Some believable Saints Row 5 leaks came out this month which said that the next game would be a direct sequel to Saints Row 3. Saints Row 4 and Gat Out of Hell are rumored to be retconned as an in-universe Saints Row TV show, and the next game is said to do away with the super powers and have the player go up against the Saints themselves, who have become a soulless corporate empire after the death of Johnny Gat.
This level of ridiculousness fits right into the Saints Row brand, but there could be a problem. The new game will see players go up against the old player character, the Boss from Saints Row 3. The problem is that the Boss was customizable to the extreme, and though the leaks suggest that the Boss will cover their face and disguise their voice to allow for the different canonical appearance choices, this could leave Saints Row 5 with a huge boss problem. And it should be noted that, if this leak is inaccurate but Boss is still an NPC, these problems still linger.
The Boss Problem
It isn’t unprecedented for games to have old player characters return as NPCs, but it is rarely very satisfying. Dragon Age: Inquisiton, for example, had the player character Hawke return as an NPC with their customized appearance and one of three personality types based on decisions made in Dragon Age 2. However, the game then quickly moves to either kill Hawke off or push them to the sideline of the story depending on the player’s choices. This is to avoid the problem of having Hawke diverge from decisions that the player would have made if they were still controlling the character.
Saints Row has never been a series to take itself seriously, especially from Saints Row 3 onward. However, the retcon of the following games into a TV show does take the wind out of its sails somewhat, and fans of the series will likely be wondering how the games can up the ante. After all, Boss climbing up a nuclear missile and disabling it to the tune of “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith before crash landing through the roof of the White House directly into the Oval Office is hard to beat. Saints Row 3 didn’t shy away from silliness, but it will be interesting to see how the games return to the main timeline without feeling like they’re deescalating.
The main problem, however, will be making the Boss feel like the larger-than-life character that they were even in Saints Row 3 alone. Players could customize the Boss to comical extremes, and multiple voices allowed the Boss to sound like anyone from a Jason Statham-style cockney tough guy to a literal zombie who could only be understood through subtitles.
The get-around suggested in the Saints Row leaks is that the old player character will have their voice and face disguised, but this feels like it undersells what made the Boss so silly and enjoyable. If the Boss’s face is revealed later in the game, the twist could be revealed if players have to load in their Saints Row save or customize the Boss themselves before the reveal is made.
With their face and voice disguised, it’s also possible that the person believed to be the Boss will in fact be revealed to be someone else, but that might feel like a bit of an expected twist as a means of avoiding the player character problem. If the Saints have become truly soulless, there is another option. It’s possible the Boss has become something more than human that would render their voice, gender, and appearance in Saints Row 3 meaningless, like if they’ve had their mind uploaded to a supercomputer like Mr. House in Fallout: New Vegas.
The Problem With Solutions
The problem will all of these solutions is that there likely isn’t a solution which is more satisfying than facing down the actual player character that players formed a fondness for in Saints Row 3 and its remaster, warts and all. Every solution feels like it skirts around the problem, and these solutions also require significant accommodation within the new game’s narrative even with the retcon put into action.
If the Boss remains a faceless and voiceless villain many fans of Saint Row will feel like their character has been erased from existence, and the very specific and different feels to the character that the Saints Row voice actors gave each different version will feel like they've been undermined. However, there is one reason to still hold out hope for the Boss in Saints Row 5.
Though Saints Row 4 took the series to new extremes with the introduction of aliens and superpowers, Saints Row 3 was still extremely silly and over the top. It is possible that the minds at Volition will come up with a solution to the Boss problem which simultaneously solves the issue while escalating the series to a whole new level of ridiculousness, though the retcon implies that that ridiculousness might go down a different tonal path to the previous sequels.
The Future of Saints Row
With Grand Theft Auto 6 seemingly still years away, Saints Row 5 could be in a good position to fill a gap in the market. However, the game will need to make sure that it isn’t compromising on the main thing that makes the series distinct from GTA, the total customization of its main character and its willingness to go totally over the top in its story.
If the leaks are true, the future of the Saints Row franchise seems unclear. Saints Row 4 release back in 2013, and fans will be wondering what direction the series will go in after its hiatus. It’s even possible that the studio will be able to get fans invested in a whole new protagonist, and that the Boss problem won’t be an issue for a game that’s releasing almost a full decade after we last saw the character.
Saints Row 5 is currently in development for unknown platforms.