I have been a fan of FromSoftware games for quite some time. I played the original Demon’s Souls back on the PS3 and, ever since then, I have at least tried every new title from the studio. So, when Nintendo reached out about checking out The Duskbloods at FromSoftware in Tokyo, you better believe I was first in line to give the game a shot. I am so happy I did. I did not know what to expect based on what had been shown of the game so far, but after playing it, I could easily see it becoming a weekly obsession. The Duskbloods is strange, dark, creepy, complex, sometimes insane and, above all, incredibly fun.
Sitting in the FromSoftware offices and listening to the team discuss the game, I was excited to learn more. The Duskbloods is not an easy game to sum up in an elevator pitch. It has a lot of systems at play, all working together to make the experience feel special, but understanding how everything fits together takes time. After watching the presentation and learning about the many systems, I was still a little unsure about how the game would actually work. But I was at the studio and eager to see what The Duskbloods was all about. I am glad I did.
The Duskbloods Game Director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, summed up the team’s approach well during a Q&A session with the press following our gameplay session. He explained the philosophy behind the game’s Virtue system and its focus on giving players ways to compete beyond traditional PvP skills.
“Basically, the only two points that we had at the start were we wanted something like the virtue system, something where players could enjoy matches without solely having to rely on PvP skills. They could kind of do their own thing and still enjoy and sort of compete in the matches, and we think that that’s sort of still very much the case currently. And then, as well, we wanted to have this sort of unexpected drama.”
To start, we dove into the game’s tutorials, which gave us a sense of what The Duskbloods is all about. These sections feel similar to what you would find in other FromSoftware titles, such as Dark Souls or Elden Ring. The tutorials teach you the basics while letting you get a feel for the controls and various systems, along with a hint of the story unfolding beneath the surface.
Much like those other titles, this section sets the stage, gives players a sense of what to expect and introduces the basics of combat in this dark, night-covered countryside. You get a chance to take down some of the various enemies and quickly learn you are not the only one looking to reign supreme in the ongoing fight. However, the tutorial offers only a hint of how the game’s online component actually works.
The setting feels like a mix of Bloodborne and Dark Souls, with more emphasis on the former, blending technology and guns with a world of fantasy and magic. While little is fully explained about the story during the early moments of the game, it alludes to a conflict between vampire-like beings vying for the chance to drink the blood of the Grail after a battle to the death.
Even the setting evokes a European-inspired world shrouded in darkness and magic, with its city streets and countryside locked down as the battle rages on. It is a concept FromSoftware brought to life fantastically with Bloodborne, and while there may be fewer werewolves this time around, the vampires at the core of the story more than make up for it with their unique and often bombastic style.
“The Duskbloods is strange, dark, creepy, complex, sometimes insane and, above all, incredibly fun.”
Diving into your first match, you must pick one of six playable Bloodsworn. You start the tutorial segments playing as Albert, the all-rounder, but once you dive into actual matches, you can select one of the others. They are all very different, with each offering its own unique and often bananas addition to the lore and world of The Duskbloods.
With two days at the studio to play the game, the press on site had plenty of time to dive into the different options available, and we all found our favourites. There can be any number of each Bloodsworn in a given match, meaning everyone could play as the same character if they wanted. With each one playing so differently, however, it pays to spend some time learning how they work and which best fits your preferred playstyle.
Starting from the top, you have Albert. As mentioned earlier, he is the all-rounder, a jack-of-all-trades character equipped with a sword for close-range combat and a fast-firing gun for ranged attacks. While the gun is not especially powerful, it works well for crowd control and as a finisher when you only need a few more hits to take down an enemy.
Each character also has special attacks. Albert has a magical, blood-powered swipe attack and what I can only describe as a laser beam. Both are powerful, but their cooldowns, especially early in the game, mean they need to be used carefully. That changes as you level up, but I will get to that later.
Working our way down the list, we have Bloodhand Jan, a fast character dressed in long johns with a giant axe and a gem in his hand used for ranged attacks. Trng Lanh is a character with a chakram that is fast and has the ability to charm a range of enemies over to her side when she sucks blood, compared to the single target that the other characters have. Layla’s a sniper with blades on each arm, who has a gatling gun in her chest.
Senator Samir Patres is an older fighter who has a fast blade as his primary, along with the ability to transform into a dinosaur as a special. And finally, there is Zork, a slow, heavy character who is fully decked out in a diving suit from the turn of the 20th century, wielding a bit of underwater cable and a harpoon gun and has the ability to turn into a human rocket and launch rockets off his back.
When asked about his favourite characters during a group interview after the play session, Hidetaka Miyazaki said, “I’d say from a gameplay perspective, you know, whenever I’m in the mood to kind of just actually do good in a match, I usually pick Zork or sometimes even Layla as a sniper. I like being able to engage people from a distance and not always jump into the thick of it.”
Once you have your character, you must play through four rounds of elimination, working to get the most virtue points, till you finally get to the last round where you and three other players must battle to the death for the chance to drink from the grail of blood. If you are a bit confused by this point, do not worry; it will all make sense once you actually dive into the game, where the many systems, concepts, and tactics all weave together in a way that makes sense and lets you experience what is at the heart of The Duskbloods, a unique and oddly captivating game.
To get virtue points, you have many ways to do it; and, strangely enough, just killing the other players is not at the top of the list for most of a match. When you first dive into the game, you most likely will work on levelling up your character, and killing the various enemies that lurk in the landscape is the best way to do this.
As you kill the basic creatures and monsters, you earn XP, which slowly levels up your character. You will also find upgrades and buffs in the world that will level up aspects of your character or your weapons. There are also red stones that can upgrade your special attacks. As I said, the game has a lot of systems at play.
Thankfully, while The Duskbloods is a PvPvE game and most other players are likely to attack as soon as they see you, you can bring along an NPC known as a Kin to help. These characters are among the stranger and more interesting aspects of the game. Each Kin has its own lore and abilities, offering a useful complement to whichever Bloodsworn you choose to play.
There are eight Kin to find throughout the world, divided into three types: Ring, Blade and Eye. Each is summoned through special portals scattered across the map. Much like your character, Kin level up as you defeat enemies. You can swap them out as you play, but it is often better to stick with one after the first phase.
A levelled-up Kin you do not particularly like may still be more useful than a fresh one you enjoy more but have little time to develop before the later phases. It creates a clear risk-reward system, and I found it worked well. Even Kin focused more on healing and support can become surprisingly powerful when given enough time to level up. But when you find one that truly fits your playstyle, that is when The Duskbloods really clicked for me.
Miyazaki explained the design philosophy well when asked how the Kin were created and whether they were meant to complement the player’s character. “I think the Kin are all, like you had mentioned, very different from one another, and they do seem to sort of pair well with certain Bloodsworn more than others, and that’s definitely something that we took into account.”
He went on to explain how players can choose Kin based on their preferred playstyle and character build.
“I think that, at the end of the day, we wanted that to be the case where players can, if they want, choose a Kin that works well for their specific playstyle. In addition to that, there are also variants for certain Kin as well that might play better for certain characters. And there’s the build customization that we’ve mentioned as well.”
This brings us to the many ways you can earn Virtue points, and the list is surprisingly long. There are several ways to gain Virtue during a match, with each method divided into a different category. Flame Virtue involves lighting fires at seated corpses found throughout the map. These locations have different levels, with higher-level areas awarding more Virtue.
There is also Repulsion Virtue, which awards points for defeating Trespassers, larger bosses scattered across the map that feel similar to encounters in Dark Souls. These are challenging fights, and other players can join you in taking them down. Everyone who participates earns Virtue, with the amount divided based on each player’s contribution. If you enjoy the boss encounters in Dark Souls, Elden Ring or Bloodborne, you will likely feel at home here. The fights are demanding, and the creature designs are unsettling in the best possible way.
Virtue by Commendation rewards players for reaching certain milestones during a match, such as defeating the most common enemies. Only the top two players receive Virtue for these objectives, so rankings can rise and fall throughout a match. It can be frustrating or satisfying depending on where you stand when the phase ends and players are eliminated. Players can also gain Virtue by pledging at Blood Pledge pillars found within each ritual site. That Virtue can be lost if another Bloodsworn overwrites your pledge, adding another layer of tension and unpredictability during that stage of the match.
Finally, you can gain Virtue by completing Sigil goals. The concept involves another player on the map acting as your counterpart, with each Sigil requiring you to complete a specific objective involving that person. We were told these goals would be selectable in the final release, but during our play session they were predefined and could be turned on or off.
“…once I jumped into The Duskbloods, everything started to click.”
The objectives included finding your lover, finding your friend or taking out your rival. They add another layer to each match, and I can see the ability to mix and match Sigils making each game feel very different. Even in their predefined form, I found they added a unique element to the gameplay. I was also glad to see they could be turned off if players did not want to use them.
It may all sound complicated, but once I jumped into The Duskbloods, everything started to click. Having one full round to get the lay of the land before players begin getting eliminated gives you some breathing room to learn how the game works, prepare your Kin and gain a few levels before moving into the later phases.
During the Q&A, Miyazaki was asked by Polygon where the team drew inspiration for some of the Virtue systems, noting that similar concepts are often seen in board games and tabletop games. Interestingly, board games played a role in shaping the system.
“I think specifically, sort of half a joke, but with the board game aspect that you had mentioned, there’s commendation virtue,” Miyazaki explained. “I believe you’ve probably seen it in the presentation, but it’s basically whoever kills the most common enemies, whoever gets the most items, and basically only the top players from each of those categories are rewarded with that virtue. And that’s something that we kind of drew a bit from Catan. I don’t know if you know what that board game is.”
From the second phase onward, the challenge becomes rising through the ranks or facing elimination. Despite the difficulty, it was some of the most fun I have had in a multiplayer game in a long time. FromSoftware has created an experience that can appeal to a wide range of players, and the variety of Bloodsworn and different ways to rise through the ranks give the game plenty of flexibility.
If you want to snipe enemies while your Kin dives into the action, the game gives you that option. If you would rather charge in and transform into a dinosaur, oddly enough, The Duskbloods has that covered too. The game feels like a blend of ideas FromSoftware has been experimenting with for years, brought together into an experience that feels cohesive and incredibly fun.
It is also one of the first FromSoftware games I would recommend to a casual player without worrying that they will immediately hit the kind of difficulty wall often associated with the studio’s games. While The Duskbloods may initially seem like an unusual fit for the Nintendo Switch 2, the pieces come together in a way that gives it an identity of its own.
With the Network Test launching later this month and the full game slated for release later in 2026, FromSoftware and Nintendo have one of the more unique and exciting releases coming to the platform. It is strange, dark and, at times, insane, but most of all, The Duskbloods is one of the most engaging multiplayer games I have played in years.
The Duskbloods combines a lot of ideas that, in theory, should not work together, but somehow the team at FromSoftware has managed to turn them into something incredibly fun. I cannot wait to see how the game takes shape as it gets closer to release. From what I have played so far, I am excited to dive back in and see how the world unfolds in this strange and exciting new universe.
