Assembled with the assistance of @ZandraVandra and @valbaca. These swamps will be judged on two axes:
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Fun: How enjoyable it is to play through the swamp as a zone in a video game.
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Swampiness: How effectively the swamps invoke a feeling of depression and despair.
Of these, Swampiness is of course the most important, but fun is certainly not a negligible factor. So we begin, in order from least to greatest.
#8: Harvest Valley (Dark Souls 2)
Fun: C+
Swampiness: F
A decent area to walk around in. Full of sexy ladies and big strong men who will suplex you given half a chance. Neat to explore, not too difficult to survive, kind of bullshit in a couple ways but not too bad. However, it's not a fucking swamp. It's just a bunch of poison gas in a mine! It's only even in here because Dark Souls 2 doesn't have any better candidates. Poor show, DS2, poor show.
#7: Bodhisattva Valley Floor (Sekiro)
Fun: C-
Swampiness: C-
This poison swamp is too damn small. It's just a skinny little slip of muck that's both totally optional for finishing the game and easy to grapple across even if you do want to grab the stuff inside. It gets a few extra swampiness points for how demoralizing the elder monkeys are, but they're not even really an intrinsic feature of the swamp. Sekiro may be my favorite FromSoft game, but it's got a crummy swamp.
#6: Nightmare Frontier (Bloodborne)
Fun: C
Swampiness: B
I really hate how this place looks, all yellow and gray and impossible to navigate because everything looks the god damn same. That said, it's easily the swampiest swamp so far, with good and proper mandatory sequences of wading through gruk while trying not to get wrecked by enemies. It's even got some nice goodies hidden within its swampiest nooks. But the real triumph of this area is the presence of the swampiest character in the series: Patches the Spider! His presence alone bumps this up half a letter grade.
#5: Swamp of Sorrow (Demon's Souls)
Fun: D
Swampiness: S
Now we're getting to the good stuff. This swamp absolutely reeks, but in the best way. The all-encompassing misery of trying to navigate this area and getting the shit ripped out of you over and over by goblins and phantoms lowers its fun score and thus overall ranking, but its sheer griminess demands a terrified awe.
#4: Farron Keep (Dark Souls 3)
Fun: C+
Swampiness: B
There's nothing tremendously remarkable about Farron Keep, but it ticks all the boxes. It's got the nasty juice we love to hate, and plenty of it. It's got tasks to keep you moving, enemies to fuck you up, and treats to reward the daring explorer. It does feel a bit more like the Lothric Natural History Museum's diorama of a poison swamp than like a living breathing ecosystem, but it's still a lovely place to spend a nauseous and sticky afternoon.
#3: Blighttown Swamp (Dark Souls 1)
Fun: B
Swampiness: A-
Very swampy vibes from this one. Rickety wooden structures, a broad and organic area that nevertheless feels comprehensible to navigate, and of course the iconic experience of seeing it slowly come into view under your feet as you climb down through Blighttown proper. It is a particular victim of the early Souls games' characteristic PS3 muddiness of colors, but it's undeniable: when you talk about "FromSoft poison swamps", this is the archetypal example that springs to everyone's minds.
#2: Swamp of Aeonia (Elden Ring)
Fun: A
Swampiness: A+
The corrupted heart of Caelid, this swamp has impeccable vibes. Although as a mycophobe I struggled with the fungus theme, even I have to admit that it's a brilliant way to give Scarlet Rot a distinctive look and feel, and to tie the swamp proper into the region as a whole. I was even going to label this entire section "Caelid" until Zandra and Val reminded me that most of the region isn't actually a swamp. Aeonia has its own boss and several dungeons, and there's absolutely nothing swampier than getting Shanghai'd into a mine-prison at the beginning of the game and sneaking out only to find this nightmare stew waiting for you just outside the door.
#1: Lake of Rot (Elden Ring)
Fun: A-
Swampiness: S
You're a dozen or two hours or so into Elden Ring. You're spelunking through its vast network of underground cities when you come across a small hole in the wall. You walk out through it, onto a balcony overlooking a vast expanse peppered here and there with stonework but filled, overwhelmingly, with red and glowing Scarlet Rot. Although it will be hours more before you reach this rancid lake, a leaden weight settles into your bones even still. You know that, one day in the not too distant future, you will be forced to march through its deadly expanse.
Zandra calls the Lake of Rot "turbohell", and for good reason. Its infernal breadth feels impossible to traverse at first, even moreso once you realize that several minibosses lie in wait within its toxic shallows. But—and this is the crucial difference between the Lake and the Swamp of Sorrows—it is ultimately manageable. This area is a testament to From Software's ability to create a challenge that feels at first insurmountable, but through cleverness and skill (in this case, usually judicious use of the Flame Cleanse Me spell) falls beneath the player's feet to become a mere swampy canvas upon which the player can paint their will.
