South of Midnight

A tough game to recommend, but one I will recommend regardless. A game with good ideas but also almost as many bad ones.....first, SoM has 'player character never shuts up' syndrome like modern Sony games, and it gets tiresome. But, Hazel and the rest of the cast are superbly voice-acted. The music in the game is also sublime, HOWEVER the lyrical tracks are kinda laughably bad, with heavy on-the-nose lyrics that could have really done with some workshopping. The story is pretty good, with a great ending, but the game is pretty painfully padded even at nine hours. There's a location/environmental shift late in the game that felt like such a breath of fresh air I didn't realise I needed, after so many hours in the wilds. From the preview footage I'd seen, I'd expected much more from the setting, and almost every internal location was a highlight of a chapter. Hazel is also a dream to control, with great movement for exploration and combat, but the combat itself I cranked down to easy because it got boring fast. Overall, buy the game to support the devs as they escape the clutches of Microslop.

Beautiful story line . Loved the graphics . I even cried a little! I will play this over and over.

Joli, mais rien qu'orienter le personnage et chercher les items se révèle dès le départ une vraie galère du QWERTY incontournable, qui m'a fait très vite abandonner, exaspéré de tourner en ronds avec des écrans et conseils illisibles de surcroît. Vraiment d'une ergonomie à s'arracher les cheveux, qui rendent ce jeu impraticable.

I’m not done with the game yet, and I’m struggling to finish. The voice acting, graphics, and art are beautiful. The world is very fun and interesting. However, the storyline feels like just a bunch of random trauma dumping, and the rest of the game is just a never-ending obstacle course with repetitive gameplay, repetitive puzzles, and very boring fighting. I changed to just story mode because I was so bored by the combat arenas. This game feels similar to Hogwarts Legacy: amazing concept and artistry but lack-luster, repetitive play. I wouldn’t buy it again at full price.

As a platforming fan, I ate the challenges right up. Insanely good experience. So good I didn't want the experience to end. I plan on replaying this one and trying for achievements and higher difficulties; maybe my opinion will change with the combat getting harder and longer. Story is fun, and very emotional too. Perhaps a bit predictable, but everyone is relatable and entertaining. On the technical side, it has frame drops before and during loading sequences, you need a good pc to run it. I haven't even talked about the graphics or the sounds yet. Oh yeah, this game looks and sounds amazing. The Folk tale Southern American vibes, the beautiful Claymation, and the colors are perfect. I loved every squishy enemy hit, the squeals of excitement from the protag's totally-not-voodoo-doll, and the MUSIC...OMG THE MUSIC YALL. PURE KINO.

Jogo AA com alma de indie, é assim que eu defino South of Midnight. A gameplay não reinventa a roda, é um joguinho de ação e aventura com elementos de hack n' slash bem padrão (para não dizer "simplificado"). Não é nada excepcional, mas também não ofende. A história é boa, com personagens MUITO carismáticos e colocando uma vilã extremamente cinza: no fim das contas você entende o motivo de ela fazer o que está fazendo, mas sua empatia acaba por aí, pois ela quer atingir os resultados independentemente dos meios. Onde o jogo brilha, de verdade, é na arte. Meu Deus, que jogo lindo. O Stop Motion, a ambientação, o design dos personagens, as cutscenes, absolutamente TUDO nesse jogo é bem feito. Não dá pra explicar o quanto de alma dos desenvolvedores e artistas colocaram nesse jogo, e é uma coisa que te impacta assim que o jogo começa e não para até o jogo terminar. A única coisa complicada nesse jogo é o preço. Não sei se R$ 200,00 por um jogo relativamente curto e que tem um fator replay praticamente inexistente é razoável. Se aparecer uma promoção por uns R$ 100,00, eu genuinamente acho que tá bem pago. Ainda bem que a Xbox só desmembrou esse estúdio deles ao invés de fechar de vez, porque quero muito ver o que mais eles podem fazer depois de entregar um debut tão sólido.

The brilliant visuals are what sold me on the game. The art direction is absolutely amazing, complemented by really great music and sound design. Just looking at this world and these locations was the main pleasure for me. The character designs are also great, and the story was interesting. The actors did a really nice job, especially Walt Roberts, who voiced Catfish. I could listen to that accent forever. In terms of gameplay, it’s a fairly simple platformer with action sequences. It’s relaxed and never particularly frustrating. The developers also keep up a good pace, alternating between fights, puzzles and lore segments. On the downside, some of the dialogue was cringe-worthy. I’m getting a bit tired of these Marvel-esque ass quips, and a few scenes were ruined by the main character’s out-of-place sarcastic comments. As a result, the dramatic moments lost some of their impact and often felt like they were missing some sort of closure. But it wasn’t over-the-top buffoonery, so it was tolerable. I already praised the soundtrack for being high-quality, but it did feel as though some of the tracks sounded, forgive me, a bit too “white” when they really should have drawn more heavily on the blues. Some of the themes also didn’t sound much like New Orleans or the American South. Instead, they felt more like something from a musical à la Frozen. Well, given that it’s sorta of a fairy tale (a gloomy one), perhaps it’s alright the way it is. Overall, I was pleased with the game. I would even call it a hidden gem, because it felt like no one really talked about it or played it. It has this fascinating, magical atmosphere, and if I had to compare it to something, Psychonauts is the first thing that springs to mind.

Loved the story and action was right for the game length.