You can feel doomed to death one minute, then claw your way back through a few well-executed parries, and make it all the way to the next checkpoint. It's enormously satisfying, and generates thrilling back-and-forth within individual runs. Lost a chunk of health because an opponent caught you out? No problem, just stand your ground, wait for that attack, and suck out your opponent's health like a tasty blood milkshake. That said, once you figure out the rhythms of hardening, parrying and dodging, it's possible not just to survive Mortal Shell's enemies, but to annihilate them. It doesn't help that the parry window is tiny, and many enemy attacks are designed to throw off your timing. Initially, that lack of an Estus Flask makes Mortal Shell a tougher prospect than Dark Souls, because you've no choice but to master the tricky art of effective parrying. If you've also got one bar of resolve, you can then perform a special riposte that drains a chunk from the opponent's health bar and deposits it into yours. Equipped with a special talisman, you can use it to temporarily stun enemies by deploying it at the right moment during certain attacks. But your main method of restoring health in a fight is by parrying. There are some pickups that provide health when consumed, either directly or indirectly. Mortal Shell's boldest change to the Souls formula is that there's no Estus Flask, no easily accessed reservoir of health you can draw on when combat gets hairy.
Hardening is Mortal Shell's most unique combat feature, but it isn't the most significant. This can be used to perform feints, to wind up attacks so that they're more likely to land, or to prevent damage from immediate enemy counters. Secondly, you can "Harden" at any point during combat, even halfway through a dodge or attack. Firstly, hardening doesn't cost you any stamina, but is temporary and takes a few seconds to recharge after use. If this just sounds like pretentious blocking to you, there are a couple of important differences. Instead, you have the ability to "Harden", turning yourself into stone and temporarily deflecting all damage. Unlike Dark Souls, there's no block button in Mortal Shell. Whether you prioritise using one Shell or change them as you'd change your underpants, your core abilities always remain the same. This doesn't make much sense narratively, but combat would be pretty easy if you were essentially invincible. (You can otherwise fight as normal in this form, and I guarantee players will be attempting "Shell-less runs" within weeks of the game's launch.) Dying a second time inside your shell is final. Getting back into it will refill your health entirely, but you can only take one hit in your skeletal form before dying. Being "killed" for the first time after respawning will knock your skeletal form out of your shell. Alongside their role as classes, shells also act as a second life.
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