Following their latest trailer on the Xbox Games Showcase, Compulsion Games has shared a detailed preview of their upcoming Gothic South action title, South of Midnight.
First things first, Compulsion explained the way they reinvented the tropes of action RPGs with this wholly original title. We were already told about Hazel’s magical abilities being referred to as Weaving, but in her encounter with a zombie like creature in the trailer, we are now given a better idea of what’s going on.
The conceit behind South of Midnight is that Hazel isn’t fighting these monsters. In a way, she’s exorcising them, because they’re actually lost spirits. To quote them directly:
“Haints are the game’s most common enemies, and come in many forms – what we see here is a Brute archetype, a mass of twisted negative energy given form by the trauma of the world around it.
In practice, we see a combat sequence, Hazel using her Weaving powers to attack the threat with both Weaving tools and magic – but in storytelling terms, she’s weakening the dark psychic energy left behind here, until she’s literally given the option to ‘Unravel’ it with a finishing move.
And here’s the key – as the Haint is yanked back out of reality, we see flowers bloom around Hazel. She hasn’t killed something – she’s fixed what was broken. That’s a clear message – South of Midnight, like Hazel herself, is doing things differently.”
Even when you think about exorcism, or exorcism magic, it looks completely different than what we see Hazel use in this game. Her magic is called Weaving because it is a metaphor for repairing tapestry, literally fixing things.
South of Midnight isn’t open world, thought it may look like it. Compulsion refers to it as wide-linear, and says fans may see a structure similar to a map with a central hub. It sounds like they’re doing classic game design, though, creating a path that makes it look like you found your way there yourself.
We’ve also seen that Compulsion put a lot of work into presentation, and so they claim that they have made each area a distinct biome, each with their own distinctive soundtrack.
As for the two giant creatures. The big Catfish, simply called Catfish, will be Hazel’s companion throughout the game. The even more colossal caiman is an alligator named Two-Toed Tom. Tom is inspired by Southern myths of gigantic, unkillable alligators, so you can expect his exorcism of sorts will be quite a boss battle.
South of Midnight will be releasing in 2025 on Windows and Xbox Series X|S. It will be Day One on Game Pass. You can watch the Xbox Games Showcase gameplay trailer below.
