Vital Shell is a PS1 game you watched your friend's older brother play at a sleepover in 1997 (complimentary)

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Video Review TBD

Outside Of Gundan Fans & PSX Visuals

I do not have much positive to say about this title. I am not particularly interested in mech games, and while PSX-era aesthetics are clearly well executed here, they have never been a major draw for me, despite growing up with them. Nostalgia sells, and there is no denying that many players enjoy seeing something that breaks away from modern realism, but that alone does not carry a game like this well. Despite its overwhelmingly positive reception, whatever that means to you, coming from Steam reviews, Vital Shell does not feel deserving of that praise. I have played hundreds of action roguelikes, and over time many of them blur together. The systems repeat, the progression flattens out, and very little meaningfully changes from one title to the next. Vital Shell leans heavily on surface-level appeal. Its systems are familiar, its replay value is limited, and there is very little depth to dig into. Most builds feel largely the same, and the presence of an "Unlock All" button highlights just how shallow the late-game experience really is, as you can jump into it immediately. Once everything is available, you can stand still and wipe entire arenas, even in challenge mode, which is supported by a leaderboard. At that point, there is nothing left to engage with beyond the visuals or each 1/20 round in the handful of select stages with a few elites and bosses which get deleted quite easily.

Issue

Many games in this genre do what Vital Shell attempts, and they do it better. There is no meaningful feedback from the soundtrack, the weapons, or the core gameplay to make combat feel satisfying since you're kind of combining the same powers to the same energy, physical and force weapons where nothing stands out in a way that positively reinforces player engagement. Maybe I am missing the appeal, whether that is the fixation on mechs or PSX-era aesthetics, it did not resonate with me. In the end, I simply did not enjoy the experience and ultimately decided to just refund the game after seeing everything it had to offer within a mere 20 minutes, questioning how exactly most others found this highly stimulating? Not to say you can't enjoy it, but it just makes me question most of these players ability to find enjoyment in the most mundane things that aren't deserving of the praise, you know?

Conclusion

It is a very short game. I genuinely do not understand how some players describe it as a massive dopamine hit or an "absolute banger." It makes me question how many action roguelikes they have played, especially ones that fully engage the player through strong soundtracks, impactful sound design, and intensity that leaves you shivering with excitement and covered in goosebumps, this really isn't all that stimulating, in any sense of the matter. The praise feels largely unwarranted. I found myself taking off my headset halfway through and listening through a single speaker just to avoid being annoyed. That alone says enough about how little the experience held my own attention. That might be different for you, whose to say? You might find it somewhat enjoyable, but myself and the ones that introduced me to the game all did the same and refunded it after barely touching it.

Unemployment couldn't've come at a more opportune time

***UPDATED REVIEW*** After unlocking all the characters and completing all the worlds, this game was absolutely phenomenal! When I wrote the review initially, I did it for the hype, but this game actually IS HYPE ASF. A when you beat Mir’van with the Shell you’re using, you can adjust their color with the sliders after beating him as a reward!! And it’s FREE! Bro wtf. If this were a AAA we’d have to be paying $40 for that feature. Free content is always good! Only thing I wanted to point out was the soundtrack in the worlds, don’t get me wrong I liked it, but I wish there was more variety of the dark jungle type music in each map—that can easily be resolved with some future updates (only reason I have it a 9.5/10 for soundtrack). I wanted to gatekeep this game from the normies, but our boy MarvinWizard needs that bread to improve this game and create more awesome and unique games like this in the future. Can’t wait for future updates! And still this game is Just a game ass game 😎 Where I’m still gonna be spending ALL of my off days playing this game for ungodly amounts of hours straight while playing early 2000’s dark jungle tracks, the early days of Linkin Park, and other YouTube videos in the back. Gameplay: 10/10 Music and Soundtrack: 9.5/10 Replay Value: 10/10 Graphics: Nostalgic How it runs: Smooth as butter Hardware required: N64 and PS1 Chance of getting addicted: Intervention might be needed Onto 100%!!!

Learned about this game thanks to videogamedunkey. There's no words to describe how great this game is. I had to force myself off the game just to make this review cause it's so addictive. Move over Grand Theft Auto 6, this is Game of the Year 1000%.

This has the most "game rented from a blockbuster knockoff while on vacation at a faraway grandparents' house one summer weekend and you stayed up all night playing it before you had to return it and you can't remember the title and never found it again and honestly thought you'd hallucinated it for 17 years and no one knew what you were talking about until someone on a dead forum asked a question that unlocked your memory" energy that I've seen in decades

It's good but it needs one very important change. The special ability button should not be Q. It means you can't move left while using it. This becomes important in some lategame builds where you can have 100% special ability spam uptime. Greatly stops your ability to actually move! Needs to be a key that isn't used by a WASD finger, or even better, rebindable (even if rebinding keys is against the spirit of a PS1 game). edit: nvm see comments, you can use it with RMB as well. PS: game is VERY light on content. Fine for the price but after a few hours you'll have tried everything the game has to offer. Also kind of an illusion of build variety, it really boils down to: build to trigger crits to roid your weapons OR build to trigger crits to spam your damage type-matched ability OR build to trigger crits to spam Aegis and boosts. Not hating, this is an impressive one person little project, but the content of the other reviews is universally positive and this should be mentioned. I have endgame achievements that 1% of players have in less than 4 hours of game time.. I have explored all that the game has to offer pretty quickly. There is also significant imbalance between the characters. A fun Saturday afternoon for 7 bucks, but probably won't play it again unless it gets additional content.

Boring ahh game

this game is like a fever dream when you got the flu 10/10

This game is a blast. Devs are very clearly first gen Armored Core fans, and I'm here for it. Fun gameplay, great music, and I really love that you can hear a disc drive sound in the loading screens. Highly recommend.

It's in the style of a PSX game, but a PSX game would have more to it.

I fucking hate the fallout TV and the praise its getting

You are twelve. As rain clouds are getting closer, you and your mate are walking aimlessly in the neighborhood, contemplating whether you want to play games on your fake Nintendo called a Polystation that your parents purchased at the flea market. You were thinking, maybe this time when the cartridge that says 100 in 1 games is put in, it might actually have more games that don’t suck, not just 5 bad ones with different names. But suddenly you had a better idea. What if you try to get into your other friend's house, the one you didn't like that much because he never let you play, but at least you can still watch him? You hoped that maybe this time it would be different and he would finally let you play his PS1. You knock on your other mate's door and their mother lets you in, but she says you ought to stay only an hour because your mate didn't do his homework. When you get in, he is playing a strange game. Robots are dancing around in a small square shooting other smaller robots, and there is a huge counter in the middle. As it goes down, more and more enemies get on the screen. The techno music is pumping you up. Everything is blowing up, the robot's weapon is upgraded, boom, everything is dead on the screen. Suddenly your mate sees you and he is not happy. He just wants to play his new game that his parents rented from the local store and you just messed up his plans. You wanted to play just one run, just 30 seconds to feel the rush that can be seen in your mate's eyes, but he says, "Oh, the PS is too hot, we have to wait so it cools down, we cannot play today." Then you suddenly realize why you hate his guts. Of course you never played the game back then. The shop they rented from was waiting for them to return it and you never got a turn. This game feels like traveling back to that time, but instead of the guy saying you cannot play, you could and had the time of your life. Totally worth it, easy 10/10.

there comes a point where you gotta ask yourself "is a game good just because it's a really efficient dopamine factory?" Vital Shell presents an answer to the genre of these vampire survivor-likes. There are so many things about it that feel more "good for the brain". level-ups are rewarded after waves of enemies are completed, progression is paced out better with fewer rapidly-given upgrades, gameplay is more engaging and skill-focused so the rewards you do get feel more earned and satisfying... I could go on. Not to mention the vibes are immaculate. It may vary person-to-person how "aesthetic"y the game feels, but there are times where I really believe this could've been a game made by an artsy japanese dude who loves twin-stick shmups in the 90s. The jungle OST is also a pretty unique direction for the genre, and I love me some good drum n bass. As a character designer, I also think the less-is-more approach to the visual character designs is highly effective, with strong shapes and silhouettes for both the enemies and the playable mechs. Overall... thank god this game came out when it did because I needed a less parasitic alternative to Megabonk. Highly reccomend, awesome game, will definitely be playing regularly. EDIT: wanna make clear that I'm saying the game is less addictive in a potentially harmful way than other games of the genre. This game is definitely still addictive, I say as I now persue the 100% achievement.

This may be my first review ever. Been on here for 10+ years. This game is everything I could have wished for. 7 stars in the Tokyo Dome - Dave Meltzer

kind of game that makes dudes say hell yea

I kinda dislike vampire survivors likes, I often find myself just clicking on the things with the highest stats over and over again cause of how many choices the game asks you to make, but I liked this one, they got good graphics on this game, looks like early mechwarrior and armoured core, and the beat is funky, I will be following the dev to see what they get up to next!

it's alright, another vampire survivor type game visuals are nice, music is nice, gameplay is working i don't think it's anything special, but another decent option to do something while watching youtube

We're surviving with this one, Ravens.

Hard to beat low poly mechs and an ambient jungle soundtrack. A nostalgic spin on the horde survival genre. Runs great on my Steam Deck. Definitely recommend.

It is as though the maker of this game can read my mind and made a game for me. Addictive, skill based gameplay and roguelike elements have my brain in a headlock. Strong recommend for anyone born around the time Hackers came out. Also anyone born after that. Make your baby play this game. It will make them a better baby.

Remember playing this game on my PS1, those were simpler times. Too bad progression stalled because my disc 2 is scratched.

Vital Shell is insanely good. This is the type of game you would see someone playing in a movie or tv show. Its a game that you think of when you hear "Video Game". Picture its the year 2000 and you're at Sal's house because his sister is throwing a party; you come back from the bathroom after a long piss to see Sal's bedroom door slightly ajar and Sal is inside playing this game and fervorously licking his lips and mashing the controller buttons. You say "damn, that looks fun, give me a controller!" The game has unlockable characters/weapons/powerups too.

robotron 4168 you can even reload your sword!