From giant catfish to tortured trees, South of Midnight has an eclectic cast of creatures in need of some serious therapy

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The story South of Midnight revolves around helping several unusual creatures from American Deep South folklore

South of Midnight gets another short look-in at the Future Games Show, focusing on the weird and wonderful creatures Hazel encounters.

While Compulsion Games' latest title centers around Hazel looking for her mother after a hurricane swept her away, our heroine ends up in a fantastical Southern Gothic world. The main bulk of the third-person action-adventure game has you using Hazel's newfound Weaver powers to help the mythical monstrosities she finds and mend their spirits, learning more about her own family along the way.

Zaire Lanier, one of the writers on South of Midnight, explains that the developers looked for people with a southern background who could bring authenticity to the cast. Catfish is encountered very early in South of Midnight, and he's voiced by a 70-year-old man named Walter who is from the Deep South and plays the fiddle.

Hazel is then sent to heal Benjy, who used to live in a remote and desolate Cajun community, but has now morphed into a tree. Through exploring the region, you'll gradually uncover Benjy's story and his relationship to Rhubarb, another person who Hazel meets in her travels. We've also seen glimpses of a gigantic alligator creature overgrown with trees and a woman with four eyes, so there are many more creatures to encounter.

Art director Whitney Clayton also explains that each of the main creatures has their own song thanks to the game's audio director which tells the story of that creature. You won't hear the whole thing at first, however, but eventually your efforts culminate in a boss fight or final encounter where you hear the full song and try to resolve or help with whatever is ailing the monster.

South of Midnight will be coming to Xbox Series X and PC via Steam and the Windows Store on April 8. While it's not a very long wait, you can follow the developers on Twitter for all the latest news. And if you plan on picking it up on Steam, make sure you get it in your wishlist.

If you’re looking for more excellent games from today's Future Games Show, have a look at our official Steam page.

Will Sawyer
Will Sawyer
Guides Editor, GamesRadar+

Will Sawyer is a Guides Editor at GamesRadar+ with over five years of experience in writing online guides, news, and features, and has a BA (Hons) in Journalism. Starting as a freelancer, Will contributed to startmenu and Game Rant before joining the GamesRadar+ team in August 2021. Since then, he has written hundreds of guides about a huge range of games, with shooters and action games being his areas of expertise. Outside of writing about games, Will hops between multiplayer shooters with friends, such as Darktide and Helldivers 2, and delves into whatever has been on his backlog for far too long. He also tries to get through his never-ending Warhammer pile of shame of grey Tyranids, Aeldari, and Chaos Space Marines.

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