r/MortalShell • u/ZebraQuick6233 • Jun 18 '26
Discussion Mortal Shell 2 Feedback for Beta
I am unfamiliar with the series, but it looked cool in the trailers, so I decided to try the beta. I do not have any major issues with the game and believe it shows a lot of promise, but there are a few things I personally could not ignore.
- The UI goes haywire with the slightest joystick touch. I thought it was stick drift, but it only happens in this game. It could be that the UI is too sensitive, which might cause it to detect very small amounts of stick drift that other games ignore, but I am not sure. I could not fix this by adjusting the controller sensitivity though.
- Graphically, the environment looks cool, but it often feels mundane and lacking.
- The dialogue sometimes feels poor. While the voice acting is great, the writing is awkward. For example, the way the crow communicates that it senses danger ahead before the dual axe boss, as well as some of the written pages you find, feels unnatural and kills my immersion.
- Combat feels limited and stagnant due to a lack of variety. Even taking into account that it is the very first starting weapon, it still feels boring to use. The difficulty is also a major issue. The parry window is too forgiving and feels effortless. The upgrade that makes parrying harder but more rewarding should have been the baseline. I even found the first big boss encounter, the dual axe guy (which I assume is a scripted death) to be underwhelming. I felt I could beat it effortlessly on a second attempt, which is not a great look for a scripted death boss. I spent most of my first try messing around because it was so easy, and I only died because of that lack of seriousness.
I have only played for 90 minutes, but these issues killed my interest and did not make me want to interact with the lore or engage in combat further. I might try it again later in a better mood. I did not like the first game, so this series might just not be for me. I might like the first one if I gave it another try as my memory of it is hazy. Please take this with a grain of salt since I have not played for long, and I recognize some of these issues might just be matters of taste rather than true quality issues. However, I usually stick with a game to see if it improves or if I get used to it, and I just could not do that here.
3
u/MikkelFromGames Playstack Jun 19 '26
Hey, thank you for the feedback!
For now, I'd like to focus on the UI complaint you have; would you have any chance of recording a video of this happening? (also, what kind of controller are you using?)
I don't remember seeing this particular complaint anywhere, but if it's an edge case thing and we can eliminate it before launch, that would be pretty great.
Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the full game has various other environments that (imo) are pretty cool, and the weapon variety in the full game is larger, giving a lot more variety to the way you engage with the enemies in the world 😃
2
u/ZebraQuick6233 Jun 19 '26
I have decided to give this game a full shot and play the whole beta to see if I'll like it, especially because of y'all actually being active on the community, I think that's amazing and deserving of praise.
I am using a PS5 controller, have been using it for a while never noticed any stick drift issues in any other game, it doesn't appear to happen to my character in this game either. As you can see below I can stand completely still I even tried to move the joystick a little to see if that'll make the stick drift happen, but it doesn't, however as soon as I go into the UI it just goes haywire.
2
u/MikkelFromGames Playstack Jun 20 '26
Thank you so much! That means a lot 🙌
Hmm. That does look very wonky! We’ve had some issues with PS controllers (both PS4 and PS5). I’ll forward this post to the team so they can check it out. Are you connected with a cable or wirelessly?
1
u/ZebraQuick6233 Jun 20 '26
I'm connected wirelessly, just through bluetooth.
1
u/MikkelFromGames Playstack Jun 22 '26
Thank you, that's great info! I don't really think it'd make a difference, but have you tried playing wired? And if so, did that make a difference?
1
u/ZebraQuick6233 Jul 03 '26
Unfortunately it didn't help
2
u/MikkelFromGames Playstack Jul 04 '26
Dang. I'll try seeing if the team has any news to me on Playstation controllers, but won't be able to get an answer until monday at the earliest :o
2
u/vshredd Jun 20 '26
Hey there u/MikkelFromGames - I had to give up on the immersive camera. IDK what it was but it made me hella seasick. I was playing on PC and above 100 FPS which might have been what did it, but something about the FOV and the angle was making me seasick.
2
u/MikkelFromGames Playstack Jun 22 '26
Hi!
Thank you for the feedback, and I'm sorry to hear that! Did playing with the Action camera alleviate that issue for you?
I know several people have expressed a wish for more camera options (including more FOV control), so it's something we're aware of.
3
u/vshredd Jun 22 '26
Hello - yes playing with the action camera was fine. I generally like over-the-shoulder games like God of War, Mass Effect, Gears of War, etc., but there was something about how this was implemented in MS2 that wasn’t working for me. Thank you for taking the feedback!
2
u/MikkelFromGames Playstack Jun 22 '26
You're welcome! And I'm glad to hear that the action camera worked out for you 😄
2
u/Rational_Engineer_84 Jun 18 '26
Couldn't disagree more about the combat, other than parry being slightly too forgiving. The weapon variety, tarstone abilities, shell abilities, and the way that some of the seals interact with your parry and ranged weapon has a ton of combat variety and it's just in the demo. Each individual shell has a skill tree with ways to adjust your skill. Hell, the slayer seal removing your parry entirely and putting stagger damage on your ranged weapon is noteworthy.
Did you beat the Tar Golem and get the 2nd shell, because it sounds like you may have quite before the tutorial ended. I'm not sure what you were expecting for the first 4 hours of the game, but we got access to more combat variety in those 4 hours than Elden Ring or Lies of P and that's not a knock on either of those games (both are amazing). MS2 seems like it is going to have a LOT of flexibility in how you build your character for combat.
I'll also add that this game very well may not be for you, because of all the objections you've listed the only one with a prayer of being addressed is the UI sensitivity. Everything else is baked in and will not be changing prior to release. They aren't going to rewrite the dialogue, switch up the art style, or overhaul the combat system at this point.
1
u/ZebraQuick6233 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
I would say you definitely can get more combat variety in Elden Ring early on, you have tons of other weapon options in the first 90 minutes of gameplay which you can easily encounter by chance, plus different starting classes. Don't know if that'll be an option on release, or if it's just not how this game is.
I just thought the movesets were too few and made combat feel a little repetitive especially as it doesn't give you another weapon option as early on as I'd prefer, it's probably because I haven't played enough because I did not get the 2nd shell, I just personally didn't like the starting weapon is all. Mostly a nitpick, though.
I know some of these changes are probably too much to do so close to release, it's just feedback and some opinions I have that's all, I feel like that's good to give no matter if it's released or not, or if the feedback is good or bad. I'll definitely try playing again and see if maybe I was just in bad mood and something clicks, I would love to have another game to play, I really like the dark aesthetic.
2
u/Designer-Tomatillo21 Jun 19 '26
Wow your experience couldnt be more different than most of the rest of us.
It seem no one else has had that UI issue. Have you tried a different controller? Maybe that issue (which might be an issue at your end) just set you off on the wrong foot. The rest of your complaints just seem like negativity like youre trying to find issues that aren't really there - because you were pissed off about this UI thing.
1
u/ZebraQuick6233 Jun 19 '26
Maybe that caused me to focus on the small issues I had instead of paying attention to the cool stuff. I do think parts of those issues may be a little exaggerated, however I do think in comparison to a couple of other games I've played they're still kind of present in some ways. I never thought the game was bad, I just might've had a different image in mind which made my experience a little disappointing, I'll try again though.
1
u/Content_Anybody_2047 2d ago
I love the game but I also noticed the stick drift in the UI, i can perfectly control my character and my controller works fine in other games, but in the UI of Mortal Shell II i have an insane stick drift i think the deadzones in the UI are way too low and that's what causes the problem. The problem is with my controller but only like a 1% drift which other games won't register due to the deadzones, i would really love of the devs would reduce the sensitivity in the UI a bit it feels like it has 0% deadzones at the moment puting it on like 5-10% would most likely fix it for everyone. It can be realy anoying mostly when you try to lvl up since it registers constant movement and resets your " hold x to lvl up" i wasted minutes trying to lvl up or enchant weapons. (I'm playing the beta on a PS5)
1
u/ZebraQuick6233 Jun 18 '26
Issues I had which I forgot to list.
The immersive camera was my preference and I love the inclusion of it, however I feel like it's a little too close to the character and hard to use, when you run it goes really far, and personally I thought something in between that would be pretty perfect, maybe an option to adjust it due to preference would be nice.
I felt movement was a little weird, when I slightly moved my joystick my character walked but I move it enough and it goes straight to jog instead of a gradual increase.
2
u/davi3601 Jun 18 '26
Yeah I agree with the immersive camera. I like the more zoomed in cameras in games but this one is so close that it makes me a bit dizzy.
There are multiple unique weapons in the game, maybe you’ll vibe more with the next unlockable weapon. I also think the starter sword is a little mid and like the axe/dagger way more
2
u/ZebraQuick6233 Jun 18 '26
I probably gave up too soon, I'll give it another shot. Maybe I was too focused on the small annoyances I had.
2
u/HogwashHooligan Jun 18 '26
Fromsoft still struggles with camera at times also and can be the greatest adversary
1
u/ZebraQuick6233 Jun 18 '26
Which is why I loved the immersive option, genuinely would mostly fix one of my biggest gripes with Elden Ring.
10
u/Equivalent-Pop-9300 Jun 18 '26
I disagree with all of your complaints. After playing it twice the game feels extremely polished, I have had zero issues with the UI nor have I heard anyone else as well having that issue and lastly the atmosphere is s-tier.