What is South of Midnight?

From the devs at Compulsion Games (the minds behind We Happy Few), South of Midnight is a third-person action-adventure game set in a stylized version of the deep South, where folklore isn’t bedtime stories... It’s survival tactics.

You play as Hazel, a young Black woman who discovers that her family lineage comes with some very spiritual responsibilities. After a mysterious disaster rocks her small Southern town, Hazel becomes entangled with the supernatural as she journeys through a world alive with ghosts, monsters, and magic rooted in Black Southern folklore.

And when we say folklore, we don’t mean your granny’s bedtime tales—we’re talking blues-born boogeymen, haunted backwoods, and spirits who speak in riddles and gospel. The vibe is Pan’s Labyrinth meets Bayou Blues, but with a Black female lead who's smart, sharp, and ready to throw hands... or cast spells, if needed.

What's Got Us Hyped?

1. The Culture Hits DIFFERENT

This ain’t some generic fantasy with a southern paint job. Nah, South of Midnight is marinated in the real stuff: Delta blues, Gullah superstitions, hoodoo symbolism, Black southern identity — all wrapped in hauntingly beautiful, stop-motion-style animation. This game isn’t just repping the culture, it’s reverent of it.

Hazel walks through a world that feels lived in — like your great-aunt’s back porch during a thunderstorm. It’s eerie, but it’s also warm. It’s haunted, but holy. And if you’re from the South or just love Southern Black culture, you’ll feel seen.

2. Hazel = New Gaming Icon?

Hazel might just be that girl. With natural hair, a sharp wit, and a connection to a magical bloodline, she brings the kind of representation we rarely see in gaming, especially in the fantasy space. She’s giving "I see dead things, but I still got stuff to do today."

She’s also not your typical reluctant hero. She questions things, challenges authority, and still makes room for joy and curiosity amidst the horror. And listen, her drip? On point. Somebody tell cosplay Twitter to get ready.

3. It Looks Like an Animated Folklore Painting

Visually, this game is dripping with style. That handcrafted animation style gives it a dreamlike quality — like watching an old folk tale unfold through a storybook you found in your grandma’s attic... and it still smells like incense and secrets.

Every scene feels like it could be paused and hung on a wall: twisted trees reaching out like hands, decaying mansions hiding ancestral ghosts, and bayous that breathe. It's not realism — it's magic realism, and it’s bold as hell.

4. A New Kind of Horror

Forget jump scares. South of Midnight taps into that ancestral fear — the kind passed down through generations. The fear of what’s out there in the woods. The kind of fear wrapped in riddles, songs, and “Don’t go out after dark, baby” warnings. It’s horror born from legacy, not cheap tricks.

Final Thoughts

In a gaming landscape full of remakes, sequels, and "gritty dude with a sword", South of Midnight is a revelation. It’s a love letter to the South, a reclamation of folklore, and a powerful entry into the “Black Girl Saves the World” genre we’ve been hungry for.

If Compulsion Games delivers on even half of what this preview promises, this might not just be one of the best games of 2025 — it might be one of the most important.

So Let’s Talk...

Will South of Midnight finally open the floodgates for more culturally rooted, Black-led fantasy stories in gaming?

Sound off in the comments, and tell us: Which legend or folktale do YOU want to see turned into a boss fight?