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When Compulsion Games released South of Midnight last year, it arrived as one of the most visually and tonally distinctive action-adventures in recent memory. A twelve-hour journey through a mythologized American Deep South, the game wrapped Southern Gothic folklore around a mother-daughter story that felt both intimate and epic. Now that it has made its way to Nintendo Switch 2, the question is not whether the game itself is worth your time – it absolutely is – but whether this particular port can do justice to what makes it special.
The answer depends entirely on how you plan to play.
South of Midnight follows Hazel, a young woman who discovers she has the power to weave magic after a devastating hurricane upends her life. What unfolds is a linear narrative-driven adventure that leans heavily on its storytelling, and that storytelling is where the game shines brightest. The writing draws from authentic Southern folklore, populating the world with Haints and other mythological creatures that feel genuinely rooted in place rather than borrowed from generic fantasy templates. The voice performances by Adriyan Rae and Cynthia K. McWilliams anchor the entire experience, building a mother-daughter relationship that carries real emotional weight across the runtime. It is the kind of grounded, magical storytelling that feels increasingly rare, and it is easily the best work Compulsion has produced to date.
Visually, the game adopts a stop-motion inspired aesthetic that is immediately striking. The animation style gives cutscenes a tactile, handcrafted quality, and the art direction throughout is gorgeous – dense with atmospheric lighting, expressive character designs, and environmental details that ooze warmth and care. The blues and gospel-infused soundtrack is equally exceptional, weaving itself into the world so naturally that you stop noticing it as background music and start feeling it as part of the landscape.
Gameplay itself is straightforward: a mix of platforming and combat built around Hazel’s weaving magic. The combat system is not particularly deep. It gets repetitive over the course of the adventure, and the enemy variety does not do enough to keep encounters fresh. That said, the game never overstays its welcome at around twelve hours, and the narrative momentum does a lot to smooth over mechanical shortcomings. Accessibility options even allow players to turn combat off entirely, which says something about where the game’s real priorities lie.
Which brings us to the Switch 2 version, and this is where things get complicated.
Docked, South of Midnight is serviceable. The game targets thirty frames per second, and while it does not always hold that target – combat in particular introduces noticeable drops – it remains playable and visually engaging. The stylized art direction does a lot of heavy lifting, masking technical imperfections that would be far more glaring in a photorealistic game. The high-art style keeps most scenes looking nice even when the performance wavers, and for a narrative-first experience, that goes a long way.
Handheld mode, however, is where the port falls apart. Performance becomes erratic, with frame times spiking wildly and producing constant microstutters that make the experience feel unstable even when the frame rate counter suggests it should be tolerable. The Switch 2 version also suffers from longer load times compared to PlayStation 5, and where the PS5 build runs at a stable sixty frames per second at higher resolution, the Switch 2 port struggles to maintain half that.
The comparison to Steam Deck is particularly telling. Valve’s handheld manages forty to fifty frames per second in South of Midnight, sometimes even hitting sixty, on hardware that is technically less powerful than what sits inside the Switch 2. That the bespoke Switch 2 port performs worse than a verified Steam Deck build is difficult to justify, and it suggests the port either needed more time in optimization or is carrying technical debt that future patches might address.
Verdict
What is frustrating is that South of Midnight should have been a perfect fit for Switch 2. Its stylized visuals and contained, linear structure are exactly the kind of experience that traditionally thrives on Nintendo hardware. The game itself is a gem – memorable, emotionally resonant, and visually unique. But the technical execution on this port undermines that potential, especially for handheld-first players who make up a significant portion of the Switch audience.
If you have the option, PlayStation 5 or Xbox remains the best way to experience South of Midnight. But if Switch 2 is your only platform, play it docked. The game is too good to miss entirely, and the docked experience, while imperfect, still delivers the story, atmosphere, and artistry that make this one of the standout adventures of the past year. For handheld-only players, though, the recommendation comes with serious reservations.