BODY: FromSoftware has never made a game quite like The Duskbloods, and a recent hands-on session confirms it. The studio behind Elden Ring and Bloodborne is heading somewhere genuinely strange: an eight-player PvPvE match where cooperation, murder, and even romance all coexist on the same map.
Here's the loop. Eight "Duskbloods"—humans granted superhuman powers through special blood—compete over the coveted "First Blood." Rather than pure combat, you accumulate "virtue" points by collecting items, felling enemies, clearing checkpoints, and performing rituals. Fall short on points and you're eliminated, as the field narrows from eight players down to three finalists for a climactic PvP showdown. A full match runs roughly 20 minutes.
What sets it apart from typical extraction shooters is how loosely PvP and PvE connect. You can rack up points without ever drawing a weapon on another player. Want backup? Request an alliance with a visible opponent—allies can't hurt each other and split a share of each other's points. You can also contract NPC "retainers" at shrines scattered across the map, each offering abilities like healing or buffs.
Then there's the "brand" system, pure FromSoftware mischief. You can enter a match cast as someone's "lover" or "sworn enemy." Romantic partners earn bonuses if both reach the finals together; rivals score for hunting down their designated target. The reviewer describes the whole package as "strange yet deeply enjoyable," full of board game–like mechanics and unorthodox design choices.
The Duskbloods is a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, slated for release within 2026.
The insider take
From Tokyo, this reads as director Hidetaka Miyazaki quietly answering a question fans have chewed on for years: what does FromSoftware's obsessive lore and PvP invasion culture look like as a purpose-built multiplayer game? The "brand" romance-and-rivalry hook is very online-Japanese-community energy—it formalizes the emergent drama that made Dark Souls invasions legendary. Tying it to Switch 2 exclusivity is the real eyebrow-raiser here, signaling how central Nintendo sees FromSoft to its next-gen launch lineup.
Originally reported by AUTOMATON (Japanese).