Hi guys! Today I will talk about Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin and Mortal Shell. I will do a comparison between them and I will let you be the judge of which game is better. First I will talk about the storyline of those 2 games, then I will talk about the difference or similarities in their gameplay, and lastly, I will compare the visuals and tell you my final thoughts. Now let’s begin.
Table of Contents
Storyline
The story of Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin is better and more fleshed out than the story of Mortal Shell. I have said it in previous articles but I will say it again, the story of Mortal Shell felt like it was made just to give the players an explanation of why they are fighting.
Both games have story-driven plots and I don’t particularly like those kinds of plots that aren’t character-driven. Personally, I didn’t care much about what was going on, and the games didn’t put much effort into making me care. Probably this happened because their plots are both story-driven, but the result can’t be ignored.
I would never recommend a Dark Souls game for the story because their storytelling approach isn’t for everyone, I am glad they changed it with Sekiro (which is my favorite single-player game).
If you want a clear answer in this section, then the winner is Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin but I don’t think you should factor storyline in your decision-making process.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin I believe is superior to that of Mortal Shell for one reason, the dual-wielding system. I have said this in previous articles too and I will say it again, Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin has one of the best and most unique dual-wielding systems I have seen. It allows you to dual wield different kinds of weapons and the only limitation is that they have to have the same types of attacks and of course you have to be able to wield them with your stats.
Mortal Shell has the hardening system, which don’t get me wrong, is something fresh but I think it makes the game too easy since it gives the player a way to avoid all coming damage if he knows how to use it, and it doesn’t require a lot of skill to use it effectively.
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin also offers more weapon choices than Mortal Shell which only offers five different weapons. Although I don’t believe that is necessarily a bad thing, as I have said in previous articles, having fewer weapon choices has other benefits but unfortunately, I don’t believe the pros outway the cons in this case.
I mean sure some of the combos you can do in Mortal Shell with your weapons are cool and all but they aren’t great and certainly don’t justify the fewer weapon choices. Sekiro which also had one weapon available made the most out of it by making the combat absolutely amazing and in my opinion, it has the best combat system ever made.
Both games offer a variety of enemies and bosses but Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin offers more bosses which are far more interesting and challenging.
At the end of the day Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin offers more content, a better combat experience, more challenge, and it also has PvP and co-op modes.
Visuals
The visuals of Mortal Shell are a lot better which is natural since it came out 5 years after Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin. The thing is that the game doesn’t have amazing scenery to fully utilize the improved visuals that a 2020 game has. Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin on the other hand has interesting scenery but due to the time of its release doesn’t have amazing graphics to capitalize on the locations the game has.
On the customization department Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin has amazing armors that you can wear, but it doesn’t have a transmogrification system and for those of you that don’t know what this is, it basically means that you are able to change the appearance of all your equipment and keep the stats.
So in the end, if you want graphics go with Mortal Shell, if you want customization go with Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin.
Final Thoughts
Let me summarize what you should remember from this article.
First, when it comes to story Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin has a better story but generally I wouldn’t recommend picking either game for the story.
Gameplay-wise, Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin wins because of the dual-wielding system and because it has more bosses that are more challenging and interesting to fight against than Mortal Shell’s bosses. Also, the game has co-op and PvP.
Lastly Mortal Shell has better graphics but Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin has better locations and more customization.
Whichever game you pick I recommend waiting for sale.
That’s it for my article guys. I hope you liked it. What game do you think is better and why? Write down your opinion in the comments below. See ya in the next article.
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Follow @GamerWelfareHere are the links for the images I used:
https://www.igdb.com/games/dark-souls-ii-scholar-of-the-first-sin/presskit
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/mortal-shell/home