Mortal Shell

Mortal Shell is an action role-playing video game developed by Cold Symmetry and published by Playstack. It was released on 18 August 2020 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. A remastered version titled "Mortal Shell: Enhanced Edition" released on 4 March 2021 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Gameplay.
"Mortal Shell" is a third-person action role-playing game focused on melee combat, where players control one of several "shell" characters with different playstyles.
Development.
The game was developed by Cold Symmetry. It was published by Playstack on 18 August 2020 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. "Rotting Autumn", an update adding new shell shades (skins), a new quest, a photo mode, and an alternative soundtrack by the Greek black metal band Rotting Christ, was released in October 2020.
The developers created "Mortal Shell" as they thought there was a gap in the market for video games evoking deeper emotional experiences. They were influenced by FromSoftware's 2011 game "Dark Souls", similarly creating a setting with a dark atmosphere and populated with characters giving players cryptic information, and designing gameplay based around challenging melee combat, but still intended to change things up and create their own take on the concept. While some changes to the "Souls" formula were creatively driven, such as giving players only a limited amount of consumable health items to encourage use of the health-leeching mechanic, compared to "Dark Souls" Estus flasks, other changes came from the limitations of being a smaller developer: for example, they could not develop the same amount of armours, weapons and character builds, and instead developed four "shells" with different play styles and backstories.
An early prototype of the game, titled "Dungeonhaven", was focused on procedural generation; the developers moved away from this, feeling that it was antithetical to the "Souls" style of games, and instead opted for designing the game's areas by hand, wanting players to feel like they were going on an adventure, traversing a space that made sense as a setting.
A remastered version of the game titled "Mortal Shell: Enhanced Edition", for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S were released on March 4, 2021.
Reception.
"Mortal Shell" was met by generally positive reviews on all platforms, according to the review aggregator Metacritic, and was nominated for Best Debut Game at The Game Awards 2020. Reviewers frequently compared the game to playing "Dark Souls" for the first time.
By March 2021, the game had sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide.