How The Duskbloods Turns FromSoftware’s PvPvE Ideas Into a Character-Driven Battle Game
FromSoftware is taking its combat design in a new direction with The Duskbloods, an online multiplayer action game made exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2. Instead of centering one hero in a long solo journey, the game places up to eight players in a conflict where human opponents, powerful enemies and changing objectives all compete for attention.
Nintendo currently lists the game for release in 2026, with no narrower launch date announced. A global network test is scheduled for Aug. 21–24, giving players an early look at how the unusual format works.
The match is more than a fight to the finish
FromSoftware describes The Duskbloods as a PvPvE game: players fight one another while also battling computer-controlled enemies. Matches generally use a last-player-standing structure, but the rules can change. Some encounters ask players to cooperate against a boss, while special events can introduce new enemies, objectives or rewards.
Victory Points determine the final result. Direct combat matters, but players can also earn points by avoiding dangerous confrontations, pursuing side objectives or taking advantage of events that reshape the battlefield. That design gives cautious, opportunistic and aggressive players different routes to success.
The result is closer to a series of competing plans than a simple duel. A player might weaken a boss, let rivals spend their resources defeating it, then strike when the field is vulnerable. Whether that balance feels fair will depend on matchmaking, map design and how clearly the game communicates its objectives—details that remain unconfirmed.
Bloodsworn characters move faster than Souls heroes
In Nintendo’s interview with director Hidetaka Miyazaki, the studio says the Bloodsworn are vampire-like figures empowered by special blood. They can sprint, super-jump and double-jump, while every character carries a ranged attack. The faster movement and firearms mark a clear break from the grounded pace associated with Dark Souls and Elden Ring.
Players can choose from more than a dozen characters, each with distinct weapons, abilities and appearances. Customisation also affects a character’s “blood history and fate,” a system that ties gameplay choices to fragments of the world’s story.
FromSoftware is treating roles as part of the drama
The game’s role system adds personal objectives inside the larger match. One player might receive a “Destined Rivals” assignment targeting another combatant. Another role may pair two players as companions and reward them for forming an alliance.
That structure reflects FromSoftware’s long-standing interest in indirect storytelling, but it places the mystery inside a competitive format. The studio is not simply adapting a single-player formula for online use. It is using rivalry, cooperation and betrayal as tools for building each match’s narrative.
The Duskbloods therefore matters less as a declaration that FromSoftware has abandoned solo games than as a focused experiment. Its success will depend on whether its combat, character variety and unpredictable objectives create stories worth repeating after the novelty fades.