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Mortal Shell - Information Thread, update: "The Virtuous Cycle" DLC free until August 23


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Just tried the beta, and it took some getting used to. I feel like the mechanics are unique enough to differentiate itself from Dark Souls and I need to adapt a bit more to the mechanics. But what I did play was fun. I'm sure I'll pick it up at some point. Most likely when it hits Steam.

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IDK, but I hope there is like a part 2 of the beta. The beta was fine, but it wasn't enough to form a solid impression. It wasn't good enough for me the get the game. Nioh convinced me to get the game based off of its like 3 betas or whatever. It had two full areas to explore with good bosses at the end. Mortal Shell needs something like that. The boss in MorShe kinda sucked. 

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Game Information

Game Title: Mortal Shell

Platforms:

  • PlayStation 4 (Aug 18, 2020)
  • Xbox One (Aug 18, 2020)
  • PC (Aug 18, 2020)

 

Developer: Cold Symmetry

 

Publisher: Playstack
    

Review Aggregator

OpenCritic - 76 average - 58% recommended

Critic Reviews


Vamers - 95 / 100

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Mortal Shell is to Dark Souls what Gears Tactics is to XCOM. It takes the tried and tested formula, wipes away all the years of hubris the original developers have grown accustomed to, and brings back the initial excitement of the first title. It works on those original premises and ideas and instead of replacing Dark Souls, it stands next to it as the new benchmark of the genre. In many ways Mortal Shell is as unpolished and raw as Demon Souls, but ultimately captures the heart and soul of what Dark Souls was, Dark Souls II wanted to be, and Dark Souls III only somewhat achieved. It is a beautiful homage to the original Soulslike titles and comes in strong as a competitor that will stand the test of time as the quintessential Soulslike game.


Boomstick Gaming - 9 / 10

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Video Review - Quote not available


Digital Chumps - 9 / 10

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Not without its quirks and issues, Mortal Shell is a fun and unrelenting good time. Shell-swapping makes the experience unique, while its combat and world are ripe for experimentation and exploration.  Though unabashedly inspired by other games in its genre, Mortal Shell warrants a play from the most die-hard of fans.


Inverse - 9 / 10

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Mortal Shell might be the best Dark Souls game ever, despite not having any official affiliation with the franchise. What this small team does with a short playtime is nothing short of astounding.


The Outerhaven Productions - 4.5 / 5 stars

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It's still hard to believe that Mortal Shell is Cold Symmetry's first game, as this game rivals many AAA games. Everything in the game screams quality, from the gameplay to the art and sound direction. As a long time fan of Soulslike games, Mortal Shell has shot to the top of my favorite game lists and I can't wait to see what the devs do next. If you enjoy these sorts of games like I do, I recommend giving Mortal Shell a try.


TrustedReviews - 4.5 / 5 stars

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Mortal Shell is one of the year's biggest gaming surprises, offering a deep, fascinating journey into a melancholic world. It takes blatant inspiration from Dark Souls and Bloodborne,. But innovative tweaks to its combat and progression mechanics let it easily stand on its own two feet.


Generación Xbox - Spanish - 8.6 / 10

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Mortal Shell wants you to know that if you like Dark Souls, you don't always have to resort to From Software. A brutal ARPG with good ideas.


Gamers Heroes - 85 / 100

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Mortal Shell shines brightly as an example of the Souls formula done well. Anyone who is a fan of the challenging gameplay the genre is known for will be happy with this title.


GotGame - 8.5 / 10

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In conclusion, Cold Symmetry has achieved greatness with Mortal Shell. The game is by no means perfect and it is fairly brief. But for such a small team and a new IP, the result is impressive. This is strongly recommended for all fans of the Souls genre and it shows that innovation still exists within the cluttered space.


PC Invasion - 8.5 / 10

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Mortal Shell boasts refreshing mechanics that eschew the Souls-like subgenre's tried-and-tested methods. Though a bit on the short side, it oozes bone-crunching, stylish combat, and its performance is superbly optimized. Simply put, Mortal Shell manages to exceed all expectations.


ThisGenGaming - 8.5 / 10

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Mortal Shell has left me fuming at times but the game’s impressive visuals, combat, and atmosphere will keep pulling me back for quite some time yet.


WayTooManyGames - 8.5 / 10

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For any fans of the Soulslike genre looking for a new addition to their collection, Mortal Shell is worth the time. While there is room for Cold Symmetry to expand upon their ideas here and make improvements, they have absolutely proved their value as creative minds and talented developers.


FingerGuns - 8 / 10

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It may seem daunting and punishing, and it is. But its visual beauty and aesthetic has me compelled to explore more of this world and the Shells that inhabit it.


Game Revolution - 4 / 5 stars

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Mortal Shell’s scope ends up being a more significant net gain as it offers a brisk Soulslike experience without trying to overwhelm players with content for content’s sake.


GameSkinny - 8 / 10 stars

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Far from being a pretender, Mortal Shell is a sometimes exceptional entry to the genre. Its stumbles are noticeable only because there is so much to enjoy.


GameSpot - 8 / 10

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Developer Cold Symmetry's budget action-RPG is a love letter to From Software's work, but Mortal Shell's take on similar ideas feels aimed at those who struggle to get through Soulsborne games.


GameWatcher - 8 / 10

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With a haunting and beautiful world as a backdrop to a solid "Souls-like" RPG, Mortal Shell is a much better game than it has any right to be. The  magnificent presentation, mixed with the unique take on character progression, steals the show here and despite dying dozens upon dozens of times, I was hooked from the moment that combat started making sense to me.


Hey Poor Player - 4 / 5

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If you have a Dark Souls-shaped hole in your heart, I promise Mortal Shell will climb inside and fill that void quite nicely.


Metro GameCentral - 8 / 10

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The best Dark Souls clone so far features a number of interesting new ideas and also offers an experience that is easier to acclimatise to for new players.


MonsterVine - 4 / 5

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A great stepping stone into a difficult genre.


Nexus - 8 / 10

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Mortal Shell has enough fresh ideas to set itself apart and takes enough inspiration from existing titles to create a unique experience for veterans of the genre and new-comers alike.


PC Gamer - 80 / 100

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Both its world and story are entertaining to investigate, with glimpses of brilliance hidden amidst its gloomy environments and obscure characters. Ultimately, Mortal Shell is not a Souls game, but it is the best not-Souls game I've played so far.


Push Square - 8 / 10

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With beautiful environments and plenty to discover, Mortal Shell is a compelling world to explore. After a steep learning curve, its combat is challenging but fascinating, and with a great sense of reward once you master it. It might be a little too similar to Dark Souls in terms of overall tone and style, but it brings enough new ideas functionally to make it stand out from the crowd. Ultimately, this is a great entry into a demanding sub-genre that fans won't want to miss.


TheSixthAxis - 8 / 10

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Mortal Shell is just an incredibly satisfying experience. It'll punish you constantly, but if you can master the mechanics it lays out in front of you then you'll have an incredible time of things. The lore is a little more obvious that in other soulslikes, and the story it tells and the world it puts you in are both rather enthralling. This is definitely a game that fans of dying a lot will enjoy, but it's probably not for everyone.


Use a Potion - 8 / 10

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Mortal Shell isn’t shy in showing off its Souls-like inspirations, but it offers enough fresh ideas of its own to stand out as an entertainingly brutal adventure. Swapping Shells remained neat throughout and added an extra element of strategy to different encounters, whilst the intricate combat mechanics and mesmerising world will keep you engaged all the way through to the game’s conclusion.

 

Sure, it could be frustrating in places thanks to the occasional glitch or overwhelming group of enemies, but there weren’t any stand out issues that make Mortal Shell difficult to recommend. It’s definitely one of the better Souls-likes out there and fans of the genre will have a good time trudging through its desolate world.

 


VGChartz - 8 / 10

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Mortal Shell retains the best elements of the genre - weighty combat, tension, exploration, and progression - and succeeds in refining a deep and beloved genre in ways that feel rewarding, familiar, and new, all at the same time.


Fextralife - 7.9 / 10

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Mortal Shell gives players the closest experience to Dark Souls they've had since playing Dark Souls itself. If you're looking for a solid Action RPG that is reasonably priced to hold you over until Elden Ring or Demon's Souls Remake, Mortal Shell should be atop your list. It's not going to blow your mind, but for 30 USD it's hard to ask for much more.


Wccftech - 7.7 / 10

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More in line with From Software's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice than a traditional Soulslike, Mortal Shell offers a short and sweet take on the hardcore action RPG formula by focusing the player to harden up and push the offensive in order to create the perfect defense.


The Games Machine - Italian - 7.6 / 10

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Mortal Shell is an interesting soulslike, affected by some not perfectly developed background ideas, combined with an extremely derivative final product. Certainly intended for lovers of the genre.


Cultured Vultures - 7.5 / 10

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Mortal Shell's incredibly strong start peters out as you learn more and more about the limitations of the gameplay and the world Cold Symmetry try to establish.


God is a Geek - 7.5 / 10

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More attention to the story would have gone a long way, but Mortal Shell is an intriguing adventure, and an accomplished addition to the Soulslike genre.


Hobby Consolas - Spanish - 74 / 100

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Mortal Shell is a great debut for Cold Symmetry, but it's not a perfect game. It has awesome ideas with the shells, but it is also an opaque world with no clear story.


Spaziogames - Italian - 7.3 / 10

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Mortal Shell is a brilliant take on the soulslike genre, but it is still unbalanced and far from the height reached by Dark Souls series.


Attack of the Fanboy - 3.5 / 5 stars

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Mortal Shell isn't merely "like Dark Souls"; it's a love-letter to From Software's juggernaut series that successfully captures what makes those games special while carving out an identity all its own. It isn't without fault, yet as a freshman effort Mortal Shell is a worthy addition to the Soulslike pantheon.


COGconnected - 70 / 100

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For the hardcore crowd that’s made it this far, congratulations! You will love this game, no two ways about it. For everyone else, heed my warning: Mortal Shell is just as brutal and beautiful as you’re imagining.


Critical Hit - 7 / 10

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Mortal Shell is an excellent entry in the Souls-like space with some fantastic ideas around character progression and combat, but is unfortunately let down by a health system that discourages exploration and an element of tedium that unnecessarily pads out encounters.


GameMAG - Russian - 7 / 10

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Mortal Shell is another Dark Souls clone with nice graphics, interesting ideas and good combat mechanics. On the other hand, there's a problems with hitboxes, enemies are too slow, and it lacks epic bosses and spectacular battles. However, among other Dark Souls clones this game looks really unusual and worthy.


Gamer Guides - 3.5 / 5 stars

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Mortal Shell is an excellent first game from Cold Symmetry and although light on content, I cannot wait to see more of Mortal Shell down the line.


GamingBolt - 7 / 10

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Mortal Shell has a lot of things that allow it to be notable in its own right, but it makes it hard to forget that it's taking from a giant whose shadow it never truly escapes.


IGN Spain - Spanish - 7 / 10

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A great Souls-like with personality, new ideas, amazing battles but with problems in scenario design and world building.


JVFrance - French - 7 / 10

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We can easily say that Mortal Shell has nothing to be ashamed of From Software's games as it has a solid basis which bring some new exciting features. And it's a AA title. More accessible than most of the Souls-like games for all the gamers, it has his own codes. Mortal Shell is not a Dark Souls copycat and even if he doesn't have the same aura, it will easily make his path to your video-games library. And if you're still affraid of the Soulsborne, Mortal Shell seems to be the perfect choice to take a look at this very specific style, especially at a very kind price (29.99€)


PCGamesN - 7 / 10

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Wonderfully captures the atmosphere and combat of Souls games, but without enough tools to experiment with and an AI that's easy to abuse, Mortal Shell lacks meat on its bones.


Shacknews - 7 / 10

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Unfortunately, while Mortal Shell has a heart of gold, there are mechanics and core decisions that prevent it from being a truly great entry into these hallowed halls.


Sirus Gaming - 7 / 10

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Mortal Shell is not the perfect Souls-like game out there, but it’s most certainly one of the best ones. It has its glaring flaws, but they’re drowned out by the amazing craftsmanship of the game’s creators and their taste for distinction.


Too Much Gaming - 7 / 10

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Mortal Shell is bleak, twisted, and poses a challenge from start to finish. It will leave you wanting more, and while some mechanics weren't as fleshed out and diverse as I’d hoped, this game from Cold Symmetry is a commendable adventure that deserves the attention of those who love the subgenre.


VideoGamer - 7 / 10

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If you're willing to devote a weekend to its mood of windbitten despondency (it's only fifteen or so hours long), you will not emerge from Mortal Shell unrewarded.


GameSpew - 6 / 10

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There’s some good to be found in Mortal Shell; its world is interesting and generally well designed, it looks lovely, and some of its boss fights really are exhilarating. But there are just so many aspects of it that will leave you frustrated, underwhelmed or disappointed.


Gameblog - French - 6 / 10

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Mortal Shell is a enjoyable Dark Souls-like, with a few good ideas and a charming dark fantasy world but the execution is clearly not perfect.


Just Push Start - 3 / 5

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While I wouldn't call Mortal Shell a bad game, it doesn't know what it wants to be and that makes it worse. It's to the point where I could legitimate see this being developed as an action RPG set in a fantasy world that needed a hook, so a bunch of punishing mechanics were just thrown in haphazardly. Let's have you drop tar on death but also make it a useless resource or create an extremely difficult mode that can largely be negated by abusing dodge roll. I mean, it's so bad I quite possibly overcame literally every encounter by using the hallowed sword (initial weapon) and used either a running heavy attack or a normal heavy attack, harden, dodge roll back, wait for resources to replenish and repeat. It's simply not going to appeal to those looking for a challenge, nor is it going to appeal to anyone who doesn't care for the tedious elements of this genre. It's just a shallow experience with some neat gimmicks tossed in a small world. If that is enough you might enjoy it but otherwise, it's hard to recommend.


PlayStation Universe - 6 / 10

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Unfortunately Mortal Shell just feels like a bad Dark Souls game, while I enjoyed it initially, the more I played the more it wore away my enjoyment. The few unique features it has do make the game feel slightly unique but its world-building, combat and enemies pale in comparison to its inspiration. The bad AI and other small issues do little to complement what could have been an enjoyable title. There are far better games in the genre.


TechRaptor - 6 / 10

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Mortal Shell boasts responsive combat and gorgeous visuals, but it's let down by rote level design, poor storytelling, and a general unfinished feel.


Killa Penguin - 5 / 10 stars

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Many of the mechanics here could lead to an incredible sequel, but more often than not, Mortal Shell feels as lifeless and hollow as the corpses your playable character inhabits.


ACG - Buy

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"A lean Dead Souls like title with some very fresh ideas, some old problems but very fun gameplay"

 


Entertainium - Unscored

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While not nearly as sprawling or complex system-wise like the Souls games, Mortal Shell is an elegant and contained game that benefits from the more limited scope set by its developers and succeeds in providing a substantially shorter but incredibly tight and rewarding experience that does justice to its inspirations.


Polygon - Unscored

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At the end of those levels, I collect an object that I need to return to Fallgrim Tower — as the game drip feeds me information, I learn I need all three of them to escape. I fight my way back, deliver the item, and then start off again toward a new temple. The premise is concise and understandable — go here, collect this, come back, repeat two more times, win.

 

That’s the elegance of Mortal Shell. It is small, and has a limited number of things for me to do and goals to achieve. It makes me fight for every inch of progress, and that makes it feel bigger than it actually is. I don’t get to level my character into godhood, so I can’t become immune to even the most basic attacks. Without save points, and with limited shortcuts, it takes away any semblance of safety or speed, leaving me to fight for every goal and brutally punishing me if I get complacent.

 

Mortal Shell becomes great by not being afraid to offer less. It’s refined and elegant in its simplicity, without sacrificing quality, mechanics, or challenge. And that makes Mortal Shell incredible.


Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Unscored

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Ultimately, Mortal Shell will make you want to headbutt your monitor out of sheer frustration. The puzzling nature of the map, the repetitive placement of enemies, the lack of options all coalesce into a big arm that holds the game back from being really good, to just good.

 

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I'll wait to see how things shake out. Reviews aren't super positive, but I've played great games that haven't always had high scores. Hell, Nier was an amazing game and it took until Nier: Automata for people to realize that. Before that game came out, Nier had scores in the 60's and 70's. And yet it was one of my favorite games of its generation (and now it's getting a remaster, so at least it must have been a cult classic).

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2 hours ago, Bacon said:

Eh, the game is only 10 hours at most. Guy just beat it in one sitting in less than 9 hours. Kinda weak even for 30 bucks. 


Honestly that sounds perfect for me. Coming off of Last of Us and Ghosts which were both long games. 
 

I go really slow through Souls games so a nice 12 hour experience for only $30 sounds phenomenal to me right now. 

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Despite the length, which does suck, from what I can tell, the people who are the kind to usually play and beat souls games do like this game overall. There are other complaints such as lacking variety of this and that and bosses being considered weak. 

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I came so close to Blind buying this game yesterday! I have to admit out loud that I never beat any Dark Souls game and I own them all in some form or another. I did beat Demon souls, do not know if that counts though. Bloodborne either {i know, I know} I'm kinda hoping for a poor mans maybe easier version of those games. Thoughts on that? No Steam version makes it an easier wait to get game too.

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41 minutes ago, HardAct said:

I came so close to Blind buying this game yesterday! I have to admit out loud that I never beat any Dark Souls game and I own them all in some form or another. I did beat Demon souls, do not know if that counts though. Bloodborne either {i know, I know} I'm kinda hoping for a poor mans maybe easier version of those games. Thoughts on that? No Steam version makes it an easier wait to get game too.

 

Demon's Souls definitely counts, it kicked off the whole Soulsborne thing in the first place.

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On 8/18/2020 at 12:19 PM, Mercury33 said:


Honestly that sounds perfect for me. Coming off of Last of Us and Ghosts which were both long games. 
 

I go really slow through Souls games so a nice 12 hour experience for only $30 sounds phenomenal to me right now. 

 

"Coming off of"....that mean you finished them? :batting:

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So I hadn't really been paying attention to this game at all. But last night, the combination of solid reviews and a $30 price tag led to a rare impulse purchase for me. I've played a couple hours, and a lot of that was flailing around trying to get used to the game and its systems. I like it so far, but it definitely has some frustrating moments. I don't know if my reflexes are much worse than I realize, or if there are some subtleties to the combat that I haven't figured out yet, but there have been a lot of times where it felt like I definitely dodged in time, but I get hit instead. 

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12 hours ago, HardAct said:

I came so close to Blind buying this game yesterday! I have to admit out loud that I never beat any Dark Souls game and I own them all in some form or another. I did beat Demon souls, do not know if that counts though. Bloodborne either {i know, I know} I'm kinda hoping for a poor mans maybe easier version of those games. Thoughts on that? No Steam version makes it an easier wait to get game too.

It's not easier but it's shorter if that helps.

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  • 6 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

     I beat Mortal Shell last weekend, felt good to get a game like that actually finished too! I know its geguarded as and easier souls clone but to me, it's a big deal. So next is either....

 

1. Final Fantasy 7: remake PS4Pro

2. GOD of WAR: PS4Pro

 

With some Dirt 5 Sprinkled in!

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