The Story of South of Midnight

In our story trailer, protagonist Hazel and her mother are preparing for the impending hurricane. The storm proves massive, causing catastrophic flooding-and causing their own home to be swept down river with her mother in it. Its aftermath shows the fictional town of Prospero, located in the southern United States, eerily calm while irrevocably changed from the hurricane’s destruction. Here, Hazel undertakes a journey in search of her mother, while finding out more about herself and her family’s lineage in the process.

Hazel begins to see fantastical phenomena all over Prospero, including meeting Catfish, an enormous – and talking – creature in his own right, stuck in a tree following the hurricane’s destruction. Catfish tells Hazel she is a Weaver, someone who possesses magical powers and can see how our threads connect to form the woven tapestry of our fates.

As Hazel, players will learn with her to use her powers, overcoming obstacles such as defeating enemies and removing barriers, from ‘conjuring’ past incarnations of objects to use them to overcome traversal and puzzle challenges, to combat-based spells to take on the biggest foes. As Jasmin Roy, South of Midnight’s Game Director highlighted during Developer_Direct, “Push, Pull, and Weave are some of the spells at your disposal that give you a tactical advantage during a fight. Timing is everything. Pull distant enemies close to start melee combos, push them back to interrupt and stun their attack, then press the advantage with follow-up strikes.” 

Behind each monster is a haunting past

Speaking of these creatures, we show a few different types of enemies and characters Hazel will encounter. You’ll see Haints, which are an enemy class that comes in many forms, with Hazel using her weaving powers and magical tools to unravel the corruption afflicting these creatures and the environment around them, and return the area to reality. There’s also a glimpse of Two-Toed Tom, the blind albino alligator the size of an island, whom we shared in our gameplay reveal trailer in 2024.

A new mythical creature shown for the first time is Huggin’ Molly. Inspired by a Southern legend, Huggin’ Molly is a monstrous woman-spider. Her dress is a quilt patchwork made from children’s clothes and her trademark red yarn that she spins like a web. Folks say Huggin’ Molly still ventures out of her mountain lair to snatch random children that wander off from town. But everyone seems to tell a different version of Molly’s story. We also provided glimpses of other creatures including The Rougarou, a shapeshifting were-owl who lives in a dense, dark forest at the edge of the mountain.

A love letter to the South

Our town, Prospero, and its outskirts are a composite of a number of Southern-inspired locations – from flooded country sides, abysmal swamps and Appalachian mountains. And while the game features all sorts of creatures, pulled directly from Southern Fairytales, at its heart it is a story about family and healing. When South of Midnight releases on April 8, 2025, players will be able to see first-hand our commitment to narrative-rich storytelling, mixed with third-person action, in an experience that will take most players between 10-12 hours to complete.

We’re also excited that soon press and creators from around the world will be receiving a pre-release build of South of Midnight so they can play it themselves, in order to share their first previews impressions publicly. We’ll be sharing a special preview ourselves on Compulsion Games and Xbox channels, so stay tuned for more in February.

Get ready to start your adventure

South of Midnight will be available on April 8, 2025, on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox App for Windows PC, Steam and cloud, and play it on day one with Game Pass. If you want to immerse yourself into the macabre and fantastical world of South of Midnight early, get the Premium Edition to play up to 5 days early, and get access to digital extras.

If you purchase the Standard Edition or are playing with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC and decide you want the Premium Edition, you can upgrade at any time with the Premium Upgrade Edition to get up to five days early access, and access to these digital extras (English only):

• South of Midnight Artbook: Compulsion Games presents The Art of South of Midnight. Organized by the game’s story chapters, this abundant visual gallery includes never-before-seen character art, environmental art, iconography, artist commentary, and more from Compulsion’s modern Southern Gothic folktale.

• Original Soundtrack: Inspired by the haunting allure of the Southern gothic Deep South, the South of Midnight original soundtrack blends traditional Southern-style music with a dark, otherworldly essence. With visionary composer Olivier Deriviere at its helm, the dynamic soundtrack features performances by Southern artists and incorporates traditional instruments to create a diegetic musical narrative that evolves in response to the player’s actions and environment. From soulful blues to lively honky-tonk, each song invokes the region’s rich cultural history, immersing players in an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere where reality and myth collide.

• The Boo-Hag Digital Comic Book: Compulsion Games has teamed up with award-winning comic book artist and writer Rob Guillory to create The Boo Hag, a digital comic book set in the South of Midnight universe. Presented in full color, The Boo Hag explores protagonist Hazel’s encounter with an infamous mythical creature from Deep South mythos, giving readers the chance to dive even deeper into the game’s fantastical and folkloric world.

• Music Video: Songs & Tales of South of Midnight: Feel the magic of South of Midnight’s lyrically driven narrative music with Songs & Tales From South of Midnight, a visual compilation featuring three selected songs from the South of Midnight OST. This field recording-style music video showcases and celebrates the diverse range of Southern musical genres that define South of Midnight’s soundtrack, all while telling a cohesive story through delightfully haunting visuals.

• Documentary: Weaving Hazel’s Journey, Director’s Cut: Weaving Hazel’s Journey: A South of Midnight Documentary (Director’s Cut) offers fans an extended look at the development of Compulsion Games’ third-person action-adventure South of Midnight. This director’s cut explores in even greater detail the team’s world-building process and inspirations drawn from Deep South folktales, featuring exclusive interviews and commentary from various Compulsion Games developers across multiple disciplines, including gameplay, narrative, art, music, and more.