An HDII editorial - published 8/18/2026 · 3 min read

Mortal Shell II keeps flip-flopping on how mean it wants to be. There is no stamina bar, you carry two health bars, and you can swing all day, which makes the first hour feel almost generous. Then a pack of field enemies corners you in a bad spot and takes your gloom, your run, and whatever confidence the beta handed you.

It hits harder than the beta did

The beta was the soft sell. It played like a very easy soulslike, and the release plays like a normal one, which lands as a shock if the demo was your only reference point. Regular enemies in the opening stretch, Mushroom Village very much included, hit like trucks, and the gloom you drop on a bad run does not come back. The curve is fair once you stop treating it like the demo. It just does not tell you that up front.

Your shell decides your early game

Shell choice matters far more than the opening hours let on. Tiel is a glass cannon, and at low levels that means far too much glass and nowhere near enough cannon. Swapping to something sturdier like Proxima quietly ends most of the early dying. Same skill, same enemies, wildly different survival rate. If the game feels impossible around level 4, the fix is usually the shell rather than the player.

Swarms, not duels, are what kill you

One on one, almost nothing takes you out in a single hit. Get surrounded and a quick attack can carve off ninety percent of your health before you finish your combo. Grabs are the other big threat, dealing huge damage with a clear warning attached, and a handful of bosses can land one straight through a full shell. Beacon placement makes it worse, since they sit either right on top of each other or absurdly far apart, so healing is at a premium exactly when you need it.

Night mode is the real hard mode

Night mode cranks enemy aggression and turns the game into something fast and genuinely nasty, and a few gate bosses feel overtuned with it running. Flipping it off for a wall and back on afterwards is the pressure valve. The slayer seal pushes the other way, smoothing out a run at the cost of your parry and your trophies.

Is Mortal Shell II Hard? Final Verdict

HDII voters have it at 7.38/10 from 21 ratings, and the shape of that vote says plenty. Seventeen of them sit at 7 or higher, twelve at 8 or above, with a lone 4 and a lone 5 holding down the bottom. That puts it just past the original Mortal Shell at 7.21 and still a clear step behind Lies of P at 8.0. Challenging, rarely cruel, and softer than most soulslike veterans will want.

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