re: Mortal Shell II

Are you playing at night?

Yeah the enemy variety is a noticeable issue later, the same solider guys and exploding elemental zombie types. And yes the bottom half of hte map is less interesting than the top, the bottom doesn't even feel particular cohesive, just like an assortment of islands and the islands have generic castles and stuff.

I've outscaled the danger at this point, I'm more likely to die from falling off cliffs than by mobs.

As I said earlier, the shell abilities all get a little bit too good so you can easily roll suff.

This is a common issue with a lot of souls games though, I think they balance hte game aroudn people not having that many upgrades or levels but if you're upgraidng and leveling and finding items by being htrouhoug you get oP quick.

I've got one major area left ont he main map and then I'm sure they'll be some endgame sorta finale area or boss.

I'ts a good game and I've enjoyed it, despite the issues that you run into deeper into the game.

I'm in the endgame area now and I actually love it. Every mob or room being a threat to kill you actually keeps things tense, sure it would have been better if they had been new enemies, but the threat still makes the fighting exciting again.

The final gate boss I fought and all the bosses I've run across in the endgame are kicking my arse.

I had gotten extremely lazy and winning most of the boss fights the back half of the game by brute force. Had enough heal charges and did enough damage I could just spam attacks and abilities, dodge around little bit and win the fight by attrition rather than mastering the mechanics. The last few bosses are forcing me to actually engage with the boss and their mechanics to win. It's amazing how much my enjoyment level soared upwards again with challenge. It really is the single most important ingredient in the Soulslike formula.

Will probably finish the game here in the next day or two. Will probably take some time off and do another playthrough, still trying to decide if going to do full Night Mode on a fresh playthrough or on a NG+ playthorugh.

quote:

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One thing I don’t like is that some regular bosses you can kill with 4-5 hits

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Yes, there are a ton of filler bosses.

A pack of trash mobs pretending to be a boss, we'll call that Dark Souls 2'iteius is in this game hard, they resue that at least 5-6 times.

Most minibosses in the 2nd half of the game are woefully undertuned in HP. If you've been upgrading your weapon at all you melt them. That's what I was talking about earlier about winning fights mathetmatically rather than mastering the mechanics.

What's interesting though, is the late game bosses have been brutal for me. It's a seismic shift in difficulty. They have huge HP pools, hit hard, and very aggressive and demand expert parrying or dodging. There are cheese builds people have discovered that own everything, but if you are a normal player the four bosses in the final endgame area are gonna rock your shite.

I've gotten three of them down and am now on the 4th and final one. it's an exceptionally odd fight. They gave him a massive health pool so you have to hit him a ton, and 90% of his attacks are trivally easy to deal with but he has a few that are basically just instant death and it's very easy to get caught in one if you're not ready or if you get unlucky. It feels like it was designed to be a marathon with a bunch of cheap deaths which is a choice. I appreciate the final boss being a major challenge though. Often times Souls games have a ceremonial final boss that is trivial.

I can consistently get him to 30% but his second phase seems impossible to deal with. I think I have a strategy that will work I'm gonna try later. I refuse to use summons though. I'll play it for days if I have to.

Dude fuvk this last boss and the ring of fire. I’m about to rage delete

Edit: Got the secret item to do it but F that

This game is sick

Glad it's optional. I kinda dislike adaptive difficulties because the game is essentially cheating to keep you progressing at a consistent pace and adjusts if you are ahead or behind that pace. I think progress should be earned and if you are skilled you should be allowed to progress faster. It also can be a crutch for game designers to not worry about balance, because anything undertuned or overtuned smooths itself you.

It's sort of how I dislike when games put a gazillion difficulty sliders in a bunch of different elements for the same reason. I don't want to build my own experience anymore than when I go into a restaurant do I want them to hand me a pile of ingredients.