I can definitely relate to the softlocked feel. Mostly due to the fact the area is mandatory and you don’t get fast travel until way after it. Plus, navigation is, as you said, very difficult, and even after you get through the ladders and platforms, there’s the poison swamp at the bottom. And after Quelaag you still have to climb back up.
So yeah, the difficulty is more artificial, compounded by several different factors.
The biggest problem with blighttown, in my opinion, is that too much of it looks the same. The layout is pretty easy to just run through if you already know where you’re going, but it’s so easy to get turned around or confused because of the lack of unique landmarks that it makes for a frustrating experience. I’ve played through the game more times than I can count so I have the route essentially memorized, but it was definitely a pain for the first… many attempts. I had the same complaint with a lot of Bloodborne where you go from one street of Victorian houses to the next street of Victorian houses. I think they cleaned up that particular problem with their game design by DS2, thankfully.
![[Discussion] Which Soulslike area do you find most challenging, and how do you approach it?](https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/31c7c2bd-b8f5-426f-91f7-f3ef7dbc208c.webp){kind=link}
I can definitely relate to the softlocked feel. Mostly due to the fact the area is mandatory and you don’t get fast travel until way after it. Plus, navigation is, as you said, very difficult, and even after you get through the ladders and platforms, there’s the poison swamp at the bottom. And after Quelaag you still have to climb back up.
So yeah, the difficulty is more artificial, compounded by several different factors.
The biggest problem with blighttown, in my opinion, is that too much of it looks the same. The layout is pretty easy to just run through if you already know where you’re going, but it’s so easy to get turned around or confused because of the lack of unique landmarks that it makes for a frustrating experience. I’ve played through the game more times than I can count so I have the route essentially memorized, but it was definitely a pain for the first… many attempts. I had the same complaint with a lot of Bloodborne where you go from one street of Victorian houses to the next street of Victorian houses. I think they cleaned up that particular problem with their game design by DS2, thankfully.