The bosses in any Soulslike title are often the main event for longtime fans of the genre, with the encounters inDark Soulsbeing the benchmark that many developers base their own designs on. However, regardless of how successfulDark Soulsbosses like Artoriasor Ornstein and Smough might be, one fight still stands as the worst design FromSoftware has managed to produce.
This failed design comes in the form of the Bed of Chaos, a notoriously frustrating fight that isn’t so much an example of the difficulty inDark Souls, but more of the limits of its puzzles and platforming. That is to say, a game without a dedicated jump button doesn’t exactly mesh well with platforming in any way, and the puzzle is almost too easy to even be called one.
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The Bed of Chaos Boss Fight and Dark Souls' Janky Jumping Mechanics
If there is anything thatDark Soulsis known for, it certainly isn’t the well-developed ability for the player to precisely jump and land in any position they want. More often than not, attempting to interact with the jumping mechanics of this series is little more than running, mashing the jump button, and hoping for the best. Even the enemies inFromSoftware titles have trouble jumpingwithout completely leaping themselves off of a cliff and forking over their souls to the player.
So, having a requirement for the end of the Bed of Chaos boss fight be to jump from a position where the player is constantly being swiped at and onto a thin root is a strange choice to make. This means that in order to beat this mandatory boss players either have to learn one of the few consistent places to roll into the final phase or hope they get lucky withDark Souls' jumping mechanic. Of course, the jumping at the end doesn’t even begin to explain the impossibility that is avoiding the boss' massive hands as it swipes across the arena.
Why Bed of Chaos' Jumping Puzzle and Hand Collision Make For Frustrating Gameplay
To add insult to injury on the janky jumping mechanics,Dark Soulsincreases the pressure by giving Bed of Chaos access to a large sweeping attack. This attack doesn’t exactly do a lot of damage, but what it does often do is cover an entire side of the arena and add a point of collision that is impossible to get past. No matter how good aDark Soulsplayer might be at rolling, parrying, or blocking, the collision of these arms will always grab the player and move them haphazardly. These attacks usually end with instant death in the later phases of the fight.
The hand sweeps wouldn’t be too terrible on their own if it wasn’t for the fact that the arena isn’t always a large, flat surface with nowhere for the player to fall to their death. However, after hitting one of the two main targets in the first two phases of the fight,Dark Souls' Bed of Chaosstarts to drop portions of the floor away, meaning that falling into the newly broken holes will be an instant death. Combine this with the collision on the hands that moves the player in awkward directions, and the task of actually making it through the arena becomes nearly impossible.
With all of these competing factors happening in the later phases of the encounter, the best way to actually reach the key points to attack the Bed of Chaos is to actually jump around the outside of the arena. This then circles back to the initial issue with this boss fight, where the difficulty ofDark Souls' platforming alone makes even the best strategy a series of leaps of faith. Then, worst of all, once the player actually manages to make these terrible jumps, the actual fight lasts all of ten seconds, as the bug in the middle of the Bed of Chaos only takes one hit to be killed. All of this comes together to make the boss the worst fight across the entireDark Soulsseries.
Dark Soulsis available now for PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
