DLCMortal Shell: The Virtuous CycleLoading store offers
Mortal Shell
Mortal Shell’s progress takes you through a shattered world and into fights that demand patience and precise timing. If that blend appeals, entry currently costs ≈ $14.96 at 
GOG; the current price alone offers no reliable indication of future price movements. The game is designed for a solo player, so exploration and combat are yours to tackle alone. If you are not ready to start now, an announced Steam sale window may offer another opportunity, though participation and a discount are not guaranteed. Standard is available on DRM-Free with Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Portuguese-Brazil, Spanish-Latin America, Russian, and Ukrainian confirmed interface languages.
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All-time low ~ $1.49across Steam & third-party stores
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $0.002025-03Current Low Across Stores~ $25.19Epic Game Store
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
DLC
01About Mortal Shell
Mortal Shell combines exploration through a shattered world with deliberate combat where timing and precision matter. Take over fallen warriors’ bodies, seek hidden sanctums and face the foes guarding your path. Steam player reviews: 67% positive from 10,768 reviews. The Steam PC version supports English interface, audio and subtitles. The Steam PC version has full controller support.
Credits
Developer
Cold Symmetry
Publisher
Playstack
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$0.002025-03-13 · Epic Game StoreBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| Traditional Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| English | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Show 11 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| French | Yes | Yes | — |
| Italian | Yes | Yes | — |
| German | Yes | Yes | — |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Japanese | Yes | Yes | — |
| Korean | Yes | Yes | — |
| Portuguese | Yes | Yes | — |
| Portuguese-Brazil | Yes | Yes | — |
| Spanish-Latin America | Yes | Yes | — |
| Russian | Yes | Yes | — |
| Ukrainian | Yes | Yes | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-19
02Before you buy
Play mode and controls
The Steam PC version has full controller support. Mortal Shell is a single-player game.
Language
The interface is available in English, among other languages. English has full audio and subtitles.
03Frequently asked questions
What do you do in the game?
Explore a shattered world, seek hidden sanctums and face dangerous foes guarding your path.
What are Mortal Shells?
You can awaken the remains of defeated warriors and inhabit their bodies, opening up different combat styles.
How does combat work?
Combat relies on deliberate attacks, timed parries and temporarily hardening your body.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
I want to start this review off by saying that I find it very hard to believe that some of the people who left a negative review on this game have ever played or finished a Dark Souls game. There are generally good criticisms of the game and I understand why some people have issues with it, such as performance issues, enemies turning around fast, or some of the enemies randomly appearing out of no where, but there are people who put .4 hours into the game and call a quits and refund because the enemies and the game mechanics are not exactly like Dark souls, or is too hard and unforgiving. Also there seems to be a significant amount of negative reviews on Steam because the game released first on Epic, so much so that when I opened steam to buy it I was surprised by it being "mixed", I had to actually read the reviews because I thought there was something dangerously wrong with the steam version of this game. No, just a bunch of negative reviews because the game was on epic first. I think that a lot of people should actually play the game and review it based on that, rather than wasting $30 to make a point that it shouldn't be on Epic. Either way, this game does have some flaws and they should be addressed. There are a lot of complaints about this game not being "enough like Dark Souls", going as far as to compare this games mechanics to Dark Souls. The first thing that should be addressed is that this is not a Dark Souls game, it is a souls like game created by a team of around 15 people. It is easy to tell that this game was inspired by Dark souls, however, the overall mechanics and the way it plays out is not going to be exactly like Dark Souls, and people need to keep their expectations in check for that. The first major complaint I am seeing a lot of is the fact the game is unforgiving and difficult, or the enemies are hard and do not have consistent attack movement. This is where my statement at the beginning comes from, where I do not think the people who compare this game to Dark Souls have actually played Dark Souls. You cannot walk into a Souls game or a Souls like game and expect to be able to pick up things and kick ass immediately, that is basically the whole point of the souls experience. Getting your ass kicked then ultimately kicking ass as time progresses. You cannot put less than an hour or 2 hours into this and expect to be the god of the world you just entered, people need to take time and learn this game, it is a completely new and unique experience. I dropped into this game and had a tough time at the start because it was hard getting used to the enemies. But that should be expected considering your character just started and is at the lowest they will ever be. Once you get the hang of things and the new hardening mechanic the game becomes much more manageable with its difficulty. Another complaint I am seeing is that enemies turn much faster than people are used to. I have seen about 3 reviews saying that people are used to being able to go behind an enemy and get a back stab like in Dark Souls. Unfortunately, back stabbing is not in this game, however, the criticism for enemies turning faster is warranted. I have encountered a few enemies that turn around unnaturally fast as if their character model pivoted 180 degrees without an animation for it, and if this is what everyone is experiencing all the time, then so be it the developers should slow it down. I am surprised by the amount of reviews that have this as an issue for as little as I am seeing it happen when I am playing. This is not to dismiss any of the criticism, I just find it odd as to why it has only happened to me a few times. I think most people are noticing this issue on a specific mini boss fight towards the beginning of the game since that's where I have seen a few of these reviews talk about it. In my experience I didn't bother with that mini boss till I got a new weapon and had already beaten a few bosses. I went back and was able to take him out after a couple tries. Sticking with complaints about enemies, there is an issue that I and many other players have experienced where you can be running around the map and suddenly an enemy will spawn right in front of you. Majority of the time the enemy is sitting down in my path so I can run right past it but there have been other times where they spawn in standing in your path and you have to fight them to progress. This is another issue the developers should take a look at and fix, because it can create issues when you are fighting in an area and suddenly another enemy just pops out of no where killing you. Either way, considering all of this I think Mortal Shell is a damn good game so far. I am able to overlook some of these issues I noted considering Dark souls has multiple issues of its own. 15 people were able to create this and I find that very impressive. I have had fun with my experience so far and I am excited to fully finish the game. If anything changes I will definitely update my review. Edit: After finishing the game I stand by my belief that I think this is a damn good game. I still think those issues previously mentioned can turn people off, and I do not blame them. However, in terms of the enemies rotating 180 I only experienced it a few more times after the review, but it was nothing game breaking by any means.Show moreShow less
6.1 hours at review635 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
This game still has a lot of bugs that have gone unfixed for years and they just announced a sequel. What is this industry?Show moreShow less
30.9 hours at review785 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
FREE ON EPIC GAMEShow moreShow less
7.6 hours at review358 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
This is a no-BS review about the cons after 6 hours. Enough other reviews mention the pros, read those if you wanna know that the game is pretty. Too many developers take inspiration from games like DS but have no idea what makes them good. This game feels like it was made by executives who watched a playthrough of DS, and not actual gamers. I know that's harsh criticism for the Devs who may be reading this. It is warranted. For reference, I have beaten every souls game including Sekiro and Bloodborne. I have ALSO played most of Nioh 1, a bunch of Nioh 2 (playing it currently), Lords of the Fallen, Salt and Sanctuary, Blasphemous, Pascals Wager, etc. This is to say that I don't think all games have to be exactly like DS to be good, which is a common rebuttal most die-hard fans of this game throw at every criticism. EDIT: This review is my opinion after a healthy amount of play. These problems aren't immediately apparent, else I would have refunded the game and not written the review. If you think my review is bad, make a review highlighting all the pros and let people decide for themselves. Also, profile is now public to prove to the crybabies that I did in fact beat the games I said lol. This game is full of bad game design that makes the game "hard" in all of the most un-fun ways. 1) The first level is large and sprawling, but most areas look the same. Most other areas seem very maze-y and aren't interesting to navigate. Very few landmarks to know where you're going. No map, which only exacerbates the issue. It's not game-breaking, but it makes traversal annoying. 2) No fast travel until later in the game or unless you grind for it. Not gonna spoil it, but this game desperately needs fast travel available form the start due to other poor design decisions, making this a huge pain point. You might be someone who dislikes fast travel and likes to explore instead; unfortunately there is literally 0 sense of exploration in this game. Nothing interesting to be found anywhere outside of main story progression. 3) Besides single-use items or items you have to find in the world or buy from secret shops, the only way to switch your character (shell) OR weapon is to run alllllll the way back to the middle of the starting area. This is so boring and wasteful. Imagine you wanted to change your weapon and armor in Dark Souls, but you had to run from the end of the Sens Fortress to the Fire link Shrine every time you wanted to change or upgrade something. That's literally what this game makes you do. If anyone tells you they enjoy that aspect of the game, they are lying and the rest of their opinion on the game should be immediately discarded. Starting the game with Fast Travel or allowing you to change weapons and armor at the "bonfire" ladies would fix the issue. EDIT: The main rebuttal seems to be "But you CAN change weapons and shells, you just gottta find the items in the world, or unlock a hidden shop then grind for the fast travel item!". Yeah, I know. That's bad game design. The simple act of changing weapons or changing characters in a game all about changing builds should not be locked behind missable/hidden items or crazy farming after you find a hidden shop.That's my whole point. 4) There are no healing items that spawn with you upon resurrection, only single use items you have to run around the world and collect. Issue: they are all on respawn timers, making the act of building up a collection of healing items really tedious. This is compounded by certain boss fights, where you MUST defeat the boss to leave the area. You may burn through your healing items and have no efficient way to gather more, other than literally standing by a mushroom for 2 mins until it respawns, rinse and repeat. EDIT: There is a trash health item you can buy a stock of, except it heals a small amount of health over 40 seconds AND removes your ability to parry or use weapon skills, gimping your combat. This game actively discourages healing, basically. Maybe you like that kind of thing. 5) Stupid progress decisions. Example, at a certain point in one of the dungeons, you are locked inside and prevented from leaving until you defeat the dungeon boss. Issue: No way to change character, weapon, or upgrade weapons without traveling back to the first area, which you are now prevented from doing. Get into this dungeon and realize you need a different character or wanna try a different weapon? Too bad. 6) Shells aren't different in any interesting ways ; It's a rearranging of stats. Choose a balanced fighter, a high stamina/low health fighter, a high health/low stamina fighter, or a guy that can parry more times than other fighters. The skill trees are mainly just passives and there's no reason to choose anyone other than the obvious best shell (stat wise). Pascals Wager does this idea much better, where the different characters all use different weapons with totally unique move sets, this is in addition to different stats. Also, the act of upgrading your shells is somewhat random since one of the two currencies you need to upgrade them is dropped randomly by enemies; this makes things like trying to farm enough to max out your shell THEN grind some more to buy the much-needed fast travel item a monumental annoyance. 7) There are a LOT of small corridors filled with LOTS of enemies. This game literally spams so many enemies at you in certain areas that you will literally get stunlocked to death in a corner if you try to run past them. I would fight them, but the enemies are generally boring and there are so many of them, you end up sprinting past them out of boredom. 8) The recharge indicator for your main defense ability (Harden) is in the bottom left of the screen. Your Resolve gauge, which basically allows you to parry a finite amount of times until it recharges again, is found in the bottom left corner but it is ALSO found on your character model. That is the proper way to do it. There needs to be a visual cue on your character model that says "Ok, you can block again". When you need to keep your eyes glued to the center of the screen, having to keep looking at an icon in the bottom corner so you know if you can block causes lots of frustrations and missed blocks. In this game, you fight boring enemies and lots of them, in same-y looking areas that mainly consists of corridors outside of the starting area. You will fight these boring enemies with boring weapons (some weapons moves are cool tbh but it doesn't fix the issue) that are generally so slow it makes DS2 look like Sonic the Hedgehog. You will use these boring weapons with boring characters that are all slight variations on the other characters with no meaningful or fun differences. You will grind for healing items on timers for no other reason than to waste your time. Out of boredom or frustration, you will want to switch between different characters and weapons, only to be put off by the idea of sprinting allll the way back to the starting area to make those changes. I could see giving this game a thumbs up with a lot of these issues still in place, but the way you can't change your weapon or character without a 3 mile run for a good portion/most of the game and the tedium of collecting healing items on a respawn timer is enough to drive even the most dedicated player mad. I'm glad there are people who enjoy the game, because there are a good handful of pros to be found within the game, but there's no point in talking about the pros when the cons smother them to the point of nonexistence. I doubt I will finish this game. If the game being pretty and having a single cool mechanic is enough to see past all the flaws, then by all means. I didn't exaggerate any of my complaints for dramatic effect. These issues will grate on you. The game starts off strong and quickly shows you how frustrating it is. That's my review. Take it or leave it.Show moreShow less
6.2 hours at review769 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
You can pet a catShow moreShow less
1.2 hours at review283 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Ok, I've seen a lot of mixed reviews for this and I genuinely understand why, because I have a lot of mixed feelings about it which I'll try and break down in this. I really think there's a lot to love about this game and for it to have come from a team of just 15 people is super impressive to me, however I am going to refund it because there are some glaring issues in certain elements. Pros: - This game draws on Souls as inspiration but rather than simply copy and pasting Souls mechanics, the devs put in some unique elements such as the "hardening" mechanic which acts as a timed block and I think works pretty well. - The hub in the early part of the game is really cool, providing a workbench with which you can upgrade your weapons with various materials you can find throughout the world. Not only that but here you interact with representations of different "shells" and weaponry which give you flashes of the area they can be found in. - The parry mechanic heals you on a successful riposte, I like this because it rewards good play. Worth mentioning now this will also be in the cons section; like I said mixed feelings. - The setting, worldbuilding, lore etc is really really good, I love the aesthetic and direction of this and will likely watch a playthrough of the game to learn more about it. - Respawning items! There are various healing items dotted throughout the game world that whilst limited in their capacity, do respawn on a timer, so you're never *really* going to run out. - You can pet the cat Cons: - Now I know I put the parry mechanic in the pros but I also have some gripes with it. For one it is kind of inconsistent with the timing being *extremely* tight, those of you with motor or reflex issues beware. Also it isn't very well explained that after successfully riposting an enemy you cannot do so again without use of an item that chips at your health or killing a bunch of enemies, which would be fine if it didn't render the mechanic useless in boss fights; this brings me on to my next point. - I only came across one boss fight outside of the tutorial and oh my god it was infuriating. They could turn on a dime and track you through your dodge and roll meaning you would consistently get hit by attacks. Their attacks had hit boxes that lingered for an unreasonably long time, and the worst offender is that pretty much all of their moves are 3 or more hits which carry it all the way across the arena. It also swings faster than you can recover after getting hit, meaning if you get hit by one of its attacks you're getting hit by *all* of them; when each hit deals a quarter of your health and you have extremely limited healing this becomes a serious problem. - The graphical fidelity and art style are top notch, however, with my older PC I did find myself needing to turn the graphics down to medium in order to get consistent 60fps. This on its own is fine, I'm used to this and it's the nature of games progressing, totally fine. The problem comes in that when I turned the graphics down from High to Medium, it imposed a significant fog effect that genuinely wasn't far off the fog from early Silent Hill titles; this again would be fine if it didn't seriously impair my ability to see enemies and various pick-ups around the world. - The enemy pop-in; holy f*** this was infuriating. I'd be running around minding my own business and suddenly a big enemy would just fade-in out of of nowhere and smack me for half my health before I even had time to react. tldr: Lots to like about this game but also some really glaring issues in some of its design and performance. Whilst I'm going to refund the game I would happily come back to it if the issues with it got fixed. This is honestly a really impressive game for a studio of just 15 to put out, and I'll be following them closely to see what they put out next.Show moreShow less
2 hours at review489 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
---{Story}--- ☐ Doesnt have (Not counting historical stuff) ☐ Something isnt nothing I guess ☑️ Not greatly told ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ Will make you cry or smile a lot ---{Gameplay}--- ☐ Try not to get addicted ☐ Very good ☑️ Good ☐ Nothing special ☐ Ehh ☐ Bad ☐ Just dont ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☑️ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ Insanity ---{Graphics}--- ☐ You forget reality ☐ Masterpiece ☑️ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Will do ☐ Bad ☐ Awful ☐ Pixel art ---{Audio}--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑️ Decent ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ Earrape ---{Audience}--- ☐ Kids ☐ Teens ☑️ Adults ☐ Everyone ---{PC Requirements}--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☐ Decent ☑️ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{Difficulity}--- ☐ Just press a bunch of buttons ☐ Easy ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Not so easy ☐ Difficult ☑️ Mortal Shell ☐ Dark Souls ---{Game Time}--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of tea ☑️ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☐ Depends on you ☐ Endless ---{Price}--- ☐ Just buy it ☐ Worth the price ☑️ Wait for sale ☐ Maybe if you have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ Dont throw money into a rubbish bin ---{Bugs}--- ☐ Never had any ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Few bugs ☑️ Can get annoying ☐ Ruining the game ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☑️ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10Show moreShow less
35.7 hours at review282 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
This game starts like a masterpiece. At the beginning everything feels right for a dark souls fan: - gloomy dark fantasy setting - checked - atmospheric castle with very enigmatic npcs - checked - spot on super dark and brilliant voice casting - checked - creepy village opponents and beasts - checked - Dark Ambient Gloomy soundtrack by Atrium Carceri - checked - After few encounters with enemies this feeling - "my god that is hard I need to GID GUD" - checked Also something new that tells you this isnt just another dark souls copy - Interesting concept with shells - checked - Hardening mechanics and overall quite different fighting system - checked - NO bonfires - checked - No fast travel - checked - No estus flask - checked BUT... Then you bite into the game and shortly after you realise it suffers from many problems. A lot of things you initially thought were brilliant turn out to be flat and boring. As soon as you get the hang of things (by exploring some of the starting map and getting used to combat) you begin to realise that the game's world is really small and similar... This game suffers from not interesting maps (which feel and look the same), the same enemies over and over again and very unchanging combat system. You also get an option to turn on the mist. If you turn the world to be misty you will not see much and will have trouble to explore PLUS you will face the same type of enemy over and over again. At the beginning you thought this game is hard (during first few fights) - BUT it only takes you like 5 minutes to perfect hardening mechanism which makes this game like super easy. Hardening is like blocking in DS but better. Much better. OVERPOWERED. As soon as you get this right the game will be piece of cake. I did beat almost every boss the first try. With 1 or 2 exceptions bosses are uninteresting and just repeat few attacks over and over again so you learn whole of their move set during the first try. The only boss I had to repeat once was a final boss because I came in unprepared without any healing items and his health is massive. The fight lasted for like 20 minutes. He also is the only boss who has a little more phases and variety (but not by much). So now a little bit more on the fighting system. It seems very repetitive and slow after some time so my advise is if you want to try this game dont just use one shell and one weapon. Try all weapons and at least few shells for better variety. I was bored out of my mind with using hammer and chisel and the big hammer but as soon as I changed to the big sword fighting started to be interesting a little bit more for a while. Also I think this game tries to be too dark and too gloomy to the point that it makes dark souls look like a happy place. So the most grid I have with this game is lack of variety. Maps and places you visit feel the same. There are just few kinds of enemies. Few shells. Few weapons. And the game is very short which in my opinion isnt a bad thing. I was happy it ended fast. Will I give it another go? Definitely NO in this state. I am not going into NG+ and I am not chasing achievements (which are pretty hard to get and there is a lot of them for such a tiny game). But if they release DLC or Mortal Shell 2 I will definitely give it a go. This is a small studio that just started with souls game so maybe they will take what was good in Mortal Shell and will deliver better experience next time around.Show moreShow less
17 hours at review463 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
I initially found my way to this game from some negative comments I heard from a well known souls streamer, and grabbed it on sale, expecting very little from it. However, after a couple of playthroughs, I have concluded this is actually a very solid souls-like with a unique style of its own that you wont find in a Fromsoft game. Firstly, the combat - It can be a bit clunky and unintuitive, but once you become proficient with the harden ability and adapt to the flow of combat, it is a great deal of fun. Some of the weapon abilities truly made me laugh with glee in a way I never did in 200 hours of Elden Ring. For example, the hammer and chisel has a special attack where your character, with great flair, throws up the chisel and strikes it with the hammer, propelling it as a ranged weapon at your target. If it kills the enemy, it will ragdoll its model through the air and pin it to the wall, where it hilariously hangs there for your amusement. Each of the weapons has 2 such unique abilities that are a joy to use, from an AOE fire groundslam, to enchanting your weapon with ice. You can further supplement build variety by using 4 different "shells", which act to alter the playstyle as related to stamina, health, speed and a variation of unique abilities. Some shells are best suited to particular weapons, and discovering how to best use each one is a fun challenge. Yet probably the best feature of the game is the mood and atmosphere it presents, especially in the main hub area, Fallgrim. A marshy forest filled with brigands strumming their loots, frogs croaking from ponds, and a general sense of melancholy, the mood of this region alone rivals anything that Dark Souls has produced. Even after I had passed the game, i wandered aimlessly about Fallgrim for quite some time, merely enjoying the ambiance. The 3 areas that connect to Fallgrim are less impressive, but they do have their own completely different atmosphere and identity that I nevertheless enjoyed greatly. The main negative is that the game is quite short, with a normal first playthrough coming in at under 10 hours. My suggestion - throw it on your wishlish and grab it half price, it is a very solid experience that you wont regret.Show moreShow less
23.8 hours at review276 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
The quick and dirty review is that they tried to emulate Dark Souls, but somehow took all the wrong lessons from the game and didn't seem to actually grasp any of the subtleties of what makes it great. Let's jump into some more details on the game's own merit (rather than as a comparison to other games), but first, a note about myself. I'm a long-time player and fan of the soulsborne series, having started with Demon's and with around 5k hours of playtime across the full series. I'm also someone who has an education in game design, for whatever extra nugget of legitimacy that may grant. I was interested in Mortal Shell from early on, but trepidatious at how little hitstun seemed to play a factor in the early footage presented, and now that I've finally spent a solid amount of time feeling out the game's systems, I've come to the conclusion that it has a few fatal flaws and a whole host of inconveniences. I also don't own the DLC, as I'm not interested in the alternate game mode. First, and most importantly, the game rewards the wrong things. This is present in so many facets of the game, but let's focus on combat. The game presents three defensive options in the form of Harden, Parry, and Dodge. Harden is an awesome concept, allowing you to defend against a single incoming blow without sacrificing your offensive momentum. The problem is many enemies are not staggered by it (allowing them to still hit you as a result of multi-attack chains), or even worse, some can outright ignore it and damage you regardless of being Hardened. It is only situationally reliable, and requires blatant trial and error to find out when it won't work. Parry is massively powerful if you have Resolve to spend, but requires timing (which seemed a bit inconsistent for me at times, so the window must be rather small) and doesn't work against most enemies' biggest attacks. Your parrying instrument flashes bright red and makes a brief noise during the startup frames of any unparryable attacks, but you may have trouble noticing that as the ranged weapon on your back completely obscures the visual cue while locked on and the game's ambient music is nonstop violence against the player's ear. Oh, and if you don't have resolve, a successful parry either puts your opponent into a second of stun or puts you BOTH into a second of stun (giving you no reward for successfully executing it), depending on the attack you successfully parried. Once again, situational in usefulness, and has the highest skill requirement of use among the three options. Dodging gives you full invulnerability from everything, costs some stamina, and can be cancelled into a second dodge roll for additional distance coverage. The stamina cost makes it not a terribly reliable option while using low stamina shells, but if you're using a shell with moderate or better stamina, you'll quickly find that dodging out of the enemy's range is completely risk free and almost always gives you an opportunity to punish with your heavy attack (that has significant forward momentum), which can then safely be dodge cancelled again. Interestingly, this strategy works against everything I ran up against - whether mobs of any size or bosses - and also has the added benefit of exploiting every single enemy's paper thin AI process. It isn't even stamina intensive, as there's often enough time between when you dodge away and actually get an opening to punish that your stamina completely refills. The last half of my playtime was spent doing that exact same sequence of dodge, wait for the end of the attack chain, punish with heavy attack, dodge cancel back and repeat. It actively sucks the fun out of encounters when they are all addressed the exact same tedious way with no regard for having to learn anything more than "when are the breaks between enemy attack chains". I learned neat skills, upgraded my shells with new passives, got various bonus riposte effects I could swap between for parries...and yet, the most effective way to play was to actively ignore all of that and just keep using the same old tired pattern that flawlessly worked against every enemy and boss. Why bother with putting in the effort of learning how to play better when you can use the zero effort, zero skill, universally applicable answer to everything? Second, let's talk about the environment layout and pathing. The environments are aesthetically distinct between stages, but often lack obvious landmarks for easy mental mapping within a stage, and frequently reinforce the player with a message of "don't bother with exploring" as there's often either nothing to be found, or a secret item that's just a run-of-the-mill junk item that has little value. The trouble is, they do occasionally (about once or twice per map) have one actually important hidden item nestled in somewhere amidst all the vast emptiness and trash consumables. It sends very conflicting signals, as if they want you to explore every nook and cranny of their world, but don't believe they should actually reward it 90% of the time. The other bizarre aspect is that, for most of the game's stage design being on rails, there are shockingly few shortcuts to reward successful navigation through objectives and encounters. To further stack upon this, enemies can't correctly navigate the stages. They will frequently get stuck on geometry or simply walk themselves into corners because they're trying to walk a straight line to the player instead of actually recognizing the path they need to traverse to reach you. This wildly reinforces just running through the stage, ignoring enemies to quickly rush down objectives without expending resources (such as healing items), which once again encourages player behavior of NOT engaging with the game (which loops back into the first point). The final point is the lack of motivation they give the player. You are presented with a comical quantity of cryptic item and shell lore that seems to relate to various aspects of this bleak and pointless world, but absolutely zero narrative motivation to actually progress through the game content. The most you get is a giant bird-like prisoner asking you to bring it nectar, so that it might get free. That is legitimately your sole narrative direction to keep playing for some sort of implied payoff... except the payoff isn't even for you in the first place? Unlocking the various shells and weapons is only hinted at by a montage of 2-3 visual flashes of environment that you're intended to follow. There's not any narrative binding any of this, falling into the trap of just expecting the player to keep playing for the world lore snippets (which don't paint a particularly engaging story or offer any motivating drive) or the gameplay loop itself (which, we've already established actively encourages the player to ignore most of the content). As a result, I found myself not motivated enough to complete the entire game. There are a host of other minor things that could be addressed, such as enemy poise reinforcing the no-skill combat loop, lack of meaningful difference between weapon movesets, reinforced behavior of spending time farming tar/glimpses/mushrooms, having to use items to find out what they do (including items that have outright negative effects), not being able to swap weapons in the field until you've completed an entire leg of the game, or locking the sole quick travel item in a shop that's only accessible after you've fully mastered a shell. Ultimately though, these are all minor inconsiderations of design and pale in comparison to the big three flaws listed above.Show moreShow less
12.2 hours at review381 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.