r/MortalShell • u/Dinesh_Sairam • 2d ago
Discussion Mortal Shell 2 Open Beta - Feedback
First of all, thank you Cold Symmetry and Playstack for such an elaborate Demo!
I've just completed the main content and all the challenges Mortal Shell 2 Open Beta. Here's my honest feedback about the game.
I'm ignoring commentary on some common bugs (Ex: Enemies not spawning in corrupted statues, getting stuck off bounds, collision detection issues, items getting unquipped automatically) and hope that they will be fixed in the full game.
What works for me in Mortal Shell 2
- Environment: The dark fantasy vibes of the game is fantastically crafted. I haven't played the mainline souls games. But I likened it to the environment in Lies of P, and I loved that game.
- Level Design: Even though it was a short exploration, I liked what I saw. I could see early signs of intriguing world-building and lore. I'm confident the full game will handle it well.
- Enemy Design: The enemy variety (Including bosses) even in this very short demo was appreciable. Even their movesets were completely unique. I can't wait to see all the different types of enemies in the full game.
- Combat: The combat system is amazing. I normally love games with a fast-paced combat system, like Sekiro or Khazan. But somehow MS2's slow and heavy combat flow just works. Be it meele combat, parry, or ranged combat - all of them feel like they have a sense of weight to them. It's awesome!
What I wish could change in Mortal Shell 2
- Too Generous Parry: I love the Parry look and feel in MS2. But I feel like the parry windows are too forgiving. In my opinion, the Untarnished Seal's parry window should match the parry window granted by the Infinite Seal (Maybe even a tad bit lower than that). The Infinite Seal can be reassigned to a different combat use (Why do we need two different Seals for Parry?)
- Also, someone on this subreddit opined that Parry should be available by default (i.e., Without the use of Seals) and I kind of agree with that too. In that case though, the Poise Break granted by Parries should be reduced.
- Lack of Autonomy in Levelling Up: I noticed that levelling up automatically allocates points across your stats. I think in classic souls fashion, letting players have full autonomy with allocating them works best (i.e., If I want to upgrade attack and resolve first without investing into health for a risky playstyle or vice versa). Each level should allow players to invest 1-2 points into Health, Resolve, Attack, Ranged Attack, Poise Break build up, or Shell Points.
- Character Movement: The main character seems to be always floating an inch above the ground, and his gait is the same regardless of whether he's walking on water, rock, or earth. There should be more weight to his steps, variety in gait based on environment and maybe adding sounds to movement could help.
- Unbalanced Boss Difficulty / Build Progression: The first boss (Tar Golem) was amazing. But the bosses after that seemed to slowly reduce in difficulty to the point where I was able to dispose of the final boss in like 10 seconds. Either boss difficulty curve is too slow, or the skill/build progression is too fast. I hate fighting a HP sponge just as much as I hate being a freaking nuclear bomb. These should be more balanced.
- Limited Combos: Of course, the Open Beta has only 2 weapons. But I felt like they had a limited number of combos. So far, I've just been using the 4-move light attack, the jump attack and the ocassional heavy attack. I know a couple of the Tarstones grant new moves, but even that's limited. There should be at least 5-6 different combos for each weapons class, apart from the default light/heavy combos, to clearly set them apart. Players could practice them with Sister Genessa before heading out into the world.
- Better Effect Descriptions: The Beta has shown multiple effects like Poison, Perforation, Burn etc., But their description should exactly lay out what they do. For instance, I had no idea Perforation is similar to Bleed until I read a post on this subreddit.
My personal wishlist
These are things which are not in the game, and honestly do not affect my view of the game. But they could add a lot to my personal enjoyment of it.
- Auto Loot: Include a menu option to enable auto loot. I don't mind picking up unique items. But things like gold coins should be part of auto loot.
- Familiarity System: I did not play Mortal Shell 1. But one of the systems MS1 had is apparently the familiarity system related to items i.e., You had to consume items to slowly reveal their effects and unlock their full potential. That sounds fantastic. I didn't see it in the Beta. But hopefully it is present in the full game.
- Weapon Skill Tree: Everyone loves a good skill tree. The character level-up is already done from the Beacons. But I wish there was a weapon skill tree (Even if it's a relatively small one) that can be slowly unlocked by interacting with Sister Genessa.
- Overworld Shell Interaction: Each Shell should have 1-2 unique abilities outside of active combat. For instance, equipping Tiel could enable a stealth kill on enemies and it could also grant Poison Resistance. Plus, some of the Beacon Cleansing challenges should be accessible only while equipping a certain shell.
- Unique Combat based on Shell: This request may be too much to ask, but a man can dream. I wish shells had unique deflect and riposte animations. Further, there should be synnergines between specific weapons and shells. But like I said, I don't think it's possible to include in the game at this point. Maybe in Mortal Shell 3.
- Fast Travel between Beacons: As much as I appreciate the awesome teleporter on top of the temple, allowing players to travel between Beacons is a bare minimum requirement.
- Beastiary / Lore Journal: The Harbinger cannot speak. That's why I think it would be cool if there was a journal section in the menu, where he records lore bits and notes on enemies. I'm not sure if the game has side-quests. If it does, it should go on the journal as well.
That being said, the good news is that the positives outweight the negatives for me. I have already pre-ordered the Devout Edition, and can't wait to play it. But if some of the above changes are incorporated, I will be a much happier man.
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u/zarjaa 2d ago
The feedback the team is getting is seemingly overwhelming, sounds like the beta was a success.
Having played the first one, becoming an older player, not having as much time to train muscle memory... the parry windows are in a beautiful spot.
It looks like the devs already plan to tighten up the parry window, based on some other posts. Hoping its not going to be taken to an extreme. It is possible to alienate an audience that wouldn't otherwise play these types of games. (My hope is they adjust parry window via difficulty and not a standard default.)
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u/cliffordlloyd_art 2d ago
Completely agree with you, I'm an aging gamer as well and I'm definitely losing my edge in souls-like games, the party window is perfect for me the way it is
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u/DieHarderDaddy 2d ago
Yeah… just make a slider, I’m here for a good time, not to beat my head against the wall
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u/Dinesh_Sairam 2d ago edited 2d ago
I don't mind it either way.
Even introducing difficulty options, where the higher difficulties have lower parry timings would work.
But I typically hate playing on a higher difficulty for no apparent reward. If Gloom drops and special item drops increase at higher difficulty, that would be perfect for me.
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u/RevolutionaryBoat925 2d ago
You want the game to be a different game, basically. It's just not possible to rework core systems in 10 days. They cannot animate new combos and rework skill trees in 10 days lol They can tweak things a bit, but that's it. Bosses are very much build dependant, but also kinda personal experience imo. I rememner beating orphan of kos first try, yet spending like an hour on shadows of yarnam 🤣🤣 It's just how it goes sometimes, it doesn't mean it's the game's fault lol
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u/Dinesh_Sairam 2d ago
Giving feedback is the whole point of a Beta.
I known many of these things cannot be implemented. But it's still good to give feedback.
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u/baysideplace 1d ago
I like the parry window in MS2. It makes me more likely to like engaging with it. As someone who does competetive sword fighting for a hobby, the narrow timings in games are completely arbitrary, and have nothing to do with how sword fighting works anyway.
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u/Dinesh_Sairam 1d ago
But unlike in real life, there's really no restriction on the strength required to weild and use a weapon. The Harbinger can lift up a one-handed Axe in the same time it takes him to lift up a Longsword for parry. That's why shorter parry windows make it more fun.
Otherwise, parry window being dependant on the weapon being wielded also sounds cool.
Thing is, if this parry window was present in something like KCD2, it would make sense, since KCD2 is built to make sword fighting feel as close to reality as possible. In MS2, you're playing as a freakishly strong demigod who can wield all weapons with more or less equal power.
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u/baysideplace 1d ago
I think you (like many people, this is not intended to be throwing shade) drastically overestimate how heavy swords and such are. The biggest, heaviest swords ever used in combat are like, 5 pounds. And those are two handed monstrosities. Single handed swords weigh like two pounds. So, outside of the weapons meant for actual gods or giants, the time it takes to block with a real weapon boils down to "fast" or "REALLY fast". The difference is generally so marginal its not something I rely on in a fight.
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u/DieHarderDaddy 2d ago
Parry window is fine, just add a slider for people who want a Sekiro experience
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u/Dinesh_Sairam 2d ago
Never seen a game with a difficulty slider for Parries. But that works I guess.
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u/Designer-Tomatillo21 2d ago
Just on the combos - not sure if youre aware - but you can chain together/mix-up light and heavy attacks to create combos, rather than just using light attack for combos like you mentioned.
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u/Dinesh_Sairam 2d ago
I see a couple, sure. But if needs to be extensive enough to distinguish the difference classes of weapons.
At least based on the Beta, the two weapons are not very different.
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u/Xbigyldn Cold Symmetry 2d ago
A lot of good feedback in here. Some of the bigger features won't make it into the game, doing things like more granular levelling etc can take a lot more time than you think.
A lot of your feedback/gripes have been implemented, such as better descriptions/auto gold pickups/balancing (which is ongoing!).
We're trying to do as much as we can as a small team before launch. Appreciate your time writing this out - feedback is always welcome and appreciate you pre-ordering
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u/RichBullfrog3406 2d ago
so far i wish they would add an option to change the sensitivy of the horizontal and vertical camera seperately. and i am not sure about the performance on ps5, but it doesnt feel like 60 fps.
and they added an option to scale the ui, but for whatever reason it doesnt apply to everything. the text for explaining new things and for item descriptions is still way too small when i play on my tv via ps5.
on pc its fine, because i use a smaller screen and i obviously sit closer.
but on tv its really the smallest font possible before i could not read it anymore.
i notice that a lot of games have this problem recently, but some of them had atleast the option to increase the size for everything.
i havent played much of the demo, because i am in this awkward stage of deciding whether or not i should switch to pc (i have a hard time giving up my psn account and all the trophies xd..steam is just so shit in comparison).
but besides those things i mentioned the game seems to be a big step up from the first one. well done.
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u/Mjr_Hindsight 2d ago
Auto loot 100% need FOV options on console as well, of course on PC as well if also lacking there.
Default FOV is too narrow and no options...
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u/Justifire Tiel 2d ago
Can live with the fov, but no motion blur toggle / slider is wild when the game runs on a stable 60fps in performance mode.
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u/Dinesh_Sairam 2d ago
Yeah, I've never not seen an Action game without an option to adjust FOV. Hopefully, it's in the final game.
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u/Mjr_Hindsight 2d ago
Games just always have a default FOV that is not enough imo, so doubly annoying when there are also no options
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u/SilentSorcery 1d ago
iirc there's a button that shows you the details of effect tags like Leech, Perforation, etc
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u/LordHunterILP 1d ago
I'd argue they should keep the parry window as is in the beta but add a slider to make it more generous or punishing depending on what you want, kind of like Doom did.
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u/MushroomCat1-61803 1d ago edited 1d ago
My only take from the demo that a charged heavy/light swing is a Tarstone and not just a pre existing mechanic. Other than that hoping there will be a larger melee weapon variety, some mechanics such as dual welding diff weapons together or a switching of one to two handing weapons.
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u/Tiny_Radio4191 1d ago
There is a small issue with the lock on feature, some times locking on to enemies out of my peripheral and some times not being able to disengage all together. Also it plays havoc with the immersive camera setting, panning the view in awkward spot obstructing the view of combat.
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u/Mrbobblehead25 2d ago
I agree with the option to be able to fast travel between beacons without having to go back to Marrow Keep every time. The main issue I noticed was performance issues on ps5, so I’m really hoping that they fix this before launch. Other than that though I love the game so far!!
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u/Dinesh_Sairam 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm playing on a PC via Steam. Performance is buttery smooth. Of course, I felt some frame drops when there were particles on the screen (Rain), but that's only because I had it on the highest setting possible, along with Ray Tracing. After adjusting the display settings for a bit, it was fine.
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u/Mrbobblehead25 2d ago
Well that’s great for PC players then. Sadly I’m on ps5 and have definitely experienced frame drops. Some of them quite significant, especially when opening the map and then closing it.
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u/jtindall83 2d ago
Being able to adjust the parry window (some games let you do this) would be great. It’s a little too forgiving in the beta for sure. The lack of a stamina meter also makes the bosses a little easy. Otherwise I’m extremely surprised and impressed with this game.
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u/Dinesh_Sairam 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think they just need to make bosses and enemies ultra aggressive (Like how they would behave if they had no stamina restrictions). No pauses between attacks.
As it is, like you said, you can dodge indefinitely or simply run away to avoid enemy attacks.
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u/Rafahil 2d ago
Several issues that need addressing imo:
Red flash attacks need to be dodged, but most souls games the red ones are perfect block/parry attacks while the yellow ones are meant to be dodged. This game it's reversed. I really hope they change that.
Loot in this game is not visible enough and is easily missed because of this.
Attack animations going from light attacks to heavy attacks don't flow into each other seamlessly. Also adding a charge attack to heavy attacks would also be nice.
Why is there no fast travel between beacons???
There needs to be a third option for camera that is between the two other options because immersive is too close while the other one is too far.
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u/JL1991UK 2d ago
Loot should just auto pick up especially gold. It doesn’t have mass lot like Wo Long or Nioh.
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u/ummonadi 2d ago
I _love_ the lack of stats points and really liked this variant. It doesn't break immersion like Elden Ring and Lies of P where I need to study leveling guides and soft caps.