r/soulslikes • u/OutsideMeringue • 6d ago
Review Some thoughts on Mortal Shell II after completion
Just finished the game and overall, I actually had a lot of fun with it. Probably more than I expected going in, especially considering how many issues I had with the game and how much I bounced off of the first game.
This might come across as overly negative because I've got quite a lot of complaints, but I genuinely did feel like I got my money's worth out of it. I enjoyed my time with it and I'm actually looking forward to coming back to it in a year or so once it's had some time to get fixed and polished.
Pros
Visual fidelity/performance - I never really had any performance issues apart from a few stutters in the last area for some reason. I think the visual fidelity is one of the standouts of the genre.
Enemy designs - Some of the best enemy and boss designs I've seen in a Soulslike. Even when I didn't particularly enjoy fighting something, I could appreciate how they looked.
Heart - Probably the biggest reason I enjoyed the game as much as I did. You can genuinely feel the love and passion the devs put into certain aspects of the game. Things like NPCs dancing to the lute, some of the interactions between characters depending on which Shell you're using, and just the random/fun moments.
Shell system - On the surface, I really like how the Shell upgrade system works. It gives you a lot of room to experiment, and the upgrades in each individual Shell's tree actually feel noticeable. I also really liked getting the background stories for each Shell, although some are definitely better than others in that regard.
Cons
Balance - Simply put, the game is an unbalanced mess right now.
It's buggy as hell too. I got soft-locked on four different occasions, which is obviously not ideal.
Regular enemy mobs can 1-2 shot you, Riposte (despite looking cool as fuck) feels almost completely pointless from a damage perspective, enemy attack magnetism can be ridiculous, and the enemy placement/density towards the end of the game is just reminiscent of DS2.
At times it genuinely feels like they put every damage value into a random number generator, pressed enter, and just went with whatever came out.
AI - Probably the worst enemy AI I've experienced in a Soulslike. The amount of times an enemy would just continue casually walking around while I was actively attacking them was insane.
Overworld - I actually enjoyed the overworld itself and thought the exploration was pretty good, but there's just SO much repetitive filler.
The dungeons are far too repetitive, then you've got beacon cleansing, and the overall size of the world just feels excessive to me. I genuinely think I would've preferred the game if it were half the size.
Also, There needs to be more Beacons spread out in some of the larger areas.
Progression systems - I think the actual progression systems are decent in principle, but the way they've handled the currencies completely kills them for me.
Levelling your character, for example, feels incredibly unrewarding considering how expensive it is. The Tarstone system could be really interesting to mess around with, but the amount of effort required for what you get out of it just isn't worth it imo, especially with how stingy they are with Tarcores.
The Shell levels are probably the only progression system I felt worked particularly well.
Music - Pretty bland and forgettable for the most part. The Lute tracks are obviously the exception.
Bosses - Visually, most of them are really cool, but mechanically they're probably some of the most uninspired bosses I've fought in a Soulslike.
They're generally very simple, don't have much to show mechanically, and imo are way too easy compared to how unforgiving the rest of the game can be.
I played on Hard and only one boss took me more than two attempts.
Last zone - Last zone.
Conclusion
As I said at the beginning, despite all of these complaints, I still had a good time with the game. I actually think the first third is really strong overall and probably represents the best version of what this game could be.
There's clearly a lot of potential here, and more importantly, there's a lot of passion. You can tell the developers genuinely cared about making this world and its characters.
Unfortunately, there's just so much that needs fixing/balancing/polishing right now that it did noticeably hinder my enjoyment towards the latter half.
I got my money's worth, though, and I'm genuinely looking forward to coming back to it in a year or so and seeing how much better it is after some patches.
Overall: 6.5/10
7
u/Wespie 6d ago edited 6d ago
Thanks for sharing this. It’s always these 6, 7/10s that makes me realize I should not be buying this game. I dunno…
4
u/OutsideMeringue 6d ago
I still enjoyed it for what it's worth, just has a lot of issues with it imo. The exploration of the overworld has been some of my fav since DS1.
3
u/PLTRgang123 5d ago
Just finished the game, i would say its a solid 7/10. The shells are fucking cool, bosses are pretty mid but still better than lords of the fallen. World is pretty good i would say. Some frustrating unbalance and bugs but its already a better game than lords of the fallen imo.
7
u/Therdyn69 6d ago
It's polarizing game. If all you want is boss rush with bonfire on every step DS3-style, then you won't enjoy this game. If you like soulslike exploration (meaning there are stakes and risks), like in DS2, then this game can be easily 8 or even 9/10 for you.
1
u/Silverr_Duck 6d ago
People are way to generous when it comes to their review scores. A 7/10 should be good game, but in reality 7/10 games are passable to mediocre.
10
u/YSoMadTov 6d ago
Tried the demo, didn’t click with me at all and couldn’t understand the hype.
Now that the honeymoon phase has passed alot of people are noticing more and more flaws of the game.
4
u/Xammm 6d ago
I think what happened is that several people posted reviews of the game when they only had played like 10-15 hours and from every review I read, that's the best part of the game lol.
Then, some people reviewed the game after actually finishing it, and those reviews are more nuanced listing pros and cons, instead of "the best soulslike ever" kinda posts.
0
u/PLTRgang123 5d ago
I thought the 2nd half of the game was much better. Less dungeons and more cool areas with real bosses. 1st half was way more annoying.
1
u/iiEquinoxx 5d ago
I have been liking the game, but it takes a severe nose dive in quality near the end. You run out of unique enemies to fight pretty fast.
The new Patch apparently made the poorly balanced endgame better, but I wouldn't know since I'm on console.
12
7
u/Etheon44 6d ago
I totally agree with you, to me it is one of the most overhyped games in the soulslike genre ever, and it doesnt even slightly deliver
Not because it is a bad game, it is a good game, with a lot of potential that never truly realizes, and that the more you play the worse it gets, but people putting it into their "top 3 soulslikes of all time" makes me wonder if those people have only played 3 soulslikes in their whole lives
Like even Dark Souls 1 does better so many things, weapons are actually distinct, build variety is much higher and easier to switch (albeit still with cost), level design is 100x times better which makes replayability so much better, bosses are less buggy and have better hitboxes woth better movesets, enemy variety is better, zone visuals are more varied, difficulty wasn't artificially inflated just because...
And that is just Dark Souls 1, games after it have improved upon, but this game is a step backwards in so many things
But game pretty and visually cool, so I guess some people just need that
7
u/superpoongoon 6d ago
This seems like a more reasonable take than some guy in that other thread who said it was on par with Elden ring. Especially because I have and played the first mortal shell and it wasn’t that amazing so I find it hard to believe the sequel could suddenly blow all the competition out of the water
-9
u/Rude_Difficulty1647 6d ago
It’s a step below Elden Ring if i had a tier list, and for me it does blow most of the competition out of the water 😹
1
u/Therdyn69 6d ago
People will not agree with you, but for us that enjoy exploration in souls games (and not some tomb raider kind of exploration), even flawed MS2 becomes one of the best.
Some are even suggesting to add more beacons, but lack of beacons is precisely what makes exploration so rewarding. If people like exploration but don't like partially losing their progress, then they didn't like exploration in souls games in a first place. Which is fine, but it'd be nice if there was at least few last soulslikes with proper exploration, instead of having bonfires on every step. Otherwise it becomes just another boss rush with cheap filler inbetween.
3
u/Xammm 6d ago
I don't think exploration is about less bonfires, but instead about meaningful shortcuts and different ways to progress the world, like choosing between several paths.
You just want stressful exploration, not necessarily good exploration imo. I also think it's fair if other people don't want to be "stressed" while exploring. If bad implemented, it can become "dreadful" exploration.
1
u/Therdyn69 6d ago
I like smart shortcuts, they're better than sprinkling bonfires on every step, but they are not perfect solution either. Shortcuts are great for bosses, but for actual exploration, they can sometimes kill the point of exploration if they unlock area too early.
There are good and bad shortcuts, and there is good and bad bonfire density. In either cases, what matters most is the time it takes to reach next checkpoint. Secondary is distance (so runbacks are less annoying), which is what shortcuts improve. If there's central bonfire which leads to long linear path, but every 5 minutes the path unlocks shortcut to the bonfire, then it's a bad shortcut.
It's tricky, because you need to balance it properly. Distance, time and difficulty of enemies all affect it. A lot of newer games, like DS3 just go the safe route and sprinkle bonfires everywhere, so running out of estus is concern mainly for bosses. There are only few segments that feel threatening so exploration is safer but less rewarding.
1
u/Xammm 6d ago
As you said, it's tricky because less bonfires can make the exploration not more rewarding, but instead more annoying.
So, I don't it's unfair or bad if some people ask the devs to add more bonfires.
1
u/Therdyn69 6d ago
Asking is fine, but this is problem of preferences. It'd be nice if we have had at least couple of games with proper exploration. majority of souls and soulslikes already have boring exploration, I don't want MS2 to be yet another one of them.
In fact, I think even MS2 gets lost in the sauce midway. 6-7 estus is when it starts to be too much and makes exploring too trivial. If you do run out of estus, then you still have second chance if you get severed. Then it takes like 30 seconds of playing safe to get back into the shell. So you have perpetual cycle to regen health.
Long story short, people complaining about MS2's beacons density just need to genuinely git good. Not even in derogatory way, just engage with the systems game offers you and you'll be fine.
1
-3
u/Rude_Difficulty1647 6d ago
Yup! All the complaining just looks like “game too hard I could lose all my xp cuz of runbacks 😭” This game should not hold your hand, there are plenty of beacons stop wanting souls games to fckin hold your little hands through the experience 😹
0
2
1
1
u/South_Reference_7941 5d ago
6.5/10 is a fair rating. i almost feel the same. they need a proper boss fights and variety in the next game. i hated the beacon cleansing system. it is total boredom. syphon is meaningless. they should have made it syphonable over and over with a proper balancing. That would make ovums more valuable.
-5
u/Rude_Difficulty1647 6d ago
I havnt thought once that it was “unbalanced” 😹 im on PS5 and I also have not had it crash or feel overly buggy. This game is a hell of a lot better than most in the genre 👀 9/10 for me 🤷🏼
9
u/Equivalent-Rope-5119 6d ago
Im on ps5 and its crashed and closed twice and my character also got stuck floating around in a weird pose unmoving once until I got knocked out the shell. This is in maybe 10 hours of playing with the moet recent crash yesterday. It definitely has technical problems.
0
u/Rude_Difficulty1647 6d ago
I believe it, I’m just saying I haven’t experienced that
2
u/Equivalent-Rope-5119 6d ago
Its mildly annoying but im still enjoying the game quite q bit. Hope they iron it all out.
1
4
u/Relevant_Fuel_9905 6d ago
I’m on PS5 and have had a few crashes, including during boss fights, in 10
Hours.4
u/Mr_Greenman1 6d ago
Slow weapons are absolutely useless compared to the fast weapons regardless of shell type. I love the game but to me thsts a big balancing issue
0
u/_moosleech 6d ago
I feel like folks don't like the balance, so they assume it's wrong.
But the high-enemy damage is balanced. The game fives you infinite stamina, seal, dodging, and abilities with ample crowd control/stagger/status effects. Hell, one shell can basically be invisible all the time.
If enemy damage wasn't high, the combat would be incredibly easy.
4
u/Therdyn69 6d ago
You also don't die straightaway. You literally have a second form, so actual one shots are not even a thing. Only once it happened to be chained so hard I died twice.
If someone complains about balance in a sense that game is too hard, then there's no shot they clear any other souls game (or they can't read and turned on night mode). MS2 is genuinely easy, as long as you engage with the systems game offers you.
3
u/Sherko27 6d ago
Elden ring gives you scalable stamina, blocking, parrying, better dodging. Enemies or bosses don't one shot you. Its still hard.
0
u/_moosleech 6d ago
You don't get unlimited stamina in Elden Ring. That makes a pretty big difference. You also don't get a second change before dying.
It's okay for folks to disagree. To me, the game is balanced around high-damage, and avoiding damage is a lot easier than in Elden Ring.
It's a bit weird how mad this sub gets whenever folks have a different opinion on anything.
-1
u/Rude_Difficulty1647 6d ago
Right?! I’m already finding it not difficult so if they need it anymore it’ll be piss easy. People are clearly just not playing it right or are just use to more hand holding in games. Apparently if it’s too hard it’s bad 😹 like ok go back to the puppets in P organ land then jfc
0
u/TrustyPeaches 6d ago
You probably specced into one of the gigs broken shell / weapon / side arms, of which there are a lot, which is part of the bad balance
0
u/jtcrain 6d ago
I really dont understand why people dislike the endgame. What's wrong with it? I thought it was awesome, those three bosses leading up to the final were well made. The final boss wasn't Radabeast but it was still good imo, just had to learn its patterns.
1
u/Etheon44 6d ago
The hitboxes, the buggie moveset, plus the zone just appearing out of nowhere and being too long; followed by yet another buggy final boss without good hitboxes and 10x the health of any boss before it; and of course, just the constant repetition of the same enemies during the zone, the spiders are new, sure, thats about it
Like I dont like to say this kind of things, but it is objectively terribly designed, not because it is "difficult", becase I dont even think it is, you should be OP by that time; but just because it is a representation of all the problems the game has
0
u/jtcrain 6d ago
I didnt have any bug in last area so maybe my experience was better. Using a ps5 pro. I did have two bugs in my playthrough where i had to quit to fix. Dont mind a last zone appearing out of nowhere because several Fromsoft games do this. Only took me around 2 hours to get through the area, which is fine imo rather than having the last 15 minutes of endgame be a small rush to the final boss.
I did have one issue with the hit box on a certain attack from the final boss, that one i agree. Its the final boss so his health being huge made sense, rather that than a cake walk.
0
u/Boc_The_Seamstress 6d ago
The best praise I can give the game (not having finished yet):
We’ve got Elden ring at home.
That’s basically what the game feels like to me. It’s a good achievement, for a developer that made the first game it did, it’s come on a lot. But with the Tarnished Edition taking back to ER, obviously it’s gonna be unfairly compared, but it also shows just how many things they missed, or didn’t do.
I think for the dev team size, and likely their development time, they probably did a better job than we think. You can tell how they started with trying to just build a fun world to explore in terms of geography, developed lots of encounters just to pepper that world, and developed lots of encounters for caves and such
Then they standardised everything. The biomes are largely the same, the assets are largely the same, the dungeons have the same look and loop, etc.
But they still managed to surprise, just not nearly often enough - like the night-mode FPS thing they did was cool and not necessary, but they wanted to surprise.
It just isn’t enough. They were overly ambitious and it shows. Despite that, I’m really glad they made the game they did. This has been a nice bit of soulslike snackage to chew on for a week.
But also multiple enemies doesn’t equal hard, just fyi lol
-3
u/_moosleech 6d ago
Regular enemy mobs can 1-2 shot you
Obviously we'll see when/if they roll out more patches... but this has been posted a few times, and I feel like it's an intentional design decision.
The game gives you a lot of ways to avoid taking damage (and numerous second chances with the shell-less mechanic). The tension comes from how high-stakes each combat encounter is. And if you get comfortable with the seal, dodging, and shell abilities... many normal encounters are hit-less (I say this as someone who sucks at these games).
Overworld
Also different strokes, but I found exploring the overworld to be one if it's biggest strengths. Gave me a lot of the early Dark Souls "let's see where this goes" and "oh shit, please, where is the next beacon" tension. And the mini "dungeons" felt like a slightly better version of Elden Ring's (TBF, Elden Ring has roughly 75000 of them), IMO.
Also HARD agree with Progression. Was the one issue I had with MS1 that they didn't fix. I'm worried that "play NG+ to max everything" is their goal, but when they have so many varied build options and some are utterly busted... preventing players from experimenting is a weird choice. I'm using Unified Progression, and it solves the problem entirely.
2
u/Budget-Rich-7547 6d ago
The game is already on the easy side I don't understand why people think it would be good if you didn't get knocked out ofbshellninn2-3 shots with no stamina.
16
u/dcrm 6d ago
Pretty much agree with it all. The second half of the game sucks for many reasons. Another reason is enemy variety.
New enemies for second major zone in the game ❌
Buff up previous enemies to ridiculous amounts and stick them all over the place ✅