Published on:

April 8th, 2025

South of Midnight Review

Weaving Away the Tears

- Written by Dallas @ Quest Break

South of Midnight immediately invites you into its world with a short stop motion intro, which also introduces you to the BEST character in the game; but we’ll get to that later. What you need to know right off the bat is that South of Midnight is a rollercoaster, both in terms of the emotions on display, the way the adventure unfolds, and how its presentation will completely blow you away.

Let’s jump into it:

That’s a BIG FISH!

Throughout this 12-14hr linear adventure you’ll play as Hazel Flood, a young adult who’s living with her mother in their hometown of Prospero, when a hurricane blows through and suddenly throws your entire life into disarray. From there you’re off on a journey with magical abilities, creatures and folklore tales straight from the Deep South of America. I genuinely enjoyed my time with Hazel, although I was frequently disappointed with her decision making (up until the end) but I could cast that aside when thinking about how young her character is and the thought processes one goes through at that age. But the real stars of the show are those people and creatures you meet along the way. Some do join you for longer than others, but most do come and go much quicker and by the end of their arc, I couldn’t help but want more. I will say though, if I got what I wanted the games pace would’ve surely degraded (and this is why I’m not the developer).

Also queue my surprise upon hearing the F-Bomb drop an hour into the game, where I had to double check the ESRB rating, only to learn that it wasn’t in fact Teen and instead Mature. I audibly said “OH”. Going in with the mindset that this was for a Mature audience completely changed my perspective as to what I thought I was about to play. And for good reason too. You see, South of Midnight isn’t a “happy” game, it’s honestly quite depressing for a sizable portion of its runtime. I have to applaud Compulsion Games for sticking with the story it wanted to tell and allowing the game to be sad, to dive into these heavy topics and to discuss real tragedy, because it ended up being something truly special that is often missed in this medium.

I’m not going to dive into much more revolving the story as it’s better to experience yourself. But I do have a minor gripe with the story, and that is that the ending feels rushed… and by that I mean it ultimately culminates to a very abrupt ending. I’d personally would’ve loved to see an epilogue, or even an extended final cutscene, as it just feels like it’s missing something. There is an after credits scene, so stick around for that, though it is VERY short. What I will say is that the team at Compulsion Games have crafted an utterly beautiful story with so much care and heart poured into every aspect, to the point that I hope we see another game with the same DNA as South of Midnight.

Gorgeous stop motion cutscenes, incredibly unique and detailed character designs and a very talented voice over cast bring the world to life in what is perhaps some of the greatest presentation I’ve seen in the medium.

This is only enhanced by the outstanding soundtrack and score. I have to commend Olivier Deriviere for their work here, as I haven’t been this encapsulated by a musical arrangement since last year’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The score, which is hauntingly beautiful at times, is with you from start to finish. Flawlessly flowing from the gameplay to cutscenes and back, weaving in and out as you enter and exit your combat encounters, with lyrical songs during what are easily the games highlighting moments!

Pretty sure bottles don’t grow on trees…

On your quest, you’ll meet various people and creatures with their own story, each of which have extra lore about them that is only available by means of collectible letters. They’re not too hard to find, though some can be hidden and easily missed, I urge you to seek them out as they allow you to dive deeper into the story at hand. I only wish we could learn even more because of how interesting every story is!

Speaking of collectibles, letters won’t be the only thing you’ll be seeking out. Enter “Floofs”.

Floofs are also hidden throughout the levels and are your means to upgrade your skills as it is South of Midnights form of currency. There’s 5 different skill paths, one is a general path while the other 4 being tied to your abilities. Luckily you don’t have to find EVERY floof, but you’ll need a majority if you wish to max out all 5 before reaching the end of the game.

Unfortunately these paths aren’t very deep, and do not branch off to give you any sort of variety in combat style. The way you fight in your first encounter will be the same way you fight in your last, which is a shame because despite some clunkiness and a camera that can sometimes work against you, the combat is quite fun especially with the difficulty turned up.

Combat works like this. You enter into these circular arenas strewn about the land in order to dispose of your foes and cleanse the land. But as with the style, the enemies you’ll be fighting in your first battle will be the same ones you’re fighting at the very end. While new enemy types are added along your way, there aren’t many, some have larger health pools, some with varying attacks, but despite this it doesn’t change how they’re defeated.

Now the arenas won’t be the only time you’re in combat, there are a few bosses in the game where the game really shines it’s just a shame that these are few and far between.

Out of the combat, you’ll be exploring and platforming with some very minor environmental puzzle/challenges. Some of which involve your little pal Crouton, THEE BEST CHARACTER! Little Crouton will win your heart the moment you meet the little fella. And here I’m going to make my plea to Compulsion Games for a Crouton only DLC expansion or game!

For the most part the platforming sections work well, they’re snappy and missing your jump doesn’t happen often (though I did encounter a few bugs that would cause a hitch and make me fall to my death). I would’ve liked to see more of a challenge, but what’s on display does make it easy accessible to all!

CROUTON! AH! I’M YOUR BIGGEST FAN!

I spoke earlier about how gorgeous the game was, and this is only possible by how well the game runs. I was easily able to achieve a nearly locked 60FPS at 4K Ultra settings on my personal rigs 4070 Super, only minor frame dips with certain assets loading in. I can’t speak from personal experience regarding the Xbox Series X|S performance, but a quick google search shows that’s its also running at a nearly locked 60 on both the X|S. I did experience the odd visual bug here and there, and even on these max settings you’ll still run into visual pop-ins but it doesn’t detract from the overall experience.

South of Midnight is the type of game that, even with its lackluster combat, the other sums of its parts more than makes up for it. Compulsion Games have created their best work yet, phenomenal art direction, voice work and a soundtrack I’ll be listening to for a while. If you have GamePass it’s a must play, and even if you don’t, its budget price of $39.99 is more than worth it!