8 things we hate about Dark Souls

Spoilers ahead! It may be a classic, but some of it was awful.

5. The silver archers in Anor Londo

Arriving in Anor Londo is one of the most impactful moments in Dark Souls, and in typical fashion From Software does its best to make the entrance to that imposing cathedral at the far end of your view as obscure as possible. We don't have any issue with that - it's fun figuring out how to get into it, and clearly it's worth the payoff when you do - but there is one misjudgement, and it's the silver archer barring your path round the side of the building. Once you learn how to bait him into the wrong move so he falls to his death, it's a doddle, but the process of learning that is one of those parts of the game that probably bars progress to a lot of players. The run-up is way too long, and the physics of it feel unfairly inconsistent. Given that the silver archer is one of the last big challenges between you and probably the best boss fight in the entire game, that's a big shame.

6. Lost Izalith

Famously rather unfinished, Lost Izalith begins with a lava field full of rampaging dinosaur butts, prompting us to wonder whether the game was broken when we first encountered it, and the fact the bonfire here is hidden behind an illusory wall is kind of inexcusable. It then transitions into the city itself, which is such a missed opportunity, and ends with a boss fight so bad that we'll give it its own place on this list in due course. The greatest shame about Lost Izalith is that it is such a narratively significant location and could have been the apex of one of the best story threads in the game. To add insult to injury, From revisited the area in Dark Souls 3 and we didn't like what they did there either.

7. The boss run for Four Kings

This one felt like a toss-up between a few late-game runs - we considered making it the run to Seath for the stupid platforming - but we'll go with this because it's just so long and boring. New Londo Ruins probably wouldn't be the same if it had a bonfire, but having to take the elevator down from Firelink Shrine every time and then run the gauntlet of those stupid ghosts amongst a sea of featureless grey level geometry is tedious in the extreme. Part of the problem is that the fight itself is merely OK. If the boss were more interesting or the run shorter, we'd probably feel differently about New Londo Ruins as a whole, but as it is we rarely look forward to it when we start a new playthrough.

8. The Bed of Chaos boss fight

There's only one way to end this list, and that's with the worst boss fight in the game. Bed of Chaos isn't really even a fight - all you have to do is whack a couple of exposed weaknesses once and then run through the middle to kill the bug hiding at the centre of the chaos. But there are myriad problems. There never seems to be much rhyme or reason to the chaotic sweeping of the branches that knock you into the abyss. And it's much too easy to screw up the tumbling fall onto the center branch that leads you to the killing blow. We have no issue with the Dark Souls series' penchant for gimmick fights (all hail the Executioner's Chariot!) but too often the challenge here feels like tolerating the inconsistency rather than figuring out the solution, and with a long run-up between attempts, it's easy to lose your patience. As with Lost Izalith itself, it's even more of a shame because of the lore significance of the area that the Bed of Chaos has you rapidly falling out of love with.

Phew! What a lot of complaints, eh? Dark Souls must be some game if we still think it's a classic despite all these issues! And it truly is. We'd have it in our all-time top five. And you can rest assured we'll be dodge-rolling our way through Lordran yet again when Dark Souls Remastered drops in May. Who knows, maybe it's time for that SL1 run. See you then.

Enjoyed this list of tough fights? Check out our list of Enemies who keep coming back for more. #4 was one of the few good things about Dark Souls 2...

Editor-at-Large

Tom is probably best known for the 15 years - FIFTEEN YEARS! - he spent at Eurogamer, one of Europe's biggest independent gaming sites. Now he roams the earth, but will always have a home here at AllGamers. You can try and raise him from his deep, abyssal slumber through tom.bramwell@allgamers.com or he's also on Twitter.

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