Hi man, I watched almost all of your videos about souls-like genre, and I appreciate your effort you put into them. I am a game developer, and we started to develop a souls-like game 3 months ago, so we are almost at the start of our journey. And your videos help us a lot. Thank you.

The biggest problem I had with Mortal Shell is I could never buy that this was a fully real place where anyone actually did stuff. It's hard for me to buy into playing through a world if it doesn't seem like the environments ever had a reason for existing.

Holy shit, thought this was a large channel based on the quality. Saw the view count and it blew me away. Keep it up brother!

The reason why you can buy glimpses of affection from the Sester is so you can transfer them over to your other shells, otherwise you'd end up with a lot of wasted glimpses on shells you max out early and had to start "leveling" each shell from scratch. The one glimpse you lose in the trade is just a transaction cost, so to speak. I'm curious, have you played the Virtuous Cycles DLC? The idea of turning the game into a rogue-like is pretty clever and the Hadern shell looks very interesting too. Also, the Axetana was hilariously busted on release, pretty much one-shotting bosses with its power attack.

Been on a crazy binge of your channel, lore dump/bioshock retrospective, avengers etc etc and i never knew you did a video on mortal shell which is my favorite souls like!

Remember how busted Hammer and Chisel was at launch? That was fun.

When I first played Dark Souls I only saw two ways to go at first, the path of scary ghosts that you need consumables to kill or the annoying skeletons route. I’d played Demon’s Souls before, and thought they’d just made this one way harder. The skeleton path was kind of like Shrine of Storms, so I went that way and just kept going. I got frustrated, I got lost in the dark, and all my equipment broke. I spent what seemed for an eternity looking for the Lord Vessel to get through the stupid urine coloured fog gate before giving up and googling it. Then I was so mad. It took so much effort to get back out of the catacombs, I nearly walked away from the game. But I persevered and once I got to the Undead Berg it was a breeze from there to Sen’s Fortress.

I've basically gone backwards through your catalogue and you've easily become my favorite youtuber. I don't sub to any nowadays but you definitely earned mine, every video has been really enjoyable to the point I've watched videos on games I will never play. Its amazing that for someone like me who doesn't watch movies, I have no issue sitting through your videos because you make them worth watching regardless of length of them.

i honestly like how none of it feels like a real place. it makes it feel like some nightmare world during the end of time or something.

I know this video is over 2 years old now, but I'm still going to comment. Mortal Shell gripped me far more than I'd have ever expected, and I've found myself finishing the game multiple times, with all shells, searching every single inch of the world, and trying out every single weapon. So, that said, I feel like you should have played with the different weapons/Shells a lot more, as it seems you've maybe not explored their upgrades thoroughly enough. Harros, for example, can be an absolute beast, especially if you're good with the harden mechanic. That said, I understand why you'd consider him the weakest one. So did I, for quite a while. That said, I really enjoyed this video a ton. It was interesting, informative, and I listening to your voice is super pleasant. In short, subbing and excited for more.

I found that, sadly, the jump attack trivializes the game. Hit, harden, roll away, repeat. Spamming that combination you wouldn't have any problems in the temple of ash, nor with any of the bosses. No need to learn parry or the other more complex mechanics.

Completed it yesterday. 90% of it as Solomon with the Martyr Sword. Love the game and really appreciate your insight. Also loved your Bloodborn Critique and I'm pretty sure I'll watch more of your Videos. I like your style :D

I stopped the video because i HAVE TO play this myself. Thanks for showing this game!

I have a response to your criticism of harros the vassal as being a weak choice. I can see how it looks that way based off of initial stats , but I've found (as well as many others) that once you get his upgrades revolving around hardening he is in my opinion the best character in the game. The cool down of the harden mechanic is decreased substantially .

I can't get far into this game at all but man did i want to. Beautiful, creepy game that actually has that badass quality most Soulslikes dont have

Oh no, when you mentioned going to the tomb of the giants in ds1 at the start of the game the flashbacks kicked in hard)

Just discovered that you make critique videos, I didn't know that at all. With this knowledge, consider me subscribed :)

The surge 2 is 10X better than the first with a actually fleshed out world you should try it (ps double duty is my favorite weapon type)

Foundling means "A infant abandoned by parents and cared for by others". Like an orphan except, your parents are just bad. Implying you are infact a infant and your beings time existing is as long as you play.

“Harros is the weakest” lol, lmao even. 25% harden cooldown reduction and hyper stamina regen when hardened means Harros has near infinite stamina and can combo bosses from 100 to 0 without a single pause if you mix in resolve attacks.

"You can pet the black cat." One of the greatest games ever. Don't need to know more. 10/10. Good video. Working my way through your videos.

I think they had the buy glimpses from the lady so you can in a way transfer glimpses from one shell to another? Anyway good video! I loved this game and was happy to see such a thoughtful review.

I mean this is very late but in case it could help anyone: When you fully upgrade a shell sester Genissa starts selling glimpses of affection, which cost more than they give you upon consuming them. But this isn't weird at all. Glimpses and upgrades are tied to each individual shell. So, if I fully upgraded Eredrim and have extra glimpses, I'd either have to buy stuff off of the Sester, or buy the glimpses, which are stored in my inventory (shared by all shells), and now the extra glimpses I have after fully upgrading Eredrim can be used to upgrade any other shell. It also works as a risk-free way to save your glimpses for a small cost if you're heading up against a tough fight or a treacherous area. Think of it (a bit) like Sekiro's sen bags/pouches. Except in this particular case it takes another aspect which is transferring it across shells

The glimpses are shell bound that's why Sester Genessa sells them.

About Tiel- there is a question if the skull is his skull or a mask, because it could be either. Cannonincally overconsumption of tar basically made his fkin skin sloth off all over so non should be suprised if he's a skinless halfskellie under the clothes, but I always thoutght it's more of a mask to hide something that would look more like horrid chemical burns

I know I'm REAL late to it, but yeah. I got stuck in the Tomb of the Giants. Hammered my face into the Wall that was having Pinwheel as my first boss after Asylum demon using only the starting gear. Not even upgraded, because I had no idea where to find Vamos, or even that he existed. Couldn't even give up and go back to Firelink shrine. The bridge back was closed, and I couldn't find another route. Especially since I was getting Slaughtered by regenerating skeletons constantly. So I pushed on until I succeeded, and... Pitch black maze full of things that killed me instantly.

When you mentioned buying glimpses and wondering why you did so if they only give less glimpses in what you bought them for it's very similar to buying sekiro's coin purses they prevent the loss upon death.

This game was free on ps plus a couple months back and I didn't give it a chance now that I have I love it the combat, character design, lore, environment and the soundtrack is awesome

Some Soulslike games you may not of heard of: Hellpoint: Sci-Fi horror game that got some not great reviews but looks really cool. Asterigos: Curse of the Stars: Could be called a "Soulslight" game but it's really fun with a neat weapon system. Also has a female player character which is cool. Steelrising: You play a clockwork robot in revolution era France. One of the more unique ideas.

Thanks for this video! Looks like a really interesting game, but the atmosphere is too oppressive for me to engage. I would love to play it in a coop mode though.

Loved this game, especially bc I got it for free through PS+. I wanted to comment on what you said about Harros. I found it hard NOT to want to go back to him. I liked the other shells alright, but Harros's upgrade make him seem literally game breaking. The way he can Harden bet and more often makes him seem like the closest thing to the games easy mode imo. Also wanted to say that I only found your channel the other day and have already fallen in love with it's content! Please keep making amazing critique, and I will comment with anything I might have to add ^_^

I beat Mortal Shell yesterday and I'd like to share my thoughts. - Dark Father/Glandfather (heh): First off, I hate the fact that choosing not to take the gland from him when he's defeated resets the boss progress; the worm-fish gobbles us up, we return to Fallgrim and do whatever we want to and, when we return to him, we must fight him again. It took me two reencounters with him to understand that it wouldn't be like Bloodborne, where returning to Yharnam after the Moon Presence kills you doesn't make you face Gerhman again, so I felt it was a shame that you couldn't prepare for New Game Plus on your own pace. - Comparison with Bloodborne: Bloodborne has also helped me shape my fighting strategy (not to mention that it allowed me to brush aside the horrific design of most enemies), as I felt that playing like an agressive hunter works for most enemies, the Glandfather included. -Final Boss's minion gimmick: I realized, on my second attempt, that the dark minions Glandfather spawns are actually useful to regain health. I could never manage to parry Glandfather's attacks -not even sure if it can be done - so when they charged me, I could heal myself if I kept an eye out for the big bird and didn't let myself be swarmed. Even the Glandfather uses the same tactic, that's what tipped me off. - New Game Plus: New Game Plus doesn't feel like a burden this time. The only Souls game I've played is Bloodborne and I can never complete it on NG+ due to how much I feel I lose; when an elaborate game like it, that takes me one or two weeks to complete and floods me with annoying situations -*cough* Rom, Micolash, Yharhal'gul *cough* -, makes me redo everything it disheartens me. Mortal Shell took me 4 days to beat, but since the map isn't too complex and the challenges are not as infurianting as Bloodborne, this time I won't feel as "depowered". Whether or not this seems a valid complaint or if it speaks to how lazy I might be, I'll let you judge it for yourselves. Bought the game for Christmas at 9€ and it was a good Souls-like game. Loved fighting the First Martyr with Eredrin and the Martyr's Blade. Can't wait to find out about the DLC.

Harros is underrated. He has low stats but his passives and harden abilities alone are a good tradeoff of his stats

When I played through I thought the house of ash was so bad at first I just left, I ended up going to the temple first and doing it backwards, after beating the two headed boss (which was very hard and took many tries) all the other bosses seemed easy to me. That one dungeon taught me that if I timed the harden right it would essentially act as a Parry, and I don't think I ever used the parry system after that and just stuck to hardening

I wanted to play Dark Souls with a Scythe so I rushed the Catacombs on my first play through, then I got stuck because I lit the Blacksmith's bonfire and spent 2 days trying to get out of there before giving up and resetting

Great vid. I find the audio around 46:12 hilarious. As Genessa is pouring out her view that her lover's spirit is, in some form, preserved within you, the enemies nearby make their idle noises: 'Grraaah. Grraaaahhh.' It is almost like you, the player, are responding in some animalistic way to her words, trying to agree but unable to do more than gurgle and growl...

24:28 the whole point of taking things with a “pinch of salt” is the small amount of the salt. Saying a huge pinch defeats the purpose.

I would love a full KH critique series the good the bad. The Disney. Or a resident evil biohazard critique. 7 brought be back to resi after 6 rapped my childhood and wallet. Iv watched all your vids and can't believe you don't have more ppl watching

I found the mace to be the best weapon in the game by far. It was great at hitting multiple enemies because of how wide the swing was (even hitting enemies behind you

The game's art design reminds me of Wayne Barlowe.

I love all FromSoft souls like, but I could never get in to Mortal Shell. I never got past the first swamp area and couldn’t get my head around the harden mechanic. For me I think the reason why I couldn’t persevere in this game when beating so many others was both that the world with its dark and gloomy for the sake of being gloomy atmosphere just didn’t interest me, and I had a nightmare trying to navigate the area. I also felt that the difficulty curve didn’t gel with me; all enemies in the swamp (the tutorial area) were damage sponges in a way I never found them to be in the souls series, which just frustrated me… On the other hand I love Nioh - but only once I stopped playing it as a souls-like and started treating it as the spectacle combo fighting game it more closely resembles…

So matyrs sword require you to use harden. You can pause attacks with harden

anyone else make the mistake of seeing what happens when you give Vlas a love tap?

I didn't like this game because of the harden/resolve system and raged at it calling it broken just like you said you did but after how you explained learning its systems is so satisfying and made the game clicked I'm interested in trying it again. Also I actually did get through the Catacombs on my first run of Dark Souls... but I never got out LOL. I had to restart. I got all the way to the blacksmith, but the wheelie man skeletons killed me like 50 times, and whenever I did make it passed them, the Black Knight would chase me down and kill me before I could get far enough up the ladder to escape. After that I put the game down for a solid week before coming back to it, starting over, and noticing the aqueduct on the far side of Firelink Shrine and went: "how was I supposed to know that was there?" To this day it's my biggest critism of Dark Souls, even moreso than Lost Izalith. When you land in Firelink Shrine, the first things you see after the bonfire and NPC is the structure with the bird perched on top, and from there you enter a graveyard which is fitting considering you and everyone else are undead and all the items are mostly snall consumables and gear that look like typical starter equipment (Winged Spear, Binoculars, the small blue wooden sheild) so naturally this makes it seem like a logical first area. It also doesn't help that the NPC next to the bonfire says: there are two bells, one above and one below, so I naturally assumed that the catacombs would take me "far far below" to one of the bells. Not only waa it not the first area, but it doesn't take you to the Blighttown bell. Now of course this could have been an oversight by the developers but I actually think this was an intentional dick move. My proof of this is Pinwheel. Why would they make such an easy boss for a late game area AND have him give you an upgrade to your Estus? My guess is they KNEW people might go into the Catacombs and get stuck there before going to Undead Burg so they balanced the boss of the area and upon beating him, give players the potential to aquire more healing so as to get the hell out of there. So I think this was an intentional dick move with a sort of light at the end of the tunnel provided you didn't consume the 3 humanity given to you at Firelink Shrine and then lose them to repeated deaths. It just seems too well thought out to not have been intentional. I don't mind dick moves in these games, but the Catacombs was overdoing it, and I think it hurt my initial experience with the game A LOT. I almost didn't go back to it. I don't think, in any game, you should have full access to a late game area at the very begining, especially one so conspicuous compared to the actual intended path. Anyhoo that's my story about how bad my first run of Dark Souls went because of the Catacombs and my subsequent reaction to it. Still one of my favorite games of all time tho. I'm looking foward to trying Mortal Shell again after this critique. Great work as always!.

I have thoughts on the fire/lava areas being so inconsistent and frustrating... In something like a poison swamp, we can see the poisoned water clearly, we know the boundaries, we know the stakes; if poisoned, you'll take damage over time. Sometimes double like with Toxicity. But in a fire area, the rules aren't always the same. Is fire an instakill? Is it just straight burn damage? Do you get lit on fire? If so, can you extinguish it or do you have to wait it out? How much damage will the fire do? And when it's used as a barrier, it's a more gaseous form so we can't consistently see the boundaries. I've been set ablaze by fire clipping under the floor in games. And what about lava? That's almost always an instakill! ... except when it isn't. Sometimes I just take damage incredibly quickly. But then, is that a SIGN that I'm meant to run as far as I can and make the most of my health bar?

I literally beat the game with only Harros and the starting sword. Sunk cost fallacy, I didn't want to spread out my upgrades to other shells when I believed there would be limited resources for upgrading. Once you learn how to harden the game is pretty easy since you can brute force any boss by just attack>harden>retreat, repeat and never take damage.

17:23 Disagree, Harros is my favorite shell despite only 3 abilities actually impacting gameplay. Harros is also the fastest shell (along with hadern) in the game, likely because of his time as a soldier and not being erdim levels of heavy. His 3 abilities are faster recovering harden, a harden that basically refills your stamina if held for over half a second, and after being hit your harden lasting significantly longer. This is possibly the most aggressive shell in the game. I wish he didn't have his other abilities just as throw aways (I don't need this many damn glimpses) but considering how fast he can run, and how aggressive his harden is. He is significantly different enough to be worth while. I thought the exact same thing as you when i picked him up. I thought he was just a worse Solomon, I only stayed with harros because, well I like medieval soldiers. However playing him made me realize how different, and ultimately viable he is. Erdim is a tank, and he is characterized by never infrequent, but hard hitting attacks (he's busted asf bc execution stacks but still) Tiel is characterized by his large health pool and stamina not being lost by sprinting, so he basically will always be able to attack. Solomon is about resolve and the like. While Harros is just plain aggressive. Stat's wise he is awful, 5 dur and 5 stam is awful but his durability is made up for how long his harden lasts, and how often he can do it. And his stamina doesn't really matter because of the regen on harden. Statistically, Solomon looks the best, however, harden is so amazing and worthwhile Harros is my favorite and i believe the best to main (by best I don't mean strongest, but most fun while also being perfectly viable) along with hadern (he looks cool) but this game is not about the stats, it's about the abilities. It's kinda why I believe Tiel is kinda mid, his abilities don't really accomplish much, and he has plenty of them that aid combat unlike harros's 3. And Tiel has the largest stam pool in the game, in theory making him the most suited for the Martyrs blade. But no, I believe harros is suited for that because his stamina allows for a full combo, and an evasion. Or if need by, you can go all out and use the harden. And when you use this harden you won't be left exposed and left to nothing because your stamina is back. In fact you can keep swinging the massive sword to keep other enemies away as your much quicker charging harden recharges, you almost never have to stop swinging. Even if you run into an attack that you have no clue what is about to happen, and you can't harden. Harros can haul ass and completely avoid the attack through his movement alone. Yes his hp is still low, but you have a solid amount of resolve, which you'll need only a couple of parries to refill your hp to a decent amount. Harros in skilled hands is the most versatile shell that is most certainly worth leveling (maybe not the glimpse abilities but def his harden based ones) and the cheapest shell to get to full power with.

Interestingly enough, Harros is my favorite Shell. I like being Hard very often 😏💀, because it allowes me to play as offensively as I want, and don't really feel incentivized to play with all the Resolve Solomon has, feeling like a tireless toxic weakling as Tiel, nor a very tough asthmatic knight as Eredrim.

This almost makes me want to try. But my God the movement looks so sluggish. I don't think I would play just because moving around looks like a laborious chore.

I don't usually watch long critiques of games before I've played them. But figured I won't bother with this one. Well you made this seem like quite a good game. Reckon I'll buy a copy off GoG. Good video. Interesting channel.

NOOO. Harros is the guy that gets glimpses for everyone else. Also the ability to regain stamina when hardening is a saver of ass.

First time I played dark souls all the way through I did undead burg and then the path to pinwheel. Realized I was out of my depth and ran back up about half way to pinwheel. Came back later killed pinwheel, realized there was an even deeper and darker place and again ran away. Good video. Don't necessarily agree that adds in boss fights are by definition lazy game design. Would have liked to see you explore that more, give your reasons. Because I think thematically it can make sense, The Last Human boss from Enter the Gungeon summons little Arnies from T2 and it feels great to mow them down. It can be a way to show the player how much mastery they have over regular enemies, when they have to deal with them in a boss fight situation, or make a character that in-universe would actually have bodyguards, like a weak-wristed wizard with a few fighters by their side, more realistic. Good video though, might check out the game. Looking forward to you tearing apart avengers

I heard you question the Glimpse of Affection. They are used to store Glimpse so that another shell can absorb it. Changing shells and upgrading them gives you the story of each shell upon upgrading the shell's abilities. The unchained isn't the dark father, it is probably Hadern. I love how short the story is and how well the lore fits better than a souls game. & I tried unlocking all their skills but stuck to Solomon for all boss battles. I upgraded the Hallow sword and stuck to it for all the boss fights.

Punishment for failure is okay, but consequences for mistakes sounds better to me

As a huge fan of the Souls series and Bloodborne and Sekiro. I love Mortal Shell for unlike Dark Souls there is no real direction or end game. You just find interesting hosts (or in Mortal Shells case they are called Shells.) And you get to explore a broken world finding out more about the items and characters and shells. One thing I suggest for the sequel. Is more shells and by that I mean far more shells. I have unlocked all Shells and Weapons and they feel limited. I would love the developers to go all in and give you the chance to possibly stagger humanoid enemies and posses them until you get knocked out and rinse and repeat.

The name of wolverine thing is "G" as in good, "R" as in "red", I as in "it", "SH", as in she, A as in amen. it is just a short version of the name Gregory. Sorry for this spell checking. It is a normal name in my part of the world and very likely base on the names of the developers they know this name as well. EDIT: Later you pronounce the name right 👍

I tried to give this game a go... but I just couldn't enjoy it. I think it might have a lot to do with my own style of playing Souls-like games. I started with Bloodborne which rewards you for fast, aggressive game play. So when I moved to Dark Souls and later Demon Souls, I threw aside using shields in favor of builds that would have a pyromancy in one hand and a sword in the other, opting for light armor that would let me dodge roll away from attacks as needed. So going into Mortal Shell, all the habits and skills I learned over years of these games basically were useless. Being forced to block rather than dodge was so difficult for me to get myself into, I ended up quitting before even getting to my first real boss. Shame since your description of the game makes it sound interesting. I'd say if anything it could have benefitted from multiple options for how to play right from the start.

Only tar is dropped on depth, not glimpses

Harros is not "worse" than Solomon. He has worse stats, but a lower skill cap - he has amazing harden skills that synergize and make him very aggressive and offensive. Solomon has better stats, but a higher skill cap since he relies on parries. You buy Glimpses of Affection for 6 and get only 5 because you don't lose them on death as inventory items. You can stack them and use them all at once at Genesa to buy skills. It's the exact same mechanic as the coin purse from Sekiro. The Unchained spawns basic enemies so you can heal off of them, not just to be cheap.

Sad to hear you hated Nioh that much. Nioh 1 and 2 are among my favourite games of all time. The levels are not the best in either (though I think 2 is substantially better in this regard), but the hacking, slashing and looting are a borderline therapheutic experience for me.

“I can imagine without this system the game would be very frustrating.” *cries in Obsidian No Shell Run* This game basically made doing a SL1 run a trophy and it SUCKED dude

The beast is not GrishNa, it's Grisha, like a Slavic name

I quickly went from disliking Mortal Shell to quite enjoying my time with it within a couple of days. Over all the negatives I had, I realised that once I levelled up my hallowed sword the game suddenly became so much more playable. Enemies didn't take forever to kill, I felt more confident in taking them on and bosses went down much quicker. My advice to anyone struggling is look up a guide just to find out how to upgrade your sword once or twice and you will have a much better time. Sprinting through a tougher area isn't too difficult, grab the upgrade material and return or die and power up.

This game does not honour the sixth house and the tribe unmourned.

Where is the Bloodborne review?

I love souls. Have played to death every single souls like. I hated mortal shell with a passion. So laggy and inept combat. Everything had a delay. It was not hard, just inept. Still finished it but hated every bit of it

Harros is the best shell actually 😮‍💨

I think the shrine of ash is fine, but navigating beyond the straight path of the last area is more difficult for myself

Great video, man. I’d never played this one. After trying and quitting Lords of the Fallen, The Surge and Nioh, I’ve planted myself firmly in camp FROMSOFT… I recently played through Dark Soul 1 and Demon’s Souls for the first time, and though they show their age, there’s just nothing like ‘em… Unpopular opinion, but I even enjoyed DS2, for what it’s worth. So, so excited for the potential Elden Ring brings to the table… 😍

Load screens on PC are like 3 seconds lolo. Get off that console shit

Where is the Bloodborne critique though

Here I am, having made it through without ever really mastering the parry and I can tell you: Practise. The. Parry. It'll make things easier.

This was more of a walkthrough with comments than a critique imo. Why no summary discussion about the games pros and cons? Having watched this video I still don’t know it you would recommend this game to other people who like Fromsoftware games or not? Also, the game has some of the most AMAZING soundtrack imo. How come you didn’t mention anything about the sound or the music?

Nioh is not a souls like game. That's a misconception of it. Its more akin to a looter slasher with an actual crafting system and enhanced difficulty that gets nerfed if you know to utilize weapon damage and skills that feed off one another added in with your summons.

I genuinely hate this game. It was free on Ps Plus and I still feel like I was robbed. It’s so slow and clunky to play that I’d rather watch paint dry.