I’m not the biggest player of FromSoftware’s notoriously tough Souls games out there, not by a long shot. I’ve dabbled in the original Dark Souls and the Demon’s Souls remake and I’ve conquered the Lands Between in Elden Ring. Let me tell you something though: There’s not a single PlayStation game that means more to me than the PS4-only title Bloodborne.
From the grisly streets of Yharnam to the tenebrous floating islands that make up much of the Nightmare Frontier, few games capture the futility of cosmic horror quite as well as FromSoft’s gothic action RPG. The interconnected layers of the world boggle my mind, and the rich lore that connects old gods, ancient humans and the modern Healing Church feels like it could’ve been ripped straight out of an H.P. Lovecraft story.
When The Duskbloods appeared in the Switch 2 Nintendo Direct, my heart literally caught in my throat.
There was an establishing shot of a clocktower and a character yapping about the moonlight and the introduction of player characters who are a group of monster hunters that “transcended human strength thanks to their special bloods” — I wasn’t the only one baited into believing this was the Bloodborne sequel we’ve all been waiting a decade for.
When the more steampunk-y elements started appearing (a literal jetpack and automatic firearms weren’t on my Bingo card), I was a tad deflated to see that this project didn’t have any direct connections to my favorite FromSoftware game. The aesthetic of The Duskbloods is still appealing to me, however, so I was still excited to see how the game would turn out.
Now that more details about FromSoft’s latest game are trickling out, I’m starting to suspect that this isn’t a game for me.
A player-versus-player FromSoft game doesn’t inspire confidence in me
Dropping eight players into a monstrous moshpit in legally distinct Yharnam might sound fun to some folks, but it’s not my idea of a good time.
Your average Soulsbourne game is an epic singleplayer experience that encourages players to take advantage of their character’s strengths to overcome unforgiving challenges. They’re long, grueling campaigns that are, most importantly, solo quests into the dark unknown.
If you’re able to commit yourself to learning enemy attack patterns, figuring out how to attribute your stat points properly and master the game’s combat, you can conquer any legendary knight or towering monster the game throws at you.
Occasionally, players will invade your world, and for five minutes the gameplay loop degenerates into a chicken fight hack-and-slash or spell-dodging simulator until you win or you die. In my eyes, these are some of the low points in a FromSoft game.
Compare that to The Duskbloods, which is an eight player “PvPvE” experience that pits players against each other as well as the monsters throughout the map. Womp womp.
No single player mode has been confirmed for the game and this isn’t a cooperative experience with a more threatening Souls challenge a la Elden Ring: Nightreign, at least as far as we can tell — there’s always the chance that FromSoftware sneakily puts some PvP element into its Elden Ring spinoff to make these games more alike than we suspect.
The Duskbloods will force players into PvP combat, and I have never enjoyed FromSoft’s brand of PvP. No matter how many cool things I spot in the trailer, I can’t get excited about what is essentially a FromSoft battle royale. It’s not the style of game that many Souls fans are used to, and I find the sudden shift in gameplay to be extremely alienating.
Don’t get me wrong, there are parts of this game that sound absolutely thrilling. FromSoftware director Hidetaka Miyazaki revealed that not every match will be a knockdown drag-out free-for-all, and between Nightreign and The Duskbloods, it will certainly be fun to see how the developer builds cooperative play between multiple players at a time.
“Players may be tasked with teaming up to take down a powerful boss enemy, or find themselves in other special circumstances,” said Miyazaki in an interview on Nintendo’s website. In fact, part of the game’s character customization will see players choosing the type of goal they want to commit to during a match.
“In online play, roles give players special responsibilities and objectives that often lead to unique interactions and relationships between players based on their corresponding roles,” Miyazaki said. “[One] example is “Destined Companion,” where one player is required to seek out another designated as their companion, which results in a special reward if they form a bond with one another.”
I’m happy that there will still be an outsized focus on delivering some kind of co-op experience in The Duskbloods, but the forced PvP action still threatens to drive me away from the game. Like most of FromSoftware’s older Souls games, Bloodborne let you tag in friends for boss fights, but the main quest was — importantly — a solo journey.
Of all the games for FromSoft and Nintendo to partner on — why The Duskbloods?
FromSoft’s first multiplayer-only Souls game being a Switch 2 exclusive has me scratching my head.
Some FromSoftware fans have voiced their anger online that Duskblood will only come out on the Switch 2. Frankly, I don’t mind FromSoft partnering with Nintendo to create an exclusive game for the latter’s new console.
By early accounts, this is a far more powerful piece of hardware than the original iteration of the console. If the Switch 2 can run Elden Ring or Cyberpunk 2077 (albeit at 40 frames per second, even while docked) then it can likely run The Duskbloods perfectly fine. I fell in love with Bloodborne while playing it at 30 frames per second, so this isn’t exactly a problem for me.
What I can’t abide by is the fact that the one game FromSoft chose to partner with Nintendo on is their multiplayer-only project. Look, Switch Online is better than any of Nintendo’s other stabs at facilitating an online multiplayer experience, but it’s still one of my biggest pain points on the console.
Frustratingly, many Switch games still use peer-to-peer connections instead of dedicated servers — and FromSoft has historically done the exact same thing, so although we don’t have all the details on The Duskbloods yet, I don’t expect a break from tradition with this game.
I see the potential peer-to-peer networking, buggy netcode and exclusivity on the Switch 2’s hardware and it’s throwing up multiple red flags for me.
Will this game really be able to consistently handle putting eight people in one lobby and ensuring all of them are able to play at the same level of fluidity? I don’t know if I buy that.
Getting ganked by someone you effectively can’t hit never feels good: The main conceit of The Duskbloods is that you’re constantly at risk of getting jumped by another player. That’s just not my idea of a fun time.
Perhaps Nintendo and FromSoft will be able to pull this off and The Duskbloods will become one of their most lauded games yet. But I think I’ll stick to my co-op adventures in Yharnam and the Lands Between.
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