South of Midnight

[radiofloyd]

https://www.eurogamer.net/we-happy-few-developer-reveals-south-of-midnight-at-xbox-showcase
 

No gameplay shown but quite a stylish trailer. Need to see more though.

[mfnick]

Yea, interested from the graphical style alone but no idea what it actually is.

[Nag]

No idea what that is but looks interesting nevertheless.

[Maryokutai]

 

 

Combat looks a bit iffy, but wonderful art direction and the stop-motion style is growing on me. A bit surprised it's still so far away though, but I suppose it's quite a leap in fidelity and scale from their previous titles.

[Maf]

30min deep dive

 

I honestly can’t tell if it’s the stop motion animation/style choice or this game runs at 10fps. I’m sure it’s fine?

 

Looks to me like a PS2 game in a sense. Not graphics. But straight forward linear, combat game with big bosses and health bars and things to collect.

Not going to pretend I’m hyped about it. But will try it since it’s on Gamepass 

 

Surprised they’re doing such a big video with no real release date 

[Maryokutai]

The game renders at 60fps but every animation is purposefully choppy, like Spider-Verse. It looks a bit weird in short clips but I got used to it rather quickly during that longer video earlier this year.

 

I find it a bit reminiscent of the Alice games, Madness Returns in particular. It's a similar concept of using a relatively 'basic' gameplay foundation being elevated by its style and atmosphere. Or it might just be because you're attacking inky blobs with a dagger.

Also quite happy to see Derivières involvement here, he's quite overlooked as a composer I think but he's done some exemplary work. The fact they specifically mention how he builds dynamic soundtracks was nice to hear, because that was one of the strongest points of Remember Me.

 

Looks really nice all around. I think the only part about this video I didn't like is how the two old women looked. They stick out like a sore thumb, as if both the visual design and the character models were outsourced to a company who hasn't seen a single piece of concept art from this game.

[Maryokutai]

 

The other April game from the show, out on the 8th. From a gameplay standpoint this looks like a very videogame-y videogame, but everything around it, the setting, the style, the music, just leaves an excellent impression. 

 

Interestingly this is still an Xbox exclusive, which is likely a combination of Compulsion being too small to immediately pivot towards multiplatform development and maybe MS seeing this as more of a Gamepass prestige game that won't make much money as a tradition purchased product to warrant the porting process.

[Maf]

Kinda looking very 6 out of 10-ee. Looks extremely cutscene heavy and I think that will stop me from liking it 

[radiofloyd]

Love the look of this as well. More interesting than just another sequel at least.

[Nag]

Sitting at 78 on both Open and Metacritic... on a purely selfish level I was hoping for mid 80's (it's one of my  Fantasy Critic picks) but this is kind've what I expected. 

 

I'm still very much interested in this and will definitely be playing it but I think it might have to wait until I've played Clare Obscur first, we'll have to see how quickly I can clear what I'm already doing.

[Maryokutai]

I guess this is a game that was always going to do small numbers but the release timing really couldn't have been worse with the entire industry focusing on Switch 2 at the moment and in the coming days.

 

I just wish there was a disc to pick up. Will likely end up just getting a month of GP to play it.