Ranking the Mortal Shell Bosses from Worst to Best

Mortal Shell Review ➤ • Mortal Shell Review - ...
Top 10 Best Soulslike Games ➤ • Top 10 Best Soulslike ...
Twitch ➤ / thedemodcracy
Top 10 Best Soulslike Bosses ➤ • Top 10 Best Soulslike ...
I'm finally all moved into my new apartment and office which means videos are back on the menu! Kicking things off with the Mortal Shell ranking, today I'll be ranking the best and worst bosses in Mortal Shell. Though I loved my time with the game, I wouldn't say bosses are Mortal Shell's strong suit. There are still some solid bits here and there throughout the fights with Crucix the Twiceborn, Hadern, The Unchained, Tarsus the First Marytr, Ven Noctivagu, and more, so I hope you enjoy!
I'll be back very soon with a surprise ranking. Also still at work finishing up the Ghost of Tsushima review, plus hotly debating whether I want to do coverage of the upcoming Avengers game. Subscribe to stay tuned for all of that, and I hope you all are staying safe and well. Cheers!

[@thejohnhopkinscompany9599]

*Sees a boss ranking on a game I have never played "Ah yes. Yes this is what I will watch today."

[@murdoch1023]

same lol

[@theDeModcracy]

Love it - hope you enjoyed the ranking! I highly recommend Mortal Shell if you have an opportunity to play it

[@DecimatedSoul]

@@theDeModcracy haven't played yet but I'm a souls Vet and I'm just gonna wait to preorder the Physical tomorrow

[@youngfire221]

@@theDeModcracy yea i don't eredrim cheese enemies because it ruins the game

[@jellykurshchev242]

Just like me for ds games

[@ravenatort]

I know Mortal Shell’s team is small, but I really hope they get bigger and make a top tier game on their next go around. Great vid, Demod!

[@angryskeleton5676]

Mortal Shell is already flawed masterpiece tier imo, similar to the first Dark Souls. All the pieces are there, they only need better level and boss design and a longer play time to elevate this IP to Soulsborne levels of quality.

[@ravenatort]

Angry Skeleton Exactly!

[@sophisticatedfrog5737]

@@angryskeleton5676 I'm sorry but what the hell is even good about the game if level and boss design is bad? That's literally the main reason why dark souls is considered so good. Dark souls with bad level and boss design is barely a mediocre game which mortal shell really is

[@benma1116]

Ден4ик he didn’t say it’s bad. He said it needs to be better. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad

[@angryskeleton5676]

@@sophisticatedfrog5737 Core mechanics, the shell system, hardening, empowered ripostes, the way you can mix and match the light and heavy attacks in any pattern and it will still look natural and fluid. Aesthetics, lore and atmosphere. The way you can become absurdly strong to the point where you are the boss. The focus on tanking hits and being slower and methodical vs the blistering speed that other games in the genre have tried to emulate. Way more than boss and level design goes into these games, and Mortal Shell does all those things very well.

[@gruggerduggerhoose]

“Nudist plague doctor chicken wing.” Ahh yes, the commentary we all subscribed for lol

[@Angry945]

Imagine the real final boss was an NPC as Eredrim...

[@bretth342]

Or to truly ascend you must beat doppelganger of whatever you used to kill the Unchained One immediately after. So the easier the first fight is with your setup the harder the second will be.

[@lizardlad279]

@@bretth342 actually sounds awesome

[@pastesir3025]

that's the final boss of the virtuous cycle

[@PrimalDragon1740]

@@pastesir3025 Or at least part of it.

[@richardjared960]

(Laughs) I’m in danger

[@crab-time1]

This game, especially for their first attempt and for being such a small studio, is extremely good and although it's short compared to the Souls games, it scratches the itch (for now) for a Souls-like that feels fair and fun. The bosses are mostly underwhelming, but the combat is so fun that it makes up for it (for me anyways). I hope that Mortal Shell 2 extends the length of the game and uses the parameters for quality bosses such as Enslaved Grisha and Tarsus to create an even more amazing experience.

[@mrjrb561]

No reason they can't do DLC's that add new areas, shells, and weapons. Heck, we have Gorf and a couple NPCs that could ship us off to wherever for extra story.

[@vincenzo4314]

A lot of people probably noticed this but I noticed Hadern is just the word Harden with the R switched around

[@wreath626]

The game screams new mechanics at you in secret lol

[@slowhite1706]

I actually didn’t even notice that his name wasn’t Harden. I’m an idiot.

[@reviewreviews5908]

Hadern is also a germam word. And the meaning shows haha

[@slowhite1706]

zero well, I’m not smart enough to know German but thanks for the trivia friend!

[@AllsinRatrotted2]

And Gorf is just Frog backwards

[@LilMrPizza]

I'm so glad you mentioned the Crucix second phase cutscene. That shit is DMC1 dark soul with light level of laughable.

[@TheAphexTim]

I thought I was having a stroke when that happened

[@matheuscruz8574]

It was weird but accurately conveyed what was going through the boss' head

[@Gary_a_normal_human_being]

@@matheuscruz8574 I felt kinda bad for him

[@yadamspiezer]

Eredrim wasn't any more OP than Solomon with the constant resolve build up, or tiel with endless stamina and poison healing. It's not that Eredrim specifically made the game too easy, it's that any upgraded shell made the game laughably easy.

[@noamias4897]

Yeah I found Tiel to absolutely busted. I got poisoned on purpose to heal up, spammed sprint into an R2 attack into sprinting away again throughout most of the game and died more times to Grisha than I did to any other boss after I got Tiel.

[@ryanlafferty5815]

I think the harden mechanic itself makes the game really easy once you get used to it

[@ryanlafferty5815]

@@noamias4897 tiel is most fun to play but getting one shot by late game enemies can be infuriating, Solomon can spam special attacks late game with high resolve

[@phrozac]

I actually really enjoyed The Unchained boss fight. Those shadow minions in the whirlpool were a pain on my first Obsidian Dark run.

[@zed6740]

I honestly feel like I'm in the minority here because this boss is also my favorite. His presentation (intro), his very well telegraphed attacks, his large health pool, unique phases, unique design, unique attacks, and unique setting all make for a very well done yet challenging final boss.

[@ungobungo9844]

@@zed6740 i agree 100%, i was expecting him, crucix, and martyr to be top 3. However this might also be because i played as tiel with the hollow sword. I found that in every fight i never used the “wait and bait” strategy which is mentioned here. Instead i relied on rolls and well timed hardens throughout lengthy engagements (due to the HUGE stamina pool). And with the experience from that playthrough of the game, it’s 100% one of my favourite souls-like games.

[@zed6740]

@@ungobungo9844 Exactly, for OP it might be his least favorite because he relied on the "wait and bait" ractic instead of being nore aggressive which imo is usually the better route if your expecting a challenege.

[@craig71686]

I feel like The Unchained was the best boss. He had the largest health bar and variety of attacks. However, I think the Eredrim buff makes him overpowered. Even using him with the buff capped at 100, he still tears through enemies. I just played through the game using Tiel because I prefer his mobility.

[@phrozac]

@@craig71686 I agree! I actually did an Obsidian form run and killed him no hit. Here's a video of a Tiel run where I ALMOST got a no hit. I think I got touched 2 or 3 times. Super fun fight. I like the rhythm. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHSclYR9fq1krKM&ab_channel=phrozac

[@amirnazir4200]

The notification for this made me almost as excited as when I heard you mention your planned 40 minute Ghost of Tsushima video... (also quality rankings > difficulty rankings any day of the week imo)

[@doolenny9458]

Depends on game tho I usually prefer quality ranking because I love to hear his opinions more then what kicked his ass

[@theDeModcracy]

Glad you're loving the quality rankings! I enjoy doing difficulty, but I think it's only particularly great when the game is really difficult and creates a big discussion around it. I'm working hard on the Ghosts video, but I do have two other videos crossing my list at the same time (Avengers and a surprise ranking!)

[@TimsGamesDoneHard]

If only Eredrim wasn't so broken :P By the way, the damage you take when you drop into the Crucix fight can be negated with that ability that all shells get, the plunging attack when you harden. And if you go with no shell, the devs allowed no fall damage if you harden in mid air. So it's not guaranteed damage, they just expected you to get that ability by the time you're at the fight. Other than that, I mostly agree with this ranking. I think Unchained wasn't worse than Ven because I liked the spectacle of the big boss and many copies of yourself. But definitely a slog of a fight. Tarsus is definitely my favorite boss with Enslaved Grisha and Imrod not far behind. By the way, a Shell-less run is pretty fun with its infinite stamina, would recommend if you ever return to the game.

[@alanmartinez2122]

The no shell run made me frustrated with at least one move for each boss, imrod's fire breath that kept hitting the burn effect even if i dodged, the crucix turtle and shoot attack, tarkus's tracking and erratic quick attacks in the second phase and the unchained's head being able to hurt you for knocking him down

[@TimsGamesDoneHard]

@@alanmartinez2122 I would have been frustrated by all these things if I hadn't already watched several speedruns of the game and learned the proper way to deal with each of these issues. It's easier said than done, but it's very helpful and makes the fights far more enjoyable as Shell-less. For Imrod's fire you just need to harden in place and wait for the fire breath to stop, dodging away will lead to you needing to roll in circles for a while but it won't kill you so long as keep rolling. Tarsus is just about learning parry timings in first phase and using the explosive parry. For second phase you can keep sprinting to the right to bait the instant attack (which will miss if you're sprinting to the right) and parry the follow up. Crucix is about parry timings up close and abusing s using the weapon ability. Unchained is about positioning yourself to avoid the beak.

[@alanmartinez2122]

@@TimsGamesDoneHard agreed, i learned the hard way but i managed to beat them and get the platinum trophy, thanks for the tips thou, also idk if it's a glitch or intentional but has the unchained ever attacked you from below the water during the whirpool heal phase?

[@TimsGamesDoneHard]

@@alanmartinez2122 no, haven't had that happen, sounds like a bug, that's weird lol

[@alanmartinez2122]

@@TimsGamesDoneHard yeah it always caught me off guard when it happened so i couldn't see properly but it looked a bit like the attack where he slides along the ground towards you

[@Vernafveik]

Frozone finally found his Super Suit, and a Greatsword to match

[@stabcityblues5264]

On my first play through I accidentally skipped the tower and went to fight enslaved grisha and Tarsus without any upgrade/parry. Man did I learn how to do Tarsus no hit. Then the gland run is just pure cancer without the seal.

[@draw2death421]

Same here thats why Hes my 2nd faivorite boss number 1 being The unchained

[@HexenStar]

Even without the seal, you are not defenseless: you can still harden. Using harden mechanics well is way more important than parry. Defeating Tarsus does not require parrying, nor does any other boss fight. You can slash though the entire game hassle-free, while not parrying almost anything.

[@madelynn7585]

I personally totally agree with your list! I would only put the unchained up as my second favorite boss and I would put crucix above enslaved grisha. The reason for this is because I have done a no-shell, obsidian dark run, and have had to master the all the bosses perfectly as to not take ANY damage. And the unchained took me like 20 tries and crucix took me around 20 as well. But I love the way the unchained moves and how aggressive you have to be. I had to learn all of his tells and attacks and it was an exhilarating and challenging battle. The only thing I don’t like is how he summons his minions. On my winning attempt, I was so aggressive that he never summoned them, which allowed me to win. Anyway I love your videos and have been waiting to see a mortal shell list from you for a long time! Great video!

[@largemonkey]

I definitely respect your opinion about the unchained. But for me, I just can’t get over the visual design and atmosphere, for those regards, he’s actually my favorite boss in the game. I do see how the ganks and massive healthpool could bring the fight down, though.

[@darkkonoha5865]

But for actual mechanics design, he's an easy 0/10. He has nothing but adds and cheese attacks, and he's still piss easy. The dev team really failed super hard with the final boss

[@iforgot383]

as a final boss the fight is sooo boring, 90% of this games bosses are boring but the combat system is amazing.

[@draw2death421]

I like the fight because of the ganks and the waves it makes my adrelanine go up but the martyr is my 2nd faiforite. Dark fathers fight is Very atmospheric wich I like definetly my faivorite among them all

[@theDeModcracy]

This is a great point I should've mentioned. It reminded me a ton of Rom from Bloodborne though, so a part of me felt like "I've been here before." That lessened the impact a bit, even if the comparison isn't entirely 1 for 1

[@darkkonoha5865]

@@theDeModcracy The comparison isn't even accurate because Rom is hard. Other than the fact that this game has 0 even remotely difficult bosses, all of the boss attacks are dreadfully easy to punish. It's a giant fight against a health bar. It's super boring on Obsidian Dark, since it's easy but you know if you make a mistake, you just wasted a minimum of 5 minutes.

[@FishCow]

I dunno - I thought the combination of Solomon with Hammer and Chisel was pretty broken - but a ton of resolve spamming fun :)

[@enderkahn1018]

The light resolve attack is so broken that I literally destroy enemies and bosses with it. Not to mention it counts as an AOE as well so just adding to its affect

[@noamias4897]

From this comment section it seems everything is broken/abusable

[@sagetheweeb2154]

Shedding your shell to t-pose into the big black square in the sky.....sounds awesome

[@Kevin-zz9du]

DEFINITELY want more of this world. Love the lore, the atmosphere, and the great gameplay. Could be expanded on greatly. Mortal Shell 2 could easily be on par with the best of Dark Souls. Just needs a bit more polishing.

[@HexenStar]

Vice versa. Dark Souls needs more polishing to be on par with Mortal Shell.

[@nightguardian7198]

This is years late but just a side note for the crucix fight, you can avoid fall damage at the start of you have the hardening in the air ability :)

[@Roland3ld]

I loved the Twice-Born fight because of the phase transition. To me the camera shake reflected his deteriorating mental state after having lost his brother.

[@hydroshock1853]

Or Cold Symmetry is still learning. But I thought that at first too, we felt him going mad. I honestly felt like a jerk killing his conjoined brother/self.

[@SINE382]

What I’ve realized about this game. With no reason to grind up or level up most enemies are just a step around in the levels and you can avoid them and go straight to the bosses

[@badgasaurus4211]

Basically. They offer no unique items so there isn’t really any point in killing them. Also items you find are generally trash consumables and other than the glimpses aren’t worth the time because the game isn’t hard enough to justify their use

[@HexenStar]

The best thing about Mortal Shell's bosses - is that you can beat most of them in under 5 tries. And if you're playing as Solomon - and especially Eredrim, - then the dark-souls-ish cheap kills by the game are out of the question. Which is, of course, very gracious of Cold Symmetry to include this dynamic duo. Other than that, the bosses here seem to have been clearly inspired by ESPN: you have the NFL guy, the NHL guy (is that boss a canadian?), the track & field guy...and the kaiju version of a mutated Michael Phelps (give or take). I am rooting for a sequel!

[@moonlight2870]

I REALLY disagree with the mindset that "easy means boring".

[@raminahmed4476]

A fight can be very engaging but not that hard, however I think what he meant was that it would be so easy that there's no real challenge, which makes it boring. When you can kill the boss quickly and easily, it kind of does feel like it was not an engaging boss fight. There's also the super tanky but easy to hit boss fights that are easy and boring, because they take so long to kill. Although, I do want to play mortal shell and see for myself, but the general idea that easy can be boring, but is not always boring, is the more modified version.

[@HexenStar]

I REALLY second that :-)

[@sammorgan-plant8022]

I love this game it’s something to keep me going until the next true souls title. Also with Crucix if you harden as you hit the ground it negates all damage.

[@FishCow]

indeed

[@SpartanPrimeDSTY117]

Nice touch with Sister Friede's theme for the #1 spot.

[@andressagredo1509]

I again will recommend you replay the game. They capped the killstreak to 100. This means you can get a max of +10 damage added. With this patch, I felt that Solomon was the strongest since he kept getting resolve for free.

[@elcotonex9016]

I thought Crucix was the most interesting of the Revered. Imrod was absolutely pathetic, he just stood around and let me wail on him with the hammer and chisel, killed him first try.

[@ZeGamerBoy]

Great video Demod! I agree with most of your ranking hierarchy. I would've ranked the Unchained higher in my own boss ranking though. I did play differently, where I played as Solomon and used the hollow blade instead of tanking with Eredrim, but I found that his move set had enough variety to separate itself from Imron, Hadern and Crucix. Maybe this was due to all of his moves being stuffed into one stage as opposed to two separate health bars with an obvious deviation from the first stage, but I had him in a top three honestly. But, it's not my video lol. Again, Good stuff and I look forward to when you cover Demon Souls!

[@arthur0491]

Finished it last night and I feel the same way about the rankings, maybe moving the unchained 1 spot up. Broken as Eredrim was I could never get past his low stamina so I played the whole game with Solomon and hollowed sword which I felt was the most balanced of the weapons. Alright game, hope they make more, better stuff.

[@Ballandkoolaid]

I definitely knew going into this tarsus would be number 1

[@665Sunshine]

I know this is really late. But I just finally played through the game. If you harden in the air when falling into Crucix’s arena, you don’t take fall damage.

[@alexgomezsilva2673]

I can recomend you to play as harros or tiel Harros is the master of hardening, his stamina recovers faster while hardened, so the battles are more dynamic as you attack, harden, dodge, without having to wait anything. You have full stamina or hardening power almost all the time and if you have none of those bars full you can use your weapon power to not only deal great damage but also to some attacks and recover Tiel is more of a combo master, he is less harden and more dodge, you attack and deal more damage and poison damage at the risk of not having a great HP bar, but you can use wisely your stamina to deal a lot of damage or dodge an attack, here your weapon powers ain't something you aim for, it's more about combos

[@greywolf9341]

I find the Solomon +martyr's blade combo a bit odd. I only used the heavy weapons with Tiel or Harros. The solomon + hammer chisel combo was my preferred choice because of the amount of resolve he generates.

[@oggabooga2946]

you can avoid the fall damage at the start of the crucix twice born fight by hardening

[@Booya456]

Why does it seem that everyone that has played this game didn't figure out from the "forced fall" ,before the twin boss, that you use the drop down harden ability to survive ANY fall. I never had an issue with that even on my first play through xD

[@itsyaboiguzma]

And here I am just laughing like a psychopath while maining Tiel shell and hollow blade because poison on parry is an addiction and being able to sprint forever is a godsend.

[@Darkheart1413]

I think the only issue with mortal shells bosses is they just aren’t aggressive enough, and there patterns are easily learnable. To me they had great designs, great arenas. Good varied amount of moves could of done with a few more. But yeh they seem real intimidating at first but if you played souls like many mortal shell fans players have. The moves become very predictable. Think they could of just benefitted from a bit more speed and aggression. I still enjoyed all the fights

[@boredomkiller99]

Definitely needed more aggression. I mean they are still better then 70% of DS2 bosses and quite a few of DS1. Most of them would actually make good bosses in early souls games but with Hardening and weapon arts the bosses not being aggressive just benefits the player so much in Mortal Shell.

[@Darkheart1413]

boredomkiller99 After my third playthrough of dark souls 1 I realised how easy a lot of the bosses in that game can be. As with dark souls 2 many bosses also quite easy, but some (mainly dlc) are amazing. Thats right I’m talking about you Ser Allone

[@TheOpethOfMastodon]

Regardless,these bosses make the bosses in Surge look like masterpieces

[@citizenerased174]

I really want to like this game but it's really hard when it feels janky and slow plus the level design is waayy more overwhelming than any souls game. I guess I'll keep trying until I like it. I gave DS2 so many chances at first but quit everytime until one day I forced myself to get passed the first few areas. I finally ended up liking it so maybe it will be the same for Mortal Shell.

[@thedanantenna]

the problem with that is that Mortal Shell ends before you get a chance to like it.

[@crysosisback7115]

Same here, liked the beginning, hate the mid game and the exploration of the main map as it's pretty annoying to travel killing the same enemies over and over But i did like the end of the game, with the world changing (even tho there's only 1 type of enemies in the fog world), as well as the ice boss and last boss. Also, the healing system is dogshit. You can abuse it but it's a choir, or you can run out and just curse at your screen how annoying that is ... No wonder the Estus flask is such a good system in Dark Souls, takes a few souls game to truly grasp that ... Tracking on projectile also is shit, as they're basically homing missile, which doesn't feel good to deal with. Overall, the game is beautiful, but i would've loved it to look worse and play better, with a bit more animation canceling to remove the clunkiness of it all. Still decent overall, i've seen much worse.

[@phrozac]

I love Mortal Shell. The Fallgrim forest is very confusing at first since it all appears rather samey, but you eventually start to recognize landmarks. And the game only feels slow when you're just learning how to play, much like Souls did. It's only weakness is its length. I want a 2 or 3x bigger sequel to this game. If that were announced, it'd shoot right to the top of my most wanted list right next to Demon's Souls Remake and Elden Ring.

[@citizenerased174]

@@crysosisback7115 I think I have just been spoiled by the quality of Fromsoft games that everything else is just mediocre in comparison. Jedi Fallen Order is a pretty good souls like though. I do commend the dev team of Mortal Shell because it does seem like a passion project but with their limitations it just falls short. I hope I can find enjoyment in it down the road.

[@crab-time1]

Fallgrim can be a bit confusing at first, especially with the lack of variety in the scenery or landmarks to mark important areas, but the temple areas beyond that are pretty straight forward. It might be just me, but I personally kinda like how straight forward and short the areas can be. It's kind of a breath of fresh air imo. The entire game is much more straight forward than dark souls, and I love and appreciate the strengths between the two game ideas. I'm only about 6hr in and I'm in the final area of the game, so it's unfortunately pretty short and I truly started to understand and enjoy it after finishing the first of the three temples.

[@orc001]

You should really do a Harros and Hammer/Chisel playthrough. It is by far the most aggressive and fun style I have found. OP if you upgrade the Hammer all the way, but the low HP keeps it balanced. It is much much more fun. I gotta say, it is really tough to listen to you trash these bosses and watch you use two boring OP builds. Eredrim being basically a story-mode difficulty build with full stacks, and The Scholar just being a weapon art spamfest. I will agree that the Tarsus Ice Boss is my favorite, I just wish it hadn't been my first main boss with an un-upgraded shell and weapon, which made it a long slog.

[@SomeAustrianGuy_]

Did my shell less run a couple of days back. Thought Crucix would by far be the biggest road block of the entire run, dear god was I wrong. The Unchained was by far the biggest and buggiest pile of scrapped together metal I have encountered in a long time. Seriously, the healing face that goes on way too long, the amount of untelegraphed attacks at his disposel, the constant keep away gamrle and by far the worst, the fact that he does damage while getting staggered Seriously, I was this close to throwing my overpriced piece of plastic controller through the goddamn window. It really hurt all the fun I had with the game up to this point. But my god was it satisfying to finally rip his glance out All in all, solid 3/10 boss, I never want to see him ever again

[@Krakenjackz]

I was waiting for this. Nice vid man

[@derekcampbell4209]

For me the games strengths were just going through the levels. None of the bosses were that challenging. Martyr was the only one I didn’t get first try, got him my second attempt. And I died like a moron during the Unchained fight cause after a minute was confused where he was and jumped into the whirlpool Lmao. But got him my second attempt. Overall decent game and only 30 bucks. Well worth it.

[@cinder392]

Perspective is truly a weird thing... I actually enjoyed A LOT the unchained boss fight. In my first run i fought him with a maxed out solomon and a maxed out hammer and chisel... However it was a very long fight... But it was not tedious, it actually felt like an epic fight. Learning how to counter the waves and the several attacks in the most optimal way has been very enjoyable. When the whirlpool was formed i was SO confused and only at the end of it i realized it served to heal his hp... I felt like an idiot but it was so much fun. His boss fight is the only one in the game which left me with a fast heartbeat in the end, and that's a great thing for a final boss fight! Overall i'd say that the unchained is my favourite boss fight in the game (and after him, of course, the first martyr). The only changes i'd make to his fight are to his damage (h-he really does low damage for a final boss fight) and to his clones (which are too fast, to the point i had to use the weapon art every single time). Other than those points i'd say it's a pretty enjoyable fight. I especially appreciated the fact that the unchained is very active in his moves. He rarely stops or stand still. You really have to manage your stamina and wait for the right moments to attack

[@danielfrost6327]

I immediately coom when I see the new demod vids thx for the grind these are always sooo high quality

[@mshat18]

This was a great first game for such a small company. It had its flaws but everybody has to start somewhere. FromSoftware didn’t just come out of nowhere and make dark souls or sekiro it took them awhile to build themselves.

[@peteranderson3110]

When I first played mortal shell I thought “I wish I could adjust the difficulty” and then I found Eridrim and I was like cool found easy mode.

[@angryskeleton5676]

Mortal Shell is already flawed masterpiece tier imo, similar to the first Dark Souls. All the pieces are there, they only need better level and boss design and a longer play time to elevate this IP to Soulsborne levels of quality

[@loubloom1941]

Decent game, but far from a masterpiece. Very far. Dark souls 1 is way better.

[@insertname717]

@@loubloom1941 with some work I think it can eventually surpass Dark souls 1 and possibly even 2

[@gabrieletraini3849]

Insert Name you say it as tho dark souls 2 is better than 1

[@petkofuchalski9809]

@@loubloom1941 atleast it's more polished that DS1.

[@thecandlemaker1329]

I can't agree. Dark Souls 1 was a masterpiece. Demon's Souls, on the other hand, was too flawed.

[@trollguy3339]

Imagine if they added pvp. Harden is a good example of that

[@Evanz111]

As soon as I saw you talk about Mortal Shell, I suddenly got incredibly excited about this video coming out. It didn’t let me down whatsoever

[@TheAphexTim]

I don't think I will ever not fall for that fucking Fume Knight sweep that Tarsus does

[@WayneByNumbers]

I interpreted the dizzying camera on the Crucix transition to be an attempt to express the disorienting emotional turmoil you just inflicted on the guy by killing his twin. But they definitely could have done it better. Which is a shame, because humanizing a boss in a souls-like as a person with feelings, rather than just a tick on a game progression checklist, is a rare move.

[@pxgh0st]

That Friede Theme in Tarsus Fight gave me Flashbacks

[@ObligatoryBook]

My first boss was actually the First Martyr (not including Grisha, he was more of a mini boss speed bump I thought). He was so fantastically fun because I had to fight him purely with dodges, parries and hardens. All the other bosses were so damn sad though. I doubt DeMod knows this, but the Hammer and Chisel may be way more powerful in the hands of Solomon than Eredrìm. Why? Because the twirly whirly hammer art guarantees a boss knockdown and fill a whole resolve meter for Solomon. Basically, if you use this you automatically gain the ability to use it again instantly. The fire boss, the one I don’t even remember the name of, lasted 20 seconds for me, both phases. I just spammed the one weapon art and down he went. I was totally floored. All the other bosses just got destroyed by my twirly whirly mastery. Quite frankly, what I’m saying is I don’t think any of the shells are OP, it’s the H&C that makes the game a cakewalk. Great vid DeMod!

[@ViroVV]

Mortal Shell is hands down my favorite game of 2020. All of the bosses are a bit underwhelming, but that can be a bit satisfying. When the world is more punishing than the boss and the boss is not exactly a pushover it serves as a nice punctuation to an area. I look at the bosses as only half the boss event as you also have to escape the dungeon with the gland and that was as frantic as the boss battles at times. Especially in the Seat of Eternity and the ever present possibility of falling while getting plunked to death by a line of archers. Given that this was Cold Symetrys first offering and how truly outstanding it was, I can see MS2 (if that is what it will be) should be an amazing game and would likely rival dark souls imho I cant wait to see it. I can forgive the weak bosses, but my only real complaint is that this game is undoubtedly Farm Souls. WAY WAY WAY too much farming required. Be it glimpses, Tar, Shrooms, toads, ect. I have never actually seen a souls like actually reward you for farming like this game does. I was grinding out stacks for Eredrim and ended up with well over half a million tar. I parlayed that into 1k rats, and about 800 bolts which I only used about 150 total. Anyway, good list.

[@propheticrain-maker1486]

Perhaps the first list in which I agree 100%. Great video as always Dmod

[@TionsofCoffee2]

I'm suing Crucix for his drunk helicopter cam.

[@Mo_Mudabber]

The best part of mortal shell is playing the LUTE

[@masterchain3335]

It's funny, after my first play through I felt like the bosses were pretty good, but after watching this I'm realizing that I was mostly just thinking of a few of them and forgetting the rest... lol. I agree with all your rankings except I would rank Unchained at least a couple notches higher. As janky as the camera is, the fact that it wasn't a regular enemy with a boss health bar and actually had some interesting mechanics (waves, whirlpool) easily makes it at least noteworthy.

[@spectral_kiwi_arts641]

I’ve been waiting for this!!!🥰 I’m so happy nowwwww!!!!

[@Malenia128]

I loved this game! I just beat it yesterday and It only took me 4 days! When I first got it for my Ps4, I was horrible at the game, getting killed and hit over and over again. But, by the second day of playtime I became a god playing this game! It's so fun and easy for me and My favorite shell is Eldrium, and my most used weapon is Heavy Long Sword.

[@masterxl97]

Man, you sure d sound like you love this game. What a new gold standard for Soulslikes.

[@nightrain1121]

But the Martyrs blade looks cooler, so I’ll stick with that.

[@me28memyself]

did anyone else think the mobs were harder to fight than the bosses?

[@hectorbeck4350]

Maybe it’s just me, but I love curbstomping the game with Eredrim, it’s great for when I don’t care about difficulty, and I can use Solomon if I want a fair challenge

[@usingbridge1770]

Solomon can be nearly just as easy (except for the final boss) if you use the mase with the 2second weapon ability.

[@hectorbeck4350]

Using Bridge Hm, I hadn’t tried that, I suppose I’ll use Harros if a want to make it harder

[@burningbelow4424]

I beat tarsus, the first martyr quite easily on my first try, though I was already more experienced at the game and prepared for him by the time I battles him.

[@benma1116]

Mortal shell is the very first souls game I ever played. After beating it I got dark souls 3. I am sorry to say that I’m still stuck on high wall of lothric after 2 weeks

[@LoverLikeNoOther]

It’s fairy easy took me two days to get to the boss

[@benma1116]

Your Master see that’s because your actually good at video games

[@LoverLikeNoOther]

KillerBirdie666 no that was my first soul game I’ve played

[@handemorebattlelands4009]

wait so final boss on the lowest? nah.

[@Never_Ending_Dulf]

I was so, so SOOOO dissapointed by the final Boss. I really really enjoyed the rest of the game and wish the best for the Studio, but it was the worst final boss... Propably the worst boss I ever fought. It's like you would play Dark Souls and the Bed of Chaos would be the final Boss. Except the BoC is slightly better. After propably around 10 annoying tries I nearly had him down during 10 minutes of bullet sponging boringness and then He summoned the Whirlpool bullshit directly under my feet and I instantly died. I quit the game after that. Nevertheless the Studio has the right spirit and I hope their future games will be more quality consistent.

[@ImperadorPocoyo]

@@Never_Ending_Dulf Not the worst ever, because Shadow of Mordor Final boss is 3 quick time events but damn, i can't think of a worst boss on the entire souls series. And it's the final boss of the game. So anticlimatic

[@badgasaurus4211]

@@ImperadorPocoyo And fable 2 you don’t even press a button...

[@handemorebattlelands4009]

this dude really never played as Tiel lol

[@paytonderksen7992]

I know right, Tiel is easily, (in my opinion) the best character to play through the game with. His play style is very much like a dark souls game, and his small health pool make the game a challenge.

[@zed6740]

@@paytonderksen7992 I kind of wish I played as Tiel on my first playthrough because on NG+ I get taken down in literally two or three hits. He's a really fun character especially for Souls vet but damn that health pool is too small imo.

[@noamias4897]

"Unlimited healing reserves" meanwhile I spent the majority of the game not using a heal between rest points because I had like 3 mushrooms and 5 rats in my inventory. Swear most of my healing came from the "heal damage dealt when hardened" item

[@arafatjahangirhridoy7577]

I didn't get the part where he said unlimited healing reserve. What did he mean?

[@mathieudelisle5988]

Sister ariandel theme from dark souls 3 in the background when talking about tarsus is a nice crossover

[@mininabs]

I can't watch it til later, but I know it's good. Can't wait!

[@darthplagueis13]

I really hope that the devs are going to be doing more with this game moving on. There's a lot of potential in this game but it badly lacks content (including but not limited to: Enemy variety, map variety, weapon selection, character customizability and playstyle variety) and the balancing needs work. It's like if FromSoft released the Ringed City as a standalone game rather than an expansion. There's a lot that can be done with Mortal Shells framework and I hope that the team behind it is gonna use the money they got from their sales to do exactly that. If Mortal Shell were to get a DLC that's bigger and more expensive than the main game I wouldn't be complaining.

[@TheVDaddyo]

Love your commentary. Great speaking voice. Worth a sub 😎

[@justins4814]

Your face at the hammer damage 😂

[@NovemberHotel]

For the beginning of crucix you can harden on your fall to negate damage so you won't lose half your HP for the fight

[@mitchyslickbro]

Really enjoyed mortal shell, but watching this makes me realize how lack luster the bosses are. Great start from a small team tho, I hope this sells well & they can work on a sequel. Better bosses, more shell variety (like a caster) & a longer game with more areas. Also the whole seat of infinity is a terrible area! But overall a great game

[@8SweetPotatoLattes]

Betwen the abysmally small stamina pool, my penchant for reach weapons, and his old-school souls-style dodge roll (rather than a dodge+quickstep like every other shell) I found Eredrim to be the most boring/least fun shell and therefore avoided him on my first playthrough. I may give him a whirl as I approach NG+. Solomon and Tiel ftw, but that's just me. I agree with comments saying that the bosses were overall a bit of a letdown on this game, but despite that and some other criticism I really loved a lot of what this game brought to the table.. Whether it's adding content to this game or making a sequel, Cold Symmetry is bound to really blow us away with their future projects.

[@masterchain3335]

It's penchant, not pension. Not trying to be a dick, I just personally wish people would correct me if I'm using incorrect words so I don't keep doing it.

[@8SweetPotatoLattes]

@@masterchain3335 you know what....hey, thanks.

[@ryanlafferty5815]

I'd agree Tarsus was the most impressive fight, but unfortunately in my experience, the most glitch ridden, ruined it

[@mathieupr6391]

Gonna wait to play the game to watch that, but at least your videos convinced me to either wait for an Eredrim patch, or just try to not use the shell until the final area where you're apparently kinda supposed to get it to avoid a massive power-up early on.

[@darrenhalstead3684]

With Hadern, it's just a perry game, use the health seal for health, and the one that causes them to explode when you get a successful perry

[@sr_cln]

Getting to crucix is harder than the actual boss fight

[@jamesberlin3346]

Thanks, didn't realize he needed to die before drawing his weapon!

[@k.i.dscrappy]

My best experience with any boss was the Enslaved Grisha, he hit me and made me ragdoll and then I got hit by a spike falling from the ceiling while on the ground that made me fly into the air like something straight outta happy wheels

[@Dr.Smelly]

I still cannot beat the final boss... he literally heals everytime I’m about to kill him and I gave up after 10 tries

[@dulli-e-sport_3774]

Use a fast weapon and Upgrade it to +5. Also i would use Solomon for this boss fight bc you can Spam weapon abilitys which can do a lot of damage

[@Dr.Smelly]

@@dulli-e-sport_3774 Im using the first sword you get fully upgraded but ya ill have to try solomon then cause i gave up

[@dulli-e-sport_3774]

@@Dr.Smelly but Upgrade Solomon to max first. The Boss isnt that hard and his attacks are slow. Try to stay in Front of him otherwise he will use his tail. And use hardening against his waves and rolling against his jumps. You should also try to kill all the shadow enemys when he does this healing Phase because he will only heal if a shadow creature falls into this hole.

[@paytonderksen7992]

I'm not proud to admit this, but it took me three days to beat Pontiff in dark souls 3. I must have died to him at least fifty times. It was my first souls game so my first playthrough was definitely a rough one.

[@dulli-e-sport_3774]

@@paytonderksen7992 dw i cant do Aldrich solo to this day even if i am in ng+6. Ive beaten nameless King and slave knight gael alone but aldrich bangs me every time

[@georgejestra7747]

That time I fell into the whirl pool as it was about to close and I got pretty much every shadow dude🥲

[@phrozac]

Btw, I don't know about the Hammer & Chisel or Mace, but both swords have stunlocks on the Unchained that make the huge healthpool less intimidating, especially in Obsidian form with its ridiculous stamina reserves.

[@Steelers3624]

Congrats on moving into a new place, hope it's nice.

[@gigidyify]

im suprised you didn't mention the molten hammer cheese at all. The super three hit attack litterally one shot any boss before stack cap hell even at 100 it deletes any first phase, made you invincible, and with the resolve boost got you 90% of the attack back during it. really under appreciated weapon

[@wangchangbackup]

In case you didn't know, since you brought it up, you can just harden during the drop into Crucix's arena and it negates the damage.

[@legendarystanduser8676]

The Fight with Tarsus was of medium difficulty, I had lost the battle once and defeat him the second time.

[@emilia1670]

Game was pretty good! Way too short and easy but still impressive for an indie game. Bosses were ok at most unfortunately. 6/10 for me and still way below Nioh and Code Vein which are the best soulslike games not made by From for me.

[@chadphillips890]

I want to preface this by saying that Mortal Shell is my first foray into the "Souls-like" genre and that I'm not particularly good at it, in fact I'm not sure I'll ever beat it. So with that being understood, I'm utterly incapable of figuring out how people who make stuff like this look easy can rank the enslaved grisha so highly. I literally just made it chase me around a giant, unbreakable pillar in one of the corners of the room the entire fight. I attacked, retreated, and healed at my leisure and beat him on the first try without any issue. Easiest boss I've faced so far.

[@HydragonofDeath]

1:50 god of roadkill (i think thats what the creepypasta is called)

[@geraldoflores2957]

Not me playing the game and 3hrs in already fighting Tarsus not knowing he's one of the better ones already

[@janpavlik3170]

Loved the game. It feels very challenging at the beggining but you get better quickly. I played the low hp high stamina class so the final boss got me in 2 hits each time so learning how to dodge and use harden effectively was necesary. I hated his wave attacs at the beggining but goit used to them quickly. It just disrupts the flow of the combat. I agree with you on the rest. I played with martyrs blade since the moment I found it.

[@camomoose1078]

3:40 "I understand it due to a small Dev team..." From Software while making Elden Ring: "Lets do it 30 fucking times!"

[@eteledeak7749]

Who else noticed the sister friede music during the tarsus fight because it was obviously inspired by her.

[@thewarhamster8139]

That part about the hammer and chisel being OP... yeah. I didn't see any of the attacks the Enslaved Grisha had to offer. Used Solomon and shredded him in about 5 seconds with the hammer and Chisel's specials.

[@BeckettOC]

Hey man love your vids, one thing confused the hell out of me though? Hadern doesn't limit item usage (at least he didn't for me? bug maybe). Not that he's hard but I used a load of mushrooms when I was fighting him for the hammer and chiz. They vanish from the screen at the start of the fight but if you use the d-pad you can select and use stuff still. As I say could have been a bug but they were usable in all his fights when I went through.