South of Midnight is a gorgeous action platformer with a striking stop-motion aesthetic. I’m around two-thirds of the way done with the game at this point, having put in close to 10 hours into the game. I’m definitely enjoying my time and think fans of games such as Psychonauts 2 or the Jak and Daxter series will find a lot to enjoy here. Here are a few tips I’ve learned that will help you maximize your experience when playing through the game.
Option to turn stop motion off in the gameplay settings
You can turn off stop motion
I don’t think you should turn off the stop-motion effect, considering it’s one of the more striking and unique aspects of South of Midnight’s visual design, but if you dislike it or it causes issues, then you are in luck. In the game’s gameplay settings, you can simply turn it off and have the game animation run smoother.
Seek out tin panels
There are a few different ways to find floofs (the currency to upgrade your combat abilities) around the world, and one of them is flipping over tin panels. These are scattered everywhere and will net you 5 floofs each. Simply use RT to blast them and the reward is yours. In fact, the first time you do so you’ll earn an achievement, in case the floofs weren’t enough incentive.
Wander around looking for glowing, interactive things
Many objects you can interact with, such as tin panels or breakable barricades, will glow to indicate you can do something with them. However, it’s worth noting that you need to be fairly close to the object to see the indicator. This means it’s worth running the extra few feet around every area to make sure your character gets close enough to anything that might be interactive — the glow will tip you off. You can’t just rely on surveying the area with your eyes since a lot of these will blend into the background and environment from afar.
You don’t need to unravel enemies to finish them
When you beat an enemy in combat, they will revert into a corpse state where you can press Y and unravel them. Doing so nets you benefits such as health and ability cooldown recovery. However, you don’t need to worry about the enemies returning to life if you don’t unravel them fast enough. In fact, you don’t actually have to unravel them at all, as they’ll disappear after a short while on their own. As such, if you’re at the end of a fight, there isn’t any real reason to unravel the final enemy since you’re about to get all your health back as soon as you unravel the main core and finish the arena.
Exploding mushroom and it’s glowing since I’m close enough to interact/blast it
Beware exploding mushrooms
These are environmental hazards that start showing up in chapter 5. They’re easily the worst part of the game. They explode if you get too close, causing damage and possibly knocking you off ledges. You can destroy them with your RT blast or by throwing something at them, but they’ll respawn shortly after. They suck, and they make exploring the area for collectibles and floofs more cumbersome than it should be. Keep your eyes out.
The guiding wind
Forks in the road: take the one less traveled by
By clicking in R3, you can pop up a guiding wind navigation guide that will direct you to the next story marker. However, South of Midnight hides many things in its stages that the wind won’t take you to, so you should always ignore this direction until you’re done exploring and snatching extras. Whenever you come across a fork in the road, press R3 and then go the opposite way. There is always, always something to find the other way.
Now, you have a good foundation for playing South of Midnight. The game will be released on April 8 for Xbox and PC.
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