BODY: FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki has never hidden that his games are built around what he personally finds cool. But according to a new group media interview, the Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods may be his most self-indulgent project yet — and he seems perfectly happy about it.
The PvPvE title, revealed during a Nintendo Direct, casts players as "Bloodsworn" characters in a struggle over a mysterious "First Blood." In the interview, Miyazaki repeatedly framed the game's design around his own tastes, describing features he simply wanted to see rather than ones dictated by genre convention.
Chief among his fixations: blindfolds. Miyazaki spoke at length about his fondness for blindfolded character designs — a recurring motif in FromSoftware's catalog — and how the aesthetic feeds into the game's gothic, blood-soaked atmosphere. He also professed a deep love of vertical, three-dimensional map design, promising layered environments that reward players who think about traversal and positioning as much as combat.
Then there are the "weird systems." Miyazaki acknowledged that The Duskbloods is stuffed with unconventional mechanics that don't map neatly onto existing multiplayer templates. Rather than sanding down these quirks for mass appeal, the team leaned into them, betting that the strangeness is exactly what will make the experience memorable — a familiar gamble for a studio that turned punishing difficulty into a global genre.
The insider take
For those watching FromSoftware from Tokyo, this interview reads as classic Miyazaki. Japanese game directors of his stature rarely admit so plainly that a AAA project is driven by personal taste, but Miyazaki has earned that latitude — Elden Ring made him one of the industry's most bankable auteurs. The bigger story is strategic: The Duskbloods is a Switch 2 exclusive and a multiplayer-first pivot, two departures for a studio synonymous with single-player epics on PlayStation and PC. Betting Nintendo's new hardware on Miyazaki's most idiosyncratic instincts is a notably bold move for both companies.
Originally reported by AUTOMATON (Japanese).