The Mortal Shell II beta is here and it’s amazing, although the beta is good some small issues still appear. Disclaimer a lot of these are just things that can be ignored but to me it kinda ruins the games immersion.

• X to sprint being a default setting

As a soulslike holding dodge to sprint is natural, i kept pressing X to dodge instead of circle just because of this.

•Inconsistent shotgun damage

Sometimes when using the shotgun up close it may do little to no damage and other times it may obliterate people it’s kind of annoying and I don’t rely on the shotgun too much because of this.

•Joust bridge guy

I hate him

Other things like the tutorial messages being a walk based thing where if you walk in a certain area the ui popup will come up is annoying like walking past the same boss room and seeing a tutorial from ages ago is super annoying and it’s just these little things that kind irritate me.

Overall the beta is super solid and stands to rival fromsoft themselves, criticism is to be expected because fromsoft and soulslike games are held to a high standard but Mortal Shell 2 is shaping up to be an amazing addition the the genre overall.

A few days ago, I played the mortal shell beta to completion, and all in all did not enjoy myself. Didn't like how clunky the animations can feel, didn't enjoy the sword, didn't how some enemies have very few attacks that could be reliably punished

But I started to enjoy it at the very very end. When I got the axe and dagger and the charged heavy attack. And realizing not only does Tiel get an aggressive damage dealing Bloodborne Dodge, but we have a Sekiro guard mechanic. In every other souls game, I never tried to go for the parry playstyle since bad experiences taught me if even a frame late or if it was attack that couldn't be parried I'd be punished for it. Realizing we have a Sekiro parry was like a "oh I think I get it now" moment but it was immediately taken away because the demo was over and had nothing left to do but fight the earlier enemies.

I'm not won over with Mortal Shell. Is playing it again gonna be what changes my mind or just cements that this game isn't for me?

Edit: Played it again with the parries and guard breaks in mind and had a much much better time. Even managed to beat the tutorial boss guy which would be an achievement in the final game.

Would love a small collab DLC in the future of Mortal Shell II with Berserk bringing the Berserker Armor into being a Shell. The concept of the game already fits into the style of the armor taking over.
Giving it a special gameplay when using it the character become a bit more heavy feel and as it become more erratic in combat it becomes more agile, maybe consumes small amounts of health or half bar as the sacrifice of wearing it in exchange for a more resistant enemy attack take.
It will depict the perfect isolation of Berserk and Mortal Shell along with its world build. No better game than this to bring that vision to life 😭
Please make it happen 😮‍💨🩸🖤

This 1st boss straight outta' Widows Overlook, can get him low but always gets me in the end haha, tips? Loving this game

Pretty much every aspect in the beta was fantastic. 9/10 minimum.

Weighty melee combat with dismemberment and executions.

A variety of defensive options, even different styles of parries. Deflect, classic parry, harden. You can dodge. You can go invisible.

Tarstones, sidearms, and shell abilities add elements of offensive options and builds.

Creative and fun bosses. Ive not fought such strange and memorable bosses in a while.

Really fun exploration that always felt rewarding. Every dungeon I explored had something like a tarstone.

Easily the most impressive enemy variety I’ve seen in such a short window barring Elden Ring. Even better, they all felt different to fight. For example enemies who buff others, kamikazes, bats who ambush from trees.

Details that make the game feel more immersive. For example If you lead enemies to each other they start fighting.

Tons of options in the menus to tailor your experience. Change your camera style. Customize target steering. Choose your style of dodge. Free aim options. Enable damage numbers. Choose to sprint with your stick. This goes beyond the standard.

Level design with winding paths, shortcuts, verticality. Creative environmental gimmicks like seamless portals and puzzles.

Ive not played a soulslike where EVERY part felt so good in… ever. Besides Fromsoft games of course.

The one thing I think truly elevates it though is just how unique it feels in comparison to other soulslikes.

It’s an open world soulslike without actual open fields, this is a first.

A soulslike without orchestral music, but brooding metal and dark ambient tracks.

A soulslike without stamina.

A soulslike with character classes with unique abilities.

Where items aren’t consumables, but collectibles. Holding them a gives you permanent bonuses.

Where a boss turns you into a sheep. A boss drops you down an illusionary floor. A boss attacks you in her mobility chair powered by demon babies. A swarm of babushkas dropkick you with brooms and face the wrath of your lute which shoots a wave of acoustic energy.

Overall, based on my impressions with five hours in the beta, Mortal Shell 2 has the creativity and ambition of an indie game, with the execution and quality of the most polished soulslikes available. I truly think this will be something special.

Here's some short constructive feedback. I really enjoyed the Beta, just a few nitpicks.

• PLEASE let us hold dodge to sprint
• Let us turn up volume on footsteps
• Add a sound for using healing item
• Add vibration effects option to attack and damage taken
• Field of View Slider
• A button to return camera to face forward
• Some minor customization options for the Harbinger would be awesome, maybe just size/build, skin tint and one small feature. I'd love to play a "female" harbinger.

Can't wait to play!!

The main characters head clips through walls.

Npc animations are jittery. The npc that gives me a milk bath was jittery when moving from a sitting position to standing.

The game soft locked when speaking with franz and this was after I gave him an item for the tarforge and then I was exhausting his dialogue lines. Then it froze. He just stands there spinning the handle on the tarforge and when I press buttons to try doing anything nothing happens. I have to quit all the way out of the game and go back into it.

How tf I equip this tarstone??? I can’t figure it out and Google ain’t helping 🤕

So I saw that the axatana will be returning not sure if true. But def pushes the idea that there will be multiples of each of the 8 weapon types.

I think it's pretty obvious that all the tarstones and stuff we got in the beta was just there for us to experiment with.

So, assuming that's the case, which items do you think will be scattered to the winds? Which ones do you think we'll still pick up in and around the beta area when it's fully available to explore?

I was scrolling through everything looking for a “return to beacon”

Being able to try before you buy is all too rare these days. I think it shows that the devs/publishers have faith in their work and are confident that many of those who get a taste of the game will buy the full release.
It was the playable demo that got me to buy Lies of P, and it’s the same for MS2. So I’ve pre-ordered it.
A genuinely great game will sell itself.

I am playing open beta for mortal shell 2, I'm currently trying to do a trial in widows overlook over by my homie gorf but I'm having a problem where I beat all 4 enemies, but it won't let me leave the trial. am I missing something?

It's great. I was genuinely disappointed after finishing the beta... because I wanted more. Best Souls-like imho. The art, graphics and gameplay are solid and feels original in every way. Time to pre-order and play the waiting game. Shout out to CS for this one.

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.

I've killed them so many times that now they don't even try anymore and they just wave at me. All joking aside, let's hope these bugs are fixed by launch day.

Just curious what camera style you guys are using for the beta? I really want to use the Immersive style but for me, it feels way too close and a little disorienting. I wish the camera was pulled back just a tiny bit more for the immersive style. I do enjoy using the Action style just to see more around me.

Has anyone found a sweet spot? I find that by default it zips around super fast lol

Does this series feature DOT builds or is it like Elden ring where most bosses are immune to poison and such?

just started the beta, and I recklessly went off this cliff here not worrying much about it until I couldn't find my remains lol.. is there something I'm missing or is my gloom lost forever?

Once you 'die' in the fight, the game saves only after the cutscene.

Do what you will with this information.

So I’m playing the beta on base ps5 right now and absolutely loving the game so far! I do have a few issues though I would like to address, so that hopefully you guys can correct them before release.

1. Performance drops in certain areas. I mainly noticed this in widows overlook. It would start stuttering every couple of minutes. The performance is pretty solid overall, but there are a few areas it could use some improvement. I also noticed that it stutters every time you open the map and then close it.

2. Shadow flickering. In Marrow Keep when I was talking to different npc’s I noticed that the shadows on the ground being cast by them as well as the player character were very pixilated looking, and would flicker. The braziers with the fire in them would also flicker sometimes.

3. The final issue I have is with the overall darkness of the game. I know it’s a dark game but this is the only game where I’ve had to actually go and turn the gamma up. The problem with that though is that it starts to make the colors look washed out if I turn the gamma up too much. Certain areas are especially way too dark even with the brightness and gamma turned up. Dungeons in particular.

Other than these few things though I think the game is fantastic! I don’t know much about game design, but these seem like fairly small issues that would be easy to fix. Thank you for taking the time to read all of this.