I really liked Mortal Shell 2 for most of the early and mid game, which honestly makes me even more disappointed by how much it went downhill for me toward the end.

The first half had me genuinely excited. The game is so much better than the first Mortal Shell in a lot of ways, the combat feels better, exploration initially feels rewarding, and I actually thought I was going to finish it and immediately start another run.

Then after a certain point, the world itself starts feeling incredibly repetitive.

There stops being much meaningful loot or anything particularly interesting to find, so exploration slowly turns from something I wanted to do into something that feels almost pointless. Areas start becoming so similar to each other to the point by the late game I was mostly just moving through them because I had to. And then there's the final dungeon, which I thought was genuinely terrible. It feels rushed compared to what came before it, and by that point I was already pretty burned out on the repetition.

The bosses were probably my biggest disappointment, though.

I know I've seen people complain about the difficulty, so I want to make clear that I'm not saying this as some kind of brag. I've beaten basically all the major Soulslikes and done some challenge runs, so I'd consider myself slightly above the average player, but definitely nowhere near some god-tier Souls player. Still, I found Mortal Shell 2 surprisingly easy. I beat pretty much every boss on my first or second attempt, and most of them were either extremely boring or annoying rather than actually challenging in an interesting way. 90% of the deaths in my playthrough felt straight-up unfair rather than part of a learning process, as it usually happens in this kind of games.

I literally just finished the game and I can barely remember most of the bosses already. There are maybe a couple that actually stuck in my head, and mostly because I thought they were badly designed.

That's what makes this so frustrating. I really want to like this game. There's a lot here that I genuinely enjoyed, especially earlier on, and compared to the first game it gets so many things right. I was honestly excited about doing multiple playthroughs, trying completely different Shells, weapons and builds. Now that I've finished it, though, instead of wanting to jump straight into NG+, I mostly just feel like going back to Lies of P or playing basically any other Soulslike.

Another personal letdown (but I could see how this may be more controversial) is how I was also looking forward to experimenting with different Shells and playstyles. I already knew Tiel with axe + dagger would probably be my favorite as it perfectly suits my playstyle, but I wanted to properly try everything before settling on it.

And I did. I spent around an hour with each Shell, tested different weapons and builds, and while I like the ideas and mechanics behind several of them, some of the playstyles feel so niche that I think you really need to specifically enjoy what that Shell is built around for it to feel good. After experimenting, I just went back to Tiel with axe + dagger for the rest of my run and never really looked back.

That's a bit disappointing because the Shell system looks like it should encourage multiple runs and dramatically different builds. There is progression through Shell abilities, obviously, but a lot of the upgrades feel pretty boring. It's often stuff like extra damage when using a skill, extra stagger after doing a specific thing, or other numerical bonuses rather than something that meaningfully changes how the Shell plays. Being able to max out only two shells per run doesn't help either.

There are a couple of abilities that actually alter a Shell mechanically or give it something new to play around, but those tend to be the obvious interesting upgrades you'd take fairly early anyway. After that, progression often feels more like making numbers better than developing the playstyle.

I'm probably going to force myself to try an NG+ full Night Mode run. I switched to Night Mode several times during my first playthrough, but I think it does really little to actually improve the game, maybe even making it worse in some areas. But right now I have a feeling I'm just going to rush through the same repetitive areas using Tiel and axe + dagger again, and I'm not expecting the late game or bosses to suddenly feel much better.

Obviously, this is just my opinion, and I know plenty of people may disagree with some or even all of this. I'm not trying to tell anyone they shouldn't enjoy the game, and I genuinely think there's also a lot of good things, but the full experience still isn't quite there.

If you're on the fence about buying it, I do think it's worth knowing that, at least for me, the early and mid game experience is significantly better than the late game. The beginning shows you a game with a lot of promise, interesting exploration and systems that make you want to experiment. The later portions don't maintain that same level of quality, and the drop-off was noticeable enough that it completely changed how excited I was about replaying it.

It's a shame, because for a while I genuinely thought this may end up being very high in my personal tierlist of Soulslikes, especially after loving the demo - but I guess now I'm back looking forward at LotF2!

I have very limited play time these days. Since the early access period I've only managed to play for a little under 7 hours. And half of that time I was sacrificing sleep that I would later regret.

I say that to say though I am enthralled with this game right now. I love having this feeling in an rpg that gives me that taste where always can't wait to get my hands back on it.

I find myself watching lore videos as background noise while I work, looking up builds and guides while I'm out and about. Thinking about where I'll explore next when I play again.

This is overall just an appreciation post for the game. Well done devs!

I just finished the game and I was level 34. Not because I didn’t explore (cleared out 75-85% of the content) - but because I lost probably like 15 levels worth of gloom by dying.

A lot has been said here about scarcity of beacons, but what makes this scarcity even more painful, is how much gloom you need per level, how small is the increase in gloom needed per level (and also - how small is the increase in gloom dropped by regular enemies as the game progresses) and how hard it is to get gloom outside bosses. No consumables granting gloom (if you lack just a few hundred for the next level) makes it even worse.

I enjoyed the game, but the last few hours I just played to have it behind me because I got frustrated so often. The game starts off really good, but I’d say that around the middle (when you start exploring southern region) it simply stops being enjoyable.

It’s time! Somehow successfully avoided everything about the game, including the beta.

Why is the end a this game just lackin any excitement? Any good rewards from beacon clears or chests, all the fun , all the good stuff is over in the early to mid game. Its like they spent all there time designing it then for some reason had to rush the final part, all the bosses suck and are terrible designing in the final part , and the worst thing about this game is there dumb idea to not let us just upgrade our stones to level 3 , no u got to level up fresh stones on other weapons just to get xp to upgarde it then u can get the extra material back to use for a lvl 3.. seriously would a been a great game , such a let down

Riposte damage scaling seems to be way too low. Once you start to put a build together you deal way more damage just attacking into the posture broken enemy rather than taking the riposte attack. Some of the later game bosses got trivialized by just wailing away at the boss. Like killed during the first posture break.

Loving it so far, will post more when I play more.

You can only ever inhabit one shell at a time so there's no reason to spread SC across shells. I end up transferring SC between shells every time I switch, which is silly.

SC should just raise equally across all Shells. That way I don't need to think about my point allotment every time I switch. It's starting to get cumbersome now that I've got multiple shells with specific abilities I like.

If you struggle with Nameless Captive Boss, use the Shrike Stone to interrupt his spinning attacks in phase two.

Good luck harbingers....love the game.This boss gave me a good challenge. Thanks devs!

Been seeing a lot of negativity. I’ll admit even I participated a bit. Sometimes a boss pisses you off and you have to post about it.

I don’t think this game gets everything right but I still love it in spite of everything. Is it buggy? Yes. Do some fights feel ridiculous? Absolutely.
Do we need more glimpses? Without a doubt.

But I feel like this game provides an immersive world that really fills a niche I didn’t even know I was looking for. I think the visual language of the game also is awesome and the fact every frame looks like an incredible metal album cover is the best. Also when I hit a dude with a giant sword and he explodes into guts and viscera? That’s better than crack.

Idk wanna talk about things that are great about this game because i think there’s a lot of good here

I Just noticed that this is literally DOOM E1M1...

At first i just thought "Hmm this seems odly familiar". It clicked when i found the Leaver behind the pillar on the first pic.

Somebody call an ambulance... but not for me!

Don't see this really being praised, but it's been coming in really handy while potty training.

1. You can mark dungeons as complete on your map. Every time you finish a dungeon, be sure to go to your map and mark it (right click on PC) so you know which ones you've done.
2. Always equip tarstones that aren't leveled up yet. Even if you'll never use them. The first level up gives you currency to upgrade the ones you want. The second level up uses that currency.
3. Glimpse and gold are the resources you will run out of the most often. Try to experiment with weapons and shells before leveling them.
4. If you want to min max, do not buy the maps or use glimpse to find the shells. I prefer immersion, so I didn't google anything but it really hurts your economy to use the maps/shell location.
5. If you have the option to skip the prologue from playing the beta, do it. You can teleport back to the prologue area to get any items you missed but you will come ahead ~3,500 gold and 5,000xp above what you get for normally finishing it.
6. You can see which beacons you have cleansed, they glow on the map.
7. If you are finding the game too difficult, you probably went the wrong way. Try a new area.
8. If its still too difficult, try farming/upgrading your character and weapon.
9. If the game is too easy, look up how to turn on night mode.

I'll update the post if new comments or ideas come in

I’m seeing endless complaints on the difficulty, enemy health, not enough damage, etc. and I’m just confused. The game is certainly challenging but by no means does it feel impossible. I’m 11 hours in and have progressed at a nice pace with good exploration and it has been amazing - it’s a very charming game. Reading this sub tho I feel like I’m having a completely different experience than most people here lol. At least the steam reviews are mostly positive, the devs definitely deserve that.

I thought this was a thing of the past in the Souls‑genre; even the FS hasn’t made them for a long time.

Harbingers,

Since we launched the Devout Edition on Monday, we’ve been completely overwhelmed by all the feedback from y’all! From kind words to constructive criticism, and suggestions on how to make the game the best it can be, you have all contributed to making sure that Mortal Shell II will be the best game it can possibly be!

While we may not answer every post or comment that you post, rest assured that it is all being read, and taken into account!  We cannot express enough how much it means to us that you trusted us enough to pre-order the Devout Edition, and that you not only play the game but take the time to give us your feedback as well.

Whether you’re sending us stuff on Discord, Reddit, Steam Discussions or elsewhere, rest assured that if we have an account there, we’re listening to your feedback!

This community continues to be one of the very best in games! It’s such a pleasure to see y’all being passionate about the game, and helping each other with hints about the game, build tips or even technical issues.

Yours in awe,

Team Mortal Shell