// KOTAKU — GAMING
This Room In Dark Souls Is My Personal Waking Nightmare
While waiting patiently for the release of both the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake and GTAVI, I’ve been revisiting the original Dark Souls. I’ve never beaten Dark Souls; the first time I played I got as far as defeating Gaping Dragon and then noped out when I hit Blighttown. This time, I’ve stuck it out, and am all the way through most of Anor Londo. Game’s great! What a classic! Mostly!
I love games that are rude in the extreme to the player in comical ways, and this is something FromSoftware excels at doing. God, Dark Souls is such a hilarious asshole to me. Whether it’s crap like this:
— Rebekah Valentine (@duckvalentine.bsky.social) 2026-10-14T23:17:24.715Z
— Rebekah Valentine (@duckvalentine.bsky.social) 2026-10-25T16:10:39.577Z
Funny! I am, quite genuinely, laughing about both of those situations. What I am not laughing about, what I am in fact internally and nearly externally screaming about, is a very specific encounter in Anor Londo that has become my own personal house of horrors.
“Ah, yes, Ornstein and Smough,” you say knowingly, recalling the challenging boss duo of Anor Londo. But nay! It’s not them. Even though I am, in fact, currently stuck on them. It’s not Ornstein and Smough who are the issue. In fact, I am confident that I’ll be able to defeat them in a few more good attempts.
No, my trouble, my horror, my agony in Anor Londo is not in that room, but in the room right before them. This room:
Man, fuck this room! It’s so unassuming! So basic! Why am I having so much trouble with this room?
I know why. It’s a combination of stubbornness and rage that’s tripping me up. But also they did not have to make this room so damn frustrating.
To get to Ornstein and Smough from one of the two nearest bonfires, you have to run through several long corridors. One run is mostly empty, but has two big, chonky unavoidable knight enemies at the end before you hit this room, so it’s non-ideal. The other run is peppered with silver knight enemies, but you can outrun all of them easily. The run itself is long, but not too dangerous.