Well you’re all probably asking me one question by now and it’s a pretty obvious one. How many? How many of these? How many soulslikes or souls-inspired games can I play before I go insane? How many more times can I scream, swear, and rage before I decide to chuck myself out the window? Well, I don’t know exactly how many more souls-likes I can play before I get sick of the genre, because I never get bored of them. I have replayed the Dark Souls trilogy and Bloodborne dozens of times now and for some reason I never get bored of them. I’m always finding new secrets stashed around the world, developing new playstyles, finding new ways to take on every fight, and figuring more about the world. FromSoftware’s work will forever be timeless.
Sadly, FromSoftware will never be releasing another Souls game ever again as they have ditched the series and are currently working on a new IP called Elden Ring. There is little information of Elden Ring at the moment and there hasn’t been any gameplay reveals for the game, but when they do finally reveal some footage for the game hopefully it lives up to expectations and becomes the final product. If you are a person like me who wants to see new ideas added to see the FromSoft formula tackled in new interesting ways then you’ve probably looked up articles or videos talking about these types of games. What games are in stock for Souls fans like myself? Well a lot actually.
Nioh and it’s sequel Nioh 2 developed by Team Ninja takes the aggressive design philosophy of Bloodborne and decides to mix in elements of hack ‘n slash titles like Ninja Gaiden to create a high adrenaline experience. Remnant: From The Ashes by Gunfire Games decides to take ideas from Dark Souls and combine it with the elements of third person shooters to create one of the most intriguing shooters in years. The Surge by Deck13 decides to put Dark Souls into a sci-fi setting while adding in a complex progression system, but it wasn’t until The Surge 2 that these ideas were properly executed. There are even other games part of entirely different genres that take inspiration from FromSoftware. Some gamers even struggle to determine whether these games are truly "soulslike." Metroidvanias or 2D side scrollers like Blasphemous, Death’s Gambit, Salt & Sanctuary, Dead Cells, and my beloved Hollow Knight all take inspiration from Dark Souls. Yet they stand out to be more than just souls-likes.
I have literally just spent more than half a paragraph talking about all the games you can be playing if you miss the satisfaction that Bloodborne or Dark Souls gives you. Some of them I haven’t even played yet. But a new kid has just stepped onto the block to challenge the other souls-likes that stand for them. The newest contender in the souls-like genre is Mortal Shell developed by an indie studio known as Cold Symmetry and published mid last year. It kinda surprises me that Mortal Shell is an indie game, because the amount of quality and polish put into the game makes it feel like a Double-A game. What led to the development of Mortal Shell were the creators thinking there weren’t enough deep emotional experiences in the gaming market. Yeah, there “aren’t” enough emotional experiences in the gaming landscape. Whatever, they were inspired by Dark Souls and saw how successful the series was and wanted to put their take on the formula. The FromSoft formula. They wanted to create their own Dark Souls much like the other developers releasing their own souls-likes. They revealed Mortal Shell during the first few months of 2020 and released it a few months later. Mortal Shell did pretty good. It received above average review scores by critics and some even considered the game to be the most hartsdown soulslike made. It understood what made Dark Souls great and dragged in souls veterans easily. There is even a small minority who claim Mortal Shell is the best souls-like ever made.
Mortal Shell didn’t sell financially well though as it came out the same year as the highly anticipated Nioh 2 and the Demon’s Souls Remake. It’s still a great game though. I bought the game awhile back, but I never really sat down to play it. Recently I decided to take the time and see why quite a few people love the game and I’m glad I did. Mortal Shell is pretty terrific and while it has a few problems I cannot deny the effort put in. Today we’ll be talking about why I liked Mortal Shell and why it deserves your attention. So drink from the chalice and taste what is unbelievably the truth.
Story
The story of Mortal Shell is very vague. Really vague if I have to add. You aren’t given any information from the start on where you are or your state of origin. You are this skinless creature known as the Foundling and you wake up in an ominous realm filled with fog and water as far as the eye can see. An ominous shade named Hadern teaches you the basics of fighting and gifts you a sword before being sent out into the real world. The Foundling is transported to an ominous cave where they crawl out and find themselves in Fallgrim. Almost all of Fallgrim’s inhabitants are dead or were slowly driven insane.
Certain corpses have this weird aura that lures the Foundling towards them, and by interacting with these lifeless bodies the Foundling gains control of them. He is able to possess these dead figures and gain their physical strengths and abilities. He wears these special bodies like a shell if you think about it. The Foundling makes their way towards a ruined tower located at the center of Fallgrim where they encounter a few interesting beings. The first person the Foundling ought to encounter is Sester Genessa, this magical root-like woman who has some idea of where they came from. Genessa can use Tar, a substance the Foundling gets when slaying enemies, and use it to strengthen the shells while also adding insight on who those corpses used to be.
The second person of interest is this giant chained bird-like being residing at the top of the Fallgrim Tower. The chained being tells the Foundling that the beings that once ruled Fallgrim were trying to figure out how to become immortal, but while doing so unleashed waves of monstrous creatures upon the land. The chained being tells the Foundling to locate three temples scattered across Fallgrim. These temples contain the immortal beings that somewhat figured out how to become gods and inside them are Sacred Glands. The Foundling must drink from mysterious chalices located at the end of these temples, defeat the guardians residing over the temples, reveal the immortals of these temples, and extract the Sacred Glands from these immortal beings. They must then bring them back to the chained being who then provides them with more information on the kingdom’s history. So the Foundling does exactly what the unchained giant tells them to do. Explore Fallgrim, find new shells to possess , maybe pick up a sick weapon or two and figure out exactly what the f*ck is going on.
Gameplay
Mortal Shell is not the most complicated souls-like I have played, but it’s simplicity and straightforwardness is what makes the game easy to pick up and get into. If you have ever played a Soulsborne game then you probably already know how Mortal Shell works. If you have never played a Soulsborne then dear god what’s wrong with you? Well if you choose the second answer then let me catch you up on how a Souls game works. The way Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or games following a similar formula work is that they act as if they were action games but they have RPG-like elements screwed into them. The player gains experience from killing enemies and bosses, and they can then use that experience to level up and gain new abilities. The player has a health bar and stamina bar. The health bar is pretty self explanatory. It dictates how long the player will last in the world before they are killed and sent back to the previous checkpoint. The stamina bar dictates how many actions the player can perform. Attacking, dodging, and running all rely on the stamina bar. If the stamina runs out the player has to wait for it to refill before they perform more actions. Another factor to count in is that once you press a button to perform whatever action you want you can’t cancel out. You have to be careful with what actions you do or plan ahead.
Mortal Shell follows all these basic Souls rules, but it does tack on a few interesting ideas. The world design of Mortal Shell is sorta similar to the world design of Dark Souls. I say sorta because the main area of Mortal Shell, Fallgrim, has this circular like structure. The outer areas of Fallgrim can only be accessed by crawling through tunnels and they are the only way to reach each temple. While the player explores the world they may encounter new shells to possess. There are a total of four shells in the game and they act as the different classes for the player to choose from. Each Shell has different stats and capabilities. For example the Acolyte may have a high stamina bar meaning he can attack more times than most of the other shells. The Acolyte can turn invisible when sidestepping meaning he has good recovery time, but the downside is that he has a low health pool and low durability meaning he can only take a few hits before getting knocked out. The Venerable on the other hand has a massive health pool and high defense, meaning he can tank a majority of attacks. He has a low stamina bar, but this is balanced out by the fact that he immediately rolls rather than sidestep
When your health bar does run out you don’t immediately get kicked back to your previous checkpoint. You get kicked out of your Shell and get a second chance to hop back into your Shell and continue fighting. Be wary that when you are in Foundling form you have very little health, so rush back quickly to your Shell before getting one shot. Once you do get your second chance make the most of it, because if you die again you do get sent back to your previous checkpoint. When you die you lose all your Tar, but you can get it all back by backtracking to the area you lost it in. Die again and it’s all gone for good. Tar is what Souls are in Dark Souls. They are the experience points used to level up your Shells capabilities. Unlock other Souls experiences where you level up stats like strength or dexterity, here in Mortal Shell you unlock new abilities. Tar isn’t the only needed resource to level up your Shell. Occasionally enemies will drop Glimpses. Glimpses are what Insight was in Bloodborne. They are extremely rare and the items that do give you Glimpses are extremely rare as well. Stronger abilities require more Glimpses to purchase and unlike Tar you don’t lose Glimpses upon death.
Another mechanic I want to point out is hardening. Hardening can be used to block a single attack. No matter how much damage the attack deals you can be immune to it by hardening. You can also harden while attacking and dodging, and while in a hardened form you regain stamina. This can make some of the later bosses and enemies in the game more trivial since you can bait them into attacking you while in hardened form and then follow up with a series of blows. The four weapons you pick up across your journey are all very unique each having their own properties and attack combos. The Hollow Sword is your basic sword, the Martyr’s Blade is a great sword, there is a molten staff that attacks multiple foes at once while dealing fire damage, and there is quite literally a Hammer & Chisel that slowly inflicts poison damage.
One final mechanic I want to bring up is item familiarity. When you pick up a new consumable you don’t exactly know what it does. By using it you quickly figure out and the more you that item the more familiarity you build with it. By increasing your familiarity with an item you improve its effectiveness. Besides that there really isn’t anything else interesting to say about Mortal Shell. Hopefully with enough practice and personal experience you can stand tall against the monsters that litter Fallgrim.
Thoughts
Mortal Shell is one of the very few souls-likes that thoroughly understands what made Dark Souls and Bloodborne so special. The small team at Cold Symmetry looked carefully at Dark Souls’ roots and found a way to replicate the formula while finding a way to stand out. The game plops you in a bland dark grim swamp at first, but by progressing through the game you encounter some of the more beautiful and detailed environments. There’s this one temple in the game that is made up of obsidian spires that glint under the sunlight that shines above it. The view is just jaw dropping and I’m just impressed how an indie studio can create something like this.
The enemy variety is pretty good as certain combinations can change how the player approaches a fight. The boss fights are really good too. Mortal Shell doesn’t have as many boss fights as Dark Souls, but the developers obviously put a bit of time into them. The attention to detail is top notch when it comes to boss design and their wide set of attacks always keeps the player on their toes. Each of the weapons are very fun to use and I like how the player upgrades them overtime. Certain dungeons will contain items that give your weapons special power moves and animation for each power move feels satisfying. My most favorite part about Mortal Shell is of course the Shells! They can change up how the player plays the game and on different play through you can focus on maxing out each one. My go to Shell is the Venerable which I believe is the Shell most new players will gravitate too. He has a high health pool like I mentioned earlier which is very helpful if you have a tanky playstyle like me.
I really enjoyed the time I had with Mortal Shell, but there are a few problems that I had with the game. The way consumables work is kind of stupid. The item familiarity mechanic was pretty unique, but farming for certain items can be really tedious. Certain items appear in set locations which is good, but once you pick them up you have to wait a certain amount of time for them to reappear. This can be really annoying especially when you're a boss. What also sucks is that Fallgrim Tower has a merchant who can sell you healing items, but you can’t fast travel back to Fallgrim Tower unless you max out one of your shells and unlock a gold mask. Meaning you either have to backtrack all the way back to Fallgrim Tower or keep throwing yourself at the boss unless you perfect the fight. The game starts off very slow as well. Fallgrim is a little hard to navigate since it’s one huge circular area and each section looks the same, but once you start figuring out where to go you should have a streamline experience.
My last complaint is that the game is really short compared to a majority of the souls-likes I’ve played lasting less than ten hours, but this is understandable since the game was made by a small indie studio and this is their first game. Plus it doesn’t overstay its welcome compared to something like Nioh which lasts more than 40 hours and some of it is due to how many difficulty curves there and the moments you have to grind. This is the most streamlined soulslike I've played. No leveling system, not many weapons, and the level design while interconnected isn't confusing. It lacks a complex of features that made Dark Souls a complex game to play, but i's more welcoming to those who want to understand the genre. It’s pretty cheap as well meaning you get quite a bit of bang for your buck. In the end I have to say that I definitely recommend Mortal Shell. May not be one of the best soulslikes out there and it's not the most ambitious. However it’s short, flavorful, and is good if you're having a Dark Souls thirst like me right now. Overall I give Mortal Shell an 8.5/10 for being pretty good.
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