Hello guys hope all of you are safe in these crazy times and doing well.
Now is the perfect time to talk about an underrated game that most souls-like see it as a children’s version of Dark Souls and others alike. It’s Mortal Shell.
Now, this game was my first souls-like game ever yet my friends filled me in on some crucial details both resemblance and difference about the game and compared it with Elden Ring.
I was to write about this game the moment I finished playing it but I had more on the table to focus on, Uni and other games made it difficult.
My Experience of Mortal Shell
So, it all started with the creature who had been sleeping in the damp slightly flooded area in the middle of nowhere and suddenly a spark crackled and then awoke the thing. (The quality may look like garbage but this was how it was on my PS4 I took it from my gameplay🥲). Also the environment itself was not so polished so I think that this is normal looking for a PS4.
I was introduced with the Harden ability of the character. This little bonus was a great addition that made the game a whole lot easier whereas in Elden Ring there are class and power types. Each suited to take down their own enemies. I did not know the full potential of the harden ability if not for my friend. When I was playing this game, I was on discord with them so my mic on stream wasn’t available. They were making fun of how noob like play I was giving. They are veteran souls-like players and I am new to genre as a whole. Also, they said that Elden Ring is comprised of all the most difficult bosses from Dark Souls series. He kept obsessing about the nameless king.
First Weapon
The first weapon that I was bestowed with. A very normal sword.
First Fight
The fighting was very difficult at first for me. If you look in the gameplay you can see that I was striking the enemy and taking his hits alongside. The mechanic was new to me and so was the combat. Looking back, I now realise that always wanted to play this sort of game, me versus a boss with loads of npcs in the back as extras but I didn’t didn’t know the name of such games. This was the part where the game taught me how to use harden ability in a fight.
My first boss fight. My friend told me that if you see that the game shows up with a boss right off the bat then it’s probably a souls-like game. This genre tends to teach the players their place in the game. A boss so difficult that you have to die to them in order to continue. Very few players who played other souls-like can anticipate and beat the boss. I obviously couldn’t beat him as I barely used my harden ability right and died right after. Regardless of anyone beating the boss or not the game progresses as usual where an underwater sea creature gulps down the mc and took him underwater.
Initially the game gives it’s players a shell for the creature to occupy and use in the game. They provide the shells or as I like to call it an empty husk of more well-known people throughout history but they are not indestructible just because they died once, hence the name Mortal shell. The occupier is the mortal one occupying the husk of a dead person.
An interesting way to inhabit a shell wouldn’t you agree? As if invading their mind or transferring himself into their flesh as to be two existences in one body.
Yeah, I died many times. If I were to guess I would say that I probably died about 17-19 times in the first 1 and a half hour. My friends were laughing their minds off on the discord call but I was calm knowing that this was my first time and had to give some time to adjust. My friend told me that these were only the normal enemies, if I were to face the boss I would have to reduce the number of strikes I take from these puny ones to a 1 or 2 hit max. The first thing about losing touch from a shell is when your shell’s health had been reduced to zero and you are ejected from the body. During that state you have your own stamina bar and health bar; health bar being the one with the lowest one in the whole of the game’s shells when compared.
The second time you get ejected from your shell is where the line ends, you die. I saw this a lot of times. Pretty normal for any souls player: to die multiple times. Some players die with the intention of knowing the attack pattern of the boss or the consequences of the actions. However, I was dying to the normal ones🥲. @whoisjohn here is my part of suffering😂. This game does not have any commentary as my friends roasted me good😌.
Latin for “You are dead”, I think…
After rebirth, you get spawned into the last known place that was safe for you. In my part, the f***in start! I didn’t even move an inch from the starting line. I did progress and saw the areas but didn’t reach a conclusive area for an hour.
I reached the fallgrim tower where I met Sister Ganessa in the 1:10:00 mark of me playing the game. Mind you, they didn’t guide me. They were as silent as the hills here.
You can retrieve your souls once you go to the same place you had died and collect it manually. In my case, I lost about 1k souls in the first hour as I didn’t know what to do with them and just went the other way instead of collecting them. My friend advised me to collect them after I had lost that amount of them, every souls player becomes a masochist it seems after constant death and frustration they start to like it🙂. Some Friends
Then after much suffering I explored the area and kept dying and was spawned at the tower of fallgrim.
Farming in such a game is a bad thing to do. You could farm one whole day and still end up with peanuts to show when faced with a boss. There are specific locations where players got to farm the resources from enemies. I however didn’t know that and like an idiot farmed for another hour and upgraded this shell’s ability. One of the ability that was very useless for me… they were silent here as well. They watched as they saw me use my resources on the shell that was a very basic one to begin with! This was in the 2:03:00 mark of the game.
My second upgrade was also made in the basic shell. I was just happy to fill in some upgrades for my shell not knowing that there were more o shells that had better stats.
Look through a gameplay or a video that shows you the ins and outs of a souls like game. It shows how to be good and where to look items for and how to acquire them.
Many people have already suffered trying to look for them and you don’t have to unless you are like me who does not want to tarnish to sweet bliss of ignorance and enjoy the game without any spoilers. For Elden Ring, I would do the same and suffer for an hour straight just to look at the mechanics and understand the way to the game. Although, as it is a relatively new game the walkthrough would take some time to arrive. So, if mortal shell proves to be a difficult game for you try to steer clear of Elden Ring as there is no such ability of hardening like in mortal shell where you get a hit free pass. The fights may last for 10-15 minutes or longer if you are a veteran and know that getting small health reductions yourself and huge damage done overtime is a good thing. New players like me tend to be greedy and don’t pay attention to the sequence is a deadly thing.
The third upgrade came in the 2:58:00 mark. This was a point where I barely progressed in the game and was wasting time on useless stuff.
The actual story required me to go to the other temple and retrieve the gland.
Later, I watched a video on where to find the shells. This made my experience better(done in private). I got to find new things and materials faster, in the first hour after getting the shells I was better in making decisions and didn’t die to the normal enemies(brigand) laid all over the map.
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Completing The Game
After I got the gist of the game I beat the fiery boss in 2 tries.
I beat the ice boss, the first martyr, Tarsus with solomon in my 3rd try.
The last boss was easy.
I did max the weapon and shells that I loved before beating the final boss.
The final boss however tested my patience level.
Thoughts On Elden Ring
The final boss took me a good 40 minute of suffering to complete. My friend said that Elden Ring has bosses that are double of what I faced here and will have no free hit pass with limited health, I do intend on indulging myself there and take in fresh suffering. Maybe I’m turning into a masochist myself😂. Elden Ring’s statistics showed that less than 1% players have broken through a certain boss that retained the rest of the players… I may even make a death compilation myself XD. Therefore, if you cannot pass mortal shell, a mini souls-like Elden Ring would be an Everest to climb. P.s I haven’t played Bloodborne or other dark souls yet. If you can finish Bloodborne you can withstand Elden Ring as my friends said. A disadvantage in my part as I don’t know to what to expect, only that I would suffer more than where I did in Mortal Shell.
(Doesn’t have commentary as I forgot to connect my line with the controller)
The first gameplay of Mortal shell as promised @whoisjohn. The suffering begins from the 19th minute where I met a Grisha. @daltono and @noomer do try this game if possible.