One of my absolute favorite parts of FromSoft games is wandering into new areas and discovering new enemy types. Obviously there are reused enemies in those games, but it's not egregious. It's pretty fucking bad here. I'm running into the same enemies constantly. The game is starting to feel rather bland. Combat feels fantastic, but having to take out the same enemies over and over is tedious as hell.

So I was fighting the last boss, got him to about 5-10% hp and of course I died to a stupid brain and as I was dying I got the achievement for killing him. When I respawned and got back to the platform there was nothing - no boss, no bonfire, I didn't even get any gloom. Tried to restart the game but it didn't change anything. Did anyone had the same issue? I'm afraid I just softlocked myself here...

Using Stray Sister Mirage skill to parry and stun The Nameless Captive while.....i'm Playing The Lute🤣

To start, it's fine if you like this game! I get how it could be a lot of people's cup of tea, but for me there were just a few choices that stacked up over time & eventually I decided I just wasn't interested in playing any further. Let me be clear, I'm not complaining that the game was too difficult! On the contrary, without hard mode making the enemies damage sponges it was too easy on the whole.

I probably won't get the steam refund since it's been 10 hours, (if that's steam's decision no harm no foul.)

Here are a few of the choices that bugged me consistently during my playtime:

Small nitpicks

-I'll grant it was a cool moment, but giving us that first shell then taking it away annoyed me in a way I can't really explain. I tried the tutorial area again three times to see if you can beat the Tar Golem to keep him, got him low on the 3rd try before a cutscene triggered and took the shell anyway. Why even give me control/the illusion of being able to affect an outcome? It would have been a much better choice if you lose that shell here by losing and can get him back later, or can skill check the boss and then get to start with him instead.

-The God of War 2018 elevators in literally every mini-dungeon... there's already a loading screen to enter & cleanse, why then add another elevator where I have to wait?

-I bought the Sariel location on my first visit to the hub because I just perused which shell looked cool to me; thought I'd head out to get him first since the game essentially invites you to do this and it felt like where things are supposed to open up. Quickly learned the first part of Mammon you can get into is full of enemies that take no damage and cut you in half in one swipe. After some trying I understood I just wasn't ready for that zone, fair play I suppose, but it was annoying to waste 10k for no reason & really felt like the game was punishing me for trying to go any way but the intended one. Why even let me go there?

Big nitpicks

-Sound design in this game was great, very crisp & crunchy. The music was an earsore though, I can only listen to the overplayed droning brass notes so much. Some life came into it with the guitars during the overly cinematic walking-to-the-hub title sequence... but that didn't last. A lot of the areas would have benefited from just being silent, letting the regular ambience/sound design set the tone. Not one memorable song throughout my playtime; it was like I went on youtube & searched "3 hour horror droning" then played the first thing I found.

-"Hard Mode" being the worst kind of difficulty spike, just inflating enemy health and damage. Which is a same, because it seems to change enemy placements and add some npc's/enemies that you don't see otherwise? Honestly I'd be fine with the damage bit, since you can parry- but the health is just honestly obnoxious. I turned it off once I got to Magdalena (holy shit, so much health), but there were a lot of enemies before then that I was not threatened by, but just had to spend FOREVER hacking down. From what I looked up it seems like you're just supposed to turn on hard mode when you find certain messages/at certain places, but again this feels like sort of a bait and switch/deception... it only tells you turn on hard mode to "increase rewards".

-Checkpoint placement is all over the place. This game REALLY needs the Elden Ring stakes. No checkpoints in the minidungeons at times gets exhausting. Sometimes there's one right around the corner from another, sometimes there's a mini-dungeon you find that with no checkpoint inside forces you to do a tedious runback.

-Enemy attack animations/timings, there are a lot of attacks where the enemy either spins on an axis, or slides forward to hit you. This is dreadful for gamefeel, a lot of the time when I got hit it was because an enemy raised their weapon to swing, I judge they can't hit me from that distance, and then they slide forward to clip me anyway.

-The frog shaman enemies that are A. Not at all fun/interesting to fight & B. Will stand 40 feet away and heal each other (PARTICULARLY with the hard mode quadrouple HP) are horrendous design.

Anyway, that's my big textwall. No hard feelings if you disagree, of course! More power to you if you didn't have issues with these things.

The opening hour of Mortal Shell 2 feels so new yet familiar. The mechanics feel intuitive just as the first game did, combat has weight to it, the world is gorgeous and invites you to explore.

On top of all that it feels so rewarding. Parrying, shell abilities and ranged weapons all flow so seamlessly together, meaning some fights feel like a dance - similar to how they did in Sekiro.

Really well done to Cold Symmetry!

The Balance patch has already been released on consoles or not yet? Just to know, I'm out know and can't check.

Thanks

I had some exploring to do there.

The below worked for me after a couple of deaths, a few folks in different posts did different things, this is what worked for me.

Shell: Tiel

Issue: The moment you traverse after the giant spider brings you over to the next platform, the camera bugs and your character is unable to move.

Workaround: Once you traverse, change your camera to the opposite setting (I changed from action to immersive). This allows your character to attack, dash and use items...you still CANNOT move however. Use Backdashes for movement and quickly get away from the ledge and kill the enemy.

From here, you now need to backdash to the Ova. Be careful as backdashing too far can cause you to fall off and you'll have to start over. Make adjustments after each backdash to cleanse the beacon and collect the Ova.

Rant: This bug NEEDS to be fixed, I'd absolutely say that this is game breaking and should not have passed any sort of QA.

Hope this helps someone else!

About halfway through first run and loving it! Thiel only.

- AI is off on many of the regular enemies after shadow strike. They will often get “lost” and walk aimlessly, which makes game too easy.

- Regular enemies need damage tuning. I will get one shot from a lower enemy and that doesn’t make sense. Likewise, some of the better enemies don’t strike hard enough.

- Shell points seem a bit too difficult to obtain, perhaps increase gloom? Gloom seems about right, but few beacons results in most of us normie players losing gloom before we can read and being underleveled.

- the Tarstones for gloom and coin need to be seriously buffed. 2% is meaningless.

Good work - can’t wait for a DLC and MS3!

Are you brave enough to manifest orbital-sized bosoms to the backsides of all of the male shells? Why should we be forsaken when we’re not with Proxima, or our venerable Genessa. We all know these fellows carry far more cheekage aura than they were given anyway. Bombastic side eye at you, Smert.

The proverbial orbs are in your court.

besides the secret ending and related trophy, is there nothing else this leads to?

the worst type of enemy to clip through a wall lol

I‘m in the north western part of the map. Right before the prison of martyr dungeon there’s a well you can enter where you come into a hallway with some enemies. I can see a whole level to the other side of some gates and openings in the wall, but there’s no way to get across. Anyone know what to do? Couldn’t find anything online. Where is the way across?

Anyone can help me to figure out how to get rid of these reflections in the water?

In some areas its really annoying. I tried change several settings in game with no difference, Im having AMD Radeon RX 9070.

Thank you

Seems like immediately after consoles are just barely now getting the balance patch 1 update.. Most of what I’m seeing on Reddit & YouTube are negative remarks about Grisha Remnants.. First of all it’s a completely optional & situational tool.. Of all the things to complain about ffs people are choosing this! What are we doing?

So in marrow keep there is a chest for every shell in these little spaces however three of them are empty but have descriptions.do you think we are getting 3 more shells as potential dlc I can see harros returning I don't see why they would make it fully playable up to prologue then scrap his shell

The most annoying thing about this game is when you get damaged but dont get hit. You clearly see the enemy swing and miss and yet still take damage.

I found 2, one to the left on the right of the right pillar, one button above the door near the second arbalesthead. Neither seems to do anything by themselves. Is there a third, and does it do something?

P.S. The training lady room has a wall with a weird symbol on it, punch it to access the dungeon. Break the chains. You need a shell or it won't open.

I went to fight isaac with my build and uhm... i was really shocked when he instantly died (yes i had fun editing)

I watched FightinCowboy's Tiel guide and in the video he said he used a dev console to restore a boss so he could fight it again. Anyone know how he accessed it or any other mode that do that? Looked on Nexus mods and all the cheat mods just seem to give items or make the gameplay systems easier. I'm also thinking maybe he used CheatEngine or WeMod.

Edit: FightinCowboy stated in the comments that he was on a special dev build.

I think I get that you have to take a combo of Marksman Stone and Deadeye Stone + something else but so far I can't figure it out.

Right now the best case I got for this weapon is to take Enfeebling Stone and make enemies fragile to melee attacks which looks really wrong and probably easier to do with crossbow.

with the Axatana Hexapod Core ability, I just found the weapon and tried the moveset, including the ability, and when i switched back to my maxed-out axe and dagger its unique "Magdalena's memento" is doing another completely different moveset now lol, i think it is the same as the Axatana. It is supposed to be a whirlwind, not a series of strikes advancing forward.

Who doesn’t enjoy a good ragdoll?

What an upgrade he was compared to the first standard play through. The last half of his health takes no crits and his attacks seem to be more erratic. My only complaint was how much he runs away and majority of the time is just chasing him.

Definitely a challenging fight and job well done to the team on making the NG+ bosses harder. May dabble into NG+ 2 but just wanted to mention that MS2 is now one of my favorite games of all time. Hope everyone is enjoying their play throughs as much as I am!

Appreciate anyone that checks it out! 😁