Soulsborne games are renowned for their exceptionally detailed and captivating game worlds, featuring architectural designs and visuals that leave players awestruck.
Without a doubt, enthusiasts of FromSoftware’s games all concur that each title contains an arduous section to traverse, which becomes particularly challenging during subsequent playthroughs.
Over the years, developers have taken us on harrowing journeys, from murky swamps to the very depths of horror – experiences that have left us feeling reluctant to return.
From a perspective of someone who’s traversed each of the Soulsborne games numerous times, clutching aspirin bottles, here are my personal picks for the ten most frustrating locales within the Soulsborne series, listed in order.
10. Dreg Heap
Between Angels and Despair
Game | Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City |
Recommended Level | 100 |
All in all, Dark Souls 3 serves as an impressive finale for the trilogy. The game, particularly with its DLCs, is exceptionally well-crafted, even though it occasionally stumbles due to some finely tuned difficulties.
Whenever I engage in playing The Ringed City, I find myself growing weary at the prospect of navigating through the Dreg Heap once more. Its angels raining lasers down from above and numerous ambushes make it a tiresome task just to move about.
Reaching Earthen Peak’s ruins is where things take a turn for the worst, as you’re met with a toxic environment. Navigating through there to confront the boss becomes quite the arduous and perilous journey, where avoiding being killed feels almost unattainable.
Initially, this location is renowned as it challenges you to rethink conventional ideas and discover strategies for defeating the angels. However, with each subsequent encounter, it becomes an overwhelming struggle of immense difficulty.
9. Consecrated Snowfield
An Unnecessary Zone
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Game | Elden Ring |
Recommended Level | 110 |
As an ardent Elden Ring player, I’ve found myself disagreeing with a prevalent viewpoint. Despite what some might say, I don’t believe the game has been intentionally extended, that is, until I recall the frozen expanse of the Consecrated Snowfield.
In terms of lacking visual appeal, encountering repetitive adversaries, and offering minimal interactive experiences, this region seems unnecessarily dull or uneventful.
This place is significant since it leads you to Miquella’s Haligtree; however, it doesn’t enhance your journey much more than merely acting as a passageway to the hidden location.
The Consecrated Snowfield, while boasting intriguing artifacts and experiences, seems somewhat lacking for a high-level zone within a top-tier RPG. It gives the impression of being hurriedly added.
8. Black Gulch
The Less Inspired Poison Area
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Game | Dark Souls 2 |
Recommended Level | 60 |
In my gaming experience, Dark Souls 2 is infamous for sporting some of the toughest zones that FromSoftware’s ever crafted, and without a doubt, Black Gulch stands out among the most challenging ones.
As a gamer, I find the concept of this poison zone intriguing, but what really makes me happy is how quickly it can be finished. Frankly, it doesn’t offer anything that feels fulfilling or worthwhile.
1. It’s hard to see due to poor visibility.
2. The statues that emit poison are almost impossible to pass through easily.
3. The layout of the level is difficult to understand and navigate.
4. (Bonus) If it weren’t so compact, it would rank much higher in terms of difficulty.
Apart from Lucatiel of Mirrah and its striking beauty, Black Gulch could be described as an ideal location for swiftly making your way towards the boss, with the hope that the experience will soon be forgotten.
7. Farron Keep
A Challenge of Patience
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Game | Dark Souls 3 |
Recommended Level | 35 |
Moving on to testing zones that may strain your endurance, the renowned “Farron Keep” in “Dark Souls 3” stands out as particularly tough.
In this Soulsborne game area, it has the most toxic concentration per unit area. Navigating through it is quite laborious as you need to thoroughly examine every nook and cranny to progress toward the boss fight.
As you can’t move or roll freely because of the obstacles set by your adversaries, you’ll need to adopt a cautious strategy that will further slow down the gameplay.
Instead of rushing through the stages like a speeding bullet, I enjoy delving deeply and thoroughly, and it’s the restrictiveness in gameplay that I find most frustrating about Farron Keep.
6. Lost Izalith
An Unfinished Corridor
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Game | Dark Souls |
Recommended Level | 70 |
It’s hard to ignore the sense that the development of Dark Souls might have been hurried in the second half, and the most obvious example of this is the area known as Lost Izalith.
This long, uninteresting corridor, filled with repetitive enemy placements and an excessive amount of blinding lava, seems strangely out of context.
Or, more casually:
This boring hallway is all lava and enemies – it feels like a weirdly inappropriate spot for these elements to be.
Observing the skillful level design prior to reaching it, it creates a noticeable disruption in the overall gameplay, almost suggesting that this part was developed for a different game.
Additionally, the boss from the Lost Izalith region is undeniably the most frustrating encounter within the game. Combine this with a lack of engaging activities, and it easily ranks as the most underwhelming location in Dark Souls.
5. Valley of Defilement
The Original Infamous Swamp
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Game | Demon’s Souls |
Recommended Level | 50 |
It’s well-known that FromSoftware has a knack for designing swamp-like environments, but not everyone realizes that the tradition began with the Valley of Defilement in the game ‘Demon’s Souls’.
It wouldn’t be surprising if someone said that this is the most frustrating toxic environment a developer has ever crafted. This seems particularly challenging, perhaps serving as a learning experience for them, as they seem to have reduced its difficulty level in subsequent releases.
Although certain trinkets and incantations may smooth your passage, this muddy inferno is dreadful from beginning to end, offering little that I’d care to recall fondly from the ordeal.
In Soulsborne games, there aren’t any particularly memorable swamps. However, the Valley of Defilement stands out as the most notorious example among this group of unwanted locales.
4. Forbidden Woods
Speedrun Test
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Game | Bloodborne |
Recommended Level | 40 |
Bloodborne boasts one of the smoothest level designs among the Soulsborne series, but it could have been flawless had it not been for the enigmatic forest area known as the Forbidden Woods.
Stepping away from the polished charm of its locales, I find myself immersed in this vast expanse that seems to embody every challenge and obstacle the game throws at me – from its formidable foes to intricate terrain layouts.
It’s no pleasure at all to get lost when enormous serpents are hot on your heels. Unfortunately, it seems that being disoriented is usually the condition you encounter as you navigate through this area.
Due to bothersome adversaries, puzzling designs, and most notably, extended journeys without concealed shortcuts, Forbidden Woods stands as the sole blemish in an otherwise flawless universe.
3. Shrine of Amana
Beautifully Frustrating
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Game | Dark Souls 2 |
Recommended Level | 100 |
The initial playthrough of Dark Souls 2 for me involved a character who heavily relied on bows, making the Shrine of Amana level an effortless stroll. Consequently, I’ve always been puzzled by the intense dislike it seems to evoke from players.
In future games, I opted not to employ ranged weapons anymore, and it became entirely understandable why I felt contempt towards the place, as I observed its poor layout.
Or
Later on, I chose to forgo ranged weapons in subsequent rounds, and my dislike for the location was justified when I noticed its flawed design.
In the midst of tumbling over unseen ledges, hounded by swarms of adversaries who rained magic down on me relentlessly from every direction, and with my progress impeded by an overwhelming flood, I came to understand that it was a perpetual horror.
One of the most stunning regions FromSoftware has crafted is truly breathtaking, yet the steepness of its challenge, which often feels artificially inflated, can make it challenging to fully appreciate without a plentiful supply of arrows at my disposal.
2. Tomb of the Giants
Empty and Unsatisfying
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Game | Dark Souls |
Recommended Level | 60 |
Similar to Izalith, the Tomb of the Giants serves as a striking example of how the quality in Dark Souls seems to diminish as the story unfolds further along.
At first glance, it appears quite engaging because of the shift in ambiance and tempo. However, it’s a cunning ploy to disguise the fact that the place is almost deserted.
In simpler terms, you have fewer types of opponents, the design of the game levels can be perplexing and difficult to navigate, and the journey back to fight the boss is one of the most challenging in games from the Souls series.
Just like numerous other fields, it’s quite intriguing at first encounter. But once the novelty wears off and it becomes a nuisance rather than a delight, it’s hard to find many places as disheartening and overpowering as the Tomb of the Giants.
1. Frigid Outskirts
Unbearable Suffering
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Game | Dark Souls 2 |
Recommended Level | 120 |
Previously mentioned, Dark Souls 2 remains a favorite of mine, with the potential to surpass even Dark Souls 3. However, there are very few aspects in life that can provoke such intense anger within me as the Frigid Outskirts.
In my opinion, navigating that region is the one instance where I’ve genuinely developed a strong aversion towards FromSoftware. It’s just nonsensical from beginning to end, and even in its capacity as a multiplayer platform, it remains so.
I have never wanted to return to that place due to its long and monotonous snowstorms, unexpected and unacknowledged enemy assaults, immense and perplexing expanses, and the agonizing repetition of its boss battles. In other words, it’s a location I’ve only ventured through once in my gaming experience.
Despite Dark Souls 2 having numerous issues that I’ve typically sought to find positives within, there’s one exception: the Frigid Outskirts. This area, unfortunately, stands out as the least well-designed and most frustrating across all Soulsborne games.
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2025-02-09 02:10