FromSoftware's new title 'The Duskbloods' will make its debut to players on August 21 through a network test. Extremely little is known about 'The Duskbloods' so far. That it is a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, an 8-player PvPvE multiplayer game based on the Soulslike genre, and that blood and bloodlines are its core thematic keywords—that is virtually all. Aside from its platform, genre characteristics, and world setting, almost nothing is known about what kind of gameplay it actually offers.

While waiting for the test, I received a welcome invitation from FromSoftware: an invitation to visit their headquarters to play hands-on with the game ahead of the test and conduct an interview. As a longtime fan of FromSoftware and Soulslikes, this was an opportunity I could not pass up. So, I visited FromSoftware and spent two days thoroughly experiencing and analyzing every detail of the game.

How exactly have FromSoftware's accumulated Soulslike expertise and multiplayer experience been blended into 'The Duskbloods'? Ahead of the network test, I would like to share my hands-on first impressions of 'The Duskbloods'.

Performance Matters More Than Graphics
60 FPS Even on Switch 2

Platform concerns are undoubtedly among the biggest worries surrounding 'The Duskbloods' right now—specifically, whether players can properly enjoy it on the Nintendo Switch 2 in terms of optimization and frame rate. Since I had no separate measurement equipment and was not in an environment to record exact metrics, I should state upfront that this is based purely on subjective feel. First, regarding frame rate, which many gamers care about deeply, it generally felt like it maintained 60 FPS.

However, it was not flawlessly locked without a hitch. Overall, it gave the impression of subtly fluctuating between 50 and 60 FPS. The fortunate news is that I did not experience any sharp frame drops, tearing, or stuttering during this hands-on demo. Considering this was a network test build—an unfinished game—it leaves reasonable expectation that the official release will offer a stable 60 FPS.

Resolution felt inevitably sacrificed for the sake of frame rate—a matter of trade-offs and focus. While Switch 2 docked mode supports up to 4K resolution, 'The Duskbloods' fell noticeably short of 4K even at a glance. Games that achieve native 4K on Switch 2 are rare in themselves, with most using upscaling to support 1440p, but 'The Duskbloods' appeared to run at an even lower resolution, estimated around 1080p.

There were no graphics mode options available. Considering that modern console games increasingly offer a choice between a 4K high-resolution 30 FPS Graphics mode and a 1080p (upscaled 1440p) 60 FPS Performance mode, it appears 'The Duskbloods' intentionally unified resolution settings around a 60 FPS baseline to deliver a uniform experience to all players.

Personally, 'The Duskbloods' targeting a single 60 FPS mode makes complete sense. In Soulslikes and action games, frame rate is far more critical than visual elements like resolution. In practice, players rarely walk away with a negative impression solely due to lower resolution. On consoles, visual differences between Graphics and Performance modes are often hard to spot unless compared side by side. Frame rate, on the other hand, is crucial, as the gameplay experience between 30 FPS and 60 FPS is night and day.

Ultimately, choosing frame rate over graphics to secure smooth, responsive gameplay felt like a thoroughly sensible decision for 'The Duskbloods' as an action Soulslike.

Six Kindred Armed with Distinct Appeal
Character Balance Still Needs Polishing

Playable characters in 'The Duskbloods' are called Kindred. As the name suggests, they are essentially vampires. Each possesses distinct traits, ranging from appearance to melee and ranged attacks, down to their exclusive Kindred Skills. With the test running over two days for roughly 7 to 8 hours, I had ample time to thoroughly try every Kindred.

Albert is a textbook all-rounder whose attack power and attack speed are flawless across both melee and ranged encounters. His Kindred Skills share a similar nature: a skill that fires blood blades is meant for poking opponents between normal attacks rather than dealing heavy burst damage. The laser skill unlocked at higher levels deals multi-hit damage, but carries a fatal drawback: he cannot move while firing.

Being a jack-of-all-trades without any standout specialization is a double-edged sword for Albert. While anyone can pick him up easily and he lacks obvious weaknesses, it also means he has no defining specialty. In that sense, whether you like it or not, he is a solid, reliable pick.

Jan, the long johns-wearing character who generated buzz in trailers with his thermal underwear-like appearance, is a melee-specialized Kindred. His massive one-handed axe and flames ignited by the magic stone embedded in his left hand exert devastating power at close range. His passive skills support this playstyle: attacking enemies immediately after taking damage allows him to recover lost health, and even without taking damage, heavy attacks can restore HP. His Kindred Skills are equally formidable, boosting evasion or slamming his axe into the ground to send shockwave slashes around him.

On paper, Jan might sound overwhelmingly strong, but his weapon's slow attack speed and the relatively short range of his flames act as notable drawbacks. Given that 'The Duskbloods' features a faster overall pace than previous FromSoftware Soulslikes, he is a character with a higher execution difficulty.

Trang Lanh was a Kindred whose performance felt somewhat ambiguous in this test. Trang Lanh's standout mechanic is that siphoning blood from a minor mob turns nearby minor mobs into minions. However, to siphon blood, enemies must first be put into a staggered state, but most die before reaching it, making it difficult to expand a minion army effectively.

On top of that, even when successfully converting minions, their performance was underwhelming, and because they all disappear upon transitioning to the next phase, they felt almost useless. While stealth from her Kindred Skill allowed for surprise attacks or escapes, it still felt lacking compared to other characters' Kindred Skills.

Samir Patres is a technical Kindred in many respects. His melee consists of thrusts, while his ranged attack fires bird-shaped summons with homing properties. His melee is solid, but his ranged option feels like a matter of preference. However, he stands out with his ability to chain melee attacks directly after ranged strikes.

His second Kindred Skill, unlocked by leveling up, transforms him into a dinosaur form to charge and tackle, or bite and throw enemies—which can be used in PvP to force ring-outs (while there is no fall damage, certain ring-out zones exist). Due to these traits, he came across as a high-skill-ceiling character heavily dependent on player competence.

Zork received the lowest impressions during this test. Although he has a special ability to consume stamina and use Roar repeatedly, the necessity of Roar itself felt minimal. Roar is a shared mechanic among all Kindred that deals no damage, but inflicts brief hitstun on minor mobs. However, killing enemies outright was usually far better than using Roar, so as mentioned, it went mostly unused.

Additionally, his ranged weapon, a harpoon gun, suffered from being far too slow without offering a devastating burst to compensate. His melee was similar: wielding a torn underwater power cable, it was slower than Jan's attacks while dealing slightly higher damage. Yet that slight damage advantage could not offset the sluggish attack speed, making him feel weaker than Jan in practice. While his skills performed reasonably well against elite monsters or invaders, the delay between targeting and execution—whether charging forward or firing missiles—made them easy to dodge in PvP, leaving them in an awkward spot.

Alongside Albert and Jan, Layla was among the most popular picks in the test as a ranged specialist. Armed with a rifle, her rate of fire is somewhat slow, but each shot hits hard, pulling her weight in both monster encounters and PvP. Her skills match her ranged archetype, allowing her to turn into dust to quickly open up distance or summon a Gatling gun from inside her body, demonstrating outstanding performance across PvE and PvP alike. In exchange, her melee combat using a katar was somewhat weaker, though this felt more like a reasonable trade-off compared to her ranged power, giving the impression of a well-balanced character.

In summary, Albert, Jan, Layla, and Samir demonstrated solid individuality and balance in this demo, whereas Trang Lanh and Zork felt underwhelming. Zork in particular was slow in both melee and ranged combat without a massive hit to justify it, giving the impression of being the weakest character despite his striking design.

Of course, that does not mean these two are inherently helpless. By utilizing Guard Counters—triggered by retaliating immediately after blocking an enemy attack—and 'Dodge Cancel' (working title), which triggers with a distinct sound effect when dodging right after an attack, players can move without spending stamina. In other words, player skill can overcome these drawbacks. However, this simply means player skill can bridge the gap between weak and strong characters, not that the intrinsic kit disparities are resolved. Fundamental balance adjustments will clearly be required in the future.

Attacking Doesn't Consume Stamina?
What Is This Dodge Cancel?

The biggest departure from traditional FromSoftware Soulslikes is the handling of stamina. Though variations exist across titles, past FromSoftware games required stamina for nearly every action, including attacks, defense, and dodges. This meant that even when an opening appeared, attack opportunities were strictly limited. 'The Duskbloods', however, is far freer from these constraints.

While dodging still consumes stamina, attacks—whether melee or ranged—do not cost any stamina whatsoever. When an elite enemy or invader is staggered, you can wail on them relentlessly without worrying about stamina until they recover. Coupled with the aforementioned Dodge Cancel, where precise dodge timing immediately after an attack negates stamina cost, mastering this technique theoretically allows players to alternate between attacking and dodging endlessly without depleting stamina.

To prevent misunderstanding due to terminology, this does not mean animation canceling is available. The combat system, animations, and mechanics of 'The Duskbloods' are built on the foundation of FromSoftware's Souls series—particularly their latest release, Elden Ring. In short, it refines the established FromSoftware Soulslike framework with faster pacing.

Session-Based 4-Phase Structure with No Death Penalty
Brisk Action Succeeds, Build Diversity Needs Work

I will defer game system explanations like the session structure to the preview. Instead, I want to focus on the 8-player PvPvE gameplay experience. First off, the combat feel closely resembles Elden Ring Nightreign (hereafter Nightreign) expanded with PvP elements. Traditional Soulslikes—especially FromSoftware's original titles—focused heavily on deliberate exchanges, which often made movement and mechanics feel heavy or sluggish, but I felt almost none of that during this demo.

What pleased me most was the variety of jump mechanics. Soulslikes often force players to take long detours around visible obstacles, but 'The Duskbloods' eliminates that frustration by introducing triple jumps, high jumps, and jump dodges. These movement tools provide more than just traversal convenience; they shine in combat by allowing players to leap over charging attacks, close gaps rapidly, or disengage in a flash.

Sluggishness was reduced not just in controls, but in healing items as well. Traditional Soulslikes strictly limit healing uses, forcing conservative consumption, but 'The Duskbloods' takes a different approach. Although items called 'Stakes of Golden Blood' are limited in capacity, they recharge during combat. For example, if you have used 2 out of 4 charges, killing minor mobs fills a heal stock gauge; once full, 1 charge is restored. Moving to the next phase completely refills your stock, and maximum capacity can be upgraded over a session, virtually eliminating the anxiety of running out of heals.

The near-total absence of death penalties felt very positive. You can revive no matter how many times you die, removing the fear of death. However, death is not entirely without risk: the time spent waiting to respawn means falling behind others in accumulating Virtue. While top-ranking players can absorb this, lower-ranking players scrambling for Virtue suffer a painful setback. Nevertheless, granting unlimited respawn opportunities until a phase ends is a clear advantage.

Because all 8 players remain in the game through Phase 3 regardless of Virtue totals, a player who fails to build Virtue in Phase 1 can adjust their strategy to focus heavily on Virtue in Phase 2. I found myself adapting my strategy after each phase based on revealed player Virtue counts. In matches where I stacked Virtue early in Phases 1 and 2, I spent Phase 3 prioritizing leveling and killing elite enemies for buffs. Conversely, when focusing on early growth, I prioritized farming Virtue in later phases. This flexibility was possible precisely because there is no death penalty and multiple ways to gain Virtue exist.

One interesting detail is that mob and elite enemy spawns remain largely fixed regardless of session or phase. As players memorize these layouts, they can devise optimal farming routes, enabling experienced players to clear three or four elite foes in quick succession. However, static spawns are a double-edged sword: popular high-value areas draw heavy player traffic. Players can exploit this by targeting quiet zones instead, opening up diverse strategic choices based on map knowledge.

Invader spawns fluctuate each time, though this mattered little in practice. Once someone engages an Invader, joint combat triggers automatically, making it a race for the kill. Still, strategic choices exist: participating in joint combat is voluntary, allowing players to skip Invaders and focus on clearing minor mobs or elites instead.

Dying against an Invader allows you to rejoin the fight upon respawning, but dying with low health risks wasting effort. After getting accustomed to the flow, most players naturally gravitated toward safer elite targets over Invaders. The game essentially presents a risk-reward dilemma: chase high risk/high reward against Invaders, or take low risk/low reward by farming elites.

Events add flavor and variation to each phase. Occurring randomly before a phase starts, they disrupt standard routines. For instance, if you planned an optimal route to farm elites but a lightning event randomly scrambles player positions, you must rethink your approach on the fly. Although fast travel points are accessible from the map, lost time is costly, making it smarter to abandon original plans and farm near your relocated position.

Once I recognized enemy spawns were mostly static, I devised custom routes even within the limited demo time. However, when an event spawned massive waves of special monsters that empower Kindred Skills (the 'Blood Sack Festival'), I immediately abandoned my route to hunt down these monsters. The buffs—cooldown reduction, increased hit counts, and attack power boosts for Kindred Skills—offered massive advantages, especially for skill-reliant characters.

After three phases, the top three players with the highest Virtue enter a final battle royale phase called 'Moon Blood Bestowal'. Each player receives two respawn chances, and the 1st place Virtue holder gets an additional HP bonus buff. Set in a dedicated arena, combat is a chaotic free-for-all, yet tactical decisions remain viable. Because the 1st place player is revealed before the phase starts, 2nd and 3rd place players can form an implicit alliance to target the leader first. Indeed, whenever I held 1st place, the other two immediately ganged up on me.

This does not imply a formal alliance. Formal alliances are disabled in Phase 4, so this temporary teaming remains informal and volatile—the two can turn on each other at any moment. Still, being targeted by two players simultaneously places immense pressure on the 1st place player. Yet this pincer attack is not insurmountable: with proper character stat scaling in defense, attack, and status resistance, combined with proficient Guard Counters and Dodge Cancels, a skilled player can overcome a 2v1 disadvantage.

During sessions, personal mission mechanics called 'Brands' were also present. Serving as a tool to alter player interactions, choosing a Nemesis Brand against another player grants extra Virtue upon defeating them in combat. Missions are not strictly aggressive; others require forming alliances with players carrying specific Brands.

In this demo, four Brand types were present—two kill-based and two alliance-based. Although designed to encourage roleplaying through hunting or seeking allies, most players largely ignored them during testing.

Because the Virtue or advantages gained from fulfilling Brands were modest, encountering a Nemesis player felt more like an accidental bonus ("Oh, my Nemesis! Free bonus!") rather than a goal players actively pursued. The core issue lies in reward design: to incentivize hunting down Brand targets over farming mobs or elites, developers must introduce far more substantial Virtue payouts or gameplay perks.

While 'The Duskbloods' offered commendable PvPvE enjoyment, drawbacks remained—most notably build homogenization. While not a roguelike, 'The Duskbloods' incorporates roguelike-esque progression mechanics, such as 'Blood Roses' that drop from defeating elite monsters and Invaders. Ideally, these random upgrades should offer game-changing powers or dramatically shift a character's fighting style depending on luck, but no such impactful shifts were felt in this demo.

For instance, I hoped stacking ranged upgrades on Albert would transform his poking tool into an attack stronger than his melee strikes, or that Jan's ranged fire distance and AoE could expand dramatically to redefine his playstyle. Instead, upgrades merely yielded incremental stat gains within fixed parameters. Consequently, across dozens of playthroughs, playstyles, match flow, and growth patterns repeated with monotonous similarity.

This inevitably translates to rigid countermeasures in PvP. Against Jan, for example, the optimal strategy was always to keep distance—a predictable countermeasure. Adding unpredictable elements to build paths will be key to diversifying interactions. While it may be early to offer definitive critiques after a first network test, build variety will be just as critical as character balance for a multiplayer game whose longevity relies on offering fresh experiences every match.

Daunting Alone, Better Together?
Familiars, Alliances, and Duo Mode

Solo play in multiplayer games is a matter of personal preference, and even more so in PvP. While 'The Duskbloods' eases the pressure of solo play by eliminating death penalties and allowing free respawns, it softens the stress rather than removing it entirely.

Several mechanics exist in 'The Duskbloods' to alleviate this burden. First is the 'Familiar' system, which acts as summonable companions. Forming a pact at yellow monuments scattered across the map bonds a Familiar to you for the duration of the session. Familiars possess unique appearances and traits, categorized into three types—Melee, Ranged, and Support—enabling varied team synergies.

A melee specialist like Jan typically pairs well with a Ranged or Support Familiar, though that is by no means mandatory. Choosing a Melee Familiar to relentlessly rush down enemies together is equally viable. Whatever the combination, Familiars perform effectively.

Alliances offer another tactical avenue. In Solo mode, proposing an alliance that the other player accepts forms a truce. While this sounds inherently advantageous, that is not always the case. EXP and Virtue are shared by default, so a disrupted farming route can leave you worse off than playing solo. Breaking an alliance recklessly is costly as well, incurring direct penalties. Furthermore, alliances dissolve automatically upon reaching the final phase, meaning you might end up nurturing a formidable opponent.

Duo mode, on the other hand, carries almost none of these drawbacks. Unlike temporary alliances in Solo, Duo mode sums Virtue totals together, converts the final phase into a 2v2 showdown instead of a 3-player battle royale, and keeps your teammate by your side through the very end. Having a reliable partner throughout the match proved widely popular during the FromSoftware HQ demo, with participants praising Duo mode for reducing stress since partners support each other all the way to the final phase.

Proving the Potential of FromSoftware-style PvPvE
First Impressions Succeed, Time to Prove Long-Term Appeal

This demo offered a taste of only a fraction of what 'The Duskbloods' has to offer. The map was restricted to Roanro Street alone, the roster was capped at six Kindred, and Kindred Skills were fixed. Non-cosmetic character customization was similarly locked. It felt like a brief teaser of the core gameplay philosophy behind 'The Duskbloods' with most content still under wraps.

Nevertheless, 'The Duskbloods' delivered genuine excitement, with PvP elements standing out as a highlight. Nightreign was a co-op title that fostered a sense of teamwork through defeating bosses together that was absent in the original Elden Ring, yet the omission of PvP left something to be desired. In that regard, 'The Duskbloods', blending PvP into PvE, is precisely the game fans have been waiting for.

Granted, balance adjustments clearly remain necessary. However, tuning balance is relatively simple compared to the larger challenges 'The Duskbloods' must overcome.

Moving forward, 'The Duskbloods' must demonstrate lasting charm. A multiplayer game cannot merely be fun for a match or two; it must stay compelling over tens or hundreds of sessions, constantly generating fresh variables and heart-pounding moments. While this initial demo fell short of showing that enduring replayability, identifying where the gaps lie serves as a valuable roadmap for FromSoftware.

After all, that is the purpose of testing. For Soulslike fans, FromSoftware represents a developer trusted without hesitation. I hope 'The Duskbloods' evolves into another testament to that reputation based on this feedback.