Saints Row IV will be the final chapter in the saga of the Saints, Volition has revealed.

Speaking with Game Reactor, Saint Row IV design director Scott Phillips said that a fifth title in the franchise would by necessity have to take a different tack.

"We're definitely considering Saints Row IV sort of the end of that saga of this character and the Saints as they are,” said Phillips.

“So if there's any more future Saints Rows – which you know we always hope there will be, we hope there's fans for future games like that – they will probably continue in a different direction."

This was because the studio would struggle to top Saints Row IV when it came to upping the ante, Phillips said.

“We definitely have a mentality of like, ‘Alright, we did that last time. We've got to that, plus one. We've got to do better than that this time.’”

Even the transition from Saints Row: The Third to Saints Row IV was challenging in that regard, Phillips admitted.

"I remember telling people: ‘I don't know how we're going to top this. We've got a mission on Mars, we've got a heli-carrier, we've got zombies. Where do we go from here?

“But everybody took a vacation, we came back, started fresh, and very quickly we came up with, ‘Well we've got to have... let's do superpowers. It's something we've always been talking about.

“Wouldn't it be great to run as fast as a car, or jump over a building, or be able to pick up somebody with your mind and throw them across the city?

“Everything is more fun, and there's more of it."

In related news, Nolan North is a voice option for the player character in Saints Row IV, Deep Silver has confirmed.

North is one of the industry’s most prolific voice actors, whose recent credits include Deadpool, Metro: Last Light, and Injustice: Gods Among Us.

Saints Row: The Third had several voice options to choose from, including three female and three male voices, as well as an unintelligible zombie voice.

Saints Row IV is due out on August 23 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC.