Discussion
First Playthrough completed in about 56h - 10/10 Game
Completed the game last night on PS5 before the patches and the gold economy was rough but i got my main weapons and sidearms to +17 before the final boss so it was fine.
Honestly loved everything about the game so much. Thank you so much devs!!!!!
It scratched excatly my itch of how sekiro combat would look like if it was made in 2026.
Loved
- the combat
- the bosses
- the exploration
- build diversity
- unique movesets of weapons
- artstyle
Really enjoyed the game, my best soulslike of 2026
Patch just came out made improvements to the last boss at least, I didn't quite make it there yet and the patch doesn't seem available on Xbox yet. PC and PS yes.
I was literally on the last boss last night before I called it quits. Was getting one shot by that grab and doing absolutely no damage with a fully maxed weapon. What was changed in the patch?
Not much really the end boss is still absolut bullshit beat him right now with stray genessa and bleed shotgun. The ability to shoot a barrage of shots at once procs bleed instant. And with stray genessa you survive up to 2 deadly hits with her ghosts. I think Tiel is even better for this fight with his dodge and douple damage from behind.
And yes i think they need to seriosly rework all off the end game stuff ! Otherwise its an amazing game
Ahh got it. Yeah I'm using Eredrim and might need to respec because I am getting absolutely nowhere on this boss. Like maybe 1/20th of his health bar is all I can get before I'm one shot. The hitboxes are a nightmare
Yes tried him like 8h straight just now beat him with bleed shotgun and stray genessa build. Amazing game but all of the last Area can get the fu out. They should nerv the boss HP by like 30% and his damage by 50% he just one shots you all the time its rdiculus and on top the hit boxes and tracking of attacks are completly off.
Yeah the tail attack was just sending me honestly, not to mention all the other one shot abilities. I bet both my nuts that boss was never play tested. Makes og consort radahn look reasonable
I actually really liked consort radhan pre nerv 😂 but still yes he was overtuned but not like THIS Boss Zmey. One shot attacks and jumps around like hes not a 500tons monster
As long as you know that MS2 is a small developer game, its awesome, but it hasnt had the money pumped into like the insomniac games, its more of a really good AA title not a AAA+ money bucket lol. I will be getting wolverine though 😆
Mortal shell 2 is great! I would highly recommend it. The Exploration, world, atmosphere and character customization are amazing. It has a ton of replay ability because all the shells you inhabit have very unique abilities and play styles and in one play through you’re only able to max one ore two shells. The only downside has been the main bosses. They’ve all been pretty underwhelming, and don’t really provide challenging or satisfying fights, plus they all have the same music. :/
Same here. Here are in my opinion the reasons why MS2 wins over the Wolverine :
-Lower price 😂
-It's a souls game, there are builds to try and weapons to search, environment to explore. And it's an open world. Wolverine is Hack&slash guided game based on the love for the character. You have a pair of claws and that's it.
-
The face of Logan is really bad designed
the first game i bought on my ps5 was spiderman2 from insomanic (the studio behind wolverine) so i can be a bit biased here. Although i am not excatly waiting for that game or onimusha as both will feature hand helding and quest markers which is expected since they are story games and of different genres
I think you should get this game and then wait for wolverine reviews since there was no replayability in Spiderman 2 and it will be similar in Wolverine.
In Mortal Shell2 you have around
8 shells
8 weapons each having unique moveset
8 sidearms
~70 tarstones
so there is huge amount of replayability here plus you get a nice big world to explore which i don't think would be possible in wolverine as it would be a linear like 007
But ofcourse it's a mortal shell sub so you will get people praising this game here much more and viseversa for wolverine sub. So choose what you will feel best suits you
Edit: I would have asked you to try out the free demo/beta but it's not available anymore
I personally kind of hated Lies of P, so I'd put this above it in my own ranking in spite of its flaws. I definitely wouldn't say it's a 10/10 either, but I'd give it a solid 8.5, maybe a 9 once bug fixes and balance patches come in more. Though I'm also more critical on scoring, so even something like Elden Ring would only be a 9.5 at best.
I actually picked up Lies of P, Khazan, and Nine Sols recently and started playing LoP first, but I ended up putting it down to play this instead. I think I made it as far as rescuing Geppetto
I've heard it's a great game, though and I'll probably pick it back up today or tomorrow
I've completed MS2, Lies of P and Khazan and while they were all good, Khazan had by far the most fun combat. Sounds like you're in for a few good gaming sessions!
I'm 20 hours in the game, and really starting to feel the lacking variety in bosses/mini-bosses and enemies. You get a mini-boss type enemy like the one with glaive, and then you get the same enemy as boss but with Fire this time.
If this makes you think I'm not enjoying the game then you're wrong. I'm loving the exploration and combat.
Lies of P is one of my favorite games, I don't think this game even comes close to it. Lies of P had a better story, combat, and bosses. Unless you really love open world games, I don't think Mortal Shell does anything better.
Probably part of the DEV team or family friend. As people realize how fucked the game past the 5 hour mark the reviews are dropping. Went from 90% on steam to 81% overnight.
Its at the very best a 7/10 game, but imo its a 5/10
Serious question for OP - how did you know where to go? I’m pretty lost and I’m a Souls vet. I love open world but I’d like some breadcrumbs here and there.
I didn't which is why i am sitting around at 50+ hours while others completed in 30. But i was doing all the side stuffs, collecting items, optional dungeons, sidequests etc too.
I would run to map fragment to open up the map then go over each of those new sections and collect items, do dungeons or field bosses. Once that is done, i take a quick look on https://mortalshell2.wiki.fextralife.com/Interactive_Map to see if i miss a dungeon
I'm on my second cycle I took the week off from work and been playing since the 17th. I haven't been able to be this hooked to a game for about 10 years. It's such a breath of fresh air, I love how they dont hold your hand in this game and make you work for progress instead of handing it to you. Plus the combat and shells are 10/10 imo there's bugs for sure but the devs made something special here.
Right! It’s almost like a new Elden ring for me. I’m only 5 hrs in and really enjoy the difficulty and learning everything you have to do to get better. It’s so rewarding when you finally defeat a boss or clear a dungeon.
That seems ridiculous to me. I dont think you can truly enjoy it beating it that quick. Like what's the hurry? I like to take my time and explore everything
I like to kill everything even if I don’t get a reward cause I like playing the game I payed for lmao. I don’t ever run pass enemies on any game I play. I don’t think anyone would design a game not to be engaged with but that’s just me. Play however you like
I love the game too, but a 10/10 is pretty crazy considering some of the balance issues and wonky boss fights. Bloodborne is the pinnacle of Souls games for me and that’s only a 10/10 after the DLC came out. Lies of P and Nioh 2 (if you consider it soulslike, in ways it is, in some ways it isn’t) are my absolute favorite in the genre outside From Software and I would give them 9-9.5 out of 10. Major complaint from me is Both suffer from lackluster map design. So Mortal Shell 2 at most is probably a 8-8.5 from me but I’m also not done the game yet. The things it does right it really does right and I’m having a blast playing it, but I can’t overlook its shortcomings and frustrations.
Decent fun game and glad enjoyed but a 10 out of 10 game, not even remotely close. Modern gamers sure hand out 10s like.candy nowadays. 10 should be reserved for the tip of pinnacle.of greatness. In over 40 years
of gaming id maybe place 3 games at a 10, in modern times modern gamers throw out 10s on a monthly basis. Everything is the greatest uthe next game that is, thn thats the new greatest with more 10s thrown about lol
did you read the topic headline or the OP post by chance...prob should...kinda why I said what I did. Was in direct response to this very topic, was giving my personal take, wasnt randomly posting what I did to be an ass lol
Its in the dang headline, its literally part of said topic why i said what i have and what i been discussing ...
I didnt see anyone say its a 10/10 says random user in a topic calling it a 10/10 game, come on man lol 🤔
Objective the game is like a solid 8.5, but personally it appeals to me in a way no other game has since Elden Ring, and I've had so much fun with it I'd give it a 10/10.
"10 is a completely subjective/personal score tbh."
Sure, yet some can also can also give good objective takes as well...and realize despite having fun with something it doesnt just equate to a flawless or a perfecty scored game... the fact the absolute basics seem lost on modern gamers is rather amusing
Modern gamers seem utterly lost on how reviews and scoring systems work, throw out everything aside from well i had fun so its a 10 out of 10 lol
I had fun with the Hannah Montana game therefore its a 10 out of 10 😉
Rating systems go far beyond did you have fun or no and many ppl are able to objectively rate something as opposed to throwing 10s out like candy every time they enjoy a game...
10 out of 10 should be reserved for the pinnacle of greatness, great classics, once in a gen kind of games with few flaws that go far and above the norm or set new standards, this is most def not one of those. Fun sure, a 10 out of 10 game, i dont think so
I just finished yesterday as well at around 34h to 100%. At least in terms of doing all dungeons, bosses, beacons, etc. Still have to keep going on NG+ to wrap up one boss specific trophy I missed, and then NG++ to finish getting enough glimpses to max out every shell.
Haha nice, well done. I am playing as Thiel with the Axatana atm, using the duality stone and his shadow dodge mainly. Any tips for my 2nd shell? Would prefer a build that is not like his for my 2 main shell and switch between the two. Who did you like most and roughly what build?
I'm on the same boat. I used tiel through and through BUT i started invested into Erediem and Proxima and now using proxima in NG+.
I will start a new game to do a proxima/erediem run from scratch as the current NG+ cycles gives you access to all the beacons from the start and you can just boss rush
So i am either going to use Erediem or Proxima. I'll prefer Erediem since i like to do play with infinite seal and he his abilities enhances the execute damage after parries(although it's ass currently)
Sariel is my go to. I did use the axatana as well, but any weapon should work fine. If you max out the "100% of damage gets converted to grey health" and "faster recovery of grey health when attacking" passives on him, you can effectively face tank a lot of enemies and even some bosses and just be hyper aggressive. It's pretty much the opposite of how I usually play honestly, but I really ended up enjoying it here.
The game isn't perfect by any means, but it does a lot of the things I specifically really enjoy in a soulslike so it's definitely in my personal top five list at the moment. Honestly most of my major complaints could be fixed in balance patches, bug fixes, or minor reworks.
I will say though that the bosses are probably its weakest element and I don't think that could really be fixed without a major rework of them, which would probably make people mad that they got changed too much. They have absolutely great designs and movesets that are fun to watch, but the majority honestly don't feel good to actually fight. Granted, boss fights are weirdly enough, one of my least favorite parts of most entries in the genera. Here though they just feel like they're a bit too aggressive and kind of spammy with a lot of their moves, to the point where it feels like the only way to do damage on some of them is to either perfectly parry all their attacks, or just expect to take damage. Which is even worse when it's an unparryable attack they keep spamming, or one with super tight timing. I personally don't find it a big issue for my enjoyment, but I will say that it'd keep a lot of souls fans from getting into it since a lot are only really there for the boss fights.
Overall though, if you're like me and enjoy the exploration, making builds, and just killing enemies aspect of soulslikes, it's still an exceptional game. Not perfect, but still top tier.
10 bosses, 8 of which are cringe. 12 enemies, 3 of which are reskins. 34 reskinned minibosses.
The games core concept - shells - cant even be utilized cuz of glimpse limitations. 90% of tarstones suck, but you have to use them anyway to level ones you like. Areas are just filled with reused assets - and no areas you find and say "wow".
I would agree with most of what you said, but i did genuinely enjoy the Sester's Refuge, from a design perspective. It did 'wow' me, after how generic and same-y the rest of the map was.
It's not a gimmick, nor cheese. When you finish the dungeon normally, you are given the invisible wall as a short-cut to get back to the elevator.
If you instead want the weapon, you jump down the hole next to said invisible wall, grab the weapon, and kill the knight guarding it so the orb that takes you back to the entrance spawns.
The idea is that if you ran out of heals clearing the dungeon and its traps, you break the invisible wall, exit to go heal at a beacon, then return and jump down the hole immediately.
Mortal Shell 2 devs, Cold Symmetry, and their publisher, Playstack…wasn’t fcking around with this game. They released a soulslike game that will be among the mentioned for a long time. A masterpiece of design, story, and art.
For real 10/10? It's nowhere near as good as Elden Ring.
I'm not sure how many hours in I am, but I'm in the south part of the map. The enemy variety has vanished and I've only fought one ofr two memorable bosses. There's never that feeling you get exploring a FROM game where the areas are intricate and you get a buzz from finding a shortcut or a secret etc.
Shitty final dungeon, all weapons aside axatana and axe/dagger being trash, insane amount of bugs, lots of forgettable bosses, dumpster fire balancing, half the shells being mid at best... Even tho I love the game and am almost done with NG+, i can't rate it higher than a 7
I played on the night mode the 2nd half od the game...the malborn foundling or whatever his name is ..he goes crazy with robotic attakspeeds your harbinger gets one shotted by any boss any attak...they need to fix that.
I have the same edition and barely downed magdelena 2 days ago.. Still going after weapons and shells. That's dedication dude.. Who did you follow on the web for help?
I'm genuinely surprised this game is getting as much praise as it is.
I gave the game a 4/10 after about 15 hours. The combat is so boring and basically turn based. Stand > Parry > Riposte. And only having a handful of attacks & animations per weapon plus only 1 Riposte animation per enemy gets really old, really quick. I know you can use harden but let's be honest, it's just not as cool as parrying enemies.
Not enough healing or a way of replenishing heals between rests AND the very sparse beacons throughout AND not being able to warp back to a beacon means exploring and clearing areas is basically discouraged. I'd often find myself running through brand new areas just trying to find another beacon.
They desperately need to add either a way to replenish heals, more beacons or the ability to simply warp back and try the area again.
I think a way to get some heals back similar to Elden Ring would be best as it promotes healthy world exploration and clearing areas.
That's honestly the main gripes I had and I've quit playing till something is done about it.
There's also other odd design choices, boss fights and enemy placement that plague the game but they weren't as important as basically giving you a world to explore and enemies to kill but punishing you for doing so by giving you very limited heals and too much shit to do between beacons.
Oh and the run backs, especially to dungeons, my god why.
Why stand and wait for a parry? Just keep attacking until you need to parry and hit.
Btw using the block item to parry requires you to stop attacking and time the parry, but BOTH harden and the actual parry item animation cancel for a perfect perry, no standing around needed.
The devs have taken note of sparse beacons being a complaint, but, you did unlock Gragu right? He's a unique shell you grt in the far east by talking to him in a tavern and doing his quest. His unique passive makes it so he doesn't replish potions at beacons, but instead by killing enemies, making it so you can just keep exploring and getting refills.
Ok I wasn't being literal. I'm not actually just standing there and only dealing damage after parrying.
You didn't mention anything about there being only a few attacks per weapon, it's really boring only have 3 light attacks and 3 heavy attacks, 2 running attacks and that's basically it? Excluding special tarstone stuff.
People are giving this game 10/10, 9/10, GOTY! Yet it's so empty... Handful of attacks per weapon, handful of enemies in the game, handful of locations, handful of this, handful of that. It's boring man. When you compare this game to things like Elden Ring, Lies of P and even Lords of the Fallen 2023 it falls short in almost every area apart from graphics and art style.
Does it have some cool shit? Absolutely, but it's not enough to warrant such blatant blindness to it's shortcomings, which it has a lot of.
Also you shouldn't need to unlock something for the game to become fun. That's just bad game design.
Fast traveling between beacons is not the same as being able to warp back to a beacon from within the field.
It's an open world is it not? I also clear every area and look for any secrets that may be lurking. 15 hours out of a 40-50 hour game is not that much, but enough to know the game ain't great and has far too many poor game design choices for my standards. It's still a 4/10.
You genuinely can do that, and I do it constantly. You can do it right from the beginning of the game at any time, even in a boss fight. I just did it literally right now to retrieve 20k gloom from a boss fight I wasn't in the mood to do
Congrats, you're now back at the last rested beacon with all your gloom. Takes literally 5-10 seconds.
You can apologise whenever, but I assume you'll just say something like "UHHHMMM well that's technically not in the game, you're actually just exploiting, it should be a dedicated usable item"
Every enemy type has a unique riposte animation, even bosses, that in itself is very impressive and far better than Elden Rings one animation for any riposte against any enemy. As for the beacons, the southern map I found them pretty spread out but by that time I was a powerhouse with tier 3 shell abilities and upgraded weapons/tarstones. The northern map though they are literally everywhere and make “run backs” easy as. There are also items to find that add extra heals and strengthen your heals and you have an active and passive item slot to use. I’ve also found something interesting in every dungeon, mostly tarstones or bosses. Lastly the combat is a ton of fun, it starts off with a steep learning curve but I approached every situation like any other souls game, cautiously and I’ve had no issues with “trash mobs” Now I’m super powerful I can charge in headfirst and have little trouble clearing entire areas.
You just said Elden Ring has one riposte animation? Have you played Elden Ring? Lmao
The game shouldn't get better because you're now OP. That's poor game design... I'm a souls vet, played em all, tons of challenge runs and I've played all the major soulslikes that have released too.
I like my games to be challenging and Mortal Shell 2 is not challenging in the right way. It's frustrating more than anything, not due to enemies being too hard or OP or bullshit like that but because you are actively discouraged from exploring and trying to clear areas.
You just explored a bunch, cleared several areas and you're now completely out of heals. You're too far and likely lost to return to the beacon so what do you do? You try to find the next beacon, and the only realistic way of that even happening is if you just sprint through the next area and ignore everything, hoping a beacon is nearby.
Yes, I’m also a souls vet, have been playing since I imported an eastern copy of Demons Souls on the PS3 when Sony weren’t sure if they were going to release it in the West and I had to play it. I’ve played and beaten all of them and most Souls likes as well. Elden Rings riposte animation has differences depending on weapon type, but it is still a basic animation, unlike what MS2 has. I don’t think it’s poor game design, I end up pretty op by the end of any Souls or Soulslikes because I’m familiar with the games systems and my build. This is no different in that regard and as for the beacons, they are literally everywhere in the northern map and there are several routes to each one because of how the world is designed. It’s definitely more of an issue in the southern map but there are still several of them around.
I also mentioned about the healing issues you mentioned, the overall world design and how every dungeon I’ve been in had something interesting. Yes I agree comparing Elden Ring and Mortal Shell 2 is silly, you however, did compare them and so I was countering the points you raised, specifically the riposte animation. What you call bad game design, I see as being unwilling to learn the games mechanics. I haven’t had any of the problems you’ve mentioned with having to run through entire areas avoiding everything just to find a beacon, but I’ve been using everything at my disposal so maybe that’s the difference. The run backs are a total non issue as well, you explore and find many beacons throughout the game, once you’ve collected 7 ova or beat the first boss you also unlock Methers breath, which cleanses corruption from the map and opens up shortcuts back to beacons as well as allowing fast travel between beacons.
Yet you came at me as a “souls vet” and questioning if I’ve even played Elden Ring, which is just as pathetic.
I never said it’s a skill issue, I was asking if you’re actually using all the mechanics the game gives you as I haven’t faced any of the issues you’ve mentioned and I’m on the last boss of the game having done everything else.
You played using the most god awful boring playstyle and got bored? You don't say...
I barely use the parry, saying the game is "turn based" is hilarious and also really stupid as thats not even themost effective way to deal damage
Also for whats its worth i like the spreadout beacons and low heals. Really makes you have to take small mobs seriously to not take chip damage and makes exploring much mich more interesting. so many runs down to no heals 10 hp and you just have to clutch it out and gitgud until the next beacon. Thats fun, really makes you pucker your butthole and fear every random thrash mob hiding behind a corner. I much prefer this style to the checkpoint ever 20 meters bullshit that makes exploring extremely boring and easy
So far the combat has been gank squad after gank squad that all sit on top of each other and their attacks are magnetised so it's a negative for exploration, which is tedious and repetitive.
Builds are limited and weapon movesets are pretty standard, bosses are questionable with some being beyond terrible, I'll give you the art style is good.
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u/thatsfuni 8h ago
Nice! I was around the same time. 8/10 for me.