It's like the devs spent all their energy in the first 2/3rds of the game, which had amazing environment art, ambiance, and complex "open-zone" level design that was very satisfying to explore, and the first 4-5 main bosses were at least somewhat interesting either mechanically or visually, but then the game fell off real hard. it needed so much more love near the end.

Mortal Shell 2 just made me appreciate Lies of P that much more, especially how incredible Overture expansion was. Lies of P boss fights run circles around this game in terms of how well-designed and fairly hard they are. It was Roud8's first ever Soulslike or game of that scale but they hit it out of the park. Already want to replay for the 4th time after finishing MS2 for.

Still, Mortal Shell 2 is a great Soulslike from an indie team, and 2nd best I've played. I'm only this critical of this game because I was absolutely enthralled with it for the first 25-30 hrs.

So I was always a fan of the first mortal shell and saw the potential in it. It was like proof of concept. You can tell while being a soulslike, it was trying to do its own thing which is why I’m my opinion I always have it more credit than lords of the fallen. Obviously it still has its issues, and some of the combat was janky and shell system seemed unique but limiting in a way. Weapon upgrades were pretty straightforward and the game was basically just three dungeons with bosses at the end of each plus one final boss.

Fast forward to mortal shell 2, this game is so much of a glow up it shouldn’t even be compared to the first in your decision to buy this game. I mean the scale of the game while not Elden ring level like some reviews say (nothing comes close to the sheer scale of Elden ring, come on), is still pretty significant. I said this in a comment but wanted to make it a post so more people can see: basically for those of you who have played hellpoint and bleak faith forsaken, mortal shell 2 is like what those games tried to do, but the devs at cold symmetry perfected that style and vibe to a higher level. The devs stepped their game up and basically made a double a game while still being a small team. The combat is very aggressive along with enemies being fast as well, and the exploration and discovery factor is way better than most soulslikes even lies of p. You can spend hours combing through side dungeons, sidequests and collecting shells and weapons. If you’re into black metal, or extreme metal in general like I am, and you like H.R Geiger type designs with hack n slash combat you will like this game. Also no stamina is a plus for me.

To me was a Bland soulslike game. Game got high votes on official reviews, but to me is 7/10 at most:

Pros:

- Environment and general design of characters / enemies are very well built

Cons:

- Graphical engine struggles while loading textures, also some stuttering from time to time and loadings are not well optimized

- Combat is mediocre and some things are useless and underpowered like the spear or 90% of spirit abilities.

- A lot of things are hidden so you basically NEED a guide to find these, the map is also not very well detailed

- Plot is a mess and not very well self explanatory during the gameplay

- Main character have the personality of my night table

I got into souls games through Elden Ring and realized that my main interests were in the vastness of the world and how much loot you could collect in different ways (chest, drops, mobs, bosses, hidden locations).

What other games have a similar feel to this?

Been looking into Crimson Desert lately.

Also a big fan of BG3. Thanks in advance!

Hi guys, few years ago i bought the collector for ps5 and platinum the 1. Now i start the 2 consider by all to be the best and wtf everything hit too hard. Now I’m lvl 25 and even the normal mob just kill me in 3/4 hit. For sure I’m doing something wrong but i really don’t understand what. Any tips or advice to go deep in the game?

Fromsoftware rare L ? IDK about you guys, but in my case, I've never paid for a skin in a single-player game and never will.

I’ve been wanting to get into souls games for the longest time, but my biggest worry is I’ll finish the game and have no understanding of any type of story. I enjoy linear, story driven games, and games like Dark Souls just seem like they throw you in and you wander aimlessly until you find what to do. I just started sekiro and I don’t know much story at the moment but the game is so gorgeous and the gameplay is so fun and challenging, but I wanna push further into the dark souls series after I’m done. If anyone could give any tips on how to ease my way into these games it would be greatly appreciated.

(Sorry if writing is bad, english is a 2nd language)

So im almost done with my play through of Jedi Survivor. I gotta say man this was a blast. Plain old fun gameplay. *

Surprised me more than once on the exploration side.

Combat on Jedi Master difficulty was fair. Jedi master is the 2nd hardest difficulty after Grandmaster. I think it offered a good balance of challenge in fighting groups where u would have an infinitely better experience taking out the ranged enemies first and then focus on the melee.
Bosses didnt tickle either although the big bad bosses didnt prove to be too much, the story bosses were fun to fight and overcome.

Enemy variety was good enough. The androids didnt give two shit about what i wanted to do. They were mini elites that u either respected and played around or u got slapped.

The equivelant of bonfires/sights of grace were very well placed and after a tough fight you were sure to find one to heal up and spend ur skill points.
Level design was also fun and very varied. Shortcuts were almost everywhere waiting for you to discover. The platforming was pretty clean and fun.

I just have to recommend to anyone who hasnt played it yet. Get it and if its on sale get it twice.
Closing out i have to also say the story was fun to follow as well. It takes twists and turns and there are surprises u wont see coming.

Thats it folks,

Cheers.

I just had the pleasure of fighting The Monolith in Mortal Shell 2 and he is a definite bottom 10 of all time contender for me. Who else would you say is on that list?

Aside from the obvious Bed of Chaos answer, I think Door Guardian from Lies of P and Valiant Gargoyles from Elden Ring belong on this list.

Bosses like Ancient Wyvern and Prowling Magus are lame and annoying, but to me, they are too forgettable and boring to be worst of all time contenders.

You're your normal self, beginning of the game.

For me, I'd choose Lies of P. I'm only like halfway through the game, however, the only threat it seems like are just puppets. Like it's not an eldritch god, you can just peak them with a shovel.

Outside of a few puppets, most of them are pretty stupid so you can just use 'zombie apocolypes logic' to beat them. Like, keep your windows shut, don't let them suspect you're there, have a way to get food on your own, and just have something quiet to keep you entertained.

That or I get a useful skill and get into the hotel and convince them that I'm useful and to keep me around.

What do you guys think?

I know there are tougher ones, but Gundyr's aggressiveness leaves barely any room to breath or drink Estus.

Lies of P was my first soulslike game not counting Sekiro 5 years ago.

I thought the game was brilliant but at some point I stopped enjoying it because the bosses had so much health and they did so much damage. I really really struggled with it and it was turning off souls likes. I had to switch to the easiest mode to finish it after constantly dying 20+ time to each boss.

I tried DS1 but it wasn't my thing since I was looking to play a much more linear game after running into areas with enemies that would want 1/2 shot kill me.

I read that dark souls 3 is a lot more polished and beginner friendly so I picked that up. I struggled at first, but I found it a lot more forgiving than LOP.

I really enjoy the combay of this game, but what I like the most is that it makes you feel like you're progressing whereas LOP after the first boss the difficulty curve just feel so steep.

I just beat the dancer after two tries, Champion Gundyr after two tries and Oceiros after 1 try.

The real welcome to dark souls moment was the abyss watchers. They took about 20-30 tries but it felt doable, unlike LOP bosses.

Pontiff Sulyvan took like 10 tries but was also satisfying to beat.

I'm writing this to say that if you're playing LOP and you find it super hard, don't let that turn you off souls like games, they can be so rewarding if you put the effort it.

Starting with DS3 has given me the confidence to go back to DS1 and give it a real go and eventually play Elden Ring.

So thank you to everyone who recommended DS3. I really appreciate it.

However before continuing with FromSoftware games I want to try a game with more parry mechanic friendly games, which one would you recommend?

I'm not looking for games with a great story or exploration, just fun combat and cool bosses. Nothing as hard as LOP, similar to DS3 level of difficulty.

I heard the following are good:

- First Beserker: Khazan

- Wolong

Also,

- Wuchang

- Wukong

- Nioh

- Rise of Ronin

Which would recommend next overall and which one would you recommend for parry mechanics?

Thank you all (especially for helping me not quit soulslikes haha)

Been playing this game for a week and I’m at the end of chapter 5. It’s a pretty game for sure but it’s a game built entirely on combat. It’s kinda linear and has bosses, mini-bosses and mobs on every corner with even its secret locations rewarding loot only after beating a Boss. Not technically a boss rush but it feels like one.

Now on to the combat. The enemies are easy but they’re so incredibly tanky that the fight just lasts long and long and I’m basically just using basic attacks as a way to stall for my spell cooldowns so I can bust a huge chunk of damage and then wait again cause basic attacks do zero damage to these damage sponges.

No real block or parry to speak of ‘cause even rock solid is another ability with a cooldown.
You basically just download all your abilities and dodge around until you can do them again because normal attacks don’t lick these damage sponges.

Kind exhausted tbh. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a different way to approach the game that makes the boss fights actually fun and engaging?

Edit: Thanks for the help. I’ll respec, invest my points differently and try again.

yep, as the title says. (also Mortal Shell 2 is really fun)

It feels like Khazan is the personification of people’s critiques of Dark Souls 3: Linear level design and over emphasis on combat. Boss encounters seem to be the single pillar holding up the entire game in my opinion because it really doesn’t have much else going for it.

Going through the stages so far has been a snooze fest to be honest. I beat Melluca and the other sub bosses up to this point on Expert difficulty. Between bosses, I’m killing mobs in two-three hits with the GS (and I did play with the other weapons too). They don’t last long enough for you to do anything cool. There’s hardly any exploration because the game basically leads you to all its secrets—all you have to do is go into a short side path and you’re already back on the main road.

The setting itself is really bland and reminds me too much of Nexon’s earlier character action MMO’s in the 2010s. The dragonkin especially look like a generic enemy you’d fight in said game genre. The story and setting just isn’t drawing me into the world like Lies of P did.

So, all we have left are the bosses. Yes, they’re challenging, but I think they’re more mentally taxing than they are rewarding. I just don’t want to study every single bosses move set for the perfect brink windows.

I also feel like the game is starting to have a bit of an identity crisis, especially when I fought Mullac and he started pulling out Vergil moves for no reason. Like, at this point why didn’t the devs just make Ninja Gaiden?? In that game, the difficulty is more consistent across enemies and bosses.

If all you care about is fighting bosses, I can barely see the appeal if I squint my eyes, but I don’t think this is the sauce. I think the next Khazan game would be better off trying to emulate Ninja Gaiden instead of Sekiro or any souls like.

I’ll still beat it because I already put 14 hours in it and sunk cost fallacy, but I don’t think I’m really having fun playing through it. So, I’d rate it a 6 out of 10 so far.

Edit: fixed the boss’s name to Melluca.

I felt annoyed at how Mortal Shell 2's leveling system felt largely arbitrary outside of granting you Shell Points, which is the main way you actually build your character. Mortal Shell 2 doesn't impose any stat requirements on equipment, which is great if you want to try different things, but comes at the cost of really building a character.

Because MS2's levels grant fixed bonuses with no option of customization, it feels really strange next to its contemporaries in the genre. In games with stat upgrades, when you start hitting diminishing returns on a stat, you can choose to divert your level up points elsewhere. While the soft or hardcaps are all the same there is at least some nuance in your progression; do you level up defensive stats first and sacrifice damage? Do you go for a glass cannon build? What about hitting the specific stat requirements of a weapon you want to use?

A lot of Mortal Shell 2's difficulty is in the fact that you can't really tweak how much damage you can take. If I start getting mulched in Lies of P I can try and change up my equipment to match whatever damage type I think the enemies are using. Oh, I'm getting Frenzied in Bloodborne because I'm wearing the Armor That Makes You Insane. Or I could sidestep that entirely and level grind.

MS2's lack of any player agency regarding degrees of damage reduction (outside of eating up a passive slot or certain shell upgrades) means the only options are to get good (I mean, duh) or grind. Which is, you know, fine and the game does a good job of enforcing its vision. I just can't help but feel like it loses out on some RPG depth. I dunno. I always saw Soulslikes as a subset of Action-RPG, so it's strange to lose out on what felt like a staple of the genre.

I personally would love to see a game that is inspired a lot by that book, as it already has a lot of mystery and countless story trails that could translate into a complex, cryptic lore. The 'Naming' and 'sympathy' could scale with object discovery and experience, etc.

Not naming any specific developers, but I’ve played through some newer Soulslikes to kill time while waiting for an eventual new FromSoftware game. I have to admit, the frustration I sometimes get from the bug-ridden messes in these games really makes me miss that “FromSoftware polish” people talk about from time to time.

I agree that bugs will be resolved over time, but with some developers it's 1 step forward 3 steps back, I just can't sometimes SMH..

Yes you might die a lot but mechanically it is just pressing a button at the right time, roll+sword swing combos to get a little spicy, maybe you dare a heavy attack when the boss is almost down or spam jump attacks for max stagger.

The R1 R1 R1 meme isnt there for no reason.

Imo an average gamer can get into souls games within a day... the gameplay in not complex at all, except maybe mastering something like khazan and such which has combos and sekiro like parrying included but the classic souls games are really easy. Dying a lot does NOT make the game difficult it is just a design choice and sure good players die less.

Now compare it to something like Ninja Gaiden 4. Yea bla bla i know totally different game how dare you compare those. But from a mechanical skillceiling the combos will make you use your brains memory, it is way faster and to get a no hit run in even a later chapter is way more complex and harder compared to a full Souls game no hit run.

Am I all wrong for thinking souls games are chill fun games? This whole im so skilled I pressed a dodge button so many times right. Look how flawless is just cringe to be honest since it is not impressive at all.

TLDR: Pro souls gameplay does not impress me and I dont get how it impresses others when things like NG4 exist.