South of Midnight

PLAY THIS GAME!!! I love the story, art, characters, voice actors. It really rewards exploration if you're someone who wants achievements or to 100%. The meaning of the game is amazing. Stigma, haints, grand tapestry, weave... it all connects beautifully well to analogies of family, generational trauma, healing, compassion, and community. I loved it so much, I found a collectors edition online with the art book, graphic novel, and some swag and happily spent money on it. That being said, there were some loose ends and technical glitches that I noticed enough times to have to write about it (but not distracting enough to not recommend the game). No story spoilers below but I do talk about playability of the endgame. For example: [list] [*] what did the paster do???? We got hints at the story but the loop was never closed there. [*] you can view memories/bottles out of order, which cause a lot of confusion in some chapters. [*] hit boxes don't always work as intended [*] combat was unbalanced with the story toward the end (the beginning to mid-game was half story and half combat, but the endgame was majority combat). [*] story gaps: how did they get Trey back??? How did Huggin Molly and Lacey meet??? Who are the borrowers? And Bunny vs. Hazel didn't always make sense to me. [/list] That being said, the sheer originality of this game and its story still makes it worth playing despite of its hiccups. It deserves every award it received! Can't wait to play it again.

English : South of Midnight is a game that shines for two main reasons: its musical atmosphere and its stop motion art direction, directly inspired by Southern American folklore, which makes it highly original in both its themes and overall atmosphere. As for the rest, while it is far from disastrous, the experience remains clearly very simplistic. The gameplay feels generic and at times severely lacks precision. The level design is extremely linear, mostly limited to following the objective in a straight line. Despite the presence of collectibles scattered along optional paths, the rewards are far too minor to truly encourage exploration. This is regrettable, as adding more depth to these aspects could have turned the game into something truly memorable, but they appear to have been neglected. Even so, I did not have a bad time, mainly thanks to its visual and musical presentation. ________ Français : South of Midnight est un jeu qui brille pour deux raisons : son ambiance musicale et sa direction artistique en stop motion, directement inspirée du folklore du Sud des États Unis, ce qui en fait une œuvre très originale dans ses thèmes comme dans l’atmosphère qu’elle propose. Pour le reste, bien que ce ne soit pas catastrophique, l’expérience reste clairement ultra simpliste. Le gameplay est générique et manque parfois cruellement de précision. Le level design, très linéaire, se limite à suivre l’objectif en ligne droite. Malgré la présence de collectibles disséminés sur des chemins optionnels, les récompenses se révèlent trop faibles pour réellement encourager l’exploration. C’est regrettable, car avec davantage de profondeur sur ces aspects, le jeu aurait pu devenir un titre particulièrement marquant, mais ceux ci semblent avoir été négligés. Malgré tout, je n’ai pas passé un mauvais moment, notamment grâce à sa proposition visuelle et musicale.

Beautiful game with a beautiful story. I loved it. I'm excited to play it again and find the rest of the floofs.

I immediately fell in love with the art style of this game. I could tell a lot of hard work went into creating this world, and all of the intricate detail was stunning to see. The music and sound design is also fantastic! It does just enough to entertain while maintaining the immersion. As far as the story, I would've liked if it was longer, but I understand why it wasn't. It's definitely a game I want more of! 9/10

I enjoyed my time with the game. Its is visually very pretty and the VA work is amazing. Love the setting too. Felt like there could have been more to combat and while the exploration part was nice, it got more tedious towards the end. If the game was slightly shorter I would not have complained. All together though a very good experience. 5/7 catfishes.

It's just a beautiful game. The visuals are obviously fantastic. The story and lore and worldbuilding is astounding, and it made me keep coming back. The environment of the swamp is rich with a variety of flora and fauna that really pulls you in. What surprised me was the audio and music. The sound effects of nature is just more good worldbuilding and the music continues to add on that and is just fun to listen to. The only flaw I really found was that after you defeat the haints, the flower distribution afterwards isn't perfect, in the sense that sometimes there will be flowers in mid-air rather than on any ground. Still just a wonderful game, I think anyone who really like storytelling and worldbuilding and supernatural lore should check this out.

Lovely.