The Duskbloods
Matches in The Duskbloods begin with eight players and end with one, and the stretch in between mixes hunting AI-controlled enemies with fighting other people.
FromSoftware's online action RPG casts players as Bloodsworn, characters who gained superhuman abilities from a special blood. It is built for Nintendo Switch 2 only and directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, who classes it as PvPvE: enemies, bosses and rival Bloodsworn all share the map. Combat mixes melee and ranged weapons with character-specific powers and a companion called Kin.
Top 3 Reasons to Play
- Movement is generous: sprinting costs no stamina, four jumps can be chained before landing, and falls deal no damage. Only attacks and dodges drain stamina.
- Dying costs little. A fallen player respawns in a chosen area of the map, and rewards for character customization arrive after every match, win or lose.
- Winning does not require being the best duelist. Miyazaki has said that points can be earned by avoiding direct combat, and Virtue also comes from sources such as bosses and map events.
Story and Lore
Humanity is near its end, and a substance called the First Blood has started to flow. This period, the Twilight of Humanity, overlaps places from different ages and corners of the world, and the Bloodsworn are pulled into it to fight over the First Blood. Miyazaki has stated that the game has no fixed era or location. Maps draw on Gothic and Victorian styles and the closing years of the early modern period, and a train map appeared in the first trailer.
The Bloodsworn are vampire-like without being drawn as monsters. According to Miyazaki, the team went for the romantic side of vampire fiction, with blood standing for history, inherited power and fate more than for gore. The collective name, Duskbloods, refers to these fighters themselves.
Customization doubles as storytelling: each option attached to a character reveals part of its background, and a Bloodsworn's "blood history and fate" can change abilities, appearance, role and relationships. The network test grouped this under Bloodlines.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Each session is a Dusk Battle played on a single map. Between sessions, players return to a hub, the House of Night in the network test, to pick a Bloodsworn and customize it. An elderly winged-rat character there was described by Miyazaki as a guide in the manner of the fire keepers in Dark Souls.
A Dusk Battle is split into four timed phases:
- Phase I: nobody is eliminated. Players hunt enemies, collect Virtue and level up, unlocking abilities along the way.
- Phase II: the three lowest-ranked players are culled.
- Phase III: two more drop out.
- Phase IV: the remaining three fight in a smaller arena, each with two lives. A third death ends the run.
Virtue, the scoring resource, comes in several forms. Defeating bosses, from mid-level foes up to Trespassers, yields Repulsion Virtue. The one-time Flame Virtue sits on throne-seated corpses and goes to whoever reaches it first. Ritual Sites, which unlock toward the end of the second and third phases, pay out large amounts for winning PvP fights or holding checkpoints.
Random events change the map for everyone. The network test featured a zeppelin that rains fire, lightning that relocates players to random spots, and a bell tower whose bell grants bonus Virtue.
Blood Howl is a parry that staggers enemies and can interrupt other players mid-attack. A staggered target can then be bitten on the neck: the bite restores a small amount of health, converts weaker enemies into allies and deals heavy damage to players. Treasure chests found during a match upgrade melee weapons with fire, lightning or poison effects.
Each Bloodsworn also has an optional Sigil that adds a personal objective, such as hunting a marked player or offering another player an alliance. Alliances are temporary: allies cannot damage each other, share some rewards and part ways before the final phase.
The network test offered a single map, Lowarno City, with a cathedral, a cave network, underground ruins and a poisonous marsh. Preview reports say three maps are planned for the final game.
Characters and Factions
The network test offered six Bloodsworn, each with short-range and long-range options:
- Albert is the all-rounder and the simplest to pick up, with twin sabers, a spread-firing submachine gun and light-based abilities.
- Defense is the price Bloodhand Jan pays for offense. He swings a large one-handed axe, casts a fire pillar from the off hand and uses Blink to turn his dash into short teleports.
- Trang Lanh's ring blade can be thrown from range, and Darkmoon makes her briefly invisible for backstabs.
- Fragile up close and dangerous at distance, Sniper Layla relies on a high-damage sniper rifle. Neb-ra Vanishing breaks her into an insect swarm to skip across short gaps.
- Senator Samir Patres pairs a rapier with spectral fiery birds. In Saurian Form he becomes a small dinosaur able to throw foes off ledges.
- Slow and heavily armored, Zork carries a speargun and homing missiles, and some of his attacks cannot be interrupted.
Every player also brings a Kin, a summoned companion that stays for the whole match and grows stronger as it defeats enemies. Eight were available in the network test, among them Gunslinger Beatrice and Black Wolf of Mars. Previews compare the system to Spirit Ashes in Elden Ring. Kin have fewer skills than the Bloodsworn, and switching to a different one resets it to level 1.
Factions in the usual sense have not been revealed. Group identity shows up only in details: Trang Lanh's Darkmoon abilities, Layla's Neb-ra lineage, and the Eye of Moralis Sigil, which sends a player after someone branded a Heretic.