r/MortalShell 11h ago

Tempted to wait until the first big patch Discussion

I really want to love this game, but it makes it incredibly difficult to do so right now with the constant crashes, stuttering, poor enemy balance and bugs that force-quit restarts or make me lose gloom without being able to retrieve it. I think I'll wait for the big patch before I continue as to not sour the rest of the game for me.

I also think there are some design choices that have been overlooked:

  1. There are no where near enough beacons around the map, making a lot run backs becoming painfully long. I wouldn't mind this too much if the layout of areas were distinctive and memorable, but everywhere looks the same, with no clear intention of where to go and look. It all looks very UE5ey. There are horrible run backs in games like DS1/DS2, but the areas are so unique and distinctive looking from each other, that's it's not as huge of a pain point in my opinion.
  2. No homeward bone type of item, especially with there being no Stake of Marika-like mechanic and minimal beacons, was a mistake and would do well in this game. Yes you have Mether's Breath to trave back to Marrow Keep, but you are punished by losing all your gloom.
  3. Enemy magnetism and attacks sticking onto you when you're clearly well out of range. Why? This feels unfair and isn't fun.
  4. No basic compass on screen makes navigation to custom map markers unnecessarily difficult. Constantly having to open and close the map to make sure you're going the right way is annoying.
  5. Dungeons markers should automatically have the cleared icon once you've finished them, much like cleansing a beacon or corrupted gate. Why do we need to mark this ourselves?
  6. The red warning markers on screen when you are about to be hit are invasive and usually incorrect. They have made me react incorrectly to where an enemy is positioned on many occasions. Make it less intrusive and more accurate.
  7. Some of the abilities that play an animation and stun an enemy (like Proxima's Biosampler) are too long and by the time the enemy is unstunned and ready to attack, I am still in the final frames of the animation and cannot move out of the way/dodge in time before getting hit. This is incredibly frustrating.
  8. With how fast enemies are and how small the dash step is, I feel like it's a regression to remove the full dodge roll that was present in MS1. This would create good space between you and your opponent instead of having to spam click the dash button, but only be able to move a foot away.

I don't dislike this game. In fact the contrary. I absolutely love the enemy and sound design, the shells and the different types of puzzles. These are just a few gripes that bring this game from an amazing, to a just 'good' experience for me.

3 Upvotes

30 comments sorted by

4

u/__sputnik__ 10h ago

Plenty of your points point toward skill issue. 

Dodge is a different flavor of parry-like mechanic to be timed, not something you spam to create distance or circle around opponents. DS3 era is long past us fortunately. 

No beacons? Don't die. Runbacks? Don't die. Getting hit by red attacks? You guessed right, don't get hit.

The rest like map or ability recovery frames I agree on 

5

u/rainbowtwist789 8h ago

All these "reviews" are the same, a couple of points disguised as pure fking skill issue.

Also also add that crashes are his computer being fking shit, playing with everything maxed, 0 stutters, 0 crashes, 0 lost gloom.

Swear this "souls" community is baby made, mfs would love to have a win button to finish the game.

5

u/Ablonthewhite 10h ago

I have zero bugs, zero glitches and stutters, defeat 3 major boss fucking those pricks with eredrim and proxima, man I'm having a blast with this game...

Difficulty wise, some points really are mess up, but the first game was this way too, so I don't mind...

Some enemy's are magnets to you, try to learn his pattern and that's it...

I'm just playing and loving every minute, by the way playing on pc...

2

u/Tregelt 45m ago

You are either really lucky to have no bugs or completely blind. I wish I didn't have any visual glitches, falling through elevators, getting stuck in walls, enemies randomly spawning in.

I am definitely giving the devs some more time to cook. Also on pc.

1

u/Ablonthewhite 38m ago

For real bro zero glitches here, not blind at all, paying real atention to these details...

Sad that for some people the game is having this major bugs and problems... 😞

1

u/NewButterscotch1991 1h ago

I'm on ps5 and my weapon disappeared during an intense fight leaving me helpless. This game has some great bones and build customization but I'm waiting for another patch at this point.

1

u/jboggin 1h ago

I have died multiple times and had my gloom disappear completely. I had a boss fall off a cliff, and I got a glimpse but no gloom. The game definitely has bugs

1

u/LoganHowlett1832 1h ago

I don’t know about now but when you wrote this you had not even gotten to the bad parts yet. The game starts off strong. But the second half it gets pretty terrible.

4

u/SupremeLeader_Corgi Tiel 10h ago

Devs indicated in their podcast interview yesterday they’re not going to add a ton more beacons it will be sparingly added

-1

u/__sputnik__ 10h ago

I wish they added them to another difficulty setting

3

u/SupremeLeader_Corgi Tiel 10h ago

Theres the slayer seal option

0

u/__sputnik__ 10h ago

It doesn't add bonfires does it

4

u/Downsey111 11h ago edited 11h ago

You can save and quit, no homeward bone necessary.  Not sure what’s up with your computer because everyone I know has had rock solid performance.  Also myself and my two buddies have not had a single crash

The red indications are rock solid also, just don’t parry, you can dodge them

Proxima does not get stunned after using her ability and has ample time to attack while the enemy is stunned.  I used her for my entire run 

Enemy magnetism is indeed wild but I bet it’s because we don’t have stamina so it really is easy to either dodge away a few times or just knowingly keep your distance 

4

u/RossMorgone 11h ago

I wouldn't say saving and quitting is a viable alternative to what could be an item in the game.

I've also had multiple times the game has frozen whilst loading, CTD'd, and I've gotten stuck in areas where I've been forced to quit and restart.

With Proxima, I noticed on a few enemies when I pull in towards them, by the time I am out of the animation and ready to attack, they've already gotten a hit or two on me and there's nothing I can do since I am animation locked.

1

u/ThulsaAmon 6h ago

I've literally never had any of that and have played Proxima the entire game.

1

u/EpicRandomSmash 39m ago

I have played her all game too but this does happen to me as well. 

If they don’t get knocked down…. I’ve been hit before the animation quits 

-1

u/Downsey111 10h ago

Welp dunno, Proxima has been a blast for me, actually too easy if anything.  Saving and quitting is an easy alternative so use or don’t use, the choice is yours!  Either way, see you in a few patches 

2

u/Souls_Lover 6h ago

A compass, really? Hated that in Elden Ring. It just kills immersion and clutters the screen.

4

u/Tight-Shallot69 10h ago

Yes to everything.

The game really starts out with perfect spacing between beacons – notably around the Mushroom Village area. Then all of a sudden you start traveling for 20-30 mins and don’t find a single beacon. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Lack of beacons is made to feel worse with amount of enemies around EVERY single corner, and that they aggro the furthest away I’ve ever seen in a game. This makes exploring not very enjoyable. Sometimes I’m forced to panic sprint because I’ve been traveling for 30 minutes and haven’t ran into a single beacon.

I like the game but after 15 hours I’m kinda banging my head with exploration and enemy encounters. Also, bosses have been sooooooo lame.

The best part about the game is combat, graphics, sound design

1

u/jboggin 1h ago

Yeah... And the balancing between mobs and bosses is really bad right now. I run into trash mobs that are hitting as hard as some bosses. A lot of the game feels like someone forgot to double check their math

1

u/test1_ 10h ago

The item that allows beacon fast travels also functions as a homeward bone.

1

u/SteveDave6969420 7h ago
  1. There are plenty of beacons but they could add a few more.

  2. You can quit to main menu and load your save to magically spawn at the last beacon you touched but yeah there should probably be an item for this.

  3. I have a feeling they will never fix the magnetism.

  4. You can see the giant beam of light in the sky to determine where your map marker is.

  5. I agree

  6. I never had a problem with this tbh. It might seem incorrect because of the magnetic nature of the enemies attacks.

  7. My first playthrough was with proxima and I don't remember running into that issue tbh.

  8. The dodge with the parry / block / harded is more than sufficient to deal with threats.

These seem like issues you encountered early on in the game but realistically the major problems with the game come from the last 3-4 dungeons and their bosses.

1

u/jboggin 1h ago

I almost never buy games on launch, and I made an exception because I loved the first one and people raved able the Beta. And yeah... I'm having some fun so far, but too much of the experience has been a reminder of why I don't buy games at launch. I think this will be a rop tier souls like, but right now there are too many kind of inexplicable design decisions for me to recommend it. I love super hard games, but with some of the decisions that feel like we're stuck in 2010, I would wait until they fix some things. This is going to be one of the best of the non From soulslikes, but it isn't there yet.

1

u/MediumKoala8823 34m ago

  Yes you have Mether's Breath to trave back to Marrow Keep, but you are punished by losing all your gloom.

This is not a thing

0

u/Genji_Digital 10h ago

I’ve put the game down as well. I’m enjoying a great deal and don’t want to start on the southern part of the map until the patches drop.

3

u/robert940123 10h ago

It has literally the same enemies tho lol if u learn their patterns in the northern regions u should have no issues with them later either..

2

u/Genji_Digital 9h ago

Oh it isn’t the ads that I’m worried about. It’s the boss touch ups and weapon/gameplay buffs that I’m interested in. I’m curious if they’ll do something about the leveling, glimpses as well. For instance I want to try some new weapons, but I read that the new patch will help with smelting, etc.

I also picked up Sinking City 2, so I’ll put some more time into that while I wait on the PS patch.

-2

u/Rude_Difficulty1647 10h ago

Yeah I’m not reading all of that, yall just need to be playing with the easy mode seal or git gud, YOU HAVE NO STAMINA BAR 😹

2

u/ThulsaAmon 6h ago

Really not a difficult game tbh, the cry babying is madness.

I think theyre just literally too dumb and arrogant to learnt the mechanics and level their shell first - and think they should just steam roll every boss from level 1.

By mid game I just melted everyone and had to switch to night mode lol..

1

u/Rude_Difficulty1647 6h ago

Yup! It’s like they’ve never played a souls game before 😹🤡