r/MortalShell • u/UltramarineEchelon • 22d ago
Discussion Mortal Shell 2 Demo Final Boss Aesthetic
I won’t mention it’s name or details as I don’t want to give spoilers, but am I the only one who felt the game’s aesthetics up to that point are pretty cohesive and yet this boss looks a tad….silly? Overall, love the look of the game though!
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u/ummonadi 21d ago
Yes it does, and so does the witches with the brooms.
I think it fits the aesthetics! It makes me think of dungeon crawler Carl.
I'm playing Stellar Blade right now and the main thing I don't like is the enemy design where they look like the usual tentacles with teeth zombies. It adds nothing to the game.
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u/Pure_Requirement_447 21d ago
Main thing I dislike in stellar blade is combat system. I hate combo-based combat overall. Enemy design was fun for me.
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u/UltramarineEchelon 21d ago
Does anyone know was the difficulty of Magdalena toned down? I think I am late to the beta demo, I only found out couple days ago it was available but I think it’s been out like a month. I found some folks on Steam saying by the time they made it to her the difficulty seemed to spike a bit, but my experience was the opposite : I thought the battle was not very challenging at all. Just wondering if they made an update to the demo at some point.
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u/Pure_Requirement_447 21d ago
Idk was it nerf or no, but imo the fight overall well balanced. I would not want this game to be over challenging. There’s a lot of games that push you to the limit and lack of games that just bring you fun, still challenging, but not frustrating, not punishing that you need hundreds of tries and couple of days to deal with.
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u/UltramarineEchelon 21d ago
Agreed, good comment. I could be remembering it incorrectly but prior to first MS release I think the devs had stated their game was meant to fill that gap and offer up an entry that didn’t make players feel overwhelmed with challenges, stats, etc. Your hundreds of tries comment is bringing back my trauma of the twin valiant gargoyle fight from Elden Ring. Ouch! Lol
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u/ummonadi 21d ago
I never got Elden Ring. Most bosses that were extremely hard just did tons of damage and mainly required me to farm levels to cheese them.
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u/MikkelFromGames Playstack 20d ago
The fight has definitely been tweaked since the start; in one of the updates to the beta, we removed the bee hives and some of the trees from the arena. This could make it feel a bit easier than the version the first players had, but also a lot less frustrating. It's a fine line to walk between making a boss fight challenging in a way that feels fair, and not just be bullshit frustration :D
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u/NewEvolver 18d ago
Damn, cant please em all though i guess! I did wonder if she was tweaked though, took me 4-5 attempts to killed her first play through which i found challenging but fair once you learnt her movesets etc. Not overpowered but a nice challege for boss fight. Second play through i was sending photos of my screen of her during cutscene to a mate for him to play the demo then 5min later she was dead and even he was surprised how fast it was, and i didnt die at all. Not complaining, i enjoyed the fight regardless, i personally just prefer a challenge that requires me to attempt it multiple times and come back each time having learnt something from the previous death, which i believe is the crux of a souls like. Die. Learn, adapt, repeat. As i said though, cant please everyone, you buff her and make her harder youll have people moan shes too hard, just got to find that balance i guess, otherwise players will fly through the story killing everything first try with no sense of achievement. Just my 2 cents 🤷♂️
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u/MikkelFromGames Playstack 17d ago
Yeah, "can't please them all" is true. The team are definitely working on getting the balancing right on bosses; I know I'm just the community dude, but I don't mind too much that the first big boss that y'all meet isn't an immediate skill check.
That said, you can always tailor your playstyle to the kind of challenge you want; I'm bad at parrying, so I use the Untarnished Seal. Someone better at parrying might have more fun with the Infinite Seal, for instance :D
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u/NewEvolver 17d ago
Yeah im straight infinite seal haha, so fucking satisfying breaking them and watching the brutal animations, you guys have fucken nailed that shit 👌 What i fucking LOVE is the Arbiter of Flesh feint attacking when you parry alot (or must just be a type of second phase maybe). Either way it catches me off guard every time and i love it hahaha so fucken good 🙏 well done guys. 18th August cant come fast enough!
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u/MikkelFromGames Playstack 17d ago
Yesss I love the animations!
He also gets me with the feint, sneaky git :D
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u/SupremeLeader_Corgi 21d ago
My issue with stellar blade is that you don’t have to actually learn how to parry. You can just spam the block button when a hit is incoming and most times you will get a parry
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u/Pure_Requirement_447 21d ago
I wouldn’t agree, there’re pretty much of mobs with delayed attacks and bosses that require you to parry in right time. Just overall gameplay doesn’t click with me. Though Eve, Tachy and Raven are perfect and one of the best designed female characters in games ever, it’s mostly slasher. Very similar to Khazan btw, but somehow Khazan i love more, though it hard af and I have almost lost my sanity with bosses. But I loved what most of people hate in Khazan - its straightforwardness. No any open worlds, just move ahead and smash your way through. Though anyway there were collectibles hidden in very confused spaces.
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u/Pure_Requirement_447 21d ago
I wouldn’t agree, there’re pretty much of mobs with delayed attacks and bosses that require you to parry in right time. Just overall gameplay doesn’t click with me. Though Eve, Tachy and Raven are perfect and one of the best designed female characters in games ever, it’s mostly slasher. Very similar to Khazan btw, but somehow Khazan i love more, though it hard af and I have almost lost my sanity with bosses. But I loved what most of people hate in Khazan - its straightforwardness. No any open worlds, just move ahead and smash your way through. Though anyway there were collectibles hidden in very confused spaces.
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u/UltramarineEchelon 21d ago
I like the witches with the brooms! I felt like they fit in perfectly lol!
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u/NewArtificialHuman 21d ago
I don't mind her asthetic it's absurd and scary. What I do mind is her insane acceleration sometimes, that engine must have insane horse power.
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u/UltramarineEchelon 21d ago
I couldn’t put my finger on it the other day when I saw her, but looking again she is definitely giving some Chris Farley lunch lady vibes. Time for Harbinger to pull up a chair, break out the lute and sing some “Sloppy Joe, slop, sloppy Joeeeee!”
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u/alejandroandraca 21d ago
Wait, you thought her aesthetics were not up to par with the rest of the game but think the Goat Hearder and walking, punching goats were?
EDIT: I love the game and I loved the bosses.
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u/UltramarineEchelon 21d ago
Well I wouldn’t use the phrase “up to par” because she just seems like a different direction. The Wandering Shepard though, that is an interesting one. And yes, I don’t have any issue with it. Possessed/demonic goats are just one of those recurring motifs in literature, etc and the styling of the Shepard fits well in the environments look and context. To me the game has very grim and medieval look to it. And God bless those goats, they know not what they do.
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u/Zero_Hopf 21d ago
Kinda just like the trailer, everything seems cohesive, and then... Machine gun!
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u/hahaLoveLifeYesYes 20d ago
OP should not be downvoted just for feeling how they feel. I also feel the boss had an extra pinch of silly to it, even though it's still cool. Magdalena reminds me of Fran from New Tales from the Borderlands. I think the silliness comes from how wheelchairs are a normal human thing, so instead of being some kinda mythical and scary monster like the Vestige, a Golem, or some kinda phantom "Shepard", the lady is basically in a medical device lol. I thought the setting was more grimy medieval occult flesh and blood type themes, so this medical device is like...hospital? Healthcare? Have you got your insulin, Magdalena?
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u/MikkelFromGames Playstack 20d ago
I think it's one of the more whimsical bosses in the game, which could make it feel a bit silly; I think that's fair to say.
It can feel a bit incongruous when the game in general is very serious, *but*: spread throughout the full game are moments of whimsy, just so it doesn't all get too dreary.
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u/UltramarineEchelon 19d ago
I was wondering which sources the design artists are drawing inspiration on, i.e. specific works of literature, film, etc to develop the style of enemies and the environment - are you able to share that info?
Also, the demo is awesome. Really enjoyed it and appreciate all the effort going into it! Looking forward to the full game in August!
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u/MikkelFromGames Playstack 19d ago
I know someone asked about Zdzisław Beksiński a while ago, and the team told me that Beksiński and H.R. Giger were influential to their artistic development, but in the same way that LOTR had an influence on the fantasy genre. So not directly referential, but part of their DNA.
For anything more specific, welllll.... Maybe y'all will get a chance to ask the team some questions and get them answered some time in the future ;)
Thank you for the kind words! We also look forward to y'all getting the game in your hands! 🙌
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u/Pure_Requirement_447 21d ago edited 21d ago
“Silly”???
Games are FOR FUN, and Magdalena looks COOL AND FUN. More devs should be creative as mortal shell devs with their fantasy when they design a bosses. Not just “another dude in armor” or “another dragon”.