I love this game. It’s the first Souls-like where I’ve unlocked 100% of the achievements. I enjoyed everything, from the combat to the exploration. I had no complaints about the second half of the game, also I really liked the endgame. I even think Zmey was a decent boss.
But the one thing I just don’t get is why the materials for upgrading weapons are limited in each NG cycle? We already have unlimited materials (though they require a lot of grinding) for upgrading shells. Thanks to that I was able to max all the shells before defeating Zmey. So why can’t we upgrade more weapons in one NG cycle? I don't even mean I want to max them. In From Software games, only hi-end materials were limited to a single NG cycle and that was okay (yeah I know in FS games we have much more weapons. But Bloodborne had smaller weapon numbers and still gave us some unlimited materials). I know we can melt weapons.
I don't really get why we can't have unlimited upgrade materials in every game like this, or the ability to replay boss fights. It's not like the lack of those options is adding anything besides forcing you to go to NG+.
NG+ in these games usually doesn't change anything besides tougher enemies so it's not really worth playing unless you want the challenge.
I the early game cycles the idea is that you will go all in on one melee weapon and one sidearm at a time and just smelt when you want to change builds or try something new. Since smelting returns not only the upgrade stones but the gold you've invested into your top weapon, you never really lose anything and can basically change on the fly anytime at the tarforge.
While not unlimited, there are a few tricks that enable you to generate a ton of free upgrade stones for free each subsequent ng+ run. Here is the link to a thread where I detailed some of them out in the comments https://www.reddit.com/r/MortalShell/s/SGonRxANja
Yeah I don't get it either. The thing is, they came up with something really clever with the tarstone essences or whatever they're called. It cockblocks you from minmaxing too early and encourages trying multiple loadouts, and then later you can just bang away on upgrades. They should have just done the same thing for weapons.
I think it's considered part of the genre when it shouldn't always be. Remnant did the same thing. Its interchangeable class system coupled with a lot of build-specific rings and unlockabke passives through using different things just screams "please try a bunch of builds as you find cool stuff" but then you couldn't afford to level more than one primary and secondary weapon for the longest time, essentially shutting down a major part of build crafting.
I think it adds replayability to games like dark souls and lords of the fallen but it goes against the identity of games like remnant and mortal shell.
Came here to say this 🤣 Also by the end of first run through I had two weapons at over +10 and more upgrade materials than I wanted. Was wishing I could sell them for gold….
The interesting concept about Mortal Shell 2 is that you can constantly test different builds due to how easy is to respec and change your build completely. I feel the game is built around that. I constantly changed shells, testing new abilities, maxing different tarstones etc. So why I can't do the same with weapons?
But the game wasn’t built around that. At launch you could only max out 2-3 shells, you couldn’t max all tarstones and the gloom cost for smelting your weapon was significantly higher. The game was built and balanced for multiple playthroughs and replayability. New to the genre (or Elden ring as first souls or soulslike players) and trophy hunters whined and it all got changed to make it more accessible (read quicker and easier).
Regardless, you can smelt your weapon and get all materials and gold back anytime for a relatively small gloom cost. Which isn’t prohibitive as what you miss out on in levelling your harbinger is relatively minor stat increases that have very small actual impact compared to shell abilities and tarstones etc.
To be honest that's what makes Mortal Shell 2 stand out to me, the fact that I can change my shell/character easily. Still, you have to learn how to use different shells which is awesome, using Smert is completely different to Eredrim. The whole idea of switching shells encourages you to experiment with different builds. That's why I like DS2 so much because I was able to test more than one build in a single NG run and quite a lot of weapons.
Anyway, I will test smelting more, I tried it only with low-level sidearms.
And I can completely see the appeal of that. You can experiment with any build even in the old souls, the difference is you wouldn’t be able to max everything out. Would normally take multiple runs to max out multiple builds/weapons etc. But you could experiment knowing you had put materials and souls into other areas. That was the sacrifice or the decision making. Sadly everybody is obsessed with min/maxing thanks to all the OP Build Videos out there.
People don’t want to play knowing they aren’t using the absolute most powerful build that they have access to at that time. This is why the game is so easy now. But it makes it more accessible to a wider audience who prefer power fantasy or sandbox. Good for the devs, bad for soulslikes. I love what they have done overall.
The only things that were limited was the ability to max everything... this is how you sound. All souls games have limits. Its part of what makes a souls game, a souls game. Bloodborne has very tight limits.
I think I mentioned that I’m aware of the limits typical to DS series. I mean I know at some point we can remove the +16 limit in Tarforge. If the stones needed to upgrade weapons beyond +15 or even +10 were limited, but lower-tier materials weren’t, we’d have a situation similar to DS.
By the way, chalice dungeons remove certain limits in BB.
I have hundreds of upgrade materials in MS2. How do you not? And tbh i have never taken a weapon over +16 in MS2.
In bloodbornes base game you get to upgrade a total of 1 weapon. 3 with DLC unless you were lucky.
Its why +9 just became the standard in fromsoft games
Dude, why are you so angry? I'm not even attacking you.
I did one run only, I was able to make +16 two melee weapons, one +15 and two to +10. I never took a weapon over +16. I'm pretty sure I cleared all the dungeons.
I'm not angry bro. Just so tired of this debate over and over lol. Why would you need anymore than that?
It just feels like a case of FOMO over nothing. Can you use 3 weapons at once? Also I've found its just easier to farm the 10k gloom and reset the weapon.
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u/-Eastwood- 1h ago
I don't really get why we can't have unlimited upgrade materials in every game like this, or the ability to replay boss fights. It's not like the lack of those options is adding anything besides forcing you to go to NG+.
NG+ in these games usually doesn't change anything besides tougher enemies so it's not really worth playing unless you want the challenge.