Compulsion Games has shared some stunning new art for their upcoming title, South of Midnight.
The art depicts our protagonist Hazel, but no longer wearing that grounded outfit that made it appear like she walked out of a college. Instead, she’s wearing a seemingly magical dress, with many finer details. We can also clearly she she has a fingerless glove on her left hand, and a bracer on her right arm.
But, if you zoom in real close, you can see that that right hand is holding onto a fine needle with a glowing thread. This art has been planned out to depict Hazel as a Weaver, the in universe magic user who doesn’t kill enemies so much as she ‘unravels’ a mass of dark psychic energy.
For those who don’t remember, Compulsion Games explained the Weaving metaphor in this year’s Xbox Games Showcase. Apparently, we haven’t even seen everything that they have designed around the lore and gameplay of Hazel’s Weaving. Instead, Compulsion have leaned in on the combat metaphor that Weaving provides.
Hazel is also depicted confronting a Haint, the magical creatures that she fights in South of Midnight. In the lore of this game, Haints are not real creatures per se, but they represent dark psychic energy as they amass and take more familiar forms.
Compulsion Games shared this image on Twitter with this caption:
“The origins of haints can be traced back to Gullah folklore from the Southern lowlands. Comprised of stigma, these malevolent and mischievous spirits will become a familiar enemy, and over the next few weeks, we’ll be revealing some of the various haint archetypes that you’ll encounter in South of Midnight.”
As we know, Compulsion Games isn’t quite done making this title, but they’re not exactly being instructed to rush it out the door either. Microsoft has an embarrassment of riches in terms of first party games, that have all taken a bit too long to make. As a result, quite a few of them are only now getting ready to release, and Microsoft chose to get some games out before the others.
So Compulsion Games will likely make good on their promise to share more about South of Midnight in the coming weeks and months, to whet fans’ appetites for its future release.
South of Midnight will be released in 2025 for Xbox Series X|S and Windows via Steam. It will also be Day One Game Pass.
