The Duskbloods Preview — First Impressions Of FromSoftware's New Game

Immediately after The Duskbloods was announced, I went through several emotional swings, much like many other FromSoftware fans: from the initial excitement at the thought that “FromSoft is making Bloodborne 2!” to something close to disappointment when people began describing it as a PvPvE game potentially in the mold of Escape from Tarkov. Sure, I enjoy invading other players' worlds and fighting fellow players in Elden Ring or Dark Souls 3, but the idea of a game focused entirely on that aspect did not particularly appeal to me. After the recent Closed Network Test, however, my feelings have swung back in a broadly positive direction. Perhaps it is long past time to admit that Hidetaka Miyazaki simply does not make bad games, even when he creates something quite different from what you expect of him.

Like most FromSoftware titles, The Duskbloods is a fairly demanding game, but this time the biggest challenge is explaining what it actually is in a few sentences. The project genuinely resembles very little else, and over the past few days, I have watched other writers, YouTubers, and players draw parallels with some unexpected games, including Kirby Air Riders and even tabletop games, all in an attempt to pin it down. The truth is that The Duskbloods cannot be summed up in a couple of words — its entire formula needs to be broken down piece by piece.

It is an online game about vampires known as Bloodsworn, set in a Gothic world that bears an almost painful resemblance to Yharnam from Bloodborne. Incidentally, if you enjoy games about bloodsuckers, do not miss our list of the best vampire games.

In The Duskbloods, eight players select a character with fixed abilities and equipment, then choose the area of the map where they will begin. The objective is to be the last survivor. It sounds like a typical battle royale or extraction game, but the reality is far more complex. We also have a separate list of the best battle royale games.

Each match in The Duskbloods — known here as a Dusk Battle — lasts only around half an hour, yet is divided into four phases. At the end of certain phases, Bloodsworn who have accumulated too little Virtue are culled from the match.

This is where things get especially interesting: there are so many ways to earn Virtue that every player can effectively decide their preferred balance between PvE and PvP. If you want, you can spend 90% of a Dusk Battle avoiding confrontations with other Bloodsworn and still reach the final phase. During the concluding Moon Blood Bestowal, however, you must fight the other two survivors in a 1v1v1 showdown. Miyazaki has already confirmed that the full game will include an alternative finale featuring a cooperative boss battle, meaning it will be possible to focus entirely on PvE.

Virtue is awarded for defeating other players at ritual sites, swearing to blood pledge pillars, defeating great foes and trespassers — the game's bosses — and lighting special corpses scattered around the level. Additional Virtue goes to the leaders of the Bloodfang and Collector Commendation rankings, which track kills and the collection of rare items. There are other ways to earn it as well, but to keep this preview from turning into a guide, it is best to leave out the finer details.

While exploring the map, which is roughly as large and intricately designed as two Elden Ring legacy dungeons stitched together, you need to think about more than just earning Virtue. There is also character progression, with XP awarded for defeating enemies, Bloodsworn Skill and weapon enhancements, and the leveling of summonable NPC allies known as Kin. You need to establish your priorities as quickly as possible: the phases are short, and there is no time to do everything. As a result, each Dusk Battle feels like a miniature speedrun through a Souls game.

Matches in The Duskbloods are extraordinarily fast-paced and packed with decisions. A new phase begins, you clear a street and find some decent loot — then the dilemmas start piling up. A notification suddenly tells you that another player has engaged a trespasser. Should you use instant travel to join the fight in exchange for a share of the Virtue and powerful enhancements? Bloodsworn who join battles against dangerous monsters become temporary allies. Or would it be better to rush to the chapel and ring its bell before someone else does? That action awards a large amount of Virtue. Perhaps it would make more sense to fight other players for control of the blood pledge pillars instead. At first, the sheer number of choices makes your head spin, but the more you practice and the better you learn the map, the easier it becomes to set priorities and plan your run several moves ahead.

The rules are so convoluted that The Duskbloods genuinely feels like a game from an entirely new genre. Yes, Miyazaki has invented something fresh again. The formula is unusual enough that FromSoftware even included several detailed training modes, including simulated matches against bots — hardly a common feature in the studio's games.

The beta allowed players to control only 6 of the 10 Bloodsworn, but every single one of them was interesting and unique in a different way. The character who impressed me most was the rapier-wielding Senator Samir Patres, who can briefly assume Saurian Form and turn into — believe it or not — a dinosaur. Moving at the speed of a car, the creature can seize enemies and even hurl them off the map. I also appreciated Zork, encased in a heavy antique diving suit, who quickly became a meme favorite. It is hard not to admire a character capable of flying across the entire map with a jetpack and bombarding opponents with missiles.

What all the Bloodsworn share is extraordinary mobility. They can chain up to four jumps, dodge with midair dashes, and even fire weapons while suspended somewhere between jumping and full-on flight. Having spent plenty of time playing PvP in Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon, I immediately drew the obvious comparison: the fighters in The Duskbloods are closer to AC6's combat mechs than to traditional Souls characters. Even the stagger gauge, which allows you to stun an opponent temporarily, feels straight out of Armored Core 6 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Accordingly, the sooner a player adapts to fighting in the air, the easier the rest of the game becomes.

All this mobility has had a direct impact on the level's more interesting vertical design. Like an enormous virtual layer cake, it consists of multiple tiers: dungeons, sewers, streets, and rooftops — all stacked on top of one another and genuinely rewarding to explore.

Some form of madness is constantly unfolding in The Duskbloods, and the unpredictability of every match is arguably its greatest appeal. Many of the game's systems are specifically designed to add more chaos and generate amusing situations.

Take Sigils, for example, a system that links your character to a random participant and encourages a particular kind of role-playing. The Bloodsworn linked to you might be a sworn enemy, an old friend, or a lost lover: you must hunt down and kill one, form an alliance with another, or propose to the third by using a dedicated emote to kneel with a bouquet. The alliance remains in effect until the final phase begins. You can break it earlier, but the initiator must surrender some Virtue to their former partner and lose a substantial portion of their HP. Completing a Sigil objective awards additional Virtue, but the more important part is that every encounter leaves you wondering why a stranger is running toward you — to help, to kill, or to arrange an unexpected wedding.

Random Events are another source of unpredictability, changing the match conditions for every participant between phases. A zeppelin may appear above the city, allowing players to call in carpet-bombing runs. Another match might bring a powerful storm, with lightning striking players and transporting them to random locations on the map — sometimes directly beside a boss. There are also additional objectives, such as chasing down a fallen star fragment. As a result, a carefully planned route across the map can collapse within seconds. The game is better for it.

Naturally, plenty of questions remain even after the beta. How long will the game continue to feel this chaotic and fresh? How much content is planned for launch, given that 3 maps have already been confirmed? How frequently will new characters and maps be released? What happens when more casual players abandon the game and only the hardcore PvP audience remains? We will not get answers to all these questions until release, or perhaps much later. Until then, however, I will be following the project with far more curiosity than before. No, this is not the game I originally wanted to see from FromSoftware, but Miyazaki's unusual experiment displays a level of creativity that is difficult to resist.

The Duskbloods will be released later this year, although an exact date has yet to be announced. Unfortunately, it is a Nintendo-funded Switch 2 exclusive, so ports for PC or other platforms should not be expected.

What do you think? Is The Duskbloods the kind of bold experiment FromSoftware needs right now, or an unnecessary distraction from its next major single-player game? Let us know in the comments.