This game still has a lot of bugs that have gone unfixed for years and they just announced a sequel. What is this industry?

I saw this game go on sale for $1.50 and wanted to try it, remembering hearing decent things about it a couple years prior and seeing the kickass sequel trailer during SGF. I put a good few hours into the game and I can't say I fully enjoyed it. I'll start by saying this game does a lot of things well and has several good, innovative ideas, like swapping between different bodies with different stats to make your "build", or needing to consume items to figure out what they do, and then consuming enough of those items to increase their potency are both genius. The environments look stellar for how low-budget the project is (compared to its contemporaries) and other small things like the bear traps are a nice touch. Other things, like the story not being all there and the shoddy dialogue and voice acting are forgivable, those just being the nature of small projects and soulslikes alike.
My main complaint with the game is the combat. It feels frustratingly counterintuitive, with the game seemingly emphasizing an aggressive play style with the meter system but your self-defense options are too limited to take full advantage of it. The dodges are a diceroll whether they work or not, and your two "block" moves, the harden and sigil parry, are both on strict cooldowns (with the latter requiring meter to even use.) Trading isn't an option, so the best thing you can do is keep backing up from the enemies until your harden is off cooldown, then go for 1-3 hits before backing up again. I don't have to tell anyone why that's not fun. The cherry on top is the limited healing items and the lack of fast-travel mean you'll sometimes have to go out of your way to farm money to buy them from the merchant (who again, you cannot fast-travel to) slowing the game down even further. Its an overall frustrating experience.
This game wears its Fromsoftware inspirations on its sleeve, while at the same time not fully grasping why their systems worked (or why they were at least tolerable.) The aggressive push-forward combat of Sekiro that punishes you for playing defensively works because you can react to and defend against any attack coming your way. The finite consumables of demon's souls and bloodborne worked because when you die, you can instantly go back to a hub area to replenish any lost resources with no cost. Mortal Shell applies both of these systems in an environment that just doesn't suit them, which leads to contrived difficulty and frustrating combat with nothing to teach the player. This isn't the first non-From soulslike to be like this and it's nowhere near close to the last. That being said, I wouldn't pay more than $10 for this game on a good day. Hopefully the sequel has more focus put into its combat, with it having a much bigger budget this time around.

This game is a beauty. I am not the best at games like this, but always keep this one around for a rainy day when I want to push myself to not die! :)

Voice Acting: Awesome
Setting: Totally Wild, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ -> be sure to look around
Music: Cool so far, have not heard much of it
Combat: It's challenging to learn and rewarding when you win
NOTE: be sure to choose DX12/Ultra in graphicc pretty amazing!


For real this is awesome, espcially at the current sale price of 1.49$USD
It seems like the sale is working, lots of players are giving this a try.

I feel like publishers deserve some good karma big time when they put their games on sale like this!!!
I will definitely take a look at the Mortal Shell II when it arrives.

NOTE:::: Check Graphics Settings -> I just realized I was not at Ultra/DX12 - wow is it cool!