If I'd been paying more attention I could've been crafting some ironclad rules of IGotW all this time, one of which would undoubtably be "if there's an Indie Soulsborne or explormer out there, I'm playing it eventually". Mortal Shell is a case of the former, fully immersing itself in the choking fog of mechanical obfuscation and grimdark subtextual storytelling that is FromSoft's "dread and butter" of late. Dropped into an unfamiliar world as a ghoulish being that bodyjacks promising looking corpses (or "shells") scattered around the musty realm of Fallgrim, the player is given the task of procuring important glands from three nearby bosses in order to... well, something will happen, I guess. You know how it is with these games.

Mortal Shell also doesn't feel like an homage to any one of FromSoft's "Soulsborne" menagerie in particular but rather all of them at once. It has Souls's foreboding sense of grim atmosphere and its heavily-armored protagonist (and boy do these guys feel weighty) stomping through the wilderness, it has Bloodborne's dedication to outwitting and outmaneuvering mostly human opponents in one-on-one duels of skill and trickery (almost every enemy I've met has been humanoid at least), and it has Sekiro's little perk of being able to survive a fatal blow and get back into the fight if you're agile enough. Also, like Sekiro, there's no experience or levelling up: instead, you spend the equivalent souls resource (tar, for some reason, which I thought was more a Monster Hunter thing) on new abilities for your current shell—mostly passives, like more health or a short defense buff after killing someone—as well as upgrade any of the four weapons that all the shells are sharing. You still have that open-world freedom of picking a different direction to explore for a while if you're struggling with one area, but grinding things out isn't really feasible if there's a roadblock: you just have to push past it instead, becoming better acquainted with the game's combat system and its quirks. The most prominent of these is the "harden" ability: rather than guarding, you can make yourself immune to damage for a few seconds until you get hit, at which point you've probably staggered your opponent (since they've hit at full strength what was essentially a brick wall) and can apply some retaliatory pressure before they recover. Likewise, a few enemies will use this same ability against you.

The developers of this game definitely did their Souls homework, as I have no idea what I'm doing or where I'm supposed to go. Explore this large starting swamp area long enough and it'll eventually branch off to three ominous dungeon areas I've been hesitant to get deeper into; instead, I've been trying to cover as much of the swamp as I can to try to get my bearings, which looks to function as a hub given there's a tower in the middle where all the vendor NPCs gather. Even with few landmarks and no compass or map to fall back on (which is customary, of course) I've been able to find all four of the game's shells by poking around the corners of the map: the all-rounder knight the game provides almost immediately, a tougher fellow with some Sauron armor that has a huge HP pool and little stamina, a fragile rogue type with the opposite situation, and a mage with one of those creepy Elden Ring masks that seems to build resolve quickly.

I've yet to figure out what the deal is with resolve. I mean, I understand how it works as a mechanic, just not why it is designed the way it is. Resolve is a resource you gain by damaging enemies and dissipates quickly over time; by earning a "block" on its gauge you can employ a powerful weapon ability that's a bit like supers and the super gauge in fighters (though you need to upgrade the weapon you're using first before you unlock them), as well as a parry that restores some health if you can pull it off. However, the only times you really need these powerful boons are when you're fighting a tough opponent rather than trash mobs; this makes the aspect where you quickly lose any resolve you gain by resorting to a defensive posture seem counterintuitive to its role as it'll rarely be available for those internecine battles where you need it most. The only way I can see to make effective use of resolve is to either grind on regular enemies without getting hurt until you've stocked up enough blocks, which is tedious, or fight the toughest enemies in the game with extreme aggression to stack it up quickly, and if you have the skill to do that without dying you're really not hurting for the advantages resolve provides. (Post-playthrough edit: OK, if you parry someone without resolve it'll fill the resolve faster, so I guess the solution is to get real good at parrying. No sweat, this ain't my first rodeo.)

Some aspects of Mortal Shell can be exasperating, but I won't dismiss how much it succeeds in feeling like a Souls game. It has that slow burn of gradually building up your understanding of the game whether that's adapting to its combat system, getting a better sense of where everything is, piecing together the lore, or figuring out its secrets. That elusive aspect is what has engendered Souls to so many, as it runs counter to the "show, but also tell" direction-heavy approach in RPGs that has become more the norm. That isn't to say Mortal Shell keeps everything way too close to its chest—the game starts with a pretty thorough tutorial on its combat and other systems—but it's certainly more in the camp of letting players figure out much of what they need to do on their lonesome, by experimenting at their own pace and incrementally figuring things out. I can admire designing a game with that conceit in mind, but I kinda wish it had a bit more of its own personality and didn't just feel like a shorter, watered-down version of one of the most impressive modern franchises in gaming. Definite feeling of "Well, I can just go play one of those instead", especially as it doesn't pull a Nioh in doing things differently enough to offer a sufficiently solid argument for its own existence. (Man, I'm being way too harsh on this thing. It's not bad at all! A mini-Soulsborne palate cleanser for those of us that burned out on Elden Ring might be a nicer way of putting it.)

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Playthrough Edit: Yep, just those three dungeons and a final encounter. The dungeons themselves are each about the size of the hub and separated into two major and one minor section, so the game's a bit lengthier than I thought but well under the 10 hours range if you're not procrastinating in the swamp like I was. The more aesthetically interesting the dungeon the more tiresome it was to navigate, so it was overall a wash for which was best. Beyond that, not much more to amend to the review: even though you aren't levelling up stats the new abilities you earn with each shell does make it easier to take down tougher foes, especially the one that lets you regenerate your Sekiro-style "second chance" if you kill enough enemies: it's thanks to that boon I was able to glut myself on the final boss's adds and survive to the end. For a "Souls Jr." I was pleasantly surprised at its depth.