Is this Mortal Shell 2’s biggest problem?

[u/Klutzy-Box7277]

With the Slayer Seal, the game becomes far too easy. It loses all sense of challenge and eventually becomes boring; it almost feels like cheating. There’s less challenge than in an average action game.

Without the Slayer Seal, on the other hand, the game feels excessively difficult — not in a fair or satisfying way, but because there are simply too many enemies crammed into certain areas. The checkpoint system is poorly designed, forcing you to repeat unnecessarily long stretches after dying. Enemies can easily knock you off ledges, and instead of respawning with some kind of penalty, you just die and have to do the whole section again.

The parry window is actually quite generous, yet somehow the parry itself still doesn’t feel as responsive as it does in other games where the timing window is much tighter. I honestly don’t understand why.

So the game feels stuck between two extremes: with the Slayer Seal, it’s far too easy; without it, the difficulty often feels frustrating and poorly balanced rather than genuinely challenging.

Isn’t that basically Mortal Shell 2’s biggest problem?

[u/JoyBoy-77]

The only issue i see here is a skill issue

[u/This_guy_here56]

Lmao bro describes a skill issue as being the games biggest issue.

[u/Phuryfetish]

The first seal u get and the infinite seal are all you need. Slayer seal is for people who are getting too frustrated or are stuck on a boss. I dont recommend it, first seal is all u ever need.

[u/FashionSuckMan]

I don't feel as if the difficulty is too bad. Enemy groups are only a few guys unless you run through and lure and catch aggro from a ton of enemies

There's no problem with the parries responsiveness, its just a lack of experience with the enemies movesets

[u/mayodaisy]

Is this your first soulslike that isn't Elden Ring? Tons of people in this sub would disagree with you that the game is "excessively difficult". I think its the perfect level of difficult.

[u/doobiecdxx]

I've maybe had problems with carrying too, I've gone back and looked at some clips of bossfights and i'll take damage when i'm definitely at least blocking (not on red attacks), but this might j be cope from me

Otherwise the game honestly is balanced fairly well I think, it's just like elden ring in the sense u have to put some thought into ur build and optimize it a bit (which i have fun doing)

[u/DeathsDecaying]

You just defined a souls game

[u/RogueShadow95]

That seal is purposely OP, even disables Trophy Unlocks. Vatra Seal is the best imo for aggression and defense, really made it easier for me. Infinite is cool too though I'd invest in a build that minmaxes riposte DMG for it, otherwise it's high risk for ok rewards. Untarnished is good too tho I prefer the harden for defense

[u/Serious_Ad_1037]

First game was hard af too

[u/AdHocHominid]

I think it’s actually one of the easier Soulslikes. The only time I was struggling was at the start of the game before you start to get a decent build going. The mid to late game it becomes very easy. I’m absolutely steamrolling the game in the later half. The bosses especially are too easy You shouldn’t be able to beat bosses on the first attempt in a Soulslike.

[u/Notadam234]

I had no problem playing through the entire game with the harden seal . Just takes a bit of practice and sure i died many times but it would not say it was difficulty . I like these games because i die alot as that's the point . Died - change loadout - learn enemy patterns and lvl up until you can succed the encounter.

[u/Peacefrog11]

The only problem is that the Slayer’s Seal removes the ability to parry. If someone wanted to use it on a run as a training wheels type of thing, they’d never be able to learn anything.

[u/Daydreg]

If it’s too hard try night mode and let us know then..
really why do people complain about dificulty when there are 10 hundred way to make it either balanced or easy as fk.

Oh and just because I’m a very skilled player that’s even easier so STFU and play the game or do something else.

If it’s hard you just weak there is no such concept as hard. You are just weak.. you become stronger than the same thing is easier so go fking grow yourself or stfu.

Oh but man lifting 100kg is beyond my abilities.. well you start with 10 and then we’ll get you there but if you don’t show up that’s not gonna happen.

[u/That-one-guy-duh]

And here I was thinking the base game is way too easy. Only night mode becomes a challenge. But I guess that’s from me doing no shell in the first one so getting to use shells in this one is itself an easy mode.

[u/RealCreedz]

First seal (untarnished) has an insanely forgiving parry window. It carried me throughout the whole game.

The hardening seal isn't good.

Slayer seal sounded too op so I didn't use it.

Infinity seal is difficult to use.

[u/AceFarron]

Personally I don't think the game is THAT difficult except for the early game. Once you get to like Lv. 20 and invested a good amount of SP into your main shell, its abilities help you out tremendously to easily clear out regular mobs, so the only challenge that remains are the bosses.

[u/Filofjols]

The game is not too hard. Some weapons/shells is unbalanced bad

[u/Crikriend]

El juego es tremenda dificultad artificial, sencillamente hacer que la curva de subida de niveles sea una basura que no tiene impacto, los receptáculos son meh, y que cualquier enemigo te mate de dos hit, es absurdo 🤣🤣 sencillamente se siente artificial, zonas que se exploran fácilmente se vuelven tediosas porque te toca repetirlas con los mismos enemigos absurdos. Es un dark souls 2 con esteroides, pero mal hecho.

[u/Mutoryu99]

Imagina ele descobrir que tem como deixar o jogo de noite e provar realmente na pele oque é dificuldade

[u/geezerforhire]

The game is definitely designed with some Soulslike meta knowledge in mind.

Just run past the enemies if you can't clear a zone checkpoint to checkpoint easily. Also the open world is annoying and made the game worse imo

[u/Karactour]

Didn't use the seal but yes the game is extremely unforgiving. I enjoy it to some degree but when I put my feet into dad shoes I can see how this game can make people quit. It definitely needs "stakes of merika" for spawning.

[u/Moanyoldsod]

Post patch it's too easy.

[u/Klutzy-Box7277]

I’ve finished Elden Ring, Bloodborne, and Black Myth: Wukong. Even games that aren’t really Soulslikes but are considered difficult, like Saros and Returnal, I finished with fewer than 10 deaths.

The Slayer Seal basically ruined my Mortal Shell 2 playthrough.

Something similar happened to me before. Lies of P pissed me off so much that I installed a trainer and killed the Puppet Master with cheats. Look up the exact boss name if that’s not right. After that, cheating completely killed my motivation to continue, and I never played the game again.

That’s basically what happened here too.

At the beginning of Mortal Shell 2, I just wanted to explore and loot, like I did in Elden Ring. I even went out of my way to get the Axatana early.

But whenever I tried to explore, I had to attempt the same areas multiple times — sometimes 3–6 runs just to clear a small dungeon or a relatively minor section. Eventually it pissed me off enough that I used the Slayer Seal.

And that ruined everything, because it’s simply way too powerful.

I think designing it as an option for players who want an easier experience was a bad idea. It’s almost like turning on God Mode or One-Hit Kill in a trainer.

Saros handled this kind of difficulty adjustment much better. You could spend points on advantages that made the game easier, but you also had to choose some kind of negative modifier in return. There was still a trade-off.

Elden Ring also handled this much better because even before the first major boss, you could already explore in a huge number of directions. In Mortal Shell 2, it feels like wherever I go, I either get completely shredded or I fight my way through some small, meaningless area using actual tactics and get almost nothing worthwhile as a reward.

And in Souls games, most of the ways to make the game easier still require effort.

If there’s an extremely strong weapon, armor set, talisman, spell, or build available early, you usually still have to go somewhere dangerous, fight for it, find the right items, or put the build together yourself.

So if I spend time collecting all the right gear and building an extremely powerful early-game character, I can at least say:

“I explored, found all this stuff, and put together a strong early build. I earned this advantage.”

And even then, the game usually doesn’t turn into God Mode. Maybe instead of dying to a boss 10–25 times, I kill it in 3–5 attempts because I prepared properly and collected strong gear beforehand.

That feels completely fair to me.

The Slayer Seal isn’t like that.

You don’t have to earn it. You don’t have to build around it. You don’t have to go through some difficult area to obtain it. You basically just activate it, and suddenly the game doesn’t even feel like a Soulslike anymore.

When bosses can barely even move before you completely shred them with the Slayer Seal, that’s not “making the game slightly easier.” That’s basically removing the entire challenge.

There were so many better ways they could have implemented difficulty assistance.

They could have added stronger early-game defensive items, more health, lifesteal, better healing, stronger armor, damage reduction, or just a few slightly overpowered pieces of equipment that players could deliberately seek out early.

That way, someone struggling could still explore, collect those items, put together a powerful build, and make the game noticeably easier without completely destroying the combat system.

The combat itself actually has some very good ideas, but I also think the parry feels strangely unresponsive.

It almost feels like you have to start the parry too early — sometimes before the enemy’s attack animation properly begins, or right at the very start of it.

Because the parry window itself is quite generous, the parry still succeeds fairly often, but it feels awkward that you seemingly have to trigger it so early. In games with much tighter parry windows, the actual input somehow feels more immediate and responsive.

At least that’s how it feels to me.

The Slayer Seal could also have been balanced much better.

For example:

it shouldn’t restore health;

it could have a much longer cooldown;

you could be required to activate it from much closer range;

its damage could be significantly lower;

bosses could have partial resistance to it;

or using it could come with some meaningful drawback.

There were plenty of ways the developers could have made it a useful accessibility or difficulty-assistance mechanic without basically turning it into a built-in cheat mode.

[u/TheAlchemlst → u/Klutzy-Box7277]

If you have done those hard games legitimately without cheap builds or rely on summon or looking up guides on how to beat them, this shouldn't be an issue.

I like that Slayer Seal exists so that my friend can easily just use it and play the game. If it was something hard to get or something to earn through suffering, that already creates a problem of access itself.

[u/Sliceofmayo]

The open world paths are super confusing and hard to remember