A Nintendo-Like Pivot Isn't Enough to Make Me Love The Duskbloods

The most shocking reveal from last year's Nintendo Switch 2 debut showcase was The Duskbloods, the next major game from FromSoftware. As the makers of Bloodborne , Dark Souls, and Elden Ring , FromSoftware has well-established game design sensibilities. So the team suddenly pivoting to a Nintendo exclusive, a multiplayer game at that, caught me by surprise. 

Thanks to an online network test , many people have now played the upcoming vampire action game. As a die-hard Nintendo Switch 2 fan, I gave The Duskbloods a shot and was intrigued by how many of its design decisions feel like FromSoftware attempting to court the Nintendo audience. Unfortunately, as I've written about at length , I dislike FromSoftware's design philosophy. Based on this demo, The Duskbloods won't change that.

Bloodborne Meets Mario Party

I've played enough FromSoftware games, including Elden Ring and  Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice,  to know I don't like them. That said, my experience isn't exhaustive. I didn't play the multiplayer spin-off  Elden Ring Nightreign , so The Duskbloods was my first impression of how this developer of massive, single-player adventures tackles additional human combatants.

In The Duskbloods, you play as one of several characters attempting to earn as many points as possible, with players being cut after each round, until the final showdown. You earn points by battling monsters, defeating other players, or completing objectives. With its gothic and vampiric aesthetic, The Duskbloods looks like a spiritual successor to Bloodborne, the PlayStation-exclusive FromSoftware classic. However, The Duskbloods' multiplayer focus and the shenanigans the gameplay inspires pull the game toward Nintendo territory.

I associate FromSoftware games with being slow and plodding affairs. But in The Duskbloods, your characters perform massive triple jumps and air dashes. The mobility gives fights a Super Smash Bros . quality, especially when you battle other players in the final arena with melee and projectile attacks. The different characters have pleasingly distinct movesets, too. For example, I enjoyed hanging back and picking off foes as Sniper Layla, a walking corpse. Meanwhile, the internet adores Zork, a guy in a diving suit with a flying headbutt attack.

The way matches flow, about half an hour long by the end, has the casual chaos of a multiplayer Nintendo game. You have a lot of freedom to explore the map and power yourself in a variety of ways, reminiscent of the City Trial mode in Kirby Air Riders . Before tackling a boss, I made sure to load up on offensive items and make a pact with a monster I could later summon. Fighting my way through the pack to earn just enough points to cross the threshold into the next round had the same thrill as Mario Kart World's masterful Knockout Tour mode.

Everything I conceptually liked about The Duskbloods was undone by how much I simply physically disliked playing it.

There are so many hidden objectives and resources, I also found myself earning points seemingly at random, like when Mario Party awards you last-minute stars. Players can team up with each other, get married, or hunt specific targets. Ritualistic events pop up on the map, causing a mad dash to reap the rewards. Overall, I was impressed by FromSoftware's attempt to design an open-ended, smartly structured multiplayer game that's different from the typical FromSoftware odyssey. Too bad The Duskbloods is still a FromSoftware game, though.

Familiar Gameplay Annoyances

Everything I conceptually liked about The Duskbloods was undone by how much I simply physically disliked playing it, for the same reasons I've disliked FromSoftware games for nearly 20 years. Yes, the multiplayer aspect lowers the stakes of each individual match. And when you respawn, all you lose is time, not potentially hours of campaign progress and experience, which made me more willing to tolerate repeated sessions. 

Still, the constant death against even low-level grunt enemies, let alone fearsome bosses, is annoying and obnoxious. The combat is slow and tedious, with far too much emphasis on reacting to overly precious enemy animations. I understand these games want you to commit to your attacks, dodges, or blocks, and be punished for a wrong move. But that's never been fun and still isn't here.

The grimy atmosphere, gross designs, and obfuscated storytelling also have little appeal. Admittedly, the full game could deepen and expand on those elements beyond what's in this demo. However, the full game won't fundamentally change the experience, which, for me, remains the issue.

Not Enough Nintendo Energy

I feel for FromSoftware. When audiences love your formula, you're caught between wanting to please that audience and wanting to branch out to grow your artistry. FromSoftware's attempt to capture a new Nintendo audience with a familiar yet fresh experience may be a way to have its cake and eat it.

"We initially decided to go with Nintendo, we had had an opportunity to discuss the idea for the game with them, and I think they seemed very excited and very receptive to the idea," said legendary FromSoftware director Hidetaka Miyazaki in an interview with IGN . It makes sense. Why wouldn't Nintendo want to lock up a hugely popular developer on its new system? FromSoftware titles aren't known for being casual-friendly, but Miyazaki talked about how Nintendo helped them make this potentially confusing, systems-rich game more approachable with a great tutorial: "Nintendo is definitely the right partner for better conveying that information in a way that is understandable to the player; it definitely suits their strengths."

This year, I've seen Nintendo use its own franchises to make me reconsider genres I've written off, from Pokopia's take on the life sim to Splatoon Raiders ' looting and shooting. In the past, I've had a soft spot for mature franchises doing weird, wackier spin-offs on Nintendo systems, like the Dead Space: Extraction rail shooter or the bizarre remix Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop. Based on this network test, The Duskbloods is already a higher-quality product than those B-level efforts. But it embodies that same nifty ethos of using a Nintendo partnership as an excuse to do something new.

Too bad it's not new enough; too bad the Nintendo influence doesn't run deeper. The Duskbloods is a cool experiment from a team whose dogged insistence on making games a certain way has thoroughly turned me off of its output. Ultimately, too many of those pesky principles remain here. That continuity may help lead the FromSoftware faithful into this unknown when the game launches later this year. But it doesn't suck me in; it just leaves me cold.  

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