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Witchy, swampy action-adventure South Of Midnight gets a proper gameplay trailer with island-sized alligators"Bootleg Kena", they’re calling it on the Youtubez

“Bootleg Kena”, they’re calling it on the Youtubez

Image credit:Microsoft

Image credit:Microsoft

South Of Midnight protagonist Hazel riding around on the head of a big magic fish

South of Midnight - Gameplay Reveal - Xbox Games Showcase 2024Watch on YouTube

South of Midnight - Gameplay Reveal - Xbox Games Showcase 2024

Cover image for YouTube video

To give a quick summary of all that, you play Hazel, a witchy warrior who is trapped in a “SouthernGothicworld where reality and fantasy are interwoven, and ancient creatures from folklore emerge”. Some of these creatures are friendly, like the drawling ornamental catfish who appears happy to serve as your noble steed. And some of them are unfriendly, like the moving island over in the distance there that is actually a massive, overgrown alligator. Closer at hand, there’s some kind of twisty treeboss with glowing red weakpoints for you to dart around and combo.

South Of Midnight’s fisticuffs and exploration seem pretty familiar, but it has style. They’ve gone with an artfully juddery set of character animations that mimic stop motion films, a la Into The Spider-Verse. Hazel can also air-dash and glide using pop-out spooky parachutes. And then there’s the woozy, dreamy guitar music, which kicks up towards the finish just before Hazel finally confronts that marauding islandgator.

Again, the game feels like more of a genre piece than Compulsion’s previous creations but if it has a good story wrapped around it and doesn’t turn out to be a massive swamp level, I’ll probably get along with it. I hope the game’s snazzy (I know, I’m old) character animations are but the first of several mildly experimental visual flourishes, though I suspect they’ll prove divisive - I’m reminded a bit ofSable, whose character movement gave me nausea (again, I’m old).

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