Mortal Shell: The Virtuous Cycle Review (Snowy)
Many years ago I attempted my first Souls game, Dark Souls 3. After many hours of rage inducing game play, not getting past the first boss and a burst Xbox controller, I quit Dark Souls 3 in a fit of rage vowing to never return to the souls genre.
Skip ahead a few years and while browsing the steam page Mortal Shell appears in my recommendations, intrigued by the cover image I had a better look into Mortal Shell before deciding to purchase the game despite the Souls-Like tag. Like any other Souls game the start was rough, very rough. Died more times than I can count to pretty much everything that could kill me, basic enemies, heights, poison frogs, side bosses and my own stupidity. Normally I would have given up in anger but I found myself drawn to Mortal Shell because of the game itself, the world design, enemy design, the atmosphere all of which are fantastically done and kept me hooked.
16 hours later I have finished 2 of the 3 towers and have maxed out my main shell and weapon and I'm yet to give up, despite numerous moments that caused me to either rage quit or brought me to the edge of rage quitting.
Mortal Shell may very well be the game that gets me into the souls-like genre, I cannot recommend this game enough. Also the lute music is amazing. I love banging out a few tunes with the brigands, I aim to get a few tunes in with every lute Brigand before I complete the game.
In all 10/10 game