mortal shell review

1. Mortal Shell Review
2. Mortal Shell Review: Should You Buy In 2022?
3. Mortal Shell December PSPLUS Game Review “Buy, Wait for Sale, Never Touch?”
4. Definitely Not Dark Souls
5. Mortal Shell: BIGGEST Surprise RPG of 2020?
6. Mortal Shell Review
7. Mortal Shell Review – Dark Souls Jr.

Mortal Shell Review

yeah i know,everyones sick of the term souls like,but as long as games that duplicate from,softwares dark souls formula as closely,as mortal shell keep coming out were,gonna be stuck with it,this one condenses the idea of games,like bloodborne and dark souls into a,compact package,that should only take around 12 to 18,hours to beat,and it manages to introduce just enough,smart new ideas,to avoid feeling like old news to,seouls veterans,its both a compliment and a criticism,when i say that no other souls like has,done such a fine job of nailing the vibe,of dark souls,its apparent in the moody landscapes,and the creepy npcs muttering spooky,lines,i pray that you do not find yourself,upon the pyre,and its especially evident in the,enemies that come close to killing you,with a single hit,in the first couple of hours it can be,brutally difficult to find your footing,and just in case that you doubted that,this is anything other than an obsessive,love letter to from softwares games,even the interface looks a little too,familiar in some spots,but there are some clear differences and,mortal shells name points to a big one,so you start off as a ray flight,creature who can barely take a hit,so survival depends on hopping into the,corpses of four dead warriors you find,scattered across the landscape like a,necromancer hermit crab,its a cool idea as it allows you to,switch between very different builds,and alter your desired play style,without spending ages carefully building,stats,shells also allow for a welcome second,chance in combat as,dying will knock your wraith form out of,your shell,if you can get back before enemies chop,you down your health will fully restore,you start off of harrows a regular,knight with balanced stats,hes kind of boring i had a lot more fun,when i found my personal favorite teal,hes a rogueish character with a massive,stamina pull for dodging and thats,essential to my playstyle,he got even better when i customized him,by fleshing out his per trees with,currencies i earned from fighting,if you were struggling like i was early,on these upgrades can really pull your,fat out of the fire,mortal shell didnt really click for me,for instance until i upgraded teal shell,so that sprinting no longer depletes,stamina and incoming blows sometimes,chop off stamina instead of health after,that encounters that were,maddeningly tough the first time,sometimes became trifling,taking this from what i thought was one,of the toughest souls likes id ever,played,so one of the easier ones,and in a neat twist you can loot vials,that allow you to switch from one of the,shells on the fly,which is helpful when you run across a,boss who gives you trouble while youre,in a particular shell,the four discoverable weapons also allow,for substantially different melee,playstyles,but not with the same degree of freedom,as the shells,damage upgrades are scarce and so i,found it wise to focus on one weapon and,sideline the others,at least until new game plus,but nothing sets mortal shell apart as,much as its hardened mechanic,which turns your wraithy hero into,unbreakable stone for the span of one,blow,this serves as an indirect block and,itll sometimes stagger enemies when,their blades meet your stone skin,it allows for some strategies that are,unique to mortal shell 2,like hardening in mid-swing and then,completing the attack after a bosss,blow glances off of you,harden does have a short cooldown so you,cant spam it,but its swift enough to encourage a,touch more recklessness than im used to,from the souls games themselves,the only problem is that i find that,encourages a very predictable playstyle,where you run in,hit an enemy a couple of times harden,and then jump back,out get good at the timing and get a,weapon and shell that suits you,and mortal shells punishing difficulty,can start to seem too easy,and a little tedious,speaking of timing mortal shell also,encourages parrying,as you can follow up perfect parries,with a devastating blow that also,restores a goodly chunk of health,it looks cool and its immensely,satisfying,when it works i personally struggled,with the timing and in a way i never,struggled with pairing in sakiro,fortunately pairing isnt the only means,of healing so its not essential if it,doesnt agree with you,one place where mortal shell draws,inspiration from outside the genre is in,its exploration,which gave me a zelda vibe you have to,venture into three distinct zones and,beat their bosses to collect items that,unlock a final battle,theyre all a wonder to behold,particularly an enigmatic obsidian,temple complex,but unfortunately the core swampy area,connecting them all can be a chore to,navigate through on account of its,saminess,sometimes though the environment is,unintentionally as devilish as any boss,all too often enemies would get stuck on,a terrain or id have to restart after,getting trapped in a lock-on animation,mortal shell isnt as rich and complex,as post souls games like bloodborne or,sakura,but it does make you work for victories,and learn from your mistakes,its a beautifully dark adventure and,thanks to its clever body swapping,mechanic it delivers much of the play,style diversity,and exploration of the best in the genre,but in a tidy and comparatively short,package,with a couple of attractive surprises of,its own,for more on moto shell check out the,first minutes of gameplay,and for another recent souls like watch,our review of hellpoint,and for everything else stick with ign,[Music],you

Mortal Shell Review: Should You Buy In 2022?

ever since the gaming industry,established this huge and growing demand,for more of that from software and dark,souls formula developers across the,globe have tried time and time again to,match up and copy fromsofts every move,but in the end when they finish,developing their knock-off games they,all end up realizing theyre just not as,capable at developing such intricacies,and theyre simply just boys amongst men,this is a big important game,cut the crap cut the crap,im being serious dont do that im,being serious dont do that how much,wood would a woodchuck chuck if a,woodchuck could chuck wood,yeah thats what i thought shut up this,is one genre of games that in principle,should be easy to emulate but has proven,nearly impossible to replicate and,achieve that same level of detail from,the coding within the combat mechanics,to the more noticeable things like the,narrative world building and the rpg,systems fromsoft have never stood still,because they know that standing still is,moving backwards and they have every,confidence to not only release open beta,versions of their game four months,before its release for the world to see,but they also have the confidence to,welcome other developers attempting to,copy their game designs before elden,ring i doubt many aaa developers saw,from software as much of a threat they,never really put much into marketing,their games and relied heavily on their,niche hardcore fan base to promote,within and they certainly dont have a,triple a bottomless pit of money to,invest in their games either but what i,do have,are a very particular set of skills,skills i have acquired over a very long,career,skills that make me a nightmare for,people like you but mark my words since,elden rings success well start to see,some major aaa developers try their hand,at the souls-like formula but prior to,elden ring weve seen so many smaller,developers try their hand at creating,the souls-like game and offering their,own slant on things developers called,symmetry are a team of aaa veterans,passionate about the souls like genre,and were one of the most recent to,dabble in the art of souls like games,releasing mortal shell in august 2020,they shamelessly came very close to,giving me the same joy that i felt from,the classic original dark souls they,didnt mind you but they came very close,mortal shell is a great game for those,whove always thought that the,soulsborne series of games were a little,excessive in their difficulty but rather,than simply having their hand held for,them as the alternative they still get,to experience that same level of,we play as a faceless being known as a,foundling an empty vessel whos implored,to do the bidding of the dark father and,track down the hidden sanctums of devout,followers in a broken and desolate world,where the remains of humanity have,rotten and withered away,yeah ive actually got covered right now,so im proper making good use of my cove,advice there did you hear that proper,trailer voice so simple enough then a,load of cryptic bollocks so youll need,to piece all that together while,fighting your way through a [ __ ] ton of,highly disturbing adversaries and boss,battles until the credits roll very dark,souls ask there are some fundamental,differences though some that work really,well and some that work well to begin,with but eventually they fizzle out,during the mid to late game the shells,are what work really well and its a,strategic and deliberate system that i,really enjoyed using shells are,presented as characters that you,encounter the corpses of inhabiting,their shell i.e armor players will be,able to learn more about that particular,shells past and eventually youll learn,their combat style and unlock various,abilities but in order to obtain their,shell you must find out and learn their,names which can be done by spending tar,which is the currency you learn through,killing enemies and youll lose your tar,on death with one chance to retrieve it,theres this creepy masked lady who will,act as a bonfire or a checkpoint for,those not familiar with the fromsoft,bonfires here you can upgrade your shell,into set skills focused around that,particular shell this is where,experimenting with each shell comes in,finding your favorite and each skill is,upgraded using the tar youve,accumulated or found as a consumable but,theres also glimpses which are a much,rarer form of currency to upgrade and,these seemed kind of pointless and,stitched onto the upgrade system it felt,like they were added just to offer,something additional with not much,substance to them when youre levelling,up theres four shells to choose from,and they each offer wide varieties in,play styles from being an all-rounder a,tank in the health department but low in,the stamina department or not so high,with the health but really high in,resolve which is your third meter to use,alongside stamina and health which is,used for parry reposts and special,weapon abilities i really like the,shells and cold symmetries take on the,play styles because i often boxed myself,into a play style when playing a from,soft game and switching up mid play,through is extortionately expensive but,with the four shells you find as you,progress it felt good to experiment,simply changing your shell at the,falgrim tower a location youll find,early on but it felt even better to,switch between shells before facing a,particular boss that might suit a,different playstyle by using a,consumable effigy you can do that and,its specific to that shell these,effigies are not that common but were,given much more encouragement to,experiment within a single playthrough,compared to from soft games and even,more so when you carry your shells over,into a new game plus the other notable,aspect that differs from a traditional,fromsoft game are the consumables of,which there arent anywhere near as many,but again were encouraged to experiment,because unlike a from soft game,consumable theres no description for,them to let you know what it does cold,symmetry were just like oh im sorry are,you wondering what this mysterious,golden mushroom does or perhaps what,ailments this boiled frog might offer,well just try it no i dont want to,theres a merchant to find which is,another way to spend your hard-earned,tar and hes got some rare key items to,help upgrading your weapons so worth,visiting when youre packing some,serious tar there are four main weapons,to use found by defeating a hardening,boss whos wielding that weapon with,each weapon having a separate upgrade,path to follow all requiring certain,items that can be found out when,exploring like the shells these weapons,offer a different play style and dont,necessarily have to be linked to a,certain shell either and again they all,feel varied in their swing timing and,showcase some pretty cool abilities,specific to each one the level design,felt okay it was a little forced at,times i must admit the first area is,really cool and its easy to get lost in,with so many intertwining linear paths,to wander down and theres rewarding,treasure thats hidden all over the vast,array of biomes to explore but there are,these little burrow tunnels that we can,navigate through and these are the,things that felt a little forced they,felt like an attempt to replicate that,same feeling you get from a from soft,game when you unlock the other side of,that door or pull that elevator lever,exposing a life-saving shortcut but,these burrowed holes just do not feel,anywhere near as gratifying when it,comes to level design the enemies were a,little artificial in their placement,within each level at times too simply,just standing there at times and not,exactly being well hidden either when,clearly there was supposed to be an,element of surprise the enemies,themselves and their designs they were,pretty awesome though from one of the,coolest designs ever being this dude,thats impaled with swords and he pulls,them out of himself to launch at you,yeah i know right boring but not o

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Mortal Shell December PSPLUS Game Review “Buy, Wait for Sale, Never Touch?”

[Music],[Music],if thats not the truth hamlet once said,to shuffle off this mortal coil was to,unburden ourselves of the carried or,abandoned toils of everyday suffering,with mortal shell youre pretty much,doing the opposite youre running around,as a little flesh sack in your fantasy,invasion of the body snatching,the shells or classes of various other,characters in the game as you play a,slightly dark souls slightly,well dark souls style of game its a,third person action rpg,and its from cold symmetry and,published by playstack this will be for,29.99 and its coming,exclusively for the epic store on the,18th,lets check it out as always if you like,the video i would love for you to,subscribe it absolutely helps the,channel,hit the notification all for everything,when it comes to videos from me,and fighting cowboy another youtuber who,does excellent videos on this kind of,stuff,is doing a bunch of youtube videos on,this game so if you get a chance,check him out graphics are first so,mortal shell it really aims to do what,it can with what it has while locations,arent exactly sprawling in their size,their design is really well done,for instance you might battle out with a,sub boss while keeping an,eye on their sword youre noticing that,behind them theres some bushes in a,small cave that might,lead to a shortcut or some other new,location the game has a wicker work of,those throughout,the devs have openly proclaimed their,love for demon souls and dark souls and,you are not going to miss it it is,almost,painfully close to the original game in,some of its design and in particular,its architecture and,evil feel that doesnt mean it doesnt,have its own character it does its just,that,with a couple games in a series to,compete with theres always going to be,a couple rare moments where,you look at it and think hey this looks,brand new but most of those moments will,be like,this looks a little bit familiar luckily,enough,even though that all happens there are,some amazingly well made locations here,mortal shell is,encrusted with grime and grease and,nastiness imagine if games could shower,and,well one never did thatd be mortal,shell from the tight candlelit chambers,to the bogs,understanding the constraints against,the title and what they did i think its,a pretty damn magnificent series of,locations overall,theres the bog standard middle section,of the game where youre running through,tunnels with various sarcophagi,strategically placed here and there to,choke you out on battle points which i,didnt necessarily love,but its offset by a starting location i,adored and,later locations that were really,interesting to me for example one time,you come down to this fog choked valley,and you jog around a bin and you can,hear this,not necessarily harmonious music,flitting down from a hill nearby you,walk up to a camp and you see some dude,wearing an old sack over his head,laying hands down on a loot like a pox,village,jimmy page and it can cause you to stop,for a second and just listen and look or,later flinting through this,bog creeping way too loudly for your own,good as you try to sneak up on,archers that by the way seem painfully,outfitted with esp,upgrades from friggin x-men no lie those,dudes they dont do a ton of damage but,an arrow zinging off your dome in the,middle of a fight can stagger you and,turns an amazing looking battle into,a disaster or at the very least makes,you look like a goddamned idiot you,stumble around as the arrow bounces into,the bushes,and each one of those locations has a,little hiding places it all feels very,well designed,even the animation when youre pacific,riming for zombies straight into your,first shell and your spirit grabs the,head of the dead body injecting your,spirit,into the shell and bringing it to life i,also like the shell designs themselves,for instance theres one particular one,i,adore its got a yellow and silver look,to the armor thats alternating on one,of the arms and it just has,a slightly offset look a little bit,mausoleum chic if you will,we have so many games in this genre so,many titles that,get condensed into the same exact,comparison,oh its dark souls this its dark souls,that these developers,basically looked at dark souls and demon,souls and said thats okay with us we,just want to offer our own bent to it,and i think,overall they nailed that what they,didnt nail so much is a couple of the,technical or gameplay idea issues when,it comes to graphics and,graphical storytelling the first low,detail textures those,are a lot of places its not you know,cottage cheese vision or glaucoma vision,but theyre pretty bad,enemies just standing there is another,one now this is more noticeable than a,lot of games in this genre and could be,due to the overall way the landscape is,designed or,presented but the placements of the,enemies is never exactly organic in fact,enemy placement is probably one of the,most artificial parts about,mortal shell that you can feel and no,amount of hand waving around is going to,remove you watching some gargantuan dude,with a spear,just bouncing off of a rock trying to,hit you while his best friend is,slamming down a ten-toed breakfast,buffet just right next to him ignoring,everything,especially in any of the areas where you,can see long distances this,is noticeable now when it comes to,performances and long distances,on an i7 at 4.7 with a 2080 ti,i was able to get 60 at 4k except for,post processing so all the settings work,fine post processing is a huge,hit here and its separate from the,other graphical steps that you can,actually choose and adjust,i would say the first thing you want to,do is go look at that because i didnt,really notice,a huge or dramatically impactful setting,when i turned that down it was,noticeable but it wasnt something that,would be,absolutely against me wanting to play,60fps in a game like this,is really desired too i would say its,one of those things that matters the,most so,look at that post-processing and maybe,some shadow settings,additionally boom its got your render,scaling setting you guys know i,absolutely love these they help so much,i would say 10 off 4k work really well,if you dont want to adjust the post,processing and youre at my level of pc,with a 1080 or 1080 ti you can easily,get 60 fps,at very good settings but again you just,want to look at,in particular post-processing shadows,those kind of thing when it came to,a lot of those other settings they were,much smaller in their overall effect,i would say the game looks really good i,like the design but i can see a lot of,people thinking it looks,pretty familiar and that brings us to,sound music and voice,the greatest triumph in the universe,gifted,and squandered i shant make the same,mistakes as my brother when the moment,comes,ill exercise restraint,ah,first were going to discuss music,because theres not much to discuss,other than some very occasional stingers,and maybe one or two,really low synths and ambient bits and,especially a discordant,almost chord that just gets continually,played in one or two locations,theres not a lot of music here to talk,about it is mostly about the sound of,the game,and that brings us to sound so in a game,otherwise marred with,a few issues there is one here that,blows me away that i dont like in this,game,the games in the environment those are,great the environmental sounds,awesome they mend you into the location,they solidify,everything around you it feels great,especially when you can hear those frogs,croaking in the background and some of,these locations phenomenal they also add,a little bit of processing to make,everything feel,open and wide a bit of reverb and echo,there but,the game has an issue in particular with,how it informs you,of an action and that action is your,parry for whatever reason,when your parry loads up in this game,when you basically have the ability to,parry it makes a loud,attack sound basically like a shing like,a sword being swung,or being unleashe

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Definitely Not Dark Souls

watch and learn,[Music],customization,hes tenderizing the ground of course,[Music],write that down write that down lets,see if i can go this entire game without,saying the words that rhyme with,spark shmoles a swamp area just like,bark,trolls that is a big frog is that,hostile,it poisoned me well time to start eating,everything in my inventory see what,helps,oh yes i dont know what you are but i,will [ __ ] eat you too,deals 40 poison okay that just made,things worse,cool im gonna die,that just made things so much worse,so i still have this body i have no idea,how the mechanics of this game work,it doesnt explain it just like dr,scholes,can you do a drop attack like in bob,doles,my inclination is that this guys not,hostile but i know he is,ill try walking up to him ill be,friendly,[Music],i love their just comically long moans,as they die,oh god,i did a parry and now im face first in,the dirt upside down,what does what does parrying do i need,to wait,longer,[Music],why do i keep trying this why do i even,attempt,right just stop what the [ __ ],you juked me what kind of trick was that,how the hell that happened,[ __ ] books books are for [ __ ],the [ __ ] just happened what why have i,had a boss fight i didnt agree to this,youre so close i can taste it,he got me with a hardened [ __ ] so i,finally figured out what i was doing,wrong,with the parry i was doing it backwards,when it flashes red its saying warning,do not,hurry right now so anytime it glowed red,i was just saying whats that boy,perry now you got it little buddy,i like it oh you really just clubbed me,in the back of the head,like a baby seal thats kind of [ __ ],horse [ __ ] that you can do that when im,getting up,imagine a game where every once while,you get hit and you just ragdoll your,legs just say oh im done now,and you become one with the ground is,this a fast,travel system please i have so much tar,that i cannot spend,this is a boss fight isnt it this is,going to teleport me into a boss fight,why did i do this,get in my belly unless i can beat him in,one try,this this definitely looks like a guy,can beat in one trick one go,in rod what a dumb name you get a dumb,name,you know that hatch my feelings im,gonna slap you and youre dead bud,nimrod okay this guy actually is really,easy,and i whiffed it thats embarrassing,youre a,lucky woman oh im almost out of energy,here,hold on i need to catch my breath im,getting tired come on the physique like,yours im sure youre getting worn out,too,do you see another girl you a bit oh no,he does got a second moveset,oh my goodness do not get back up you,give me a nerf hole,please dude what is this,are you serious all right,all right all right god get me worried,for a second there,time to get back to that npc,so i can spend all this,these guys werent here before and i,cant even metal gear solid my way past,them,but i can run screaming like a little,girl,now this looks like a high stamina build,which i want to try out look at that,stamina bar,this is so many swings on my lord holy,[ __ ] a 20 chance to lose stamina instead,of health on,damage this shell is amazing,its beautiful,whoa,all right this guys gonna be tough i,cant even lock on to him,chucks on you i can shadow for him,[ __ ],just throw your sword dumb move,i sleep now let me just grab this,reminder of my failings,dodge jesus christ that took so long to,eat a [ __ ] mushroom,hes just menacingly ice skating towards,me come over here,[ __ ] when you get hit so hard you have,an out of body experience,i didnt really die im going to [ __ ],stab you damn it that is such a delayed,attack i never expected,its like the slowest most telegraphed,move he has and i get hit by it every,time,i would like to get out of this cave,before it collapses,so im just not going to worry about all,these enemies coming through,although i do want that,where the [ __ ] did you come from no no,no no no no,drop kick that son of a [ __ ] i saw an,item,he just dropped kicked me in the face,jumped off the ropes,he just jumped off the ah i just died,for that item didnt i i regret,everything about life,ive kept your flesh safe found me,i have not im pretty cavalier about it,if im to be honest,just running past everybody dont need,to worry about um hey,who did this move that did a lot of,[ __ ] damage,was this the path i dont think it was,ah i just got [ __ ] slapped by a ghost,last time i got pounced on like right,around here some,by this [ __ ] vampire that leaps out,of literal nowhere,nope nope nope im just gonna grab this,[ __ ],oh god just sprint on out of here like,its aladdins cave collapsing,and dont worry about the stupid-ass,items that dont matter,hello goodbye,okay vampire coming up very soon i think,right,no right there up here right,here no where was he he was up here,right,where the [ __ ] was that vampire right,here,right here all right that was mid-dodge,animation,this is the most [ __ ] vampire in the,game,you right here youre [ __ ] how do,you sleep at night,knowing youre such [ __ ] look at the,stamina,thats insane by the time i run out i,can just harden,and regain it thats nuts like do you,see this,are you seeing this with your own two,eyes right now watching this,that was crazy the bell is tolling for,me,im almost home baby dont worry daddys,coming,oh all right three of them drop down all,right all right all right all right,thats cool they do it right next to the,base too theres the base,if i would have died right there id,have been pissed,no no the most deadly enemy in the swamp,the frog,oh hes still following what the [ __ ],get up shoot,get away no,oh i died on impact,okay [ __ ] frogs wait i heal from,poison,now oh the frogs are good now,come here frogs give daddy some poison,okay the frogs actually do initial,damage,okay all right so,they do impact damage and that spawns a,lot of frogs apparently,okay im gonna test this puppy out,this is an interesting temple,is that the kid from the grudge [ __ ] im,so used to having,just an infinite amount of stamina right,i try to dodge,i hit the dodge button nothing happens,standing like an idiot just gets smacked,in the face,is that the predator its actually the,predator,maam calm your tits,you guys would be much better assassins,if you didnt make so much damn noise,just cackling and making goofy sounds,im going to attempt to parry this guy,to regain some health hopefully does not,kill me,that one is exactly as i planned it,thank you sir,and i accidentally hardened and she,knocks me off cliff,she had to [ __ ] knock me off a cliff,im getting so sick what is that a,baguette,why is it telling me about this ladies,ladies,all right archer youre dead oh im dead,she was quick on the draw that one maybe,i should put this down for now i dont,know i was coasting through this area so,easily,and now this this one particular stretch,of tower im gonna be crying into my,pillow about it tonight,so ive gotten to this boss fight in one,go,i can take one hit i have no healing,items and i,ca and i got knocked out of my shell,before i started so i can take,one hit and be okay two no thats too,much,you killed my brother you dirty rat,i its i dont think its supposed to be,funny but its funny,none of you shoot arrows so im not,concerned about any of you,oh what was i saying about not being,archers,sounds like more vampires are out about,now which i absolutely adore,dealing with i especially love when they,just,drop in on me out of nowhere that always,gives me a giggle,just like that hilarious,who would have thought once,you could endure such hardship what are,you gonna talk [ __ ] every single time i,come back to you,backhanded compliments if i,cant ascend neither will you,no one will dick move bro,ive been helping you all game who is,this guy,ill never know how many of these,goddamn things,do,you

Mortal Shell: BIGGEST Surprise RPG of 2020?

so have you heard,about mortal shell its an action rpg,developed by a relatively unknown,company called cold,symmetry pretty much the one big thing,people had to say about it is,hey look its dark souls but there is,way more to it,hi folks its falcon and today on game,ranks lets talk,about mortal shell the best surprise hit,of 2020. so yeah it kind of is,basically dark souls but thats,massively underselling it,what makes it actually interesting is,how its not like dark souls,outside the fantasy trappings and,similar game mechanics there is a lot in,this game that is,actually totally unlike dark souls like,theres a lot that make it stand out for,one the graphics are very good,considering that it is a 30 dollar indie,budget title,but the gameplay is also really refined,smooth and fun,theres some very interesting mechanics,and especially for a small scale game,that is attempting to be this big its,relatively bug free,we really didnt expect a lot going in,but this game,surprised the hell out of us its just,legitimately really really,really good so whats it about well the,story,is told in a very dark souls way as you,might expect,given the whole overall theme that were,dealing with but through item,descriptions through npcs muttering,nonsense and,random notes youll find in the,environment its very much along the,lines of environmental storytelling that,weve seen in a lot of types of games at,this point,the opening however is something else,you wake up as this really weird,white-skinned silent hill-looking,monster person for lack of a better word,and youre in shallow water in a filled,void theres,basically nothing going on you get a,weapon and you go through a tutorial you,fight a boss youre supposed to lose,against,and then a giant fish eats you and,thats where the game properly starts,after all that you meet this giant,bird-headed,guy thing i dont know i mean its,accurate to call it a bird-headed thing,right,look at it it gives you your first,actual objective though which is,collecting sacred,glands of the revered so he can somehow,make something called the true nectar,which,apparently gets you out of this weird,monster-filled place the game,takes place in theres some really,interesting looking npcs dotted around i,dont really know what the point of this,big frog dude is but,its awesome they took the time to model,a nasty giant frog thing,for whatever reason i mean it looks cool,otherwise,everythings very vague and even what i,said to you is its weird but pretty,vague,basically what you would expect from a,dark souls-like experience,gameplay however first i want to talk,about some of the ways,its similar to dark souls and then,well talk about how,its quite different actually you got an,area thats pretty much the firelink,shrine that functions basically as your,base theres fire keepers,in this game theyre called sesters,instead of souls you get tar,the sacred glands youre supposed to,collect youre basically lord souls,theres a lot in common to these,mechanics but thats not really a bad,thing because they introduce a lot of,new ideas that make the game feel fresh,on top of all that first hardening there,are no shields in this game,instead you protect yourself by doing a,special move called hardening which,turns your character into a statue,for as long as you hold down the button,now its not,permanent youre not just invincible you,dont get enough hits and you,end up returning back to normal but,while youre hardened you are impervious,to damage,for dark souls veterans hardening is,probably going to be one of the toughest,things that you wrap your head around,because it does not work exactly like a,shield it has a cool down you cannot,just spam it,it takes a second to actually go into,effect so you cant use it,right as an enemy is attacking you have,to be strategic with it and most,importantly,you can use it whenever you want,including right in the middle of an,attack animation,on top of all that it does not use up,stamina,you know how blocking in dark souls,games could leave you end up really,vulnerable if your stamina runs out,while youre blocking,that does not happen with hardman its,actually a really useful tool for,restoring your stamina without having to,back off in a fight,this takes a while to get accustomed to,but once you do theres a ton of,tactical possibilities that just,arent there in dark souls its a lot,like a lot of other things in this game,its weird,its pretty cool and for the most part,it feels good to use,once youre used to it i will say it,will mess with your dark souls muscle,memory though because its mapped to the,left trigger,instead of l1 the left button yeah it,did that with me,next big thing to talk about in the game,is shelves,you know how you start out as that weird,silent hill alien,thing thats your true form and while,you can use weapons in,the foundling state it only takes one,hit to kill you so,you you dont want to stay that way you,dont wear armor in this game instead,you find,corpses of unique characters that your,monster dude kind of possesses,and that is called a shell shells are,basically different builds theres one,with a lot of health and armor not much,stamina theres one with a ton of,stamina its a really good dodge move,but has low hp theres one that has,a lot of magic power which is called,resolve in this game,stuff like that so basically you dont,have to plan out your character in this,game,instead this game has pre-made,characters four of them specifically,with their own unique skill trees,you just choose to play as one you can,switch to another one if you dont want,to,use that one anymore if a certain enemy,is giving you trouble try different,shell,blah blah blah its nice to play one of,these games where you dont have to,worry about,the confusing aspects of dark souls,games which is,maybe trying to figure out how to,allocate stats youre not locked into,one,form that you cant deviate from once,youve collected the shell,you just use it and any shell can use a,weapon,so you can mix and match a lot over the,course of the game other gameplay stuff,there is a sakura like mechanic where,the first time you die instead of,being sent back to the checkpoint the,foundling flies out of the shell,if youre able to get back to your body,you come back to life with full health,but like i said earlier one hit in,foundling form,youre dead and if you die again yeah,youre gonna,go back to your last checkpoint it can,be kind of harrowing trying to get back,to your body to revive,desperately avoiding enemy attacks but,if you succeed it does also,feel great its very satisfying there,are some benefits to this as well if,youre fighting a boss,its possible to leave a shell behind,after you die so that when you fight,them again youll have a shell around,on top of the one that you start out,with meaning you basically get an,additional full revive when taking on,the boss assuming you can get back to it,its stuff like this that makes it feel,a little less punishing than other dark,souls like games,which is very interesting theres not a,lot of weapons though theres just four,melee weapons and one long range weapon,but they are all fun to use at least,they all have unique special abilities,you can unlock by finding special items,then you can forge them to upgrade,the sword you get at the start the,hallowed sword is basically a bastard,sword its an,all-around sword theres also the hammer,and,chisel which work as double knives would,just you know look cooler,the martyrs blade is a giant two-handed,sword with some pretty sweet ice magic,attacks,and the smoldering mace is a giant mace,that is good for crowd control and,can set stuff on fire smoldering you see,on top of hardening theres also a parry,mechanic the timing is closer to dark,souls than a sakura,you want to parry a little bit before,the enemy attacks not right as the enemy,attacks you,it can be tricky to learn the timing but,not as tricky as,remapping that muscle memory to use the,trigger i

Mortal Shell Review

you cant really talk about mortal shell,without talking about its obvious,inspirations,from softwares soulsborne games dark,souls bloodborne and sakura shadows die,twice,developer cold symmetry has created a,love letter to froms games with its own,souls-like,and mortal shell borrows liberally from,the souls control scheme its combat,formula,and its minimalist approach to,storytelling you seem different,untouched mortal shell is more than a,retread however,it adds ideas of its own that shift the,way you think about its combat,introducing a more deliberate and,strategic pace,it sends you down dark forest pathways,into strange twisted temples,guarded by challenging bosses and it,provides a bunch of wispy spooky lore,for you to piece together,as you scour its world for everything,you can discover,mortal shell is a sort of small scale,souls-like game demanding less of an,investment of time and frustration it,feels tuned for people whove been,interested in the souls experience but,who may be struggled with its difficulty,while still striking all the same,essential nerves,you play a faceless voiceless being,dubbed the foundling,more akin to a spirit or revenant than a,person who ventures into a decaying,poisonous world known as falgrim,there most people you come across want,to murder you and in your undead-ish,form youre not much of a match for them,one hit will destroy you to survive,youll need a better body which is where,the name mortal shell comes from,youre able to inhabit the corpses or,shells of some tough warriors you find,along the way,which make you a little less prone to,death the four shells in the game,each play a little differently from one,another providing a set of characters,you can swap between,as you play each shell also has unique,special perks you can unlock in a,typically souls-like way by spending,currencies you earn from killing enemies,currencies you permanently lose if you,die and dont retrieve them from your,own corpse,combat in mortal shell owes its basics,to dark souls and bloodborne you have a,fast light attack,and a slower stronger heavy attack as,well as a backstep that you can convert,into a roll to dodge your enemies,how much you can swing your sword and,how many times you can dodge are,dictated by a stamina gauge and theres,a tightly timed parry move that opens,enemies up to a brutal riposte attack,which also heals you,the thing that sets mortal shell apart,from its inspirations is the harden,ability which lets you briefly turn to,stone and tank a hit,before the stone breaks harden has a,short cooldown so you have to use it,strategically against an enemys attacks,you can also start an attack and harden,midway through,ignoring your opponents strikes so you,can land your own the harden ability,provides a new set of essential,strategies to mortal shells combat,hardening lets you turn yourself into a,trojan horse,baiting your enemies to attack you so,you can get in under their guard,especially with tougher bosses the key,to victory is almost,always to harden yourself so you can,score a hit and keep your combos going,when youd otherwise get eviscerated,harden along with a very forgiving dodge,also subtly lessens mortal shells,difficulty,and that seems to be the alchemy cold,symmetry is going for,mortal shell feels like a dark souls,game pushing you to build skills,study enemies and carefully dole out,your resources but its also one with,abilities that give you,extra forgiveness and the game doesnt,expect you to spend hours working on,defeating a single boss,the big drawback of mortal shells,combat system is that its easy to,become,too reliant on hardening to slowly chip,away at difficult enemies,instead of finding clever ways to use,harden against bosses and outsmart them,you can fall into that much more boring,strategy turning fights into lengthy,slogs where you never feel like youre,in any real danger,mortal shells big focus outside of,combat is on exploration,you spend most of your time wandering,through falgrim and its three huge,temples which stand as zelda-like,dungeons,each temple is markedly different from,the others and provides some gorgeous,inventive settings to fight through,including a deep icy cave a flaming,crypt and a twisted,floating obsidian tower the locations,feel specific to the challenges within,and exploring them is a treat as youre,rewarded with lore and weapon upgrades,for checking every corner,exploring falgrim also brings up mortal,shells familiarity system,when you first find an item in the game,youre not told what it does but using,it builds familiarity which can change,or upgrade the items effects,eat a poison mushroom the first time and,you might feel dumb for making your,character sick,until you max out your familiarity and,gain poison protection from the mushroom,instead the system,rewards you for learning about the world,while giving you a good reason not to,hoard all your items,youll also delve into the four shells,you find by unlocking their memories as,you upgrade them the memories provide,more tidbits of story and lore for you,to pour over and try to make sense of,giving each shell,a bit of personality in typical souls,fashion however youll still have to,piece together all that lore,and plot on your own how else could he,know so much about me,he had condemned himself with each,utterance its in some of this,exploration,that mortal shell stumbles most the,swampy fall grim area that connects the,dungeons,all tends to look the same and its easy,to get lost trying to find your way to,the next temple to advance,landmarks arent extremely obvious and,its all pretty maze-like and i spent a,lot of time,accidentally going in circles trying to,find my way forward,there are also times when enemy,placement can feel frustrating,or cheap mortal shell really likes to,ambush you with combatants you cant see,until they show up,so much so that its easy to get,overwhelmed at a few points that can,force,you to repeatedly run back through those,big confusing areas which is a drag,still mortal shell succeeds more often,than not at capturing the specific,feelings,intrinsic to souls like games the twist,it adds to frum inspired mechanics do,well to make it more approachable than,most while maintaining that same,air of mystery and foreboding that makes,the genre so intriguing,mortal shell especially makes for a,great introduction to souls likes if,youre new to them demonstrating what so,many players have found so interesting,about this kind of game but mortal shell,is also a lovingly crafted,weird and deceptively deep game in its,own right that rewards you for wandering,its dark pathways,and challenging its deadliest foes,[Music],you

Mortal Shell Review – Dark Souls Jr.

what is happening yall cowboy here and,today were going to be talking about,mortal shells so we first heard about,this game back on april fools,uh they did a april fools day reveal,and uh to many including myself i wasnt,sure it was even real a brand new souls,like from a company we had never heard,of,thats like every souls players dream,but lo and behold it did come out and it,will be releasing tomorrow on pc,xbox one and ps4 for 29.99,now the developers of mortal shell were,very upfront and that they took a lot of,inspiration for this game from dark,souls and you can certainly see it the,heaviness of the attacks,the overall gothic look of the armor the,enemies that clamber towards you,the just overall world design where,regardless of what direction you look in,you have that feeling like youre going,to get lost and try to find your way and,then inevitably,end up falling down a hole and dying and,i do think they did a good job,in terms of comparing it to dark souls i,would go as far as to describe this as,like dark souls junior,it isnt quite as big as dark souls it,doesnt have as much depth as dark souls,but in terms of,capturing the feeling that comes along,with a souls like i think they do an,excellent job overall,now when im calling it dark souls,junior the main reason im suggesting,that is because the length of this game,whereas a typical souls like youre,going to get 30 to 40 hours of,mortal shell is significantly shorter,with a single playthrough coming in,anywhere from 10 to 15 hours,i wrapped up my first playthrough of the,game right around 10 and a half hours in,and then spent an additional hour,to go through and find uh hidden,treasures and secrets and whatnot,but it is a rather short experience in,comparison to a typical souls like,despite that i think they did a good job,here um despite it being a smaller,experience the game is polished for what,it is,uh the gameplay is smooth the graphics,look good and there were no major,hiccups in my experience with the game,now to start i want to talk about the,gameplay because while the game does,have a lot of your standard souls like,things with the light attacks heavy,attacks dodging parrying,there are a couple of new mechanics that,very much put a unique spin on the,formula thanks to mortal shell and the,first,is the resolve mechanic now resolve is,located in the bottom left of the screen,you can see it just above my health bar,with the,shell that im currently using you can,see that i have four little bars,and as i begin to attack targets youll,notice those bars are filling up,if you stay out of combat for an,elongated period of time they will,slowly stick down,as you can see now they are going on,down however if i do enough damage to,get one completely filled up i will not,lose that,now you can do quite a few things with,the resolve you can get off,unique parries which will allow you to,do things such as sucking health out of,enemies,theres a couple other ones you can do,things like an explosion or an astral,projection,but ill let you discover all that stuff,on your own in addition if you parry an,enemy and dont have any resolve youll,instantly gain one bar,and this is the primary method of,healing in this game,we dont have access to anything like,estus in this game we have a couple,consumables that we can buy for,merchants and find throughout the world,but there is no constant healing,mechanic so its a lot more reminiscent,of,something like say bloodborne or demon,souls where you know youre not going to,be able to just find estus that you can,use on command instead youre going to,have to either,buy your heels or farm them off enemies,and the main source,of healing that will be coming in will,be your resolve,aside from using the resolve for the,unique repasts you can also do,some interesting weapon specials with,them the weapon specials cost two bars,of resolve you can do one by pressing,both bumpers and one by pressing both,triggers and the upgrades to allow these,are found throughout the world,this is one of the most basic weapons,the hollowed sword and this one in,particular we have,a spike that comes on out of it and then,we have an upgraded attack which is a,molten spike,which in addition to doing damage we can,also,use the molten spike to stab them and,light them on fire at the same time,so a bunch of damage and then some ticks,from that fire dealing 50 damage per,second,pretty awesome beyond that we also have,the hardening mechanic now mortal shell,does not have blocking whatsoever,but we do have access to something,called hardening what happens is anytime,we go ahead and we press the left,trigger and hold it down it would become,hardened,and well stay in this state all the way,up until we take an attack from an enemy,and very early on in my experience i was,using this very defensively i,essentially used this as,a on-demand block and what i found,myself doing is as i played the game,more and more,i would use it offensively like what you,saw there id essentially just go in as,hard as i could with my combo,and when i saw an attack coming i would,just harden to take the attack and,continue my combo string,and i do find this to be pretty,interesting because you can do this with,lots of things you can harden mid-jump,attack and wait for an attack to hit,and then come down with your sword and,it opens up some interesting,possibilities and really rewards the,player,for aggression in their play style now,also unlike dark souls where you would,typically,create a character and level it on up,mortal shell is a little bit more,predefined you have four different,shells to choose from,each of them having predefined stats as,well as some unique abilities,the first up we have is harrows and this,is very much going to be a balance shell,even looking at the stats as you can see,across the board,our health stamina and resolve are all,pretty much equal right down the middle,a lot of his abilities are going to,revolve around things that will boost up,the hardening mechanic and allowing you,to gain health on glimpses extra,glimpses,so just kind of things that are good to,have in general for a playstyle that is,new to the game,very much a focus around the base,mechanics moving on from there we have,solomon the scholar and solomon is uh,almost more of a caster he doesnt,necessarily have spells but we have a,massive resolve bar,compared to all the other shells,relatively balanced stamina and a little,bit higher durability than normal,and a lot of solomon skills are going to,focus around things like utility,allowing you to become more familiar,with items when you use them,uh you know increasing how long enemies,remain hardened if you get separated so,you can get to your shell a little bit,easier,stuff like this where we have a chance,to heal if we kill somebody with one of,our weapons special abilities so a lot,of really neat utility in this character,and if youre a fan of doing those,empowered ripostes or using your weapon,abilities hes an excellent choice,moving on from him we have my personal,favorite eridum the venerable now,aerodyn is very much the tank of the,game with a massive durability pool but,relatively limited stamina and,limited resolve in fact he only has,three resolved bars and a stamina bar,that is so small its actually difficult,to use some of the heavier weapons,but he helps supplement this with a,couple things such as,his uh execution thing that we have,right here uh one of the ways that this,works is every time aerodyn will kill an,enemy unit he builds up a stack these,stacks will maintain as long as you,havent been separated from eredim,which is this games version of dying,basically and,it allows him to help supplement the,fact that he has lower stamina by just,becoming this non-stop execution machine,and eventually going into bosses and,dealing massive damage and lastly,we have teal the acolyte and teal is,very much your quick boy he is,as you can see not in very heavy armor,whatsoever and