Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - South of Midnight Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

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What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Gamescast for Thursday, April 3rd, 2025. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Getty. I'm joined today by blessing at E.Oye Jr. Good day, Tim. Greg Miller. Hello, Tim. Roger Pekorney. Hi.

And Paris Lily. What's up, Tim? What is up, y'all? Very excited to have all of you here today. For those of you that are wondering, we are recording this in the past. This is a thing that we are recording on Monday, multiple days before. this airing for all of you. We have to hit it for embargoes,

but also me, Roger and Bless are going to be in New York. We can't even officially say that right now. We're going to be seeing the Nintendo Switch 2. A lot of information, a lot of games, a lot of movies, a lot of videos, a lot of things dropping in the last couple days. All right, CinemaCon is happening.

A lot of internet buzz happening. All right, Bless. Spiderverse 3 might be announced. Spider Man 4 might get a title. I might have three more stars from cashing in stars in a bank. We don't know exactly what's going to happen. But I say all of this to just real quick get ahead of it all.

Obviously, this is our south of midnight review. But we're going to have a ton of Nintendo Switch coverage that should already be live as of this morning. The embargo was 6 a.m. today as of you hearing this. So stay tuned. We should have a ton of mini games castor. We'll see. We don't know what we get to do yet. You know what I mean?

You look at the channel. Everything exploded. Nothing happened. Who knows? But the plan is for me, Blessed Raj, to get to hands-on play the Nintendo Switch 2. and talk all about everything we saw. So if that actually happens the way we think it's going to, there should be multiple games casts up,

both in video and podcast form. So please check all of those out. But hey, enough about that now. I want to get into it. This is the games cast each and every weekday. We get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe.

If you love what we do, please support us with the Kind Up Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts, to get all of our shows ad-free. watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive Greg way um Greg let's just get into it now what what's the Greg way going to be about you don't even know yet because we haven't recorded it's like on Thursday what it's like they have three additional stars in game show and i got the cashed in stars in the bank i really hope i really just hope that doesn't work the way that you think it's

going to uh for a chance to be part of the show you can't do that because we're not live no super chats today everybody a little housekeeping for you remember we are an 11 person business all about live talk shows Sometimes, though, we can't be live. We got to just pre-record them like our... Like, are we doing right now? Although this is live for people. Yeah. I'm getting confusing here.

If you're in the live chat right now, we just can't respond to you. Exactly, exactly. But I am live and at work, so I might be looking at the chat, at which point I'll be here to celebrate my three stars. Exactly. But the Nintendo stuff we're doing, that just won't be live. That's just like a VOD that you can go click on and check out. I just don't know how he thinks is going to happen. What do you mean?

Oh, you catching me in the stuff. We're in New York. We're in New York. There's a weird K-Fame thing. We're in between it. People by this point I'm committing to this bit that I would have them.

That's how I came into this show. Yeah, yeah, I love it. You might have a plane ticket. You never know. Yeah, exactly.

Who knows what's going to happen? What if that's the pilot's like, and, oh my. And, uh, da da da da da da da da da da da da. God. Plus,

we just fully spin his walking around and Greg is sitting behind us. We're like, what the fuck? My God. Well, like I'm saying, should have a ton of videos in podcast.

I immediately lose six hour flights in New York. Six-hour flight, oh, Pist off. In addition to that, you have already gotten a kind of funny games daily today,

running you through all the biggest video game news that you need to know about in the wake of the Nintendo Switch to announcement. Of course, you can also check out the live reactions

that the boys did here at Boys and Girls. Yeah, that's right. Bailey's here as well. So you can check that out, and you can also check out all the other content that we made yesterday,

which Paris is getting involved in. I don't remember exactly where. Paris is doing Kind of Funny Games Daily. Paris is lead host in games daily with the one and only Gary Wooden. That'll be fun. Guess what?

I did not know that. So let's see how that turns out when you watch it. We like to have the meetings live on the show. Of course. We're in the past. We're in the future. We still don't know what's going on. I definitely know what the dairy lead games daily there.

I should have made your first tip up. And then a little housekeeping for you. It's been 1,200 days since we dropped how into what? I don't understand what happening here. Vernan. No, for dance. All right.

They're playing fucking war zone on Friday. Like, I'm saying a bunch of words that micro and I can't, I can't understand, but Friday at noon, Mike, Nick, Andy, and Chris Anka will be in studio returning to the game that brought them all together and also tore them apart for one mega marathon stream of laughter, frustration, and friendship. Hang out on Friday, watch the boys play Call of Duty, see what happens. If you're kind of funny, member, today's Greg, it is all about Greg having all my stars from Game Showdown. We'll see about that. It'll be more probably about the fallout.

How yet, because the, see, my favorite thing about this is the setup to it is it will be how much I enjoy that on, Wednesday we're not allowed to say where you guys are yet. So Wednesday, I just get to dog all three of you for being cowards and dodging me. That's all, every chance I get, you know what I mean? And I'm going to ruin your reputations. You know what I mean? I'll have Leanza. You're still being packed when you get home.

I can't believe you played him that way. Thank you to our Patreon producers. Anatoly Aast, Delaney Twining, Carl Jacobs, and Omega Buster. Anatoly, please write in the pronunciation of this. So I'd like to get this right. So I want to make sure we get that. Today we're brought to you by Lost Guys, Monaco, 2 and Rocket Money, but we'll tell you all about that later.

For now, let's begin with what is and forever. We'll be the topic of the show south of midnight. Our review, all five of us have completed the game. Is that correct? Yes. Oh, you completed the game too? Yes. Oh, yes, I have.

Oh, yeah. Oh, I didn't realize that. Oh, yeah. The developer. Bear has to. Bear has to? Oh, Barrett has to. Six of us, everybody.

the developer compulsion games in 2013 they released contrast that had a metacritic of 59 wow PS4 launch shuttle

wow lower than I would have expected yeah I'm the one who pulled that information for you you figure you were so far removed

how many of those reviews came in later I don't know I don't remember contrast being dogged that much I said dog a lot in this episode

for someone who never say like before this episode zero now it's like 2018 they put out We happy few that's out of 62 Metacritic.

And then they were acquired by Xbox in 2018. They announced south of midnight in 2023. And here we are seeing the fruits of all of that labor. So where should we start for south of midnight? Paris, Lily, we're going to start with you. Of course you start with me. Hey, you've been the most hyped. You mean previewed it and like even I'd already played it.

And your preview is making me hyped about it. You've been out there for this game. So actually that's kind of a great way to start this off is the preview. If you've played the preview, if you've listened to the feedback that people have had during the preview, then you know what South of Midnight is. I think there's a lot of good here with South of Midnight, but there's definitely some head scratching disappointments as well. And I kind of want to start with the good. Let's kick this off on a good note. The music in this game is incredible.

It's really, really good. There's a certain, I won't spoil anything, but there's a certain boss theme that I was humming all night after I played it. The music is fantastic. The sound effects, the ambiance is amazing. The art in this is like top notch. Everything that they're doing to depict the deep American South compulsion games is absolutely nailing. The voice acting in this is very inspired.

Voixatrix for Hazel, fantastic job. Ahmed Best, aka. Jar Jarbinks, he was a voice director for the whole thing. He did a fantastic job leading this cast of characters that were introduced to. But there was for sure some bad. And we kind of talked about it during the preview, and that's the gameplay. It's not that good. I mean, it's just pretty cookie cutter standard.

You go, you hop from a. arena to arena essentially fighting the same enemies. There's a small amount of a skill tree there. You know, it's not very complex or robust, but there's a skill tree that you can upgrade. And is it looms or flumes? I'm misquoted here that you have to kind of find. Yeah, that you find in the world. Even the traversal through the world is pretty straightforward.

Sure, you can go off the beaten path. And that's where you're going to find, you know, some of some of the loomers. or whatever to do some of the upgrades. But you can essentially just mainline this game. I don't know about you guys, but I probably about 12 hours it took me from start to finish on this. I enjoyed the story for what they were telling of being introduced to Hazel to where Hazel ends up by the end.

But there were things about the story that this, and again, they're doing this gothic look. We're looking at, you know, these fables and, Legends of the Deep South. But it was kind of a Debbie Downer with a lot of the stuff that you did in the game. Like I didn't. There was definitely some. Yeah, there were some humorous moments, but they were a few far in between.

I also felt that we're missing a chapter or two here, especially towards the end, where I definitely thought there was some character development I was expecting that I did not get. And all of a sudden we're rolling credits. I was like, wait a minute, really? I will say for me personally, the resolution, I understand it, but I was disappointed by it for what essentially was the main villain of the game. I didn't think there was enough accountability and consequence there. But a lot of, this is a very, there's a lot of tragedy in this story. You know, there's a lot of, you know, I was joking before we even started.

There's a lot of my own personal trauma was kind of triggered by a couple. couple things that that the story talked about in here, you know, abandonment. You know, again, I don't want to spoil too much, but there was like abandonment in the game. There was literal murder in the game, you know, betrayal. There's, there's all these things that came out of the story that I think I expected, even though it somewhat was a happy ending at the end, I think I was expecting something a little different from a story standpoint. And I know I'm sounding kind of negative Nancy with this because I think it's very important for anyone that does pick up south of midnight to understand that you're not getting this complex gameplay

from this. You essentially go into a chapter. There's about four rena's of attack that you'll do against the enemies. There's some story progression in that. Some chapters, you'll have a boss at the end, some you won't. I would say even the boss battles themselves. I was able to kind of quickly figure out the patterns with those. So even playing on standard difficulty, I didn't really feel that big of a challenge coming out of that. But with all that said, I think the positives of it with the music, with the art, this representation of the Deep South that you rarely see in video games was very well done. And I give compulsion kudos for doing that. I just wanted more from the gameplay that we got.

I wanted a little more from the story. Like I said, I almost feel like it ended abruptly. Sure. Like there definitely could have been a little bit more there. So if I was going to put a score of this. Which you are. On the kind of funny scale, it's right there, Paris. Stop.

I'm going to give this a 7.5. Okay. 7.5 from Paris, Lily. I want you next. I'm calling the ball. Yeah, because you. I don't know that I'm the best to go next. Tim Gettys, though.

Tim Gettys is another one who was like. champing at the bit for this. When I went to New York to go play it, you were like, I really want to go to, you almost move things around so you could go do it. The moment we saw this game,

I fell in love with it, that the Xbox showcase, everything that they had there, I was like, this looks so damn good. Then we saw gameplay the next year, I'm like, I'm pretty stoked for this

because I sit at this desk with y'all so often and we talk about, I just want a smaller game, I just want something that it's like, that's focusing on a great story and they're like, all that stuff.

And to me, this delivers that in all of, those ways, good and bad. I think that like everything Paris said, and the reason I kind of wanted to go last year is I wanted to hear what y'all have to say, because I don't fully know where y'all are at with it, but I imagine you might be more similar to where

Paris is on this. And I was going to say, I get all of the criticism and everything that you're talking about, but all weekend, I've been thinking about this game, playing this game, and thinking about my score, and thinking about the words and all of it. And I keep going back to I think this game is amazing.

Like, I think this game is a nine out 10 despite the fact that it is very simple combat. And a lot of the platforming and getting around is not the most advanced things. I feel like there's a lot of similarities to Jedi Survivor just take away any of the depth when it comes to combat or the parkour and all that stuff. But I don't think about this game in comparison to those. I think about this as like the jump up superstar of Mario Odyssey, but like the uncharted version. but like with the story that is worth telling.

Like every big set piece of this game gave me that same level of like, I am so into this as that jump up superstar moment of just like the music coming together with the motions of you playing and the added thing that was not talking about Mario. We're talking about very well directed characters with incredible writing, I think.

And I, from beginning to end, didn't want it to end. I was very, very excited about playing this game, getting back to it, seeing where it's going. I think the chapter system works perfectly. It reminds me of what I love most about the simple combat of the PlayStation 2 games, of Prince of Persia, Warrior Within, of just like, yeah, there's only a couple buttons you can mash around here.

And there's not too many enemy types. You're doing a lot of the stuff over and over, but, and the upgrade tree isn't the deepest thing ever. That is all music to my ears. Like, there's so many better games than this that I don't like as much. And I think that that's kind of the best way I could put this is, At the end of the day, when I think about this game years from now, I'm not going to think about how the combat is. Because I also don't think it's bad.

I just don't think that it's anything to write home about. But I think that the production value of this is so much to write home about that it pushes it up to me that I think I'm going to be an outlier on this. And I don't care because I truly stand by it. That personally, like, this is an amazing game to me. It being $40, it being available on Game Pass, like, I think that that's a steal. I think this is something that people should experience. I'm playing games and then gee will walk in the room or something and I had this level like of light embarrassment of like you know what I mean and it's not like I'm a fuck gamer I don't really care at the end of the day I'm still playing it but there are times where just like watching an anime or listening to certain music or whatever you kind of feel like what is this person going to think about what I'm doing right now you know and then you have your like a friend's over I'm going to put different music on that type of thing this is the type of game I'm not embarrassed at all about this is the type of game that I kept wanting to talk to her about where I'm just

just like, you should see this. This is so freaking cool. There's something special there. And again, a lot could be worked on, but I say hats off to compulsion games. I think that they pulled this one off. I want more. Again, I think that they can do better.

But that's what it tends for. Oh, I like that one. Let me jump in then because I think I have a similar vibe of like playing this game and thinking about reviewing this and what I'm going to do or what am I going to say on this game's cast. And, you know, I think we were at Kevin's, a 10 year anniversary lunch and me and Bless started talking.

And one of the things I said is that I think if I was at IG and I would, I would review this game very differently than I am here at kind of funny, right, because of who we are and how we get to talk about games and what we get to do. I think I agree with a lot of what Paris said. I agree with a lot of what Tim said. For me, I think you talk about this game and there's that question of style over substance. And I think if I'm sitting there talking to gamers and talking to gamers and talking. about this gameplay is such a big part of that and combat is usually such a big part of that

I find the combat in south of midnight just like I did in the preview which is totally serviceable not bad not annoying just like oh this isn't engaging I'm not having a great time I'm not looking forward to battles and so I did something I never have done in a video game before where I when I was in accessibility looking for something else just seeing what they had I think it was they had a setting there, like, yo, you can skip combat if you want to. And I was like, okay. And I turned that on. And what would happen is I would go into these arenas with monsters and I would hit the not burger button on the Xbox and it would say, do you want to skip this? And I said, yes, I do. And then everybody would be dead. And I would do the thing and move on. And so as I played through this game and

mind you, this was not because this was difficult. This was not like, oh, man, I'm running my, I'm dying over. I never died. It was just going through. It's like, I get it. You know, after the first two fights, I'm like, I get it. And so I would go in and see, is there a new. And so I would go in. Is there enemy here? Oh, there is. Usually there wasn't. Okay, see what the new enemy is about. And then be like, okay, I get it and skip it. This increased my enjoyment, I think, of the game. Where it was like, once that was done, I was like, man, it would have been a better game if they just would have said, no, because I think I'm assuming, again, in this weird embargo time, phantom zone were in, right? Of like, I assume, again, if I was at IGN, I would have left it on,

it would have been more annoying to me that I was in this comment that I didn't necessarily enjoy. And I would have maybe docked it and knocked it down points because of that, right? And I still think that's a worthy review, but what I'm telling you is for Greg Miller and the kind of games I enjoy, turning that off, still did the boss fights, I just turned off the arena things, still did the boss fights every time, enjoyed those. I still explored. Like, you're getting the flus to upgrade your skill tree so fights are easier and you have different moves. I still was finding everything. I was still expanding my entire skill tree or whatever. I enjoyed the game so much that way, taking out that friction point for me going on. I think for me, South and Midnight's

an eight. I think this is a great game. And I, I think it's a great experience. I think it's a great storybook. You know, talking out there earlier today, we started joking around about some of the, not plot holes, but like, well,

this or this or this, or this. I hear all you, and I know this is an out answer that we'll talk about here a little bit. This is totally an out, a cop out. But it is like,

it is a storybook, and that's how they set it up. So when I was playing it, I was never worried about that. And I think another, you know, pat on the back to this game is, when I put it down,

I was excited to get back to it. At no point was I ever, did I ever forget about it? I still want to play Monster Hunter, but I was like, I was still excited to sit down and play south and midnight every night. And, you know, whether it was on the giant TV looking gorgeous, whether it was on remote play via the Steam Deck, like, I was into this game. I think everything Paris said, voice acting, awesome.

Tim, writing, awesome. Like, again, in a storybook fashion of getting to these, you know, twisted, grotesque creatures, scary creatures, and then be like, well, what's going on underneath the hood? What created you? I enjoyed that storytelling. I enjoyed that setting. the art, everything about it. I think so much of this, again, if I was going to,

IGN brain is nine. Like, you know, this is a nine on sound, 95 on sound, this is nine on graphics. This is that performances and like, and then it's like, well, combat is what? Six, five, you know, somewhere in there. Again, not bad, but now. But again, just being able to say, you know what, this is an option

to ignore it and I'm going to ignore it and then that becomes my review of the game. I had a great time with this game and I couldn't get enough. Yeah. Blessing. Yeah, I think this is a very fascinating one. Because for me, I think I'm going to come at it from a similar but much different way than Greg, where if I were to review this for a website, which is kind of the way I'm going to do it, right? Like, if I'm going to do the Greg thing of I'm going to review this from how I enjoyed it versus what I think it is on paper, I think I would review it a lot lower because I did dread playing this a lot of time. Yeah. For me, it was a thing of like, all right, we're doing the review on Monday.

I really want to have the game finished. And so I'm like playing this game during my weekend. And the whole time I'm like, man, I wish I could be playing something else. Right? Like have other games that I had downloaded on my Steam deck. I have other games that I have on my PlayStation. I have shows. I'm watching the studio right now. And I'm like, man, I'd much rather be doing any more, any one of these things, more so than

playing South of Midnight. And I think that comes down on, I think, how the experience is combined as a whole, where I didn't turn off the combat, right? Like, I went through every single combat experience. I kind of dreaded the moment to moment thing of, man, it is kind of tough for me to stay awake while playing this game at points because I think the game, design of it is so kind of like been there, done that

if you've played an action adventure game in a way that brought it real down for me. That said, on paper, when I go through the elements of this game, I think this game is so heavily brought up by the art direction, by the presentation, by the story, and by the music of it to where like,

I can't give this game anything lower than a seven. I think for me, a seven is what I'm going to give this one because I think it is a solid good game when you look at it overall. I think, think the best compliment I can give it even would be that I have this game downloaded at my desk on my razor laptop that I have on my desk. And I also have this game downloaded on my Xbox Series X at home. And at times while I'm playing this at my desk, I'm like, I should just pause this

and wait until I get home to play it on my big TV because the way that this game presents is so, like, it's so pretty, it's so beautiful to look at. It's so, it runs so smooth. And I think that's where it shines the most when you play it in a setting that I think can do justice by the art they're like representing in this thing it is such a masterclass I think in in um presentation so much of the time but then when we talk about combat and you talk about gameplay I think it is even more than just the combat I think the moment to moment gameplay is just not really inspired I think when you're going from point A to point B of any of the things like it really is the thing of all right press I think it's R3 to follow the line that they draw for you of where the objective is.

And then when you get to a path, go down the other path so you can get the foof and then come back and then follow the main line. Get into the combat. Combat, it's not going to be fun. All right, finish that. Okay, cool. Go on to the next thing. Sometimes they'll have climbing.

Sometimes you have puzzles. But that stuff, I think, is like, when I'm doing the climbing, I can't help it to think of so many other games that have climbing and so many other games that do it better. When I talk about the combat, right, it is the multi, like, it's the multiple hit thing. I think the abilities are not that great. You know, like you have abilities that are tied to all your shoulder buttons. And what is just for an audio per person who hasn't done it before, right? There's push, there's pull.

There's tie the guy up. Yeah. And then there's possess the guy, right? Like those are the four abilities. I think two of them or maybe fun, right? I don't like the push. The push doesn't feel great. Granted, I never got to the place where I fully upgraded it.

I'm sure once I, if I got there. If you do, it's cool. That's what I thought. But come on, that deep into this short of a game. Like, that was my thing where I was like, oh, when I unlock the ability possess a guy. I was like, oh, when and I'm like, oh, this is cool. I have somebody on my side fighting. Skip, but you know what I mean?

Like, this doesn't fix the problem. The last thing is like I was more of a fan of the possessed. So I was like, I'm going to put my level in my, my XP more into the possessed thing than the other thing. Um, but yeah, like, because I had the art, the push ability at the bottom, I was like, okay, well, this almost feels basically useless at points. Okay, I'll do the pole, but the pool works

on some enemies better than it works on other ones. All right, cool. I'm going to tie this guy up with LB. All right, cool. Now every combat system has kind of felt the same to me, right? Like, that's kind of how the bulk of my experience went until I got toward the end and I started kind of getting into like a little bit of a flow with the combat once I had

certain things leveled up all the way but then the game ended and I was like all right cool that was that right and like you know when we talk about the collectibles you know Paris talked about the fluffs which upgrade your skill tree which is kind of small but it's fun right and then you have like storybook pages that you collect I wish there was a way we could have done an audio log situation because this was one of those games where I didn't really like the flow of all right now I'm going to

stop and read this thing about this thing that is like kind of kind of specific to this chapter that I'm in because you're kind of telling me these small stories within the story right like I don't know overall it just didn't come together for me in like a gameplay experience that had me excited to come back session after session. There's so much talk about but like for me the pages worked I was again like I loved this world and what was going on around it and so finding them even though I would have preferred obviously voice acting something else I was a full stop read about this side story that's kind of related to whatever. monster I'm going after. I was like, I like this.

I do want to say, the monster is incredible. Yeah. My favorite part of the game. We're seeing the, like, when we talk about the art design and the direction, all that stuff, right? I think the best part of those are getting to those big boss fights, getting to those creatures where it is, oh, y'all put in a lot of effort into making these things cool. And I did like the boss fights. I think the boss fights broke out

from like some of the monotony of the combat for me. Roger Percorney. This is a story of highs and lows for me, right? where the art direction, the design, the voice acting, the story is like so high for me. Like to the point where in the very beginning

of this game made me an hour or two hours in, I was like, I looked at Leanza like, this might be generational. Like this might be one of the best video games like ever made. Like this isn't insane. Like it is, it hits so well.

And like, for me personally, the story is so emotional. Like there was a moment where as I'm playing with Leanza, she's watching, she just kind of like nods off and she walks away, right? She's like, I don't want to,

it seems like too much walking around, too much bullshit. shit, right? I want the story. I don't want to see you running around, doing whatever. And then I come to her, like, maybe a day later after I'm like halfway through the game, like tears in my eyes, like explaining a part. I'm like, you don't understand. Like, this was such an incredible moment. I need to explain this to you right now. Like, that's how deep this game goes for me. Like, there's so many, and the music is so gorgeous, but then there's always the low, right? Like, there's always a low with that high. And that is, of course, the gameplay.

That is the traversal. And I think I'm even more negative about the gameplay than all of you, right? I don't think this was just serviceable. I think it points it's bad. I don't think it is responsive. I never found a flow. And I did end up getting to the point where you got to, Greg, where I was skipping a few,

I think maybe three battles towards the ending because looking through the accessibility, I was like, oh shit, finally. I get to get to the good stuff. But I was waiting for those moments. Like I was going everywhere. I was trying to upgrade this skill tree. I was trying to find the fun in the gameplay.

I just never found it. And there was that moment when you get the possess. I'm like, maybe this is the moment. I'm having a good time. and it just kept on getting worse and worse and worse. And we get to the boss battles, and I found them very uninspired. I love the design of it,

and I love the idea behind some of the boss battles, but it felt like, hey, just do the same thing again. Do the same thing again. Hey, it's the execution of it. Exactly. And then I was like, okay, this is, I have to take the good with the bad. I really, really love this game so much,

like in terms of the story, in terms of the acting, maybe a 9.5, we're doing the whole IGN stuff, right? Like 9, 9, 9.5. I love this so much. And I don't like, the gameplay, I think that's maybe a six or a five, okay, maybe an eight. But then the game ended. And I was like, hmm, you didn't wrap up everything. Like, you have the storybook and it feels like

there is a missing chapter, as you said, Paris. It felt so apparent. And I was, I was in like full denial stage where I like, I closed the game and I reopened it. And I was like, there has to be something. Clearly something went wrong. Yeah, exactly. There has to be another chapter that I'm missing. There has to be something. And there wasn't. It just kind of ends. So for me, weighing everything, I think it's a really good game. This is a game that I would recommend to everybody that has game pass that wants a short experience on the weekend and wants to experience a really great story. I'll give this a 7.5 out of time. If I could, before we can continue on, because I do want to jump on that point again of what

Roger just said about it just feels like a chapter or two is missing. Yeah. And again, I'm not going to spoil anything. There is a key character in this game that I kept waiting to get his story, to get his background. How did you end up this way? And it it never happened. So that just, I'm like, wait, that's it. We don't find out about this guy. Again, not to spoil anything, but the whole idea of the game, it is very disjointed, right? You're, dealing with a lot of different people's stories, but those stories don't come together in any meaningful way. They are just cut to- I disagree so much, man. Oh, my God. In my opinion, they have a purpose, right, and that is to build up the main character and her story, but at the

ending of it, I'm like, okay, this is a book, this is, this is the story of all these characters together. I want to see some of these threads that we've flagged here and they just, they don't come together. It might be done. Barrett? Yeah, just to jump off of that, I'm a mix of all of you. Yeah, like I adored the story, a lot of the big themes and

kind of big story things with the main character and her mom, like, hit emotionally for me in a way that I wasn't expecting. My grandfather was a social worker and some stuff came up in there that hit me in a way, but yeah, the gameplay feeling very uninspired, all this stuff.

it feels, in terms of what we're talking about, it feels very inspired by psychonauts, but not coming together in a way that's graceful like psychonauts. Psychonauts is so much about helping people heal and not coming up with a solution for them, but to give them their first steps into finding a better path for them. And none of that comes together here

for the people that you're kind of walking through the kind of traumas, of these Southern folklore stories, right? Which I think was really cool, set up really cool, like, stories. But then, yeah, each of them ended in such a way where it was like, we're going to come back to this, right? And it's like, oh, why did we never do that? I think, I was saying this to Roger earlier,

and this is the last thought I'll share, is, you know, the emotion of this game, like Tim was saying, in terms of the big set piece moments where music is rising up and you're, you know, climbing a bit. big thing and the story is coming together. It's like so beautiful and it hits you. And then it also at the same time feels so clunky because, you know, the, uh, platforming is kind of off. The gameplay feels kind of off. Like there's so much to love about this game and the game is constantly getting in the way of making you like fall in love with this game. It's a, it's a weird one.

I'm, I, it's a 7.5 for me, but one that I love like an 8.5 to steal, uh, you know, a classic blessing quote. Paris, you're about to jump in there? I'll again go back to what Roger was talking about with the gameplay because I think we're all in agreement that was the weakest part of the game. And it just really comes back to the fact that there wasn't a lot of enemy diversity as far as the way they attacked you or did things to keep you on your toes so that as you are going through your skill

tree and you're upgrading, it feels like it's paying off. Like it's rewarding because I think one of you even said it isn't even really to you get to the very end and the game the game's about to be over. Did I feel anything significant about my my skill tree upgrades? Right. We're like, oh yeah, I really can benefit from this. But ultimately, the way the enemies attacked me in chapter one was the same way they were attacking me in chapter 14. You know what I mean? Every time I pop back into to test one of these rooms.

I was like, oh, it feels the exact same. I'm not missing something. I'm not screwing this up by skipping. And they didn't, they didn't change the, the flow of a chapter of how you attacked it. Because blessing, you even touched on it, that, okay, you can follow the breadcrumb trail and you know that's going to take you to the end. Well, if that's telling me to go left, I'm going to go right because there's going to be an upgrade over here if I go right. And sure enough, that's exactly what it was. Then you would do what I like to call once you do all, all the four beats of the story, you do the Kessel Run.

And then you have to go through that. and then you get to the end and there's a boss or there's a big story beat or something like that and that was that was it was just rinse and repeat rinse and repeat and I appreciate it. I think that's my thing is like that worked for me because none of those beats lasted longer than I wanted them to. I feel like the combat encounters were so quick and short

to allow you to then move on to the next bit and I really enjoyed the okay I'm about to get to a walk around bit where I can read all the things and you get to a section where there's going to be a story bit that looks a little bit different. I don't want to spoil anything of how they do it. But I really liked the like, you're going to do this and you're going to do that. And it's just like I never sat with anything long enough to like dislike what's going on. I feel like when all things come together is when I liked it best and like the things coming together.

A lot of that was the music and the story. And in this game, the music and story are completely intertwined. And when those do intertwine with the gameplay and with the arena combat, I think that is, those are some of my favorite moments. I wish that there were more of those in terms of the arena combat. But towards the end, that really started ratcheting up. Like I'd say the last third of the game, I enjoyed the combat so much more just because of the story elements involved with it. And the amount of enemy variety that they're throwing in there in comparison to earlier because it's a lot more just like here's all of the different ones that have been introduced. To chime back in again, thinking about this and organizing my thoughts, da-da-da-da-da.

It was the idea for me of like, okay, cool. And then well, there is a lot of rinse and repeat here. There is repetition, right? of okay you come in there's the enemies you're fighting or skipping like me there's exploration there's the okay now we need to fill this bottle to go fight the boss kind of thing we do that you fight the boss three waves great okay now i've got a run from this thing okay great like but even as i laid that out and i was thinking of all these instances where the levels had the similar feel in the moment i didn't mind it nor did it stand out and so i can't fault it in the end right because i was so excited

to get to the next thing for the bottle i was so excited to find the next piece of paper i loved the so much that I loved them. I mean, it's not revolutionary, it's not whatever, but totally vibed with the platforming. It felt chill. It reminded me of concrete genie. I'm just vibe it in this space, going down this beaten path, going over there, doing things out of order, whatever. Interesting. Yeah, I mean, for me, it was

so apparent the formula aspect of it. And like, Tim, I agree. There were moments of it where I'm like, I'm fine with it. I'm fine with getting chased by the thing. Like, there's no issues there. It's just more of like, the high, again, the highs are so high that you see all the formulas, the formulaic elements of this because the game

has so much finesse everywhere else, right? Like the character design is so gorgeous. The way that they design these worlds is amazing. So when you have like, okay, just do the same thing over and over again, it just feels like a missed opportunity there, at least for me. When they break that format, though, I think that's some of the stronger moments in the game. And I feel like they only hit that strong because it wasn't what you expect to do. See, that's the thing, Tim.

That's the thing about it. And I know we're kind of talking about the flaws that the games has. But man, when they freaking hit it, they hit it at such a high level. So then when you come back down to earth, you're like, well, damn, I want to stay there. Because there's a later chapter, which I like, again, when we talk about the music in the game, that is heavily jazz influence. Like, again, the music overall, jazz, blues, country, even some rock in there. And I think very inspired the composer here and just all the different tracks that they use, really, really good song choices they had in this. And man, there was that

jazz level towards the end where I was loving it. I was loving every minute of that. And you got me to the point where I was like, I want more of this. Oh, no, the game's over. Oh, damn. You know what I mean? That is probably my thing that compulsion did such a great job building this world. And then they unfortunately weren't able to 100% execute in the combat beats of it.

Because again, this is a video game at the end of the day. This isn't like, what am I thinking of as Dust Falls, right? It's not just a slightly interactive story. No, it's something where you're being a active participant in everything that's going on. And this felt like gameplay wise, like something we would have got 15 years ago, maybe, right? Versus what you would expect today. And again, I don't want to just keep harping on all the negative stuff. But I think, Tim, to your very point, when they nail it, they absolutely knock it out of the park.

And you have a dumb grin on your face and you're excited to see what's around the corner. And then we go back to rinse and repeat with the stuff. And that's just where my disappointment comes in. I mean, the good side of this is that they did the thing. Like this is not too far off. Like the next game, the next South of Midnight 2, whatever it is. Like I hope, first of all, I hope we get a sequel. And second of all, like they have the ground floor for something really incredible here.

It is not, even though it has bad moments in my opinion, especially the gameplay, I don't think it's, you know, too far off, right? Just give me a block button. Give me a dedicated block button. That's all I need. Or just don't, you know what I mean? No, come on.

A game has to do that. I think that's, okay, going back to it. Give me a Perry. I think this game needs it. What they had here didn't work, though, like for combat. I think if you did add a block button or you did add a Perry or you did at, like,

I think the flow of, all right, dog out the way. All right. Like, maybe you have a last second dodge, which barely works sometimes, right? Like having the enemies barely telegraphed the moves before they swipe at you. Like, I think, I don't know.

You need to, you need it to mix something up there. such a different experience. That's crazy. I don't, you're getting ready. I'm assuming to go to ads, right? Well, so it'll be a question for when we come back if you want. Yes. But I would be say, it's like, yeah, what would you want out of South and Midnight too? Would you want them to do combat or not do combat at all? See how. I got thoughtful.

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Greg, you're asking. If we're talking about South of Midnight 2 and we started, well, you're like, oh, put a block button in, you're like, oh, it's fine. And I'm like, I don't do it at all. Like, I'd love to hear a conversation of like what you'd want out of that aspect of the game. Because again, if somebody who skipped it, I want you all to know, like, I didn't miss it. Like, I really feel like the hates, the creatures, you're, just drop them. Like, just drop them and focus on boss battles and then make exploration even more fun.

Make those audio diaries there. Make more things. I mean, honestly, one of the thoughts I kept having while playing in this game, and this is honestly, maybe more of a me thing than even the game thing. But I kept asking myself, does this need to be an action adventure game? Like, could this game have gotten farther if it wasn't an action adventure? And I think because a lot of my fatigue while playing this game came from the fact that, like, it goes back to the, been there done that sort of thing of I've played this type of game a million times it feels like and I think if we had like figured out either a different lane or stuck to a specific thing

got really good at it on the gameplay side you could have elevated this experience further as opposed to having me go down a path fight some people and no combat system I don't really like all right we're going to climb now like I've I played that game a lot so like I'm kind of with the idea of like what could you have done or could or like would it be worth it to have figured out how to take out the combat or figure out a different genre that could have told the story even better. Dropping the combat again changed my chemistry

of the game, right? So it's hard for me to do. But like running around and having the little guy you control, right? I enjoyed that. It was fun. I was like, again, I could have gone for more of those.

Cruton? Cruton. Yeah. Her climbing around and doing all this different stuff. Like, I enjoy that finding the notes. So it's like I enjoyed the experience I got removing that spice from it, moving that avocado from the dish or whatever.

Like, I wonder... The best part of the dish that does. I love avocado, but I'm just looking for something that people remove. All right, everybody. Ben hates it. I have to take avocado out of everything. I do eight beans. That's good.

So, yeah, I was wondering what you'd want is somebody who engaged with it more. And then, Tim, I know you're talking... For me, I definitely, I just want more story in the gameplay, in the combat. Sorry, not gameplay. In the combat, specifically. Because I feel like when we get the story elements in the combat, that's when it's at its best. And I feel like that's only, like, one-fourth,

and that's being generous of the fights that we get from it. but I do think that the the how much the combat breaks up what you're doing otherwise like I think that that's needed because if we're just like walking around reading things and then doing some light platforming like I don't think that that's enough like I do think that the combat is necessary and I just feel like I think if anything what I would do is change up what the abilities are and get you cooler things faster because it wasn't until the very end of the game that I finally have the whole kit that I'd like to have yeah um And the enemy variety that I would like to have. But I do think that given some different abilities, like maybe even like more varied in terms of motion and combat, like the parkour and combat together, I think would go a long way. But I definitely think the game needs combat.

Yeah, I agree with you too. I honestly, my thought process behind this is to make more enemies, but just easier to kill. Like I would rather that. I would just rather just keep on going through, almost yakuza style. Like I'm just beating up a bunch of people

go through, okay, next area. But also talking about what you're saying, I want to meld the gameplay and the story a bit more, right? I want to have it so it's not just arena. Oh, fuck, okay. Why I be hard stopping the gameplay with the story with the gameplay?

I wanted to feel organic and natural. So I guess like, I don't know. The next one we're looking at it is a $40 release. This is a smaller type experience, even though if you look at the cutscenes and everything, you wouldn't think that, right? You think there's a $70 experience. I wonder if the next one is a $70 experience.

I wonder if it is a bigger, better situation. I would hope not. I think that's the wrong way to go. I mean, to me, I look at this as a, I had finished this game, I was like, if this was $70, I'd be fine with that. Like, I would truly, I would still give it a $7.5. Like, my $7.5 is not associated with the fact that it's $40.

It is, whatever this is, if this was a full price release, I would be totally fine with it. Paris. So a few things on that, and I agree with everything that you guys have already been talking about. But first and foremost, I would like to see more, more side missions or not more. I want side missions, period, in the game because everything was mainline. So I would love optional side missions so we can explore some of these other characters, because again, part of what Hazel is doing is she's healing the world and the people around her, right?

I would like to, I already talked about this being more of a tragic story that we're seeing for the most part. I would like to spend some time during the active game and happier times as well. let's explore the fact from a story standpoint, this two-to-tom as an example. I healed two-to-tom. I meet two-to-tom later in the game after he's been healed and the ramifications of that. And I understand the good that I'm doing in the world. I would say from a combat standpoint to what Roger just said, give me more enemy variety, add them into the actual world itself.

I would love to see, you know, they don't have to be hard to kill, but it mixes it up so that I'm not just going to the arena. doing the same things that I was doing every time. I would say even from a traversal, just world standpoint, lack of a better term game I can think about top of my head right now, give me more puzzle elements. Give me something like cocoon, right? Where, sure, I may not be fighting enemies during that time,

but you're challenging me in a unique way that I have to use Hazel's, you know, unique abilities to solve a puzzle or get to a location or whatever. They did it a little tiny bit in one chapter where it felt more puzzly, but I want more of that and I want it to be more challenging. I think that would take it a long way. Because again, the bones of this is great. The story's great. The art's great. The music's great.

I think you've established characters in this world that I would like to hear more from. But in its current rendition, this is pretty much just a one and done. There's no replayability, in my opinion, to this. I wouldn't see a reason to go back and play the way it is. But if you mix it up with side missions and you do different puzzle things, maybe that's something like, oh, man, I didn't meet this character before. I'll go back and play it and see where this, this takes me down this fork in the road. Oh, this boss battle was totally optional because I made this choice. I think to Roger's point, again, if this was a $70 AAA experience, these are things that you could add into the game that I think it would make worthwhile.

And that's interesting. I mean, at the end of the day, I don't disagree with anything you're saying because I think you are right for a $70. title of this game being bigger. The thing I love most about this is it, there aren't side quests. The whole thing is what matters. Everything you're doing, it's one linear story. I love this game.

I love Canna Bridge of Spirits. I love high-fi rush. These are all games that just cut a lot of the bullshit. Because of that, they also are lacking a little bit in other ways. But I feel like what makes this game so great to me is that it is different than those other experiences and it doesn't have a lot of the like checklists. We have to fill all this stuff out. Still think it could be better in a lot of,

ways, but I do think that there's something about the balls to be like, we're not going to just add a bunch of extra stuff for replayability. Like, I would prefer this to be like my one and done. I'm happy with it type story. But man, the game that Parrish just pitched, that's the game I want. Like, like the side missions and the puzzles, like I didn't even think about that. Like that, that to me is what this game is missing. And Tim just said something, which kind of goes into the argument, even at, at a $40

double a level. You just mentioned high five rush. I will go back and play high-fi rush. You don't know why? Because it challenged me in those combat scenarios, especially the boss battles, where if I'm not on my P's and Q's, I'm going to die. I'm going to get defeated and have to go back. So even that, comparing it to something like High-Fi Rush,

which again is a $40 AAA game, it did combat better to make it more replayable to want me to go play it again. Whereas I think the reason I would go back to play south of midnight, honestly, would be for the freaking me. music right now. That'd be the reason I'd want to go back and play just to be sound track. That's going to be amazing. Not to go too far down the path here, well, the high-fi rush thing, but it's like

High-Fi Rush, it's about the combat, right? Whereas this is not about the combat. I do think this is way more about the story. And I think that the story set piece, set-piece beats in this, which are the main focus of this game, in my opinion, are better than any sequence besides one in High-Fi Rush. And that is a game that's literally about music as well. So I just think that there's like, again, when you are talking about these smaller experiences, I think that you have to like just choose the path and go down it in a certain way. And I think that what this game does, the paths it chooses to go down to me, story-wise, I think was very relatable,

resonance. Like these stories are going to sit with me. So why I may not want to replay the game once a year, I'm going to be thinking about these stories for a long time. I think I do disagree on this game isn't about combat because like that's the main thing. you're doing, right? As far as interaction in the game, you're running around the world and you're getting into combat sequences. And for me, like, I agree with you guys for the most part. I think the story didn't hit for me on that level, but I still think the story is good and I enjoyed it. If we're talking about the story and the presentation being the main good things here,

then I think we're getting back to the Hellblade conversation of could this have been a film? Could this have been a different thing? A Broadway musical. Yeah, like, if you ripped out the gameplay and then the game becomes good, then like, I think that's a core problem with the way that this thing is presented. My one pushback on that because I've thought a lot about that on how. I played it right is that again this is a me thing even though there's been a million different platformings and I enjoyed platforming I enjoyed I enjoyed getting top but can I get to that thing this way jumping and gliding and getting there and yeah normally I could or whatever I enjoyed that I enjoyed the boss fights even though okay yeah it's gonna be three waves like that's for me it was

just this arena thing where I was like I've seen all this and I don't need to do it again where for me I think there was still gameplay in this game even though I took that part out yeah totally One thing about the combat that I really wish they went further with is I really like kill confirm type arena combat where it's like after you beat them, you need to go to them and get them or else they come back. I wish that they took that a little further though. It didn't feel like it was ever a threat to me. I felt like I could always just deal with whoever else and get back to them wherever I wanted to. But I feel like that was a very cool thing. I think that another thing that I love about this game is the animations and like how varied they are.

And even the ones that you see over and over again are so freaking dope. And I think in the arena situations, like a lot of that stuff really shined. And seeing Hazel kind of like move around was like very impressive. And it stayed impressive to me the entire time. Like you mentioned that, Tim, because I kept thinking, because when you defeat an enemy, you unravel them, right? It's part of the healing thing. I was thinking maybe as you got later into it that if you didn't unravel them,

they'd regenerate and become an enemy again to add to the difficulty. But that, in my opinion, that was a missed opportunity. Oh, they didn't? I was just doing it. I thought that they would come back. You just get feels from them. Yeah. God damn it.

Yeah. I was so focused on it. We talked a lot about the music, but the sound design in this game is on another level, man. It is so damn good. It feels like you are in these swampy areas. Like, there's every place you are. Hurricane in the beginning. The hurricane is insane.

And there's a whole bunch of areas. I don't even want to talk about. I was alluded to one of them later, but there's, like, towards the end of the game, some of my favorite stuff. and the way that it sounds is so damn good. And it I think goes so far. Like that is the design of this whole thing. The experience of like video games can use sound in ways that no other medium can

because you are in control of how close you are or far you are where the camera spins in relation to the sounds. And shout out to the team of audio designers. I watched the credits and like it was only like five people. And I'm like, how is that possible? Because there is so much going on here. And again, I know we've talked a lot about story and characters and stuff. Like, I really, really, really loved the performances in this.

And the way there was written and the way the lines are delivered felt like so just right to me. Like there's it, you are in that fantasy book realm of like this isn't real life. Like this is obviously magic shit's happening and you've got to suspend disbelief in pretty much every way. Like the game starts off with a hurricane pulling a house away and all this. It's very wizard of Oz, you know. But I think that the like, like, line to line, moment to moment character stuff is like, I can't think

of other games that I felt this way about since Final Fantasy 7 remake, I'll even say, like not even Rebirth, remake specifically, and I'm blanked on the other one I had, but... Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. You're so right, yeah, I was hanging on every word

that was said, and I think a lot of that is the way that they animate the characters, right? I mean, this is claymation, essentially, like that's the vibe that they're going for, very like a stop motion. And it's gorgeous and it's the best, it's the best, I mean, Harold Hallibut came out last year and I don't think that was very successful at all,

but this feels like you're there with these characters, the way that they animate them, they're so expressive. The way that I was describing it to Lianz, it feels like, you know, you see like concept art of a bad movie and you're like, man, I wish that concept art was like, oh, the real movie, that's what this is. This is the concept art, the entire game,

and it's awesome. It is sick to play. I definitely want to shout out at the human character design, because earlier I was talking about the ball, right but like yeah when you're talking about hazel when you're talking about hails his mom when you're talking about like the villainish character that paris was talking about earlier right like all of the human characters look so unique and they all look super cool to me and i think they absolutely nailed that we talked about the top of the show but i haven't personally said something

about i do want to once again shout at the voice actors too like i think the performances are so on another level here where nobody nobody missed for me nobody fell flat everybody i thought was really just crushing it and in delivering a hell of a poor performance um shout out my guy Cruton. We mentioned Cruton earlier, but like, I'm such a big fan

of like tackling unique puzzles. Oh, oh, little freaks, too. Salads. Um, but Cruton is essentially a kid.

Do you say, oh yeah, salads too? I like, uh, croutons, like a little buddy that you get. And you can,

like, take control of him to, like, solve specific puzzles. And you can also throw him across things. And I, I like that functionality.

I think that always helps to break things up in an action adventure of like, all right, now I'm going to throw this guy over here and he's going to do a little cool puzzle. Very ratcheting clank.

Yeah, very ratcheting clank. Right, yeah. And he'll go into like a little hole and then like, you know, have a thing that he has to get to, right? Those puzzles always thought were a cool way to break it up. I also wish that they were a bit more inspired as well because after a while I was like, all right, cool. I just need to dodge the ants and dodge like the spiky plants and that I'm good. But I like it an idea.

I wish the, I wish the execution was a bit more involved. Yeah. I also want to talk about the technical aspect of the game and how it ran. I played it on Series S and it ran beautifully. I believe it was 60 FPS. I mean, maybe my eyes are broken, but it was gorgeous and it ran really well. And I played it on PC and it was also flawless too.

This game is a technical Marvel. I agree. Yeah, I played it across four devices on the series X, the S, PC, and then on the Rogue Ally handheld as well. Yeah, I mean, no issues. Ironically enough, the only bug that I did see in the game was a bug that I saw when I was in compulsion back in November. but other than that, it was flawless.

I did not have the same story as you two. I only have the series S, and I was going back and forth between my living room TV, which is smaller, and then my TV that actually supports, like, 120 hertz and all that stuff. When I was playing with, like, a basic HDMI, if, like, people at home don't have 4K setups

or only have basic HDMIs, I was seeing a lot of frame drops when I wasn't on my 120 hertz, like, setup. I think I don't, don't know if the series S supports full 60 frames per second. I'm not entirely sure, but I was seeing a lot of hitching in terms of camera, not just like character animation. Like obviously they're like that, but seeing a lot of that, I had a lot of crashes too.

And not crashes, like the game froze in terms of like it was obvious that it was loading either a combat scenario or a cutscene and it would just freeze. And Xbox, the Xbox wouldn't even detect like, hey, something's wrong with your game. I'd have to go in or like close out of the game and then hope to God that like an auto saved recently. Thankfully, the auto save feature is pretty frequent in this, but yeah, I had a lot of performance issues like that, that hopefully is kind of

a rare one for people out there. I didn't have too many bugs. I had one bug where I got toward the end of a combat sequence, and one of the guys was left with, like, one hit on him, and for some reason I couldn't hit him, but I could, like, leave and go to the next thing, and so I just went along and, like, just left him

behind. Legitably, it was like that, and then I got to the next combat sequence, and, like, the arena, like, you know, solidified, and none of the enemies were spawning. And then I look and I see that enemy outside of the arena. Like, just banging on the walls. And I was like, I'm not finished yet. It's right to reload the game, but that fixed it.

Yeah, I played on Series X and my experience was closer to Rogers. Again, I want to say technically the audio. Like, I am very lucky that I have a full home theater system that has, like, I am designed for the top end of these audio things. and not every game sounds this good and has this much love and care and performance technically when it comes to audio and this game definitely did.

I didn't have any issues with stuttering or freezing or any of that stuff, but I did have two and they were both indifferent. It was both in a phase three of a boss, I would have some clear bug that fucked me over and I had to restart the battle, which wasn't great. Like one time I got kicked out of the arena and I couldn't get back in and I was like, this sucks. And then another time, like the weapons that I needed to kill,

the enemy just weren't spawning no matter what I did um but yeah just a quick reset and then I was right back in action hell yeah right back so what one other thing for me because I'm assuming we're gonna wrap it up soon I want to make sure I get this in final thoughts I do I do want to give kudos to compulsion games because I feel like there was a lot of there there was a lot of respect love and care with this game and and when I say that is because they are touching on a subject that you don't see in video games a lot. Obviously, black female protagonist, you're in the Deep American South, you're talking about a lot of the folklore and legends that come from that area, the dialects that come from that area, the sounds, the art, there's everything about it. I felt,

I felt very respected by that because I am from the South. So I know what the South looks like, and this felt like a very good representation of that. You know, being lucky enough to have actually met some of the dev team and hear them talk about this game, I know that they were very respectful of this and they put all their love and care into making this game what it was. Of course, you know, we're critics. We're going to point out the good and the bad, but the overall experience that I got from this, I'm happy that I play South of Midnight. And I highly suggest anyone that has a chance, play South of Midnight, there is so much good here that you're going to enjoy. And I think people that aren't from the South that don't know the folklore in the culture and the art of

the Deep South, this will be educational for them. I think that lore tab, which is something that you'll have access to, use it. Take your time. Obviously, this is a 12-hour experience, so you don't need to rush through it. Take your time. Take in the lore. When you come across one of these bosses or these characters and you see the lore tab pop up, read up on it and understand where this legend came from, the folklore to it, all that, because again, I thought they did a fantastic job with that. And sure, we might criticize

the gameplay, but even with that, it is worth your time to place out the midnight. And again, just kudos the compulsion, man. Yeah, I think to echo that, if there's anything that kept me in the game, it was the setting, it was the characters, it was like what they're doing here culturally. And I think that's

one of those things where I want to see more games tackle different types of themes, different like I to the deep south thing right like as I'm playing through the game I'm thinking about family that I have that live in like Baton Rouge Louisiana and I'm like man this is really cool that we're harkening to an area that I usually don't see as represented in video games as much and so shout out that and also yeah shout out to compulsion right like I'm not somebody who played were the games contrast and then we have with you I didn't play either of those games right but I remember those kind of coming and going and this is one that I think might have we'll probably

have more of the staying power than at least those games and I think and I think I with it, you're seeing the studio take steps and steps and steps to get into a place of okay, cool, they're one of those ones, right? And I think, like, if it's not this one, then it will be south of midnight too or whatever, like, their next game is. That'll really put them on the map, because they're only getting better with every iteration.

True. North of noon. Oh, boo. We'll tell you. He wants some positivity. He like barely said it to. Oh, he's embarrassed. Do you have any final thoughts? Greg, Raj. Again, I think this is a great experience,

great game. I had a great time with this, and I highly recommend it, especially if it was a game past title of jumping in and doing. I think we talk a lot about the perfect game pass title. Like I think this is again the benefits of that system of being like, hey, here is a game that's we have varying opinions on what people liked and what they didn't like. And again, I think it's worth going in there and adjusting to your own specifications. Yeah, I think this is a huge win for a compulsion. Even though, again, the gameplay, the traversal set to death, the world here is something special. And that to me is the hardest part of games, right? The amount of games that I've

played that have pretty good combat, but I do not give a shit about the world are a dime a dozen, so many games. But the fact that they created a world that I want to live in, that I want to be in, that I wanted more out of that I was disappointed when the game didn't have an epilogue and didn't have more chapters, that's a huge win right there. And I'm fucking, they better make South the Midnight too. Like if they just like drop this, like we're moving on to another thing. Like God, fucking support this game. I want another one. This is a really good game. Again, and to harking back to what we're talking about here in terms of their progression as a studio, right? They're a great

example, and of course you hope no, nothing bad happens, but they're a great example of, hey, here's a small studio that's getting these at bats. So the games are getting progressively better, and they take this feedback and they go. And again, that's the hope of these acquisitions when you see Phil and team bringing people into the

Xbox fold, is that you can make a game that is smaller, that is this, that is a great game past game, and then you can continue on making those kind of games, turn them quickly, learn these lessons and really have something special, special. My final thought is that you should play Psychonauts 2. You specifically. Me?

No, Tim. Oh, I mean, I tried. It didn't stick with me. I'll try again for you. A lot of the things that you fuck with in this game, I think, you know, like, Psychonauts 2 doesn't put much better. I don't like how they do it, though. And again, I think it's just different stroke, different folks, all that stuff. But I do pray we get more games like this.

It's crazy. I was going to play Psychonauts, too, but then he didn't talk to me, so I'm not playing that shit. Roger. Final Final Final Final Final. Oh. Roger used to play Saigonauts too There's a boy he doesn't know how to get home Can you help him get home?

And I'm talking shit about Sagonauts by the way Like I love that these level games exist I want so much more of them And I feel like it's good that we're starting to see more and more And I do think it's very interesting That the game was announced in 2023 And we're playing it now Like this is way earlier than I expect to see it

And to Greg's point Like I hope that they can kind of keep some of these things Who knows how long they were developing it But like keep some of these cycles a little shorter And like I actually get more at Bats and try different things because I think that there's something here for most people, but I think that there's

potential for there to be something here for everybody. Well said. Let's know in the comments below if you're interested in trying out south of midnight. Hopefully you also can check out all of our Nintendo Switch coverage. Check that stuff out. And just hang out and I'm

so happy that Greg doesn't have my stars. Well, I mean, don't remember though. You're not off the hook. You only prolonged this. Making a mockery of my show.