Mortal Shell Video Settings Includes ‘Indie Mode’ Pixel Filter Easter Egg

You’re not a true indie Dark Souls effort without pixel art — I didn’t make the rules, that’s just how it is. There are dozens of examples of indie-rific Soulsborne style games, and the indiest of them all feature beautiful, detailed pixels. Mortal Shell wants to get in on some of that pixel goodness, and you can swap the graphics with a hilarious ‘Indie Filter’ in the settings.

I found this one while exploring the settings menu. Most of the settings are normal — I’m the type of guy that instantly disables any motion blur in video games. As a previous budget-PC owner, motion blur just screams FPS drops to me. Anyway, below those normal-sounding settings, you’ll find the Indie option. Why does this exist? How? Whatever the reason, it’s totally hilarious, so check out how the game looks in the gallery below.

More Mortal Shell guides on Gameranx:

• 10 Tips To Help You Survive | Beginner’s Guide
• How To Find All 4 Shells | Class Locations Guide
• How To Get All 5 Weapons | Hadern Boss Tips
• How To Open Fish Statue Chests | Fog Mechanic Guide
• How To Fully Upgrade The Hallowed Sword
• All Weapon Upgrade Locations | Weapon Abilities & Damage Bonuses
• How To Beat Imrod, The Unrepentant | Temple Grounds Walkthrough
• How To Beat Tarsus, The First Martyr | Abandoned Chamber Walkthrough
• How To Beat Crucix, The Twiceborn | Eternal Narthex Walkthrough
• How To Beat The Last Boss | Final Battle Walkthrough
• How To Get The Secret Baghead Ending | Easter Egg Guide

The ‘Indie Mode’ setting changes the game to a chunky pixelated look. This isn’t lampooning any one game — but a series of games with Dark Souls inspiration. Maybe someone told the devs their game doesn’t look indie enough? Whatever the case, you’ll be swimming in huge pixels.

The pixel filter doesn’t make the game any more difficult to play. It’s kind of nice, actually! Even if you have to use more of your imagination to make out the finer details of the grotesque monsters you’re battling. In my testing on the PS4 Pro, the pixel filter might’ve actually improved the FPS slightly? Maybe that’s just my imagination, or the pixels did a good job hiding any drops.

This filter might be clowning on games, but we can’t get enough of these Souls-like indie efforts. Games like Blasphemous and Hellpoint prove that there’s still plenty of juice in the Souls-style inspiration engine.