izigame.me

South of Midnight is a game of beauty, music and stories set in the deep south. As a weaver you will mend the broken souls of those whose tragic stories will move you.
The Story & Gameplay
You play as Hazel who tries to save their mother when your house along with her get swept downstream during a hurricane. On your way to find her you discover you're a weaver, a person who can find pieces of broken individuals' souls and bring them peace by sewing up their deepest wounds through magic.
As you progress through the game you will gain new upgrades for your basic spells. When you can learn each upgrade is locked behind story progression but once unlocked you spend your upgrade points (earned by collecting Floofs in the game or combat and there is plenty to find to upgrade your skills at a good rate). The game is linear and there are no side quests or loot to find outside of Floofs for upgrading your skills.
The good & not so good
Okay the good stuff. The narrative is the strength of this game. The stories are raw, emotional and do not shy away from the tragedies that have befallen these poor souls. Yes there are trigger warnings and for a very good reason. Themes of abuse, neglect and death are all explored but done so in such a heartfelt and real way. I loved the stories and all the characters you meet along the way. The voice acting and music were also top notch across the board.
Now for the not so good. The combat. The combat feels good but it is so repetitive with the same enemies and the same moves. Each chapter is laid out the same, and you have a few fights to clear out the area and collect souls in each one. There are major bosses that you encounter but most of the time it is the same enemies and same format. And the platforming…well it gets old too. And there is a lot of it, much more than what I would have liked.
Moving around feels good enough but there are some sections where you have to run away from this evil entity chasing you at the end of each later chapter before cleansing the soul of the person you're trying to help. It is not timed but they can catch you and you die having to restart at the last saved checkpoint. It was more frustrating than fun in those parts.
Settings & Features
Settings & features include; there is a whole host of settings to tweak your experience for your system. Too many to name but all your usual ones. Also many different difficulties from story mode (no real challenge in combat) up to hardcore. I played on normal mode for my run-through.
❗ I started having crashes around chapter 9 or a little halfway though the game (the devs are aware and looking into it). Also every time I made changes to rebind some keys they would not save upon exiting and re-entering the game. The devs are also aware of this problem. You just have to, at the moment, reset them every time you boot up the game.
The Visuals & Audio
I don't really need to say how beautiful this game is. You can see it in the stills and the trailers. The world is gorgeous and each character is full of personality. Also the art style is subjective. You either gravitate towards that art style or you do not. For myself I really enjoyed it. Very Tim Burton or Coraline inspired.
What personally blew me away however was the level of detail in the environments. The small touches that brought the interiors to life and made them feel lived in or the lighting. To say I took “some screen captures” would be an understatement.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3463506920
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3463538712
Overall Experience
Overall I enjoyed this game from the standpoint of the stories, artwork, music and characters. I loved every story and meeting each character and hearing their tragic tales. Also the backdrop of putting this game in the deep south was such an interesting move. We rarely, if ever, get games set in the deep south with its deep folklore and music.
Honestly it is the combat that drags this game down, not in the mechanics but in its repetitiveness of the enemies. Combat and platforming got very tedious halfway through the game and at that point I was playing to see more of the story and just tolerating the combat to keep the narrative going.
So as far as recommendations I would say yes, but on sale. I bought the standard version and the hours I got out of it may seem short for the price. But honestly, time (in terms of length) is not important to me. It is the quality of the time invested. I hope they put a story mode in, I know people have asked and it is a good idea as that is the games strength. That was my experience, hopefully it can guide you to a more informed decision if you're on the fence about buying it. ✨
Also note it is on gamepass too.

This game was purchased by me for my personal library. On occasion I share my experiences with the groups I write for to help bring attention to games I’ve personally purchased and wish to give more exposure too.
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