And if that sounds like gobbledygook, that’s because it is. You begun in the forests outside the settlement of Fallgrim, and must then venture into three temples to retrieve the Sacred Glands for the Old Prisoner. The onus is on exploration in Mortal Shell. At first, Glimpses are spent on memories too, until you’ve unlocked them all, at which point they can be used to purchase rare items from Sister Genessa herself. It works alongside Glimpses, which are bonded to the Shell that finds them, and which don’t get wiped at death. Known as Tar, it is spent on unlocking memories and purchasing items from the only merchant in the game, Vas (don’t forget to pet his cat). If it happens a second time without an active buff like Eredrim’s, you’ll respawn at the Sister.Īs in other games of the genre, the main currency will stay with your corpse on death. One hit at this point will send you back to Sister Genessa, unless you can get back in your Shell, which will refund your health and allow you to fight on. Hardening reflects damage, and can add the weight of crushing stone to a sword swing, but it also freezes the Shell in place when all its health is gone, ejecting the Foundling into the world. Each Shell is imbued with the Foundling’s mysterious power, and can harden to solid stone at will (well, it’s on cooldown, but it’s fairly generous). Each has its own set of skills and buffs to unlock, such as the ability to repair the connection to Eredrim’s shell after killing enough enemies.Īnd this connection is important, as it essentially functions like an extra life. ![]() And finally there’s Eredrim, a tank of a Shell with a huge health bar, but stamina that’ll drain very fast. ![]() Solomon was my favourite for a while, again quite balanced but tougher and a little slower than Harros. Tiel is a sneaky thief who wasn’t sneaky enough in life, but who has a huge stamina bar for dodging and striking but is dead in a few hits. There’s Harros, the starting option, with an even balance of health, stamina, and Resolve (the resource used to parry and activate weapon abilities). It’s actually quite refreshing to not be choosing between Strength and Vitality every time you make it to a safe space, and means that each of the four Shells remains unique. Once inhabiting one, you can recall their memories to unlock permanent buffs and abilities in a progression system that completely replaces the concept of numeric start increases. You’re a kind of semi-tangible spirit able to possess and bond with the corpses of fallen warriors, the titular “Shells”. In Mortal Shell you are a Foundling, or at least that’s what Sister Genessa, this game’s version of a Firekeeper, calls you. Having experienced a similar feeling recently with Hellpoint, I’m just a little bit fatigued from reading item descriptions and listening to NPCs spout cryptic gothicisms, hoping it’ll be explained in a Wiki later. ![]() Even over a third of the way through a second playthrough, I don’t know what my avatar is, why it’s in this grim world, or why I’m doing things I’m told to do. Mortal Shell, on the other hand, I’m not so sure of. From games have a ton of story you just have to work a little bit for it. ![]() Because for some reason people think that’s what From Software do. But it has become a staple of the Soulslike sub-genre to drop the player into a ready-made world and not tell them why. Exposition in flavour text is fine, if your world tells the rest of the tale. Sometimes when I close my eyes I dream of a far future world where we’ve cured all disease, eradicated war, got rid of Jedward once and for all, and games pertaining to be the next Dark Souls actually tell their stories with a little context.
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