Compulsion Games and Xbox Game Studios' South of Midnight tells a story set in a fantastical version of the American Deep South. To that end, protagonist Hazel provides fitting representation as a young Black woman growing up in the South, something that narrative lead and writer Zaire Lanier tells me matters a lot to her in working on this game.
"I think that kind of representation matters; the kind of character Hazel is matters; she’s kind, she’s empathetic, she’s brave. I think that’s really cool,” Lanier says, adding, "It does mean a lot to me that someone who's twelve might play this game; they can cosplay Hazel."
When I asked, Lanier affirmed that Hazel's friendliness was a conscious choice to tie into her powers. Hazel is a Weaver, with her magic manifesting in threads and strings, and a huge part of the story is how she focuses on trying to help people...even if they aren't exactly human anymore.
"I did think it was really important for Hazel to not become jaded because that’s often really easy. I really wanted her to be just a nice person," Lanier says. "She’s fun at her core."
There are a number of monstrous Southern legends that Hazel encounters across South of Midnight, including Huggin' Molly and the infamous Two-Toed Tom. Lanier explains that the writing team tried to walk a line, as a large number of Southern Gothic stories don't exactly have a "terribly happy ending."
"We kind of combined the darkness of Southern Gothic folktales with normal folktales and kitbashed them together," Lanier says. Hazel fixing the broken part of someone (or something) doesn't mean everything is magically better, just that they now have new choices to make.
Southern Gothic as a genre is weird and uncomfortable by design. Without spoilers, South of Midnight does get into some dark material, something Lanier wanted to handle with care, noting that "You can’t just throw certain tragedies and traumas into a story" without thinking about the appropriate space and weight for a topic.
"We kind of combined the darkness of Southern Gothic folktales with normal folktales and kitbashed them together."
- Zaire Lanier, South of Midnight Narrative Lead
"The game deals with some heavy subjects, but we wanted to make sure ultimately it feels empathetic and hopeful," she says, adding that naturally, there are parts of South of Midnight that might resonate with a Black or Southern audience more. But at the end of the day, it’s a "very human story" that anyone can dive into.
I grew up in the South, so I'm excited to see how the entirety of the story comes together. From what I played so far, the characters are intriguing, the combat is challenging, and the story is surprisingly dark. I can't wait to play more.
South of Midnight is slated to launch on April 8, 2025 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Windows PC. Like all Xbox first-party games, it’s included day one in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC. Preordering the Premium Edition grants early access starting on April 5.
