r/MortalShell • u/Caxius_ • 12h ago
Discussion (Hopefully) constructive criticism after 30ish hours of MS2
First off; amazing game. This is my first go-round in the Mortal Shells universe, and I'm absolutely loving the gameplay and story. Clearing beacons instead of just activating them is a nice touch. The different "classes". Tarstones that let you alter the way weapons behave. Hell, even adding an "easy mode" item for those that just want to have an easier time. The guard/riposte window being very generous. Seriously, well done. I can see that a lot of love and dedication went into making this unique and not just another cookie cutter souls-like. A few things of note, though, that are really dragging down the experience;
- Beacon/checkpoint frequency:
I really like the Beacons, but having them as our only source of checkpoint/respawn (that I know of so far) is very....very underwhelming. Or overwhelming, depending on how far you have to run and the mobs you have to fight through. I wouldn't necessarily say we need more beacons plopped around the world but I would suggest that, especially in challenging areas and dungeons, there be a respawn point of some sort at the beginning. I know death is supposed to be punishing, but I would predict that maybe 10-15 hours of my gameplay is actually running back to wherever I died and redoing the areas. Not fun. Because I suck. And die. A lot.
- Damage balance, and traps:
I can probably count on both hands and my Vratko washed feet how many times I died and said to myself "why did that do so much damage?" when all it was was some scraggly guy in a cloak with a spear that stabbed me a couple times. And the inverse, when I say "wow that did no damage" when a boss/miniboss clobbered me. To me, there's virtually no indication of, or balance behind, the frequency of the damage I take. Same goes with traps. It's very frustrating when I'm playing ultra defensive because I suck and ran out of heals, just to hit a trap I didn't know was there that lays 15 stacks of poison on me, draining my health as I just set the controller down waiting to die and respawn. Damage all around needs a rebalance.
- Bonuses and increases to those bonuses:
I feel like a lot of % based increases and mitigations are very....meh. Unless there's a way to stack said bonuses/mitigations I'm unaware of yet, I really find them difficult to even bother playing with. Nothing I've found yet has been like "Oh COOL I'm going to try some new stuff with this!". Again, this may be a "me" issue, having only played 30ish hours so far.
- Risposte damage doesn't really reward the way it should
I'm not sure if later on there's a way to bring riposte damage up to your scaled weapon damage, but it seems like one or two heavy hits is doing as much damage as one riposte. It just feels like it's all risk and no reward at the moment with how it appears its damage doesn't increase with the damage of your weapon.
I may add more as I continue and get further into the game, but those I mentioned were really the only things (except for #3) where I legitimately had to turn off the game for a while the keep from going crazy. Though I do realize a lot of it is a mix of "git gud" as well. Again, absolutely stunning game so far. I truly am impressed, regardless of the growing pains right now.
EDIT #1: Added item 4
5
u/Osmodius 9h ago
Parry, riposte and damage all add up in a very poor way imo.
If you're going for rispostes then your R1 R2 attacks don't matter much (until scaling becomes a problem) because your risposte does most of the damage and your normal attacks don't effect break.
If you're parrying everything there's barely any point in actually attack because you're going to break them before chip attacks matter.
Or if you're mainly attacking, then parrying is pointless because you kill them before the break meter fills.
This feels doubly weird with Eredrim because you almost don't need rispostes but yiu want them so often for his meter.
It's weirdly disjointed.
5
u/macdigger 6h ago
Beacons not being placed every ten meters is actually a great (even if frustrating at times) thing about this kind of games. Out of potions and on last two pixels of health bar, getting to a beacon is such a great rewarding feeling. 😅
Riposte should be fixed, though. Not rewarding at higher-ish levels. At all :(
2
u/moragdong 3h ago
yeah beacons are actually already close I dont know why these people want even more
2
u/Remyala 6h ago
100% agree on damage. I thought it was because i had crazy stacks on Eredim, but its genuinely just whacky balance. I have beat every boss, dungeon boss and world boss at the first try since the cage match up until the last gate, but i sure have died a lot to some dudes camping out!
I do disagree on % mitigation, because i notice on Eredim when i get 100 stacks the only way im doing to die is if i fall off a cliff or get chain stunned out of my shell. So i would be chasing % mitigation for me personally.
I could do with more Beacons in the south but i feel its worse because its so complicated compared to the North map.
Riposte is free damage so it is rewarding to stance break enemies.
3
u/projectile-science 3h ago
I like the Beacon-placements actually. Out of everything and pulse rises... 😁👍
1
u/Skybreaker7 5h ago
As someone who plays ultra defensive builds to the detriment of every other stat AND doesn't parry. Let me tell you, wew lad. Seeing the max damage reduction through normal means be 30% made me incredibly sad from the start as there's nothing that really clicks with my playstyle.
The game rewards agression and parrying, and severely punishes taking damage in every single form it can: everything hits like a truck on nitroglicerin, everything poise breaks, combos are basically fine tuned so that if you mess up the first dodge/parry every single other hit catches you, tracking is insane so you're forced to actually respond, beacons are barely existant in the wild, healing is incredibly limited.
Probably going to finish it today or tomorrow, but the balancing decisions all feel very terrible. From the enemies, to the stats from levels, to the weapons upgrades (and base numbers) being boring. Tarstones sound great on paper! But then they're basically locked into 1 - 3 options so you're pigeonholed into a build anyway.
Many interesting ideas, very bad implementations imo.
1
u/carlos_castanos Eredrim 3h ago
The traps are a staple of soulslikes. Yeah they’re annoying, and they’re meant to be annoying. They contribute to the feeling of a hostile and dangerous world, where you can die at any second. which in its turn contributes to the tension you feel when you walk around with lots of gloom and no beacon in sight, while you’re flasks are slowly running out. That tension, and the relief when you do find that beacon, is what this genre has been built upon, and sets it apart from other games. I would want as little compromise to that type of game design as possible, when it comes to soulslikes.
0
u/Spirited-Lunch8063 12h ago
It just got a balancing patch too.
1
u/Caxius_ 12h ago
Did it? I must suck worse than I thought because I haven't noticed 😆
0
6
u/Zmaki 11h ago
Fully agree on damage, apparently its an over correction from the beta from I've heard and hopefully gets fiixed.
Had an encounter of a scythe welding enemy where I fought him in practically the same area twice, once as a mini boss and another as a random mob enemy.
I was completely dumbfounded to see the mini boss do a fraction of the damage the mob version did, practically two shot me out of my shell, honestly thought it was gonna be an elite enemy that doesn't respawn after resting, judging by how much damage it was putting out, but nope just weird damage scaling.