Compulsion Games’ third person action-adventure game South of Midnight immediately caught our eye with its mix of a richly atmospheric setting, its dark folktale elements, and its magical realism inspirations. We had a wave of new info following Xbox Games Showcase 2024, so let’s go through everything we know so far about South of Midnight!Everything we know about South of MidnightWhen does South of Midnight come out?We don’t yet have a specific date, but the Xbox Games Showcase gave us a South of Midnight release window of 2025.What platforms is South of Midnight coming to?Published by Xbox Game Studios, South of Midnight is an Xbox exclusive coming to Xbox Series X|S and Windows. As it’s a first-party exclusive, we won’t be seeing it on PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch.Is South of Midnight coming to Xbox Game Pass?Yes! South of Midnight comes from first-party Xbox studio Compulsion Games (the devs behind We Happy Few) and will launch straight into Game Pass when it arrives in 2025.What is South of Midnight about?South of Midnight is set in the American Deep South, in a world where dark magic and folklore exist everywhere. In an Xbox Wire interview last year, creative director David Sears explained the importance of Magic Realism to the ideas behind South of Midnight. “It springs from the concept that monsters are real — you just need to jump over the backyard fence. The farther you get away from the influences of civilization, the more magical the world becomes… Magic Realism is one of the calling cards of Southern Gothic. It’s a licence to actually put magic in the modern world, and to have creatures there that are just accepted. We’re not going to give you an information dump in the game, and that’s in the spirit of Magic Realism, right? We’re explaining enough that you will just accept it.”In South of Midnight, our character Hazel has to become a Weaver (someone who can use weaving magic to magically repair and restore dangerous creatures and broken bonds) after a hurricane hits her hometown of Prospero. The South of Midnight Xbox page tells us that Hazel will “confront and subdue dangerous creatures, untangle the webs of her own family’s shared past and — if she’s lucky — find her way to a place that feels like home.” It sounds as though there’s an added mystery there, as Hazel will also be trying to rescue her mother, “reweave the tears in the Grand Tapestry,” and figure out her own identity.One interesting aspect of South of Midnight’s story is that according to the South of Midnight site, the game’s narrative “lies within a storybook presentation that advances throughout the game. Like opening a book and closing it when finished, every chapter is guided by a dynamic narrator.”The setting, meanwhile, is heavily inspired by “the Deep South mythos.” Compulsion Games says Prospero is a “lush, decayed” area, and the game’s music too is inspired by the South, with “our character-driven lyrical music incorporates a wide variety of instruments and vocalists with a personal touch of dark folktale essence.” Fascinatingly, each creature will, according to an Xbox Wire interview, have their own theme song which will eventually build into lyrics giving their backstory (you can see a bit of this with Two-Toed Tom in the gameplay trailer). Along with the game’s dark folktale atmosphere, another aspect which immediately stands out is its distinctive, slightly juddering, stop-motion art style: “Continuing Compulsion’s signature direction, characters and shapes are more distinct, ‘hand-crafted,’ and enhanced by stop-motion animation treatment.”We get a few more hints on what to expect from the world itself from that Xbox Wire interview after Xbox Games Showcase 2024 with creative director David Sears, art director Whitney Clayton, and game director Jasmin Roy, where South of Midnight’s world is described as “wide-linear” with each region having its own biome. “So the way we built the environment is because we want players to follow the narrative, but have more to sink their teeth into — you can sometimes see some more open, hub-like sections,” Roy explains.What type of game is South of Midnight?South of Midnight is a third person action-adventure game set in the American Deep South. Compulsion’s FAQ tells us that the game’s Weaving magic will be focused on combat, traversal, and puzzle elements, and that South of Midnight is for “anyone interested in a novel fantasy mythos with deeply thematic gameplay. Players who enjoy thoughtful yet dynamic gameplay experiences.” We get a glimpse of Hazel using her powers for traversal as well as against enemies in the gameplay trailer.Hazel’s Weaving powers will clearly be key, but one thing Compulsion seems to be keen on is the idea of Hazel as repairing the world. “From top to bottom, that’s the message behind Hazel, her combat design, her powers… Everything is a Weaving metaphor — Weavers are supposed to put things right, do good in the world,” Sears says in the latest Xbox Wire interview. “She’s literally repairing the tapestry, and with creatures — Haints included — we spent a good amount of time making sure it was clear that when you’re attacking or interacting, you’re doing it in a non-lethal but aggressive way. You’re doing it because you’re helping — removing the weight of all this trauma.” You can even see the physical side of this in the gameplay trailer (listed below) when flowers and greenery spring up after Hazel’s faced an enemy.South of Midnight achievement listWe don’t yet have the South of Midnight achievements, but we’ll be sure to update here as soon as we do.South of Midnight trailersSo far, we’ve had the initial announcement trailer for South of Midnight, which did a great job of showcasing its atmospheric feel: Then most recently we got the Gameplay Reveal trailer for Xbox Games Showcase 2024. This was a longer look at the game, with over four minutes of Hazel’s adventures (and her companion Catfish).South of Midnight is one of our most anticipated upcoming Xbox exclusives, and we’ll be sure to keep this round-up updated whenever we learn something new.
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