In Defense of FromSoftware's Poison Swamps

Highlights

FromSoftware’s poison swamps add a unique challenge, forcing players to slow down and think through giant environmental puzzles.
The storied history and value of FromSoftware’s poison swamps lie in their great artwork, differentiated designs, and memorable traversal experiences.
Despite their infamy and difficulty, poison swamps in FromSoftware’s games are a hallmark feature that players remember and discuss, adding to the overall appeal.

For many years, Japanese developer FromSoftware has frustrated and satisfied players with its hardcore fantasy action-RPGs. Starting with Demon’s Souls in 2009, the fantasy side of its output transitioned into its Soulslike form, carrying on the spirit of earlier projects while establishing a more rigid third-person formula. Thanks to these games, FromSoftware has continually topped itself with new levels of success, all while upholding the traditions that have guided its hands since the beginning.

While those traditions have contributed much to the distinct design, tone, and quality of FromSoftware’s work, not all of them are equally well-received. FromSoftware’s vague storytelling is a common target of criticism, and so is its Soulsborne games’ obtuse quest design and general lack of signposting. These aren’t universal complaints, but every Souls player can agree that each title’s poison swamp is consistently a terror. Frequent Soulsborne director Hidetaka Miyazaki has professed a fondness for this type of area, and similar places appear throughout FromSoftware’s catalog. Poison swamps are some of the most grueling parts of FromSoftware’s games, but that doesn’t mean it should ditch them.

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Poison Swamps’ Place In FromSoftware’s Ecosystem

Forced-damage traps have a legacy dating back to roleplaying games’ tabletop roots, and the image of treacherous, plague-ridden bogs has existed even longer. Uniting them results in some of the most hated areas RPGs can offer, although their implementation varies. Lava tiles in classic Dragon Quest are arguably a branch of the same concept, and swamps infested with poison-bearing enemies, like Final Fantasy‘s Marsh Cave, are another common take. FromSoftware uses all of these and more, with its current streak of large, movement-inhibiting pools that fill status bars still being an improvement over entire maps covered by gas in its older games, even Armored Core.

There’s no debating the storied history behind FromSoftware’s poison swamps, but one must look deeper to see their value. FromSoftware’s swamplands play host to great artwork, sporting distorted terrain and inhabitants that only such hostile ground could house. Attention is also paid to differentiating normal swamps from their poisonous counterparts.

Despite being right next to each other, Dark Souls 3’s Road of Sacrifices and Farron Keep look and feel different, with the latter exploiting and subtly accommodating players’ slow movement through its poison gunk. Even Demon’s Souls’ Valley of Defilement and its even worse DS1 successor Blighttown employ different designs across their multiple segments, though never without opportunities for counterplay.

Players Learn To Respect FromSoftware’s Poison Swamps Eventually

A poison swamp is the kind of prolonged challenge that demands careful planning to overcome. It interrupts the regular flow of gameplay, with even the player’s build needing to take a backseat if status-resistant gear or faster movement is available. In this way, FromSoftware’s poison swamps exhibit a subtle genius in forcing every player to slow down and think through one giant environmental puzzle, often providing higher vantage points to help. Crossing a swamp is also one of the rare prompts for Souls players to cut loose with consumable items, with their instant results being vital for completing a memorable trek across FromSoftware’s latest swamp.

Memorability May Be A Poison Swamp’s Best Feature

Players discuss poison swamps more than most regions common throughout FromSoftware’s games, proving infamy is still a kind of publicity. Even if the memories are mostly unpleasant, overcoming their trials and growing wise to their tricks have enshrined these plague-ridden pits in public Soulslike perception. Owing to their reputation, encountering grandiose poison swamps can hit even harder, with many players remembering what it felt like to first discover Elden Ring’s Caelid or Lake of Rot. With Hidetaka Miyazaki confirming at least one poison swamp in Elden Ring‘s DLC, it seems FromSoftware is far from done with them, and its fans still have plenty of swamp-bound tales left to tell.