Everything we know about South of Midnight
When does south of midnight rise?
We don’t have a specific date yet, but the Xbox Games Showcase gave us a release window of just south of midnight in 2025.
What platforms is South of Midnight coming to?
South of Midnight, published by Xbox Game Studios, is an Xbox exclusive
Xbox Series X|S and Windows. As this is a first-party exclusive, we won’t see it on PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch.
Is South of Midnight coming to Xbox Game Pass?
Yes! South of Midnight comes from Xbox-first studio Compulsion Games (the developers behind We Happy Few) and will launch directly into Game Pass when it arrives in 2025.
What is the book South of Midnight about?
South of Midnight takes place in America’s Deep South, a world where dark magic and folklore exist everywhere. In an interview with Xbox Wire last year, creative director David Sears explained the importance of Magic Realism to the ideas behind South of Midnight. “It comes from the concept that monsters are real – just jump over the backyard fence. The more you move away from the influences of civilization, the more magical the world becomes… Magical realism is one of the calling cards of Southern Gothic. It’s a license to really bring magic into the modern world and have creatures that are just accepted. We’re not going to give you a dump of information in the game, and that’s in the spirit of Magic Realism, right? We explain enough that you just accept it.”
In South of Midnight, our character Hazel must become a Weaver (someone who can use weaving magic to magically repair and restore dangerous creatures and broken bonds) after her hometown of Prospero is hit by a hurricane. The South of Midnight Xbox page tells us that Hazel will “stand up and conquer dangerous creatures, unravel the webs of her own family’s shared past, and—if she’s lucky—find her way to a place that feels like home.” Sounds like would be another mystery, as Hazel will also try to save her mother, “weave tears in the Great Tapestry” and figure out her own identity.
One of the interesting aspects of South of Midnight’s story is that, according to the South of Midnight website, the game’s narrative “lies in a story-like presentation that unfolds throughout the game. Like opening a book and closing it when finished, each chapter is guided by a dynamic narrator.”
The setting, meanwhile, is heavily inspired by the “mythos of the Deep South”. Compulsion Games says that Prospero is a “lush, decaying” area, and the game’s music is also inspired by the South, with “our character-driven lyrical music featuring a wide variety of instruments and vocalists with a personal touch of dark folk essence.” It’s fascinating that each creature will have , according to an interview with Xbox Wire, their own theme song that will eventually be built into the text that will provide their story (you can see a bit of it with Two-Toed Tom in the game trailer).
Along with the game’s dark folk vibe, another aspect that immediately stands out is its distinct, slightly shaky, stop-motion art style: “Continuing in the Compulsion style, figures and shapes are more distinct, ‘hand-crafted’ and enhanced by stopping.” – motion animation processing.”
From an interview with Xbox Wire after the 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 “broadly linear”, with each area having its own biome. “So the way we’ve created the environment is that we want players to follow the narrative but have more to bite into – sometimes you can 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 charms will focus on combat, crawling, and puzzle elements, and that South of Midnight is for “anyone interested in a new fantasy mythos with deeply themed gameplay.” Players who like thoughtful yet dynamic gaming experiences.” In the gameplay trailer, we get a glimpse of Hazel using her abilities to get through and against enemies.
Hazel’s Weaving powers will clearly be key, but one thing Compulsion seems to be interested in is the idea of Hazel fixing the world. “From top to bottom, that’s Hazel’s message, her combat design, her abilities… Everything is a metaphor for Weaving — Weavers should be setting things right and doing good in the world,” Sears says in the latest Xbox Wire interview. “It literally repairs the tapestry, and with the creatures – including the Haints – we spent a lot of time making sure that when you attack or interact, you do it in an undead but aggressive way.” You’re doing it because you’re helping — you’re taking away the weight of all that trauma.” You can even see the physical side of it in the gameplay trailer (shown below) when flowers and greenery grow after Hazel faces off against an enemy.
South of Midnight Achievement List
We don’t have any South of Midnight achievements yet, but we’ll be sure to update them here once we do.
Trailers south of midnight
So far, we’ve had the first announcement trailer for South of Midnight, which does a great job of showcasing its atmospheric feel:
Then we finally got the Gameplay Reveal trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024. This was a longer look at the game with more than four minutes of Hazel’s adventure (and her Catfish companion).
South of Midnight is one of our most anticipated upcoming Xbox exclusives, and we’ll be sure to keep updating this roundup whenever we hear anything new.