The Nintendo Switch 2 Direct was jam-packed full of exciting announcements, but one of the most surprising was a title by FromSoftware. The studio responsible for Dark Souls and Elden Ring, among other critically acclaimed action RPGs, revealed a new title coming exclusively to the Switch 2: The Duskbloods.
The initial reveal trailer gave off heavy Bloodborne vibes, but much of the game's details were kept a mystery. In a new interview with Nintendo, The Duskbloods director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, shared more information about the upcoming game.
The Duskbloods is referred to as a PvPvE title, a game in which players fight each other while also fighting CPU-controlled enemies that appear in the game.
"At its core, it’s an online multiplayer focused game, with both player vs player and player vs enemy gameplay," Miyazaki explained. "I’ve always found the PvPvE structure very interesting. It allows for a broad range of game-design ideas, while also letting us leverage our experience of designing challenging enemy encounters."
The trailer also provided us with a look at many of the game's characters and its gothic-inspired setting. According to Miyazaki, the game's player-controlled protagonists are known as "Bloodsworn."
"Bloodsworn are a group whose members have achieved super-human abilities through the power of special blood," he detailed. "As a general concept, they’re similar to vampires, but they are not portrayed as the horrifying monsters you might associate with traditional vampirism. We tried to extract the sort of romantic aspects we found interesting from concepts such as vampires and “blood” and reinterpreted them as the Bloodsworn."
In the game, the Bloodsworn are competing for "First Blood," which flows during an event known as the "Twilight of Humanity." Because the Twilight of Humanity takes place across a variety of times and locations, there's no "fixed era or location" where The Duskbloods takes place. This concept allows FromSoftware to create some variety in the game's matches, ensuring replayability.
"There are more traditional Gothic- or Victorian-style maps as well as those depicting the closing years of the early modern period, like the one glimpsed in the trailer with the train running through it," Miyazaki revealed.
He then went more into the gameplay of The Duskbloods. There's a hub area where players can choose their character, customize them, and enter online multiplayer. Online matches support up to eight players and are generally last player standing, although there are some other victory conditions, such as having to team up to take down a powerful boss enemy. Once the match ends, players are returned to the hub, where they can collect their rewards and further customize their character.
Given FromSoftware's history, it would be easy for the studio to put out another straightforward single-player action RPG to critical acclaim. But with The Duskbloods they are taking a bit of a risk in an attempt to introduce "a lot of new and interesting ideas."
"From superhuman player actions, a free-form combat approach, and gameplay that’s dynamic and dramatic to the romanticized aesthetic of the Bloodsworn, deep character customization and fragmentary storytelling, I think there’s a lot to appreciate and enjoy in this title and I sincerely hope players look forward to it," Miyazaki concluded.
The Duskbloods is set to release in 2026 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2.