South of Midnight

Quaint little gothic game set in the deep south with a gorgeous art style, great music, an alright story, but some awful gameplay. I loved the look of the game. The characters and levels have been put together beautify and shows off the charm of the south in such a unique art style. I love the almost hand crafted feel to the characters and the stop motion feel. The game is such a visual treat. The music is another highlight of the game. Its a mix of a few different southern styles and the way the tunes are woven into the gameplay is perfect. Adore the way the music starts off simple and starts to build upon itself as you go through the story and builds to a full blown song once you reach the end of a chapter. The story was just okay for me. Each little chapter has a small story to it, which don't really tie into the main story that well, and it ends up feeling like you're ignoring the all import main quest to mess around. All in all I am happy with the way it ends and wraps all of its loose threads. Now the Cons; Firstly, I wanted more of the south, more folklore, more music, more music, more of the south vibes. Why don’t we see more of Shakin’ Bones and why ain't he got a chance to play “Death don’t have no mercy”. I been waiting for that since 2023 and y’all don’t give him his time in the spotlight. I felt like what we got was a bit lacking and some of the more boring gameplay elements would have done better if there was more history and folktales woven into it. The actual gameplay has to be the worst part of the game itself. The quests boil down to the same thing every time with the same(ish) combat arenas. There is no change or deviation and it gets mind numbingly boring after the 2nd/3rd time. The combat is not fun at all and the parkour segments are janky. Controlling Hazel just feels bad, even with the stop motion setting turned off, she was sliding around the place. Dealing with all that was just a means to an end. I’d definitely recommend it, but more for the vibes and story, not for the gameplay. Give Shakin’ Bones back his solo you cowards – 5/10

Schönes Spiel in dem man den gewünschten Schwierigkeitsgrad optimal an seine Bedürfnisse anpassen kann. Ebenso super ist, dass man (unnötige) Kämpfe überspringen kann, wenn man sich ganz auf die Story konzentrieren will.

Ein wirklich sehr schönes Spiel mit viel Liebe zum Detail. Leider werden die Kämpfe irgendwann öde. Von mir eine 7 von 10

An interesting story, beautiful graphics, and an easy gameplay experience. I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in the local folklore.

South of Midnight is a lovely old school action platformer that we don't see that often any more these days. It takes place during during a flood in the bayou in which the protagonist Hazel lozes her mother. Throughout the game you try to find her back, taking you through various areas that look great. The art style has a Disney like quality to it that I quite enjoy. The graphics are beautiful and the music especially is great. Featuring a lovely original soundtrack with lyrics that tap into the lore of the levels. The style of music completely fit the tone, with lots of blues and soul influences. The gameplay consists of a rather basic combat system that is not bad, but does start to feel a bit repetitive towards the end. But you do get stronger quickly so you can burn through enemies quite quickly if you use your powers. The platforming is also not hard and rather simple all in all, but because of the beautiful scenery that portraits mother nature in all her glory it never gets old. It's worth it to explore around for upgrade points and to simply enjoy the ride. One downside of exploration and level design is that it sometimes is hard to differentiate the main story path from side paths, which caused me to miss out on some collectibles because you often can't go back in the levels to go pick them up. Which can be frustrating when you were just exploring around and happened to choose the main story path by mistake. But what a ride it is. A unique setting and beautifully told story is the true star of the show here. While you play you help a lot of spirits to let go of their grief and sorrow, and find out what happened to them along the way. Other times you have to clear areas of some evil presence that is there because something bad happened there in the past. Finding out about these stories, together with the great acting, make for a great experience all around. Some story bits even tap into the more ugly aspects of American history and the emancipation of people of color in the southern part of the US in a very thoughtful way. And the way the main character comments on these situations really help you understand why it's better to provide equal opportunity to all. This game really surprised me with its charm and I highly recommended playing it.

A beautiful story with a great soundtrack. This game was such a wonderful experience. I hope we can get even more someday.

i hope they make 60 more games in this universe. the story is told in such beautiful and heartwarming way. the pace is just right. the fighting system is simple yet not boring.