If I'm not mistaken, they did the fabulous Ico/Shadow of the Colossus remasters and I thought they were in for a great future. I was hoping they'd be the ones doing some more remasters of older titles along the same lines.
I'm under a rock with a lot of development press though.
@DemonStar89 Yeah, as Yousef mentioned, they were shut down by Sony. No more games coming from them. From what I've followed and seen in terms of press, it just seemed like they weren't really able to get a project off the ground since the Demon Souls remake. Pitches were rejected, projects were canceled, etc. Just a lot of lost time, energy and budget with no reward in sight. I believe it was a combination of Bluepoint itself being a bit mismanaged and Sony being a bit of a pain in the butt. It didn't sound like there was really any one issue or leadership at fault, so it's a shame that it has turned out this way. I've never played any of their games admittedly, but they always seemed exceptionally well-crafted from the sidelines. Truly a loss for the industry!
I’ve been playing a bit of the original Mortal Shell this past couple of weeks. All year I had intended to play Lies of P as my second souls-like for 2026… but when Mortal Shell 2 released to universal praise a couple of months back, it just felt like the right time to clear the original from the backlog.
I only really played the odd hour here and there last week, as my main focus was on Borderlands at the time but the last couple of days I’ve had a chance to sink my teeth into it. I wasn’t a massive fan at first, even thinking at one stage that it may end up being my least favourite of the genre… but I’m definitely coming around to it.
For those that praise (the sun) the original Dark Souls for its non-linearity, this is very open-ended, with you able to take on any direction from the start… and no real indication on where you should be going either. Now don’t take that for a minute that I’m saying this is as well designed, it’s not… but I have appreciated this aspect. I’ve grown to really like the ‘Harden’ mechanic (🤣) too. It felt really alien at first but I’ve found it has become second-nature the more I’ve played. I also rate the art design quite highly. Sure it looks a bit drab at first (when you’re in the opening hub-area) but the shells themselves look cool and the dungeons that you end up exploring later in the game look great.
It plays a little slow and clunky when compared to some of the newer souls-likes, probably feeling fairly similar to the OG Demon’s Souls in that way but it wasn’t really a drawback for me if I’m honest. It was quite nice playing something that felt so pure in a way, when a fair few of the latest souls-likes have evolved the genre so much (not that I’m complaining about that either mind).
I’m pretty close to finishing off my first playthrough now I reckon, as it is quite small… maybe even being more of a proof-of-concept than a full game tbh but the total lack of linearity (& confusions if I’m being totally honest 😅) has meant that my playtime will be around 25-30 hours by the time this is done. Also, I have a second playthrough to do where I will have to be ‘shell-less’ for the entire run. Not looking forward to to that tbh but has to be done for the platinum so hey-ho.
Ultimately, not bad. And much better than I was initially expecting.
Might not feel like it but these are your glory days.
The "salad years" you know?
Nothing is going to beat who you are now.
You can't see all the ****ed up 💩 that's looming on the horizon.
Enjoy this dude
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Topic: Souls-likes (& dislikes)
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