FromSoftware has established a very particular style for their Soulsborne NPCs. These characters speak in riddles, they're often dour (if not outright insane), and they tend to offer side quests without making it entirely clear what it is they want players to do next. This design has captivated many a gamer, as parsing through these cryptic quests can lead to some very satisfying outcomes.
Elden Ring Nightreign’s Best Feature Shouldn’t Be Limited to One FromSoftware Game
One feature in Elden Ring Nightreign stands above others so much it would be a waste to not see it included in past and future FromSoftware games.
However, such a design style will inevitably lead to occasional frustration. Some of these side quests are so obtuse that progressing feels impossible, while others deliberately hide useful information that might change how players approach them. The worst side quest offenders aren't even inscrutable or secretive; they're just downright tedious. These FromSoftware side quests lean a bit too hard into the developer's lore-dense formula, and they come away more annoying than they are fulfilling.
Saving Solaire
Don't Forget To Kill That One Unremarkable Bug
Dark Souls
- Released
- September 22, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Soulslike, Adventure
Kicking things off with everyone's favorite white sign summon: Solaire from Dark Souls. Solaire is beloved for two reasons. One, he is an almost unfathomable beacon of positivity in a world as dark and dreary as Lordran. And two, he's the NPC summon for the Bell Gargoyles boss fight, and has likely prevented many a player from quitting their Dark Souls journey shortly after it's begun. His lore is pretty cool, too. All that is to say, for how much the fanbase loves him, Solaire's questline is a real pain.
What makes this quest frustrating is that, to save Solaire from going Hollow, players need to find The White Lady in Blighttown, farm 30 Humanity, and give it all to her to open the locked door found just before the entrance to Lost Izalith. If they step foot in Lost Izalith before doing any of this, the questline ends. After opening the locked passage, players must then kill all nine Chaos Bugs lurking behind that door; if they miss one, it will latch onto Solaire's head and turn him Hollow. The most annoying part about all of this is that even after farming 30 Humanity—a very valuable resource in itself—the questline can still fail if players accidentally wander into Lost Izalith too early, or if they only kill eight of the nine Chaos Bugs.
Big Hat Logan
Can You Stop Getting Locked Up For Five Minutes?!
- Side Quest Found In: Dark Souls
For players crafting a sorcery build in Dark Souls, while they have a few options at their disposal, the best merchant to visit is the man himself, Big Hat Logan. From Homing Crystal Soulmass to Crystal Soul Spear, the best spells in the game come from the fellow with the oversized headgear. The thing is, he keeps getting himself locked in cages.
Elden Ring: All Sorceries
All Sorceries in Elden Ring can be categorized into a handful of categories, depending on the spell type.
Big Hat Logan is first encountered in Sen's Fortress, where he's (unsurprisingly) locked in a cage. Finding the key to that cage is a nuisance in itself, but bringing the key back to the cage is even more annoying. However, once he's free, Logan will head back to Firelink Shrine and start peddling his wares... For a time. Once players encounter Seath the Scaleless and get locked up themselves, upon their escape, they'll encounter good ol' Logan, who is once again behind bars. Getting the key to this cell is even more tiresome than the first go-round. Worst of all, to complete Logan's questline (spoiler: it ends with him going insane), players must buy all of his spells, which will run them a total of over 183,000 Souls. The rewards for doing so aren't bad, but it's a lot of work to put in just to make a guy lose his mind.
Siegmeyer Of Catarina
Sometimes, You Need To Help Yourself
- Side Quest Found In: Dark Souls
The worst thing about Siegmeyer of Catarina's questline in Dark Souls is just finding the guy, because players have to track him down over and over and over again. He hums a little tune that makes spotting him a bit easier, but often he's located well off the beaten path, sometimes in the back corners of an area that there is no reason to visit otherwise.
That goes for the first four times that players meet him. The fifth time, in Lost Izalith, Siegmeyer needs a hand fighting some Chaos Eaters, which are located just below him. If he loses 50% of his health or more in that fight, even if players kill all the demons, Siegmeyer will die, and the questline will end. Killing the Chaos Eaters before talking to him will also end the questline, so there's no loophole here either. Given the inconsistent nature of Dark Souls NPC AI, relying on Siegmeyer to maintain his health during this fight is a shot in the dark. Still, if players manage to pull it off (or rather, if everything works out, since player input is only one factor here), they can proceed to the final step. That is, assuming they found Siegmeyer's daughter, Sieglinde, who is disguised as a random Golden Golem in the Duke's Archives. Then, following the Lost Izalith encounter, they can find Siegmeyer one last time in Ash Lake. Turns out, he's dead. Sieglinde provides a half-decent reward for all that effort, but it's still immensely unsatisfying.
Royal Sorcerer Navlaan
Killing In The Name Of
Dark Souls 2
- Released
- March 11, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
Two things are deeply frustrating about Royal Sorcerer Navlaan's quest in Dark Souls 2. The first is that the whole thing can fail before it even begins if players pull a completely innocent-looking level near Navlaan's cell. This sets him free, and not only does it lock off his questline, but it also causes him to invade as a red phantom several times throughout the rest of the game.
However, say players manage to avoid the lever and chat with Navlaan through his fog-wall prison instead. Well, if they're human, they won't get much from him, but if they're Hollow, he'll hire them as his personal assassin. Players will be sent on errands to kill specific NPCs that Navlaan singles out, important NPCs. One of them is the Emerald Herald, without whom it's impossible to level up. In order to receive the reward for each assassination, Navlaan will request an item as proof of death. The thing is, each of those items can be obtained through non-violent means. The whole questline is one giant red herring that tricks players into murdering key NPCs in exchange for some comparatively paltry rewards. It's a brutal rug pull that's entirely intentional, but just because it's deliberate doesn't make it less frustrating.
Laddersmith Gilligan
Is That Really A Job?
- Side Quest Found In: Dark Souls 2
This one is pretty simple; even Blacksmith Lenigrast calls Laddersmith Gilligan a scoundrel. This is the guy who will build players a ladder to descend into the giant pit in the middle of Majula in Dark Souls 2. He offers a variety of different ladders at different costs and that descend to different depths.
Dark Souls 2 Fan Shows Off Incredible Paintings of Majula
A talented artist and FromSoftware fan on Reddit shares some of their incredible paintings of Majula, the coastal hub area from Dark Souls 2.
First of all, these ladders are entirely unnecessary. Players can descend the pit if they buy the Silvercat Ring from Shalquoir (which can also be used in any other area besides the pit, unlike the ladders) or if they execute a bit of tricky platforming to hop between the planks that bisect the pit at regular intervals. Worse still, Gillian wants 12,000 souls for a ladder that descends to the bottom of the pit. The whole thing just reeks of a scam. What the hell is a "laddersmith" anyway?
Adella The Nun
During An Endless Nightmare, Is Jealousy Really Necessary?
Bloodborne
- Released
- March 24, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
Encountered just after players are kidnapped by a Snatcher and taken to Hypogean Gaol in Bloodborne, Adella is a nun of the Healing Church who will eventually make her way back to Odeon Chapel if players tell her where it is. Once there, if players talk with her, she will offer them vials of her blood. The thing is, this is eerily similar to what another Odeon Chapel NPC offers them.
If players first accept Adella's blood and then accept blood from Arianna three times, Adella will get jealous and kill her, then go insane and attack the player outside the Chapel. Besides the fact that this results in the deaths of two NPCs simply because players talked to both of them, losing Arianna can potentially lock them out of Bloodborne's true ending and secret final boss. Considering how completely innocuous accepting either woman's blood seems to be, these far-reaching consequences are deeply frustrating when players might not even realize where they went wrong until it's already way too late.
Nepheli Loux
Back And Forth And Back And Forth
Elden Ring
- Released
- February 25, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
FromSoftware's side quests have often featured a lot of backtracking. This was bound to be exacerbated in a massive open world like Elden Ring's, where that backtracking could take place across massive expanses of the game world. No quest exemplifies this more than Nepheli Loux's.
This quest essentially involves finding Nepheli in an undisclosed location, talking with her, then returning to Roundtable Hold and talking with her again. Then do this three times over. There is one slight deviation in the middle, where players need to return to the game's starting area and fight the Grafted Scion to find the Stormhawk King Ashes, but that's about as complex as it gets. Nepheli's quest also requires players to complete Kenneth Haight's quest, just for added complexity. Then, to wrap things up, they need to head all the way back to Stormveil Castle and, yep, talk with Nepheli some more. For their efforts, players will receive an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone, which is a pretty disappointing reward for all the running around that they had to do.
Honorable Mention: The Return Ending
Oh, Good... More Rice...
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Released
- March 22, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
It's fair to debate if this even counts as a side quest, considering it directly leads to one of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice's endings. However, it requires players to go way, way outside the game's progression path to complete, and no part of this quest is strictly necessary for completing the game; it only serves to provide a third ending: the Return ending. Because of this gray area, we're including it as an honorable mention here.
This quest isn't frustrating because it's hard, or deliberately deceptive; it's frustrating because, outside a pair of cinematic moments, it's convoluted and just kind of tedious. To unlock Sekiro's Return ending, players have to speak to the Divine Child of Rejuvination over and over and over again. Exhausting NPC dialogue is a key trait in most FromSoftware games, but it's taken to an extreme in this case. It's made worse because, in between long-winded monologues from the Divine Child, players are sent on fetch quests for very obscure items. Then, they return those items to the Divine Child and listen to more dialogue. Occasionally, they have to eat rice. This quest is virtually impossible to complete without a guide, but even with that help, it's still a chore.
10 Most Frustrating Missions In The Assassin's Creed Franchise
The Assassin's Creed franchise is well-known for creating hard and frustrating missions that tire players out. Here are the most frustrating ones.