South of Midnight Release Date and Gameplay Overview Revealed at Xbox Developer Direct 2025. Read on to learn more about this game inspired by Deep South folktales!
Compulsion Games Invites You to South of Midnight
South of Midnight Narrative and Release Date
Compulsion Games writer and narrative designer Zaire Lanier revealed more about the action-adventure game South of Midnight’s story in an Xbox Wire article yesterday, including its release date of April 8, 2025. Set in the town of Prospero, the game features "a composite number of Southern-inspired locations - from flooded countrysides, abysmal swamps, and Appalachian mountains."
In the story trailer, the game begins with Hazel, the protagonist, and her mom organizing supplies due to a hurricane. However, after a brief argument, Hazel leaves their house, only to see it washed away by a rampaging flood. As she sets out on a mission to find her lost mother, Hazel accidentally discovers her true roots, bringing her into a fantastical world full of creatures that only exist in Southern folktales.
"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," Lanier shared. "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."
Hazel’s fateful meeting with Catfish allows her to see and weave the threads binding the universe. However, her journey is not without danger. Haints, the enemies of the game, are corrupted creatures that spread decay in their surroundings. Hazel must master her Weaving powers to free them from the corruption and "return the area to reality."
Follow Hazel’s journey in the American Deep South as early as April 3, 2025, if you buy the game’s Premium Edition for $49.99 on either Steam or Xbox Store. Meanwhile, the base game is available to purchase for $39.99. Players can also play the game on day one with a Game Pass subscription.
Gameplay Involves Threads and Weaving
South of Midnight introduces the concept of using threads, the connection that "forms the woven tapestry of our fates," and the unique magical art called Weaving. In combat, she can also unlock spells and abilities as she confronts different types of Haints.
In the Xbox Developer_Direct 2025, game director Jasmin Roy described the core combat loop of the game. "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."
Hazel’s primary weapons are a spindle, two weaving hooks, and a distaff, which are based on "textile crafting and traditional spinning wheels." This offers players different ways to confront Haints through a variety of movesets and abilities, ultimately relieving them of their corruption.
Weaving is also used for exploration. Hazel will rely on her magical powers, involving taking and weaving threads, to conjure "past incarnations of objects" for exploration and solving puzzles. In the Direct, Hazel was seen conjuring a ghost-like carriage and a glider.
Hazel’s journey to save her mother will bring her to various locations, each with a unique theme and environment. Each region is also ruled by a "mythical creature with its own Southern Gothic history," shared by art director Whitney Clayton. One of the creatures shown during the direct is Two-Toed Tom, a gigantic albino alligator with various weapons and overgrown vegetation sticking out its back.
Hazel must collect Echoes, a piece of haunted memory, to heal these corrupted creatures. However, a fight is inevitable, and she must subjugate them in an "epic confrontation," before healing them.
With multiple areas to explore and corrupted mythical creatures to heal, Hazel must use her Weaving powers to free these mythical creatures of their corruption and ultimately find her mother.
Sources:
Xbox’s Developer_Direct 2025
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Compulsion Games’ Xbox Wire Article
