furthest distance. achieves. Following Gat Out of Hell, Volition took a break from Saints Row.

The series had reached a natural resting point, and instead of continually trying to top the previous entry with more outlandish settings and more bombastic characters, Volition returned to the drawing board. “It was never said out loud with the clarity of something like ‘This is it. We’ve specifically taken this as far as we’d like, and when we make the next game, for God’s sake, we’ll restart it! ‘”Says Volition Creative Director Jim Boone. “But I think they all had that vibe that we had fun taking this as far as we could and leaving it all there.”

After temporarily putting the series on ice, Volition developed 2017’s Agents of Mayhem. The game featured much of Saints Row’s DNA, but fans were clamoring for the return of the studio’s most popular franchise. The surge of enthusiasm from the community combined with the studio’s own passion for the franchise to bring them back to Saints Row. However, the team did not want to simply continue on the path they were following, spreading further and further into the realm of the absurd.

Volition considered options like going back to a time before Saints Row IV, but the most viable option was to reboot the series. This not only gave the team a clean slate, but also a new story to tell. “[This approach] it allows us to build on it, ”says narrative designer Jennifer Campbell. “Once you add everything and the kitchen sink to the game, it’s hard to plan future games after that because if you start with the climax, where do you go from there? Many fans wanted us to get back to… a more solid game. We try to configure this reboot to have the best chance of evolution. “

With that direction in place, Volition decided to create a new cast of characters so that he could tell the origin story of a new group of saints, who hail from a new inspired city in the American Southwest. The starting class of Santos de Santo Ileso includes four characters of disparate origins. The customizable protagonist (later to be known as “The Boss”) begins in Marshall, a highly trained and high-tech faction. Meanwhile, Neenah starts in Los Panteros and Kevin comes from The Idols, the other two rival bands found in Santo Ileso.

It turns out that low-level street gang members don’t make a lot of money and the apartments aren’t cheap, so they decide to put aside their rival affiliations in the name of saving money on rent. Although this seemingly doomed roommate situation leads to an initial conflict between them, they quickly establish a policy of leaving work at the door when they get home. They are joined by their fourth roommate, Eli, who joined the group not as a gang member, but as a man who moved to Santo Ileso in search of real estate fortune.

However, even dividing their expenses, they still need to do side business to help make ends meet. In fact, the first mission I play during my practice time is called “Make Rent”. The group works well as a unit; your character is the motivating force behind the group and puts the mission above all else. Kevin is great with his fists, cares a lot about his friends, and is among the best connected people in town. Neenah is a star driver and the best mechanic Los Panteros has. Ultimately, Eli is the brains of the operation and serves as the glue that holds the crew together.

“[Eli is] the one who keeps telling them through many motivational tapes and motivational books that, ‘We should be doing this for ourselves and controlling our own destinies,’ ”says creative director Brian Traficante.

Shortly after a successful heist at a loan bureau called Payday in “Making Rent,” the group realizes that there might be something special going on between them. “They’re not the Saints at the time, but they realize they’re pretty good at what they’re doing, and maybe they should try to scale their ability to do some of these things,” says executive producer Rob Loftus. “That’s where [your character] he starts pointing out like, ‘No guys, I think we can turn this into something bigger than just defending a payday loan niche.’

The unlikely roommates turned business partners start to see each other as family and eventually decide to form a group where they can grow their own criminal empire and make the riches they have only dreamed of up to this point. Being the businessman that he is, Eli knows that any good company needs office space, and Neenah knows of an abandoned church in the Mercado district that the squad could use.

The church starts out in a sorry state, but you can upgrade the headquarters by raking in the dough. When the team first walks in, they notice the fleur-de-lis symbols representing Catholic saints. The sign becomes a logo for the crew and they adopt the name “The Saints.” With your character serving as the spark for the crew, you’ve officially started on the path to becoming “The Boss.”

The newly baptized Saints begin operations as an independent faction within the city. As you can imagine, the three gangs that are already in control of Santo Ileso do not take kindly to the appearance of a new player, much less one made up of former members of their gangs. This dynamic paves the way for conflicts to arise on every corner.

We’ll get into those rival factions, customization, and much more in future articles and videos, so be sure to keep an eye out for our Saints Row hub by clicking the banner below. Saints Row launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X / S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on February 25.