Not many games out there truly can capture the feelings of nostalgia of adventure platformers that used to be released almost every other months back during the fifth to seventh generation consoles era. Something that is rather obvious that it does not have the highest budget or the biggest scale in mind, but rather a very clear idea of how the developers want to turn out and a story that the developers want to tell. It’s rather surprising that Compulsion Games, the creative force behind We Happy Few, is able to craft an almost perfect gaming experience that captures that nostalgic feeling, while telling a very unique story within the American South setting, exploring those old folklore that is never really touched upon in the game media. And even with its short runtime and, in all honesty, its weak combat, South of Midnight is truly a complete experience that will make you brim with joy by the end of the game despite its dark comedy and undertone.

We take on the role of Hazel, a young biracial kid from the town of Prospero, which is essentially a fictional Louisiana. Being inspired by the deep south, the game’s setting is rich with history, and does not shy away from the rather dark reality of the past as you can see remnants of plantations nor the unfortunate disasters that keep striking in the present with hurricane waves and their damages to the town. Of course, the hurricane takes away Hazel’s mother, Lacey, which leads Hazel into this magical journey (literally finding out that she has the power to manipulate magical threads can be very empowering after all) of getting her mother back.

The visual storytelling through the usage of its settings and clever placement of items, especially ones scattered around living spaces, do incredible wonders in highlighting the theme of pain, guilt, trauma and underlying racism experienced by the black community and alienation of biracial kids.

And it’s the game’s themes and stories that really make South of Midnight such a standout among many action platformers of the past and the present. With the clever usage of Southern gothic folklore, it’s incredibly exciting to learn about some of the legends I’ve never heard of. Be it the legend of the Huggin Molly, the incorporation of Haints which are also prominently featured in the hit movie Sinners, Compulsion Games cleverly use them to represent the suffering faced by the interesting cast we encounter. Heck, even the Florida’s legend Two-Toed Tom was incorporated into the story and made me incredibly emotional. These mythical creatures are used to explore incredibly hard topic to discuss about like suicide and child abuse, but the corporations of them does not dilute the topics but rather enhance and reinforce how serious these are.

But what’s even more incredible and probably the hardest thing for me to write about as a non-black person is the very subtle yet easy to deduce hints of racism and slavery. The game utilises the notes, environmental subtext like eviction signs or even flashback memories of the Haints to tell the pain faced by the black community throughout the history. It’s all down to the minute details, such as our main character’s subtle changes in clothing throughout the game to reflect her inner struggle of being biracial and not being able to fully embrace either part of her identity.

What really ties this all together, however, is the game’s soundtrack. The lyrics to these tracks, which are from a great variety of genres with African American roots such as bluegrass, blues, jazz and souls, are written to perfection to fit each scene. Big story moments are accompanied by the banging beats of these tracks, hyping you up in boss fights and long chases. The usage of motifs to slowly build up the tensions of each chapter before the big reveals is very effective. Hard to not appreciate a game that finds a way to use music as yet another tool to tell a story.

But while the overarching story is incredibly strong, and the themes are super impactful, it’s hard not to feel like the game starts to get a bit formulaic after a while. The 14 chapters structure of the game with its 6 main bosses can be boiled down to 12 real chapters, with 2 dedicated to each boss and the theme the game is tackling. While they all move the plot along, Act 2 can feel a bit disjointed from the main story as it does not feel relevant to her finding her mother. It’s one of those cases where I feel like Hazel’s journey should be slightly longer to allow for the story to breathe a bit and have those additional connecting bits that make the story flow better.

Another thing that doesn’t feel magical, sadly, is the game’s bland combat. The simplistic nature of the combat can be a big turn off. It’s quite a shame that the game’s focus on weaving and magic do not really explore a lot on its combat side of things, making the seemingly big list of skills feel a requirement by the higher ups and not well thought out upgrades for the players. You end up mashing the buttons four times, no strings get added, no additional combo. The four spells are simple with a stun, a pull, a push and a possession, but unfortunately the incorporations and the upgrade to these also feel weak as the enemies can be pretty spongy with their high health.

But Compulsion Games really makes up for the lacking combat with how well crafted the exploration feels. As you progress through the game, more mechanics will be introduced and incorporated into the gameplay. Be it simple climbing, wall running or flying through the air with the weaving magic or more complex mechanics like controlling your cute plushie to solve puzzles, there is a lot of switch up to keep the game engaging.

Exploration is also very rewarding as you will be earning permanent health upgrades, skill points (even though I really don’t like the combat) but most importantly the notes scattered throughout the game that add the much needed context to people who aren’t from the South. The game also allows you to reload any chapters with your new upgrades to attempt exploring for missing notes and upgrade points too, adding quite a bit of replayability and easing the completionists’ pain.

But what makes exploration and the game in general very enjoyable on top of its story, exploration and soundtrack is that jaw dropping artstyle and graphical achievement of the game. Compulsion Games really nailed the stop motion animations, especially in the cutscene, which is the core of South of Midnight visual identity. The vibrant colour choices with that slight “brown” filter (to indicate the setting’s geographical location XD) does for me as a player as well. While the game’s set in one town, the usage of colour and creative choices on the environment really make it feels bigger than it is while not being disjointed and I buy the fact that it’s all in one location.

Straightforward is probably the best way to describe this game in one word. It’s a humble, straight to the point adventure platformer with a story that it wants to tell, eye-catching artstyle and most importantly authenticity. It’s a great experience and I’m really fascinated by a lot of these folklores that I have never been exposed to before until now. While there are some flaws, the game’s complete package makes them so easy to overlook. It may be a dark gothic south horror comedy story, but there’s a lot of heart and wholesomeness to it. Give it a go when you can, definitely not a skip especially with it being on GamePass.

Done With #13: South of Midnight

I still remember the first time I played Monster Hunter. That must have been roughly 15 years ago. I was in middle school, trying to be cool and all and the peeps there would go like “yooo check that game out you got out hunting for dinosaurs for shit and giggles”. Just like any other kid who loves playing video game, of course I went hunting for an ISO file of Monster Hunter Freedom 2 for my PSP (which I jailbreaked and homebrew myself, something we used to take pride in huh?). The issue is, I hated it. With the hellish camera control since the handheld only had one analog stick and its rather unfriendly system, I quickly gave up. Even when advised to use “claw control” by friends, it simply was too inconvenient for me to really get into it.
Several years later, late 2016 to be exact, I was doing my bachelor’s in Melbourne. My buddy, Kev, and I hit up a local EB Games (or GameStop for the Americans) to get ourselves a second hand 3DS. We spotted a few copies of Monster Hunter Generations on sales, and it gave me the biggest PTSD to Freedom 2 which I absolutely hated. With a lot of convincing from my buddy, we each bought a copy to play together and something finally clicked. I had such a blast and was grinding on my way to uni in the tram. There was also a Chun Li Palico costume event that left such an impression on me and I still remember it to this day. Hell of a gateway drug to the franchise for sure.

Obviously, when World was announced, I was awestruck with how spectacular it all was. An open world/open zone Monster Hunter on the then mainstream consoles is definitely a killer way to advertise your game. Kev and I were so excited to get our hands on it, but at that time neither of us owned a console so we were waiting for the PC port. But as y’all might remember, that was a huge disaster with its atrocious optimization. Even a rather “good” PC at that time, a 1070 with gen 6 i7, was really struggling to keep up with its performance. However, the wow factors of the open world and seeing big ass monsters fighting each other in HD really pushed us through, despite how bad I was at the game as I was very used to the Souls locked camera and combat.
But what really made me fall in love with the series is Rise on the PC. It’s the superb balance between the arcadey and casual vibes that come with the handheld titles like Generations, and the explorable open zones of World. The smaller scale works in its favour, and things like getting to ride your pet wolf around was awesome. Also tailoring the buttons to your play style with Switch Skills really sealed the deal for it to be my favourite title of the franchise at that point. Sadly, Rise pacing really made World a game I can’t really return to.

So when I first saw The Game Awards 2023 and the Wilds reveal, I was actually concerned for a few reasons. First, it’s by the World’s team, which is not a bad thing but it could be a game that is not really tailored for me. Second of all, and the more concerning thing is its performance. The trailer shown was incredibly laggy. At the time, there were also multiple reports and showcases for Dragon’s Dogma 2, another game in the RE Engine, and how it struggles to keep a stable 60fps which has become a standard.

But who am I kidding. Of course it’s a day one purchase babyyyyy! Joining me on the HOONT is my lovely partner, who goes by Paleblooded online, and my good buddy Shar Aznabl who joins us once a week and gives us their wisdom and knowledge. Shouting out to these two cuties. Funnily enough it’s a proof of how big the franchise is. I’m sure you know someone at any given point of your life who is really into the games, and who are willing to join you in your adventures.

As mentioned previously, at first I was very nervous about this game’s pacing. However, Wilds actually blows me away about how spontaneous it is. Gone is the investigation system, which I think is understandably a con for some of the old guards, but it’s replaced with your mount Seikret (they’re literally Chocobos!) that can auto-run you to any objectives where you can collect goods, polish your weapons or heal yourself while on this trip. The combat feels way more snippy and less clunky, making this game feels like a good middle ground between Rise’s speedy movements (and at times too mobile) and World’s chunkier but slower animations.
Since I’ve spent hundred of hours across many games, I feel like Wilds’s difficulty feels deceptively easy to me when compared to previous titles After all, I’ve killed hundreds of Rathian and Rathalos and know all their tricks so to speak. However, I don’t think that’s a bad thing and in fact I do think that it’s my familiarity with the franchise’s systems that lead me to feel this way. I’ve seen people on SOS flairs and a couple of my friends who I got to hunt with a couple of times who are newer toe series really struggle with the camera as they come from Soulsborne style camera system and pacing. I do thing Wilds’s auto-lock camera is way better than previous titles, and really helps orientates me during the hunts, but I think it’s funny that it’s a big pain point for people who are not used to the game.

But what really shines in this game is its gimmick; Focus Mode and Focus Strike. While I do miss Switch Skill from Rise which really makes how I play the game feels more “unique” as I can customize my buttons. I love how I can turn the camera to aim where I’m hitting with the longsword, and having that extra control where I’m slashing really helps me fight these rascals and make for less frustrating misses. But what’s really awesome is Focus Strike, a universal mechanic that allows any weapon to destroy wounds on monsters and increases its knockdown gauge. You are rewarded for using the system as you get more monsters’ parts for crafting, and it makes hunting much more dynamic as you start to look out for these wounds. Some weapons benefit greatly from the mechanic as well. For example, breaking wounds with Focus Strike using the longsword gives you a whole level (or multiple if the Focus Strike breaks multiple parts), which adds a rather tactical layer to your mundane hunt as you want to let other players shine at times depending on what they bring.

All weapons essentially got some form of new moves or combo extenders that are incredibly helpful and makes them feel more completed. Notably, the Spirit Helm Breaker got a badass follow up called Spirit Release Slash that adds even more oomph to the iconic build, or the Might Charge for the hammer with its gnarly animation as you strike the monster’s head into knocking it down.
Another notable thing with this title is how the three range weapons received some reworks that may or may not upset their mains, depending on who you ask. The bow no longer requires you to craft arrows as it uses a gauge instead that requires you to reload after every 10 coatings. Heavy bowgun and light bowgun’s spread ammo has been adjusted, but both weapons come with pseudo rapid fire modes where you can shoot as if you’re Heavy from TF2. I spent the majority of the LR hunts on a HBG for the first time in my MH career as it’s phenomenal, which is such a shame that it's Artian Weapon is rather lackluster.
So what the heck is an Artian Weapon? Welp, that’s Wilds’s endgame farming essentially. You can craft RNG-based weapons and tailor the stats that you want on these rank 8 weapons with 3 decoration slots. To get the crafting materials for these baddies, the game tasks you to hunt them spooky Tempered variants of HR monsters. Currently, 6 out of 29 monsters are dropping the rank 8 ingredients.

While I reckon this is cool and all, it really does take away the incentive for actually farming anything else as these are probably your best bet (well there are a couple of outliers). It’s cool to get the weapon that fit your playstyle, like my current favourite dual blades get me up to 60% crit with a bunch of blast stats ready to proc on monster faces. However, they look ugly as sin and really discourage you from farming anything else but the game’s flagship Arkveld for the easiest access to these crafting materials. There’s simply no incentive to really farm anything else to get anything else unless you really want to do it for completionist’s sake.

The game’s character creation is something that everyone comes to expect from the RE Engine game at this point. It’s as detailed as ever, and I was able to recreate Ashely from Resident Evil 4 (TASHLEY!!!).As for the game’s story, I think you can boil it down to “The Hunter’s Polycule and Their Adopted Kid.
Personally, I love the story. Reckon it’s the best in the franchise hands down, but to be fair that’s such a low bar to beat. It’s great that it feels like a lowstake investigation without a lot of conflict or threat, but still very adventurous and pretty optimistic. The story follows Nata, a kid who got lost after the flagship attacks his village, who got involved with the Hunter’s Guild as they’re looking to start an expedition into the uncharted territory thought to be void of humans. We actually assume the role of a rather established hunter who’s assigned to another rather accomplished handler, Alma, with the team of top notch peeps such as Gemma, a rather renown blacksmith. Accompanying our squad is another legendary hunter named Olivia and her Palico, the ever awesome Athos, and other colourful cast members.

The game's main themes are done incredibly well, pretty much boils down to the cycle of life and living a life that you get to decide. It’s a rather coming of age story as we, incredibly responsible adults, are guiding a 12 years old boy to grow as a person, which also reinforces how important it is to have good influences and some guidance whereas Arkveld struggles to function as a monster due to its rather lonely origin. I think overall, I love the characters that we get to meet along the way on top of a feel good story so it was a blast getting through it all.

However, aside from its amazing gameplay and pretty good story, this game actually kinda sucks not going to lie. The online experience in this game is straight up painful. So, to get people invited to your party you must add them through hunter ID code, and then you can get them into the same linked party as yours. However, they aren’t actually in your lobby so if you want to be in the same lobby you need to join that manually or be in the same squad. Oh, you think since you’re in the same lobby you can just leave camp together seamlessly? Wrong! You need to be in the same environment to do so. It’s overly complicated and is simply a pain to get through. Sure, you can get used to it but it’s a horrible experience for players.

Talking about user experience, this game has some of the worst UI/UX of this decade. Multiple menus are hidden inside a menu that are not labeled clearly, or inconsistency among navigating the UI such as attempting to save a monster for investigation would sometimes open that window, but at other times it would say “Create Quest” instead. It feels like one step forward and two steps backward. Are there nice changes? Yeah sure! The whole auto-running to resources for collecting materials can be neat. However, it’s also a pain to navigate through the items as it lacks filters or search. Yeah the 10-15 minute hunts are fun, and it is really doing a hell of lifting for plainly frustrating menus.

But what’s worse is that Monster Hunter World happened again. This game is a nightmare to run, and it doesn’t matter what system you have. If you are unlucky, this game is going to micro-stutter like hell with its horrible utilization of VRAM. It just solidifies how bad this engine is when it comes down to open world format, just like Dragon’s Dogma 2. What’s actually a head scratcher is that the game is, in all honesty, not that much more detailed than World either when it comes to visual fidelity. 

 for a more detailed walkthrough for the performance.

It’s incredibly frustrating because I can’t wholeheartedly recommend the game with its UI/UX and this horrible performance. Yeah, the game is amazing. In fact, this is the most fun Monster Hunter game I’ve played. But the mileage will definitely vary depending on how much you can handle the performance issue and the bad UI. Another important thing is that I essentially played the game in its entirety with my lovely partner who I’d like to shout out to once again (mwuah!). And despite its issues, the game’s community, from memes to build discussions, is as lively as ever and it’s so fun to participate. I think the heart of this series is getting people together, from my middle school years til now.
Still insane to see this goes from the PSP game to what it is today. Gaming has come real far after all.

Done With #12: Monster Hunter Wilds

Finally, a game I fully completed solely on the Steam Deck. I'm somewhat more impressed with the handheld than the game itself (lol). And of course, this is the translation of the first review I wrote in Thai on Twitter. To be completely honest, I haven't really engage with the endgame content. However, It's still a great time with how strong the campaign is.

Playing Granblue Fantasy Relink is like starting a great anime on its sixth season. Is it fun? Hell yeah. But do I understand it fully? Hell no. To be fair to the writing team, the story is written in a standalone format and they did consider players who are new to the franchise quite a bit. While the game itself doesn't really engage with any gran (ha!) theme, it's still a blast to go through.

As for the gameplay itself, it's quite fun. I love the wide array of playale characters (up to 20 with DLCs) that are unique enough to not be clone of each other. I mean, there're still overlapping roles and identical skills like Charlotta and Lancelot. It's quite a grind to unlock them all, but through story mode alone you should have enough tickets to unlock 4. Not sure how this work in the post game, but I hope it is not inconvenient.

Overall, it's definitely an entertaining 22 hours. This is due to how INSANE the campaign gets, especially toward the back half with overexaggerated boss fights. For instance, minor spoiler as it's shown frequently in its promo material, in chapter 6 you will get to fight Titan at home (that's clearly inspired by Final Fantasy XVI it's not even funny XD). These over the top and unexpected fights keep me guessing, and it's hard to put down my Steam Deck as I'm curious to see what the hell they're going to pull off next. 

But before dipping my toes into the post game, I think I'm going to take a break to complete "Sorry We're Closed" first. 

However, if anyone's interested in a silly Monster Hunter-like experience, I reckon Granblue Fantasy Relink would scratch that itch, especially with a campaign this silly.

🌸 Tasha Reviews 🌸

Done With #1: Granblue Fantasy Relink

More Reviews!~

Done With #13: South of Midnight

Done With #12: Monster Hunter Wilds