Mortal Shell - Soulslike action-RPG

[cruel]

It seems that open beta is available to everyone right now on Epic Games store. So we can all just try it ourselves - I will probably install it later today, we'll see.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[FranticDistortion]

I wish people stopped their pathetic attempts of copying darks souls and went for the Dragon's Dogma style combat.
This shit does not have any weight behind it's weapons and that alone is enough for me to not play it. When I hit enemy with the fucking greatsword he should at least get pushed a few steps backwards.

 

[cruel]

I played the beta for 1h or so. The game is actually better than I thought - combat feels much better when you actually play, compared to watching the videos. Fantastic atmosphere, good sound design, proper difficulty (hard, not cheap). Limited budget shows here and there, but it's expected. Shell mechanic is interesting - you will drop out of the body if killed, but still have one more chance (per life) to go back. If you do it, you are fully healed and can continue playing.

Also - it seems there is a 'harden' mechanic, when you turn to stone for couple of seconds. If you time the skill right (before the enemy attack connects), the subsequent blow will bounce back.


Overall, I will probably switch from 'ignore' on this one and watch it closely. Good video with impressions and some of the mechanics explained:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq-9nGKNQC0

 

[thesheeep]

Seems interesting enough to give it a spin once it is out.
2021, eh?
Well, that's enough time to iron out some kinks.

 

[Infinitron]

Coming August 18th:

 

[cruel]

Pfff timed Epic Games exclusive I see. See you in 2021 then.

 

[Infinitron]

Released: https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/mortal-shell/home

 

[cretin]

Pfff timed Epic Games exclusive I see. See you in 2021 then.

well you know.... it has no DRM, just saying pal, not suggesting anything at all you know...

 

[Villagkouras]

We're off to a GREAT start:

1. After you reach the hub area, there is a space to "crawl" to reach the next level, probably they need the time to load the next area. At the exit, while you are still crawling and able to do nothing else, the screen fades to black for a second and an enemy approaches you. The enemy starts swinging at you while STILL in "crawling" animation and a SECOND fade to black happens, all in 1-2 seconds. You get damage while the controls are not in your hands and another enemy (bigger) comes swinging at you, while arrows fly from another enemy from a ledge above you. You died... I wouldn't mind if I hadn't to suffer this set piece every time that I die. No one saw this in beta?

2. The basic means to heal is to riposte after a successfull parry. First, you need to fill a special meter called Resolve. If resolve meter is full and you successfully parry, the dot that points to the enemy becomes glowing red, like Sekiro when you deplete the enemy's posture. I don't have particular problems with parrying but riposting simply doesn't work. You're supposed to hit R1, but I've managed to riposte 1 or 2 times out of many I've parried. It just doesn't work.

3. Something made me not being able to harden (which is a recharge time equivalent of blocking in this game). I don't know if it's a mechanic or a bug like the parry/riposte, the game never explains why it prevents you for a doing an extremely basic move.

Graphics, atmosphere, sound, everything great, I really like its style, but the game right now isn't playable, especially due to the parry/riposte bug.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

Who cares.

 

[deama]

I've played it for a few hours. I can't quite point my finger, but something about it I don't really like and don't really want to continue playing it much more, I'm not really sure what the problem is, something with the mechanics of the game? I don't remember the game ever showing me how to parry or riposte, so I have no clue how to do that, and healing seems kinda hard.

 

[Villagkouras]

I've played it for a few hours. I can't quite point my finger, but something about it I don't really like and don't really want to continue playing it much more, I'm not really sure what the problem is, something with the mechanics of the game? I don't remember the game ever showing me how to parry or riposte, so I have no clue how to do that, and healing seems kinda hard.

Did you pick up the item at the top of the hub? Without it you can't parry and if you do, a small tutorial pop up gives you some information. You really can't continue without parrying, it's the only unlimited source of healing.

In my previous post I wrote about the game taking the "harden" for me and wondered if it was a bug or a mechanic. It's a bug and happens to a lot of people.

So the main means of healing is bugged and the equivalent of blocking is bugged too.

And, may I remind you, this game had a beta.

 

[filpan]

We're off to a GREAT start:

1. After you reach the hub area, there is a space to "crawl" to reach the next level, probably they need the time to load the next area. At the exit, while you are still crawling and able to do nothing else, the screen fades to black for a second and an enemy approaches you. The enemy starts swinging at you while STILL in "crawling" animation and a SECOND fade to black happens, all in 1-2 seconds. You get damage while the controls are not in your hands and another enemy (bigger) comes swinging at you, while arrows fly from another enemy from a ledge above you. You died... I wouldn't mind if I hadn't to suffer this set piece every time that I die. No one saw this in beta?

2. The basic means to heal is to riposte after a successfull parry. First, you need to fill a special meter called Resolve. If resolve meter is full and you successfully parry, the dot that points to the enemy becomes glowing red, like Sekiro when you deplete the enemy's posture. I don't have particular problems with parrying but riposting simply doesn't work. You're supposed to hit R1, but I've managed to riposte 1 or 2 times out of many I've parried. It just doesn't work.

3. Something made me not being able to harden (which is a recharge time equivalent of blocking in this game). I don't know if it's a mechanic or a bug like the parry/riposte, the game never explains why it prevents you for a doing an extremely basic move.

Graphics, atmosphere, sound, everything great, I really like its style, but the game right now isn't playable, especially due to the parry/riposte bug.

I didnt have any problems that you mentioned. On my side everything works as it should be. Keep a note that you CAN NOT riposte some enemies. It's on wiki.

 

[deama]

I've played it for a few hours. I can't quite point my finger, but something about it I don't really like and don't really want to continue playing it much more, I'm not really sure what the problem is, something with the mechanics of the game? I don't remember the game ever showing me how to parry or riposte, so I have no clue how to do that, and healing seems kinda hard.

Did you pick up the item at the top of the hub? Without it you can't parry and if you do, a small tutorial pop up gives you some information. You really can't continue without parrying, it's the only unlimited source of healing.

In my previous post I wrote about the game taking the "harden" for me and wondered if it was a bug or a mechanic. It's a bug and happens to a lot of people.

So the main means of healing is bugged and the equivalent of blocking is bugged too.

And, may I remind you, this game had a beta.

I haven't had a problem with harden, I didn't pick up any parry thing, but what item at what hub? The first place I started at was a foresty-swampy area, picked up some sort of armored shell, and just ran around not knowing what to do until I found some sort of ruined castle and could finally spend my "tar" and upgrade my shell and weapon, and got a hold of some sort of flamey staff weapon thing.

 

[Villagkouras]

I didnt have any problems that you mentioned. On my side everything works as it should be. Keep a note that you CAN NOT riposte some enemies. It's on wiki.

Most people are fine, but some report these problems, especially people playing on PS4 (I play on PC).

Unfortunately, it's not a matter of enemy, it's a boss that can be parried/riposted because I did it a couple of times. The rest (more than 10 before I quit), while the dot was red and big, it resulted in a regular attack and eventually death because I parried to heal.

 

[Villagkouras]

I haven't had a problem with harden, I didn't pick up any parry thing, but what item at what hub? The first place I started at was a foresty-swampy area, picked up some sort of armored shell, and just ran around not knowing what to do until I found some sort of ruined castle and could finally spend my "tar" and upgrade my shell and weapon, and got a hold of some sort of flamey staff weapon thing.

You found a woman at the base of the castle/tower, right? That's what I'm referring to as a hub. Just take the stairs up...

 

[deama]

I haven't had a problem with harden, I didn't pick up any parry thing, but what item at what hub? The first place I started at was a foresty-swampy area, picked up some sort of armored shell, and just ran around not knowing what to do until I found some sort of ruined castle and could finally spend my "tar" and upgrade my shell and weapon, and got a hold of some sort of flamey staff weapon thing.

You found a woman at the base of the castle/tower, right? That's what I'm referring to as a hub. Just take the stairs up...

I found a woman at the entrance of some sort of castle, and if I take the only stairs up it leads me back to the foresty-swampy area.

 

[Villagkouras]

I found a woman at the entrance of some sort of castle, and if I take the only stairs up it leads me back to the foresty-swampy area.

I don't remember any other stairs, it must be them, inside the tower, that lead to the second floor of the tower. There is an NPC and a vendor. I'll be more spefic tomorrow when I'll get to my PC.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

On one hand, I like the atmosphere/look... and on the other hand, it is so "inspired by Dark Souls" that it looks like an expansion with a UI overhaul.

Like it makes zero attempt to differentiate itself.

 

[deama]

I found a woman at the entrance of some sort of castle, and if I take the only stairs up it leads me back to the foresty-swampy area.

I don't remember any other stairs, it must be them, inside the tower, that lead to the second floor of the tower. There is an NPC and a vendor. I'll be more spefic tomorrow when I'll get to my PC.

I haven't seen a vendor at all yet.
Is this meant to be after or before a boss? Cause I just fought a giant flaming guy with a giant hammer after drinking some sort of holy water?

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

On one hand, I like the atmosphere/look... and on the other hand, it is so "inspired by Dark Souls" that it looks like an expansion with a UI overhaul.

Like it makes zero attempt to differentiate itself.

I wish.
That's a criticism leveled against many souls-likes: derivative, unoriginal, blatant clone/rip-off. If only that were the case! In reality none of them are nearly as good in any of these aspects: level-design and layout, exploration, atmosphere, music/sound, itemisation, char customisation, combat, encouter design or lore - all these supposed "clones" are complete failures in most of those aspects. Once in a while one of them surpasses the original in a single one of them, but fails in all or most others. And this piece of shit here is no exception.

 

[cretin]

On one hand, I like the atmosphere/look... and on the other hand, it is so "inspired by Dark Souls" that it looks like an expansion with a UI overhaul.

Like it makes zero attempt to differentiate itself.

I wish.
That's a criticism leveled against many souls-likes: derivative, unoriginal, blatant clone/rip-off. If only that were the case! In reality none of them are nearly as good in any of these aspects: level-design and layout, exploration, atmosphere, music/sound, itemisation, char customisation, combat, encouter design or lore - all these supposed "clones" are complete failures in most of those aspects. Once in a while one of them surpasses the original in a single one of them, but fails in all or most others. And this piece of shit here is no exception.

you havent even played it

 

[DemonKing]

Didn't like the demo that much but after seeing some reviews I picked it up on PS4 - I can't parry worth a damn but the harden mechanic is interesting. Enjoying it so far.

 

[Harthwain]

On one hand, I like the atmosphere/look... and on the other hand, it is so "inspired by Dark Souls" that it looks like an expansion with a UI overhaul.

Like it makes zero attempt to differentiate itself.

It has the concept of Shells, which is a pretty cool idea. It's a shame the game doesn't expand on that even further by allowing you to pick from a variety of different skills to build each shell as you'd like. It's a missed opportunity, in my opinion, because there was huge potential for this to become much more interesting, unique game mechanic. I guess they didn't have enough time and money to build upon it?

I also like the whole familiarity thing, because it encourages you to actually try items in order to learn what they do.

Other than that it's pretty much Dark Souls. The atmosphere is amazing, even if combat may feel a bit weaker.

 

[Villagkouras]

I found a woman at the entrance of some sort of castle, and if I take the only stairs up it leads me back to the foresty-swampy area.

I don't remember any other stairs, it must be them, inside the tower, that lead to the second floor of the tower. There is an NPC and a vendor. I'll be more spefic tomorrow when I'll get to my PC.

I haven't seen a vendor at all yet.
Is this meant to be after or before a boss? Cause I just fought a giant flaming guy with a giant hammer after drinking some sort of holy water?

I haven't found a boss like this, it's before, at the start of the game after you leave the tutorial. The only boss I found is Grisha which is next to the tower we're talking about. It's after the tutorial boss (in cloudy area), you get to Fallgrim. You see a vision of a tower, just nearby where you find the woman that let's you rest, upgrade etc. Behind you when you're facing her there are stairs, climb them and don't go out, turn right and you'll see some weapons that if you examine them give you visions and in there is the npc. If you look nearby, you'll find the vendor as well.