Full Review + Trophy Review and Tips Below
Mortal Shell is worthy entry into the souls-like genre. It has enough new and creative mechanics to stand on its own, even as it heavily borrows from the games that made the genre so popular. You’ll spend around 15 hours exploring the 4 different locations while learning, and yes, dying to the variety of enemies you’ll encounter. If you are a fan of the original Dark Souls, this is a fun and challenging entry that does the genre proud with only a few stumbles along the way.
So like I mentioned, if you played the original Dark Souls, you know what you are getting into with Mortal Shell. You start the game as a specter, which you quickly come to realize has an enormous amount of endurance but only a sliver of health. Although you can play the entire game in this form (there is actually a trophy tied to doing just that), it will be difficult as you are guaranteed to be killed by even the weakest enemy in a single hit. Get poisoned, hit by a single arrow or take a tiny tumble off a small ledge and that is the end of that run.
This is where the first mechanic comes in that is new to the souls-like genre. In the hub world, you can discover 4 different slain warriors that you are able to possess. They become the shell you will use throughout the game, each with their own stats, strengths and weaknesses, as well as their own skill tree. With shells, you are granted flexibility in your play style. For example, if you are having a difficult time with a boss and need some more health/defense you can choose The Tank shell to give you a leg up. Need more endurance, choose The Rogue and dodge to your hearts delight.
The second mechanic that is new is the ability to harden. This is literally turning into stone to absorb a hit. This is a great defensive and an even better offensive maneuver that will add a new strategic element to your play style. If an enemy is about to hit you, harden, take the hit with no damage, the enemy is staggered, and you can attack or put some distance between you and the enemy. You can also go on the offensive by swinging your sword and hardening, you will turn to stone before you finish swinging and when the enemy hits you, you will absorb the hit and finish the swing, damaging the enemy. It really is a great and fun mechanic that I hope we see more of in the future.
The final one is similar to a second chance ability. Whenever you lose all your health, instead of dying, your specter will be knocked out of the shell. In this form, if you are able to get back to your shell to regain all your health and have one more chance to take out the enemy. All three of these mechanics really bring a breath of fresh air to genre and were a lot of fun to use during my playthrough.
Where I feel the game struggles is in the areas you play through. Although atmospheric, I didn’t find them all that interesting nor varied.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Mortal Shell, compared to the 50-100 hour experience that Dark Souls is known for, it was fun to play a much smaller entry in this genre. It has enough new things going for it to make it worth your time, even though the enemies and locations aren’t that inspired.
Trophies
Difficulty: 5/10
Time: 15 Hours
Trophy Guide: Recommended
Trophy List Score: 7/10
Like all souls-like games, the platinum requires more than one playthrough. Although there is only one ending, you will have to play the game a second time in your Specter form to earn the Forever Alone trophy. This is by far the hardest trophy in the game as you will have to beat every boss without taking a single hit. I would also recommend a guide as you will need to find etchings that are only visible after hitting an invisible area on a wall. I don’t know how people find these without a guide.
Earlier I mentioned there is only one ending, that is not entirely true. There is an NPC called Baghead that you can give a Superior Moonshine and Roasted Rat (both easy to find) which triggers an ending where you and him, eat, drink and don’t give a shit about what happens to the world. Don’t worry, you can do that ending, get the credits, load up your game and continue on your trek.
There are a lot of misc. trophies you can work on throughout, like parrying 100 enemies, which you could literally just do with the same enemy 100 times. Play your guitar close to an enemy that is also playing a guitar for another trophy (just don’t get close enough to where they get aggro’d). Kick an enemy off a high area to kill it, or pick 50 mushrooms.
There is one area that changes after you beat the boss, so you lose the ability to find items or etchings, so watch out for that.
So, I mentioned you would have to do 2 runs. There is a way (that as far as I know has not been patched) that does allow you to do everything in one playthrough. If you’re interested, I recommend watching “Optinoob” on YouTube. Link to his platinum walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIp4inuy_ew&t=51s
The games actually has separate save files for the character, trophy, map, etc. So there is a way for you to save your progress on a usb stick. Start a new game +, load in ONLY your map and start the game at the final boss, with all your progress but in the specter form. This means that for your 2nd run, you can bypass the entire game and just have to beat the final boss. Up to you if this is a trick you want to use, but here if you need it.
Happy Trophy Hunting!
Mortal Shell is worthy entry into the souls-like genre. It has enough new and creative mechanics to stand on its own, even as it heavily borrows from the games that made the genre so popular. You’ll spend around 15 hours exploring the 4 different locations while learning, and yes, dying to the variety of enemies you’ll encounter. If you are a fan of the original Dark Souls, this is a fun and challenging entry that does the genre proud with only a few stumbles along the way.
So like I mentioned, if you played the original Dark Souls, you know what you are getting into with Mortal Shell. You start the game as a specter, which you quickly come to realize has an enormous amount of endurance but only a sliver of health. Although you can play the entire game in this form (there is actually a trophy tied to doing just that), it will be difficult as you are guaranteed to be killed by even the weakest enemy in a single hit. Get poisoned, hit by a single arrow or take a tiny tumble off a small ledge and that is the end of that run.
This is where the first mechanic comes in that is new to the souls-like genre. In the hub world, you can discover 4 different slain warriors that you are able to possess. They become the shell you will use throughout the game, each with their own stats, strengths and weaknesses, as well as their own skill tree. With shells, you are granted flexibility in your play style. For example, if you are having a difficult time with a boss and need some more health/defense you can choose The Tank shell to give you a leg up. Need more endurance, choose The Rogue and dodge to your hearts delight.
The second mechanic that is new is the ability to harden. This is literally turning into stone to absorb a hit. This is a great defensive and an even better offensive maneuver that will add a new strategic element to your play style. If an enemy is about to hit you, harden, take the hit with no damage, the enemy is staggered, and you can attack or put some distance between you and the enemy. You can also go on the offensive by swinging your sword and hardening, you will turn to stone before you finish swinging and when the enemy hits you, you will absorb the hit and finish the swing, damaging the enemy. It really is a great and fun mechanic that I hope we see more of in the future.
The final one is similar to a second chance ability. Whenever you lose all your health, instead of dying, your specter will be knocked out of the shell. In this form, if you are able to get back to your shell to regain all your health and have one more chance to take out the enemy. All three of these mechanics really bring a breath of fresh air to genre and were a lot of fun to use during my playthrough.
Where I feel the game struggles is in the areas you play through. Although atmospheric, I didn’t find them all that interesting nor varied.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Mortal Shell, compared to the 50-100 hour experience that Dark Souls is known for, it was fun to play a much smaller entry in this genre. It has enough new things going for it to make it worth your time, even though the enemies and locations aren’t that inspired.
Trophies
Difficulty: 5/10
Time: 15 Hours
Trophy Guide: Recommended
Trophy List Score: 7/10
Like all souls-like games, the platinum requires more than one playthrough. Although there is only one ending, you will have to play the game a second time in your Specter form to earn the Forever Alone trophy. This is by far the hardest trophy in the game as you will have to beat every boss without taking a single hit. I would also recommend a guide as you will need to find etchings that are only visible after hitting an invisible area on a wall. I don’t know how people find these without a guide.
Earlier I mentioned there is only one ending, that is not entirely true. There is an NPC called Baghead that you can give a Superior Moonshine and Roasted Rat (both easy to find) which triggers an ending where you and him, eat, drink and don’t give a shit about what happens to the world. Don’t worry, you can do that ending, get the credits, load up your game and continue on your trek.
There are a lot of misc. trophies you can work on throughout, like parrying 100 enemies, which you could literally just do with the same enemy 100 times. Play your guitar close to an enemy that is also playing a guitar for another trophy (just don’t get close enough to where they get aggro’d). Kick an enemy off a high area to kill it, or pick 50 mushrooms.
There is one area that changes after you beat the boss, so you lose the ability to find items or etchings, so watch out for that.
So, I mentioned you would have to do 2 runs. There is a way (that as far as I know has not been patched) that does allow you to do everything in one playthrough. If you’re interested, I recommend watching “Optinoob” on YouTube. Link to his platinum walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIp4inuy_ew&t=51s
The games actually has separate save files for the character, trophy, map, etc. So there is a way for you to save your progress on a usb stick. Start a new game +, load in ONLY your map and start the game at the final boss, with all your progress but in the specter form. This means that for your 2nd run, you can bypass the entire game and just have to beat the final boss. Up to you if this is a trick you want to use, but here if you need it.
Happy Trophy Hunting!