#also if i wanted to use this for post-sriv now i just need one more gang. rule of threes or whatever

[whoredmode]

while i doubt there was ever crossover between the syndicate and the akuji family, i wonder if there could be potential animosity post-sriv, given they both have interests in the same general area. bc like. syndicate presence in steelport is diminished greatly post-srtt. the last US connection to the akuji family in stilwater, jamie price, is killed in sriv, along w most of the members of the revived rollerz—which included some members of the yakuza family itself. so now two powerful criminal organizations have lost power, rackets, connections, etc in this general midwest area. and both have lost it to the same group. so while they’re not in the same city, they’re still targeting the saints.

but going back to steelport specifically, i wonder if maybe the akuji family would shift their interests to steelport bc 1) stilwater is Clearly not working out and they have enough of a headache w wong and the saints still around 2) steelport is much more of a hub for gambling, so i’d say it’s not a stretch to believe that they could have an interest in establishing themselves in steelport. i’d also add that if they’re still dealing w cars and car parts, steelport does give off the impression of a much more luxurious city in the sense that there’s lots of designer stores and people are willing to spend a lot if it means they can have that clout. i mean, this is the city w a fucking fancy designer gun store. i’m just saying there’s probably a huge market for expensive cars and car parts, especially if there’s not much of a drag racing scene in stilwater anymore since the rollerz and ronin have been gone. and it’s just an added bonus that the saints are also in steelport.

SO all that to say. it’d be interesting to see post-loren and post-kazuo akuji iterations of these groups and how they’d interact w each other. even if they have a shared enemy, they also don’t want each other in steelport.

[masschase]

Some of my Boss's looks throughout the years and some stuff about the games/eras they represent.

This is really some stuff I wanted to put in a post with her outfits over the years but that has yet to get made, so... LR-TB:

1. Year: 2006, Age: 15, almost 16. Pseudonym: Didn't think of that yet! Just Casey Clark.

Baby Casey! Near the start of Saints Row.  Wannabe goth with no fucking money. Likes trading cards. Hates everything. Barely talks. Those gold studs were one of the first things she bought when she got a little cash because she wanted something gold like the other Saints. She struggled to fit her sister's hand-me-downs once she hit 5'9", so she started getting hand-me-downs from her friend Mori who was the same age as her but also tall which is why she only has 'boys' clothes. She does get herself a new look once she takes over the Saints.

2. Year: 2009, Age: 19. Pseudonym: Patient 309; Leader of the Saints, Highly Dangerous.

Well yep obviously she's in the coma, still breathing through a tube, still undergoing surgery for internal and external injuries. Plastic surgery is reasonably in line with what you see in the game; ridiculously good. Once all her treatment is finished she doesn't have a great deal of visible scarring, the odd bit on her stomach and arms. Overgrown hair. Overgrown eyebrows.

3. Year: 2011, Age: 21, Pseudonym: Emma to start with, but eventually everyone just starts calling her Boss.

Saints Row 2. Out of the coma! One of the first things she does after she and Johnny get to the hideout is dye her hair purple (that's why it's a bit shit lol). Has decent money for clothes but still dresses like she's in 2006. ANGERY would be an understatement. Finally old enough to drink legally. Needs to drink and smoke to deal with life in general. Gets to play with makeup a little.

4. Year: 2014, Age: 23/24, Pseudonym: Just Boss. Blake Olivia Saint on the credit cards bc she's cheesy.

Saints Row The Third. Suspects she's being watched. Is correct. Likes the money and power of the Saints being a recognised brand, already fed up of the fame. Made Pierce the face of the Saints pretty quickly after almost punching someone on her first Saint's flow shoot. The hoodie is Saints branded. The sunglasses are Saints branded. The earrings are diamonds now tyvm. Finally getting therapy. Less violent, just as traumatised.

5. Year: 2016, Age: 25/26, Pseudonym: Erica V. Saint.

During the SRIV 5 year gap; 1 year after disabling the nuke. You know what's way worse than feeling watched? Feeling controlled. When she fell through the White House roof a year ago it all seemed like a fun idea, running for President. Now she has to actually take other people's advice or risk failure. She doesn't feel as in charge as she used to. You can see she has styled waves in her hair not her natural wave. She does like the business attire. She doesn't enjoy being told she can't dye her hair or wear her makeup how she wants.

6. Year: 2020, Age: 29, Pseudonym: President, then Emperor.

Saints Row IV. By this point the reflects some of the freedoms she acquires once she actually becomes President. More ear piercings, more tattoos including the fleur-de-lis on her neck, dyeing her hair again (she changes up the colour every month or so) wearing the makeup she wants to again. The Saints who lived in the white house all got their tattoos in the last four years, too. She stops wearing gold jewellery as she has her gold pistol.

7. Year: 2022, Age: 31, Pseudonym: Emperor, or at this point, just Casey/Cass as everyone knows.

She wears casual clothes a little more by 2020. This is her towards-the-end-of-my-fanfic "a woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life" haircut. She gets it dyed purple but it quickly fades to blue. I couldn't resist putting her in fishnet again. Finally admits she's not immune to love. On the verge of invading the new planet.

[stilwaterskeeter]

Boss Audio Logs

 So the lovely @saintcorner made a post a while back of audio logs from her boss like the ones you find for all your homies in SRIV, and I have been trying to make this post since

 One big post as opposed to the 3 separate posts otherwise. Also yeah Tanu’s mute but uuuuhhh text to speech? Also Jay isn’t a Boss but whatever

Tanugatoa “Tanu” Maivia:

“It’s pretty funny, I never wanted to be a gangbanger. I wanted to be anything but another stupid kid getting shot at like Levi. But when Elsie joined? I had to do something. I was so fucking scared, but Julius showed me how to use that. How to use my fear of losing someone to hurt someone else, to kill when they got in the way. He said we were doing good, that Stilwater needed the Saints go save them...and I fucking believed him. But the asshole didn’t believe in me. I don’t know if he just thought I was doing it wrong or if it was his plan all along, but the bastard tried to fucking kill me. That was his first mistake though...his last was forgetting to make sure he finished the job.”

“When I woke up after Julius blew up that damn boat, nothing was the same. Troy was chief of police, Johnny was on death row, Dex was gone, and the fucking Saints were nothing but a memory. And I was fucking angry. Stilwater needed the Saints, it was clear, I mean the Saints disappear and now there’s three more new gangs causing problems! The cops weren’t doing shit, so of course I was going to step up...I let that anger blind me though. I think maybe if I just slowed down some, maybe listened to some of Pierce’s ideas...maybe we could have saved Eesh and Carlos...”

“I should have known when the Syndicate showed up we were screwed. Johnny died. And I just...I didn’t care? Like it just made sense to me. Like of course Johnny died, Levi died, both my parents died, Elsie died...why would Johnny get to live, you know? People die all around me. And I just stopped caring. I didn’t want anymore people to die for me, I wanted to be the one...I got sloppy and when we raided that military base in Steelport, I took a shotgun to my knee. In the moment I think I just...laughed. It reminded me of Johnny when we were up against the Vice Kings. But Shaundi? She was already angry, and when I got careless she got angrier. She punched the shit out of me when we got to the apartment, gave me a black eye and one hell of a lecture...Pierce didn’t talk much then, but I saw him across the room. They were both scared of losing me. I didn’t really think that anyone would care before that, I couldn’t die after that. I wasn’t going to put them through that.”

Elsie Finnegan:

“It was only a matter of time before mom and dad went off the deep end. Growing up in the media’s magnifying glass...we saw people like us, like our parents, just fall apart. I knew it was coming, the day Liam had his trial...he looked so tired, like he knew what he’d done was the beginning of the end...Mom stopped talking to us after that, only focusing on Robbie to make sure he would still inherit the company after her. She looked at Jay like he was some kind of inconvenience. What was I supposed to do after the fire? Leave him with her? After we left...Mom disappeared, just vanished off the face of the Earth...and Pa...Pa was dead.”

“Meeting Tanu was one of the best things to happen after we moved to Stilwater. He was dedicated and thoughtful and patient and everything I wasn’t. He saved my ass more times than I could count, I can’t believe he ever thought I was going to tell him no when he asked me to marry him. He helped Jay come out of his shell a lot too, it was like he was always part of the family...I should have listened to him when he told me he was scared after I came home part of the Saints...”

“Try as I might, I was still my parents’ daughter. I could run and run and run...but it was bound to catch up with me. Sharp took one look at me and knew I was a Corduroy. I think he originally wanted to use me, hold me for ransom or something. He must’ve been pretty disappointed to hear my mom wasn’t willing to pay for my life...Some mother she was. It was only a matter of time...I just wish I had more...I wanted to tell Tanu goodbye.”

James “Jay” Finnegan:

“That first year after Elsie and Tanu joined the Saints...it sucked. It was like being at home in Oregon again. Home alone, taking care of myself, everyone else too busy with some bullshit to even notice me. Tanu tried. He’d come home between missions, all bloodied and bruised and smelling like gunpowder and ash...He’d clean himself up first, he let me watch and tried to teach me how to dress stuff like that...It was nice to know that he still cared. It was feeling like Elsie was turning into Mom though...”

“I wish I could say I was surprised when they told me Elsie was dead, but I really wasn’t. She’d been gone for so long already. What I was surprised by, was the fact that Tanu didn’t come home after that. I still don’t know where he went when he disappeared...instead a cop came home. Troy Bradshaw...It took me a week to let him in the house and two weeks to talk to him...and he waited. I mean, he was definitely getting frustrated with it, but he still waited. He said he was a friend of Tanu’s, I was going to have to stay with him in his shitty apartment for a while. It’s not like I really had much choice in the matter.”

“I give Troy a lot of shit for...well, everything, I suppose. But he’s a really nice guy. I thought he was going to dump me on the streets after Tanu was blown up, but he sat me down that night and looked me in the eyes and said, “Kid, I won’t stop you from walking out of here if that’s what you want. But I’m not gonna fight you if you wanna stay here either.” ....Of course, I stayed. Troy would never admit it, but I think deep down he’ll always care about the Saints, even if that just means me at this point.”

[corpo-rat]

so you wanna play saints row

ok, so in case ive managed to get anyone interested in this series, i thought id type up some stuff about where to get the games that might be helpful. buckle up kids, lets get started [last update: 10/8/2018]

first off, you play the whole series as the same unnamed custom character, called playa/boss. in the first game there isnt a female option, but dont let that put you off!! from the second game onward you can play a female character, and customize them all the way down to their voice

Saints Row 1

now, saints row 1 is xbox 360 exclusive. if youre a console hoarder like me and you have one, the game is like $10 in the marketplace, but if you dont then thats where this post comes in saints row 1 is now backwards compatible with the xbox one!! but if you dont have an xbox of any kind then this post might help you

here is a playthrough of the entire game, missions and all, no commentary, so you can still experience the first game. alternatively, here are the cutscenes only (unfortunately in lower quality), if you dont care about mission dialogue (the game will make less sense this way but w/e)

prologue | vice kings (part 1) (part 2) | los carnales (part 1) (part 2) | westside rollerz | ending (start at 5:23)

if you do have an xbox and are playing it yourself, the game can get kind of hard at parts, so as @hawkewouldbethere suggested (thank you!!), here is a list of cheat codes to make it easier (you dial these on your phone with the # included, then theyll be added to the cheat menu on your phone. you can then navigate to and use them at any time)

#2666 - infinite ammo

#777468 - infinite sprint

#3855432584 - restore all health

#66639 - give cash

#778 - fully repairs the car youre driving

#463464836277 - gives the car youre driving infinite mass so it smashes others out of the way

Saints Row 2

saints row 2 is available on PC, xbox 360, and PS3. if you hate buggy pc ports you might want to get the other versions if you can. the audio quality of the PC port is not great, its buggy, and crashes a lot in fullscreen. plus the dlcs are only available on the console versions. i own both pc and xbox 360 versions, and personally i prefer the pc port despite its downsides (i use mods & record clips for gifs, so)

bad pc port aside, i do recommend getting sr2. its usually considered the best in the series, and its my personal favorite as well (note: there is a secret(ish) mission in this game that wraps up events from sr1. if youd like to play it, here is a guide)

if youre playing sr2 on pc, then i greatly recommend installing the mod gentlemen of the row (theres a spoiler for the third game on this page though, just dont read anything til you get to the “gentlemen of the row” banner). i could describe this mod to you but ill just quote the explanation from the site

“The Gentlemen of the Row Saints Row 2 Super Mod is a massive integrated collection of mods from myself and other Saints Row modders. It offers 100+ new clothing items with 120+ new logos, improved weather including a darker nighttime and more vibrant colors in daytime, plane and boat mechanics for customizing, additional missions, new vehicle dealerships, new weapons, new cribs, new homies and gang styles, new taunts and compliments, new walking styles, 100+ new ambient music tracks for purchase, more car paints, more skin colors, tattoos, makeup, optional 360/PS3 onscreen prompts, new cheat codes including NPC morphs, and tons of tweaks and bug fixes.”

now, if you dont want to deal with any of that, @block-of-writers has given me links to their playthrough of the entire game, missions and all (thank you so much!!)

prologue | the brotherhood | sons of samedi | ronin | epilogue & secret mission

Saints Row: The Third | Saints Row IV

saints row the third and saints row IV are both available on PC, xbox 360, xbox one, and PS3. IV was also made compatible with the PS4

there is also a mod similar to gentlemen of the row for saints row the third, named gentlemen of steelport. it adds things like mission replay, and you can get it on the same page i linked earlier

here is a playthrough of all of saints row the third plus the gangsters in space dlc (thanks to @block-of-writers again!!)

there is also sandbox+ for both srtt and sriv (srtt ver | sriv ver). this adds something akin to console commands that can be used via keyboard shortcuts, and theres a command list on each page. it differs for each game, but in sriv you can toggle animations on yourself, disable the HUD, enable flycam, teleport to different maps, etc. its not something you need but ill add it in case anyone wants it

Gat Out Of Hell

there is also gat out of hell, which is sort of a standalone post-game dlc for saints row IV, available on all the same platforms. this means you can play it without a copy of IV, but if you have IV installed it will automatically import your character from your latest save. as of the last SRIV patch, character import to gat out of hell is broken. heres a very complicated tool you can use to forcibly import your boss via hex editing (i used it and while theres a bug with a high pitched voice, it works perfect otherwise)

here is a game movie version of gat out of hell, with all the cutscenes and important bits of gameplay

and thats all!! have fun