Key Preview Takeaways:The Duskbloods might be FromSoftware’s most complex and interesting game yet. Miyazaki cites TTRPG influences for its gameplay systems and multiplayer mechanics.As far as gameplay feel, it's comparable to Bloodborne or Nightreign with added mobility and fit into an eight-player phase-based PvPvE setting where you earn victory points to avoid elimination.The lock-on targeting and camera can have trouble tracking fast moving opponents, but the combat is intricate and intense.FromSoftware isn't new to multiplayer. Invasions have been a staple in the Souls games and we just came off of Elden Ring's co-op twist with Nightreign. But The Duskbloods is something very different and new territory for the team, and to simply label it as a PvPvE game is to woefully undersell what it is. It has that familiar tough action combat packaged in phase-based matches where eight players compete for what are essentially victory points on a map in order to advance to subsequent phases, which then concludes in a three-player PvP brawl. I got to play about eight hours of The Duskbloods on a visit to FromSoftware in Tokyo, and while there are a ton of nuances I'll dissect in this preview, I'll say upfront that it has the makings of another hit in the Souls lineage where fun is found in the challenge and the mysteries of its world propel you to keep pushing – just now in the context of a competitive multiplayer Switch 2 exclusive. If any team can pull off such a wild idea, it'd be director Hidetaka Miyazaki and company. So buckle up y'all, The Duskbloods just might be the most complex and most fascinating project to come out of FromSoftware yet.The build I played alongside other media and content creators is the same as the network test, and all the gameplay you're seeing here was provided by Nintendo and FromSoftware since we were not permitted to record our own. You'll notice the UI is removed and that there are specific features I'm not able to show, so I'll need to lay some groundwork since The Duskbloods has a lot of moving parts.This is a multiplayer-only Switch 2 game, and eight players queue into a match as one of several characters known as the Bloodsworn, each of which have their own weapons, ranged attacks, and special abilities. Every match has three phases that last about eight minutes each where you must earn Virtue points to survive The Culling – and while everyone always makes it past Phase I, the bottom two players are eliminated after Phase II and the bottom three are gone after Phase III. That leaves three players who are transported to a closed-off combat arena under a blood-red sky to duke it out in the finale called the Moon Blood Bestowal. A full match can last about 30 minutes, but when all four parts are varied and feel like an intense race against the clock and other players, it's easy to lock in and stay focused as every moment counts.Virtuous EndeavorsNow, how do you earn Virtue points? There are Commendations that award points to the players with the most PvE enemy kills (called Bloodfang Virtue) and/or the most items collected (called Collector Virtue) – this can change as the match goes on since points will be awarded and taken away based on how you stack against others, but these stats are never displayed. There is also Flame Virtue, which are collectible purple embers on the thrones of skeletons found in specific regions of the map – the region where these spawn is randomized in each phase, but their locations within that region seem to be similar. Repulsion Virtue is given when killing powerful computer-controlled enemies called Trespassers that are marked on the map – they vary in difficulty, and they can take a long time to defeat and may not be the best use of time early in a match. Each Bloodsworn also has what's called a Sigil, which is a unique objective for that character and completing it rewards Virtue points (but more on that later).Lastly, my favorite method of earning Virtue is through what are called Rituals, because this is where things get really spicy between players. In the back-half or so of Phases II and III, a certain section of the map will be outlined in gold, signifying the Ritual Site with four or five capture points marked within that boundary, turning the match into a King-of-the-Hill-style game. Capturing a point rewards you with Pledge Virtue, however, you have to hold the action button for about 10 seconds to capture it, thus leaving you vulnerable to other players and enemies who might be barreling down on you. Furthermore, other players can steal your capture point which then takes away your Virtue and gives it to them. I love swooping in to capture a point right when they open and hoping no one else contests it, but the tension goes crazy when I have to hold onto and defend my point. And this is where the PvP component really matters – only within Ritual Sites can you earn Sword Virtue, which rewards you for killing other players. It truly turns into a PvP zone when you're trying to capture points, defend them, and fight other players, but the Virtue you gain can stack quickly and shoot you up the rankings. The element of surprise works wonders, since getting the jump on players by using your map knowledge and your Bloodsworn's abilities effectively will make quick work of them. And the push-and-pull dynamic this creates is absolutely thrilling. It's worth noting that you'll keep respawning in matches so dying doesn't mean elimination, and you're not obligated to participate in Rituals since it's more like a map event, but it's high-risk / high-reward, and for the sickest of Souls sickos like me, the risk is oh-so compelling. If you decide to take part, you'll want to look out for Goldstones and Redstones, which are items that spawn around the Ritual Site; these will boost the Virtue gained from capturing points or killing other players, respectively.Phases II and III may also get randomized map events to shake things up. One I kept getting allowed me to call in airstrikes from a zeppelin that lingers up in the sky, which can decimate anything within range, including yourself – definitely handy for keeping folks away from my precious Ritual spots. But some are opportunities to earn more Virtue, like one that rewards the first player to ring the bell atop the tallest building on the map. I was able to do this before anyone else by finding clever ways of climbing up the tower, and it was chaos having five others scrambling on the way up and taking potshots at each other.I was able to consistently make it to the finale since I grasped the Virtue system quickly. But the three-player PvP brawl here at the end taps into a whole different skillset, and almost had us moving like it was a fighting game or one of those 3D arena brawlers. It can be overwhelming if you don't know how to manage the chaos. There isn't as much room for trickery in the closed arena, so it's more about reading your opponents and really understanding what their specific Bloodsworn is capable of while keeping your head on a swivel, especially when everyone has a summoned NPC companion to fight alongside them. Each player has two lives so there are opportunities to make a comeback, but if you can't hang with the speed and demand of head-to-head PvP, it can be rough going. That's the Souls-style challenge, but damn is it rewarding when you pull it off in the end.The Cadence of CombatLet me take a step back for a moment because there's a lot more that goes into pursuing Virtue points and getting combat-ready. You have to level-up in-match to get stronger, gain more HP and stamina, and build out your Bloodsworn's capabilities. If you're not defeating enemies at a solid pace, you can end up underpowered later in the match, so it's important to stay active every second. You can gain EXP fairly quickly and end up around level 17 or 20 by the final phase, but you gotta be grinding. Each Bloodsworn gains a new special ability at level 12 as well, and these are so important to have in tough battles. For example, my favorite Bloodsworn Trang Lanh has a cloaking ability to start, but at level 12 she can then summon a massive snake to direct heavy AoE damage and knockback. Meanwhile, the noble skeleton Senator Samir Patres can transform into a dinosaur that homes in on targets, chews them up, and tosses them aside, which became an early favorite during the preview.We had access to six Bloodsworn (10 are planned for the full release), and they were all distinct enough to form a unique approach. Sniper Layla has melee attacks of course, but she emphasizes long-range shots as her name would imply and almost plays like it's a third-person shooter. Albert is your sort of all-rounder, while the pajama boy Bloodhand Jan sports an axe and mage-like fire spells. However, I can't tell you how many times the armor-clad chicken man named Zork knocked me on my ass with his jetpack rushdown (yeah, I'm beefing with my roommate Blessing Adeoye Jr. from Kinda Funny who was maining Zork at this preview). But that's part of learning how to play The Duskbloods, it's about understanding movesets and knowing how to counter what you're up against when it comes time for PvP.It's about understanding movesets and knowing how to counter what you're up against when it comes time for PvP.Furthermore, these characters have their own Sigils you can activate before a match. As I mentioned earlier, these are objectives unique to them – for example, Trang Lanh's Sigil makes you seek out a certain player as a target and the Senator lets you propose to another player in hopes they'll accept. This is one area that director Hidetaka Miyazaki told me he's paying attention to with regards to player reception as these are one of the wild cards that can affect the typical cadence of a match.As far as gameplay feel, it's comparable to Bloodborne or Nightreign, not quite Sekiro in terms of speed. You have a block, a parry with a perfect-timed block, and a sonic howl that will stagger enemies when executed in the parry window. You can then bite the neck of staggered enemies which causes big damage and heals you, and when done to weaker enemies, will turn them into minions who follow you around the map to fight for you.More importantly, NPC companions called Kin are one of the biggest keys to success in The Duskbloods. You'll find glowing symbols across the map to summon Kin who will accompany you for the rest of the match – depending on their type, they can either fight alongside you or provide support. They level up independently and are another way to create "a build" of sorts throughout the match. If they die, they'll go on cooldown before being able to return to the field.A Note on Switch 2 Technical PerformanceThe Duskbloods features expansive maps and graphical fidelity that's comparable to FromSoftware's recent games. So, how does it perform? While it targets 60 fps, it wasn't exactly consistent, but it still ran smooth enough for it to not be a problem. You may notice some frame drops in more chaotic PvP scenarios or crowded battles, but it never chugged in a way that detracted from the experience.Map Knowledge Is PowerWhile there will be three maps at launch, we only got to play one map called Lowanro City, and it evokes a bit of the grim Victorian vibe of Bloodborne, especially as it gets deeper into the night with each passing phase. At the start of a phase, you choose the general area to spawn into and you'll get a random spot within it. Foggy swamps, a towering cathedral, dirty city streets, crowded rooftops, poisonous sewers, and a bridge that runs through the middle of the map – these all make up the interconnected regions. Markers on the map indicate which regions have which perks during the phase, such as Flame Virtue, weapons perks, or bonus Kin EXP, for example. And getting to and from these hotspots efficiently is such an important key to success. Even after about eight hours of gametime, I was still discovering the intricacies of the map and formulating new tactics just as I thought it was starting to get repetitive – if the first one is this dense, I'm hyped to see what the others can offer.Verticality is very much a highlight in The Duskbloods, too. No, you don't get a double jump, or a triple jump, but a quadruple jump and an airdash along with it, and you can charge up the first jump to fly into the air. Along with infinite sprint, this movement system makes things feel fast-paced and match the hustle required once the clock starts ticking. Hopping across rooftops, boosting up to floors above, and, well, airdashing isn't what you'd typically expect in a Souls-style game, but it works well for navigating such a varied map quickly. Part of me wants to say this plays closer to a character-action game like Devil May Cry at times, especially when PvP battles start to break out.This brings me to my main complaint with The Duskbloods – the lock-on targeting system. Souls games haven't always been great about camera angles and targeting, and those issues are exacerbated with the speed of this game and with the frenetic movement of actual human players. The camera whips at breakneck speed when a targeted player charge-jumps into the air, and it sometimes just doesn't read certain enemies in the field when trying to swap targets. It's sort of an impossible task with this particular style of action game, but I hope there will be improvements with smarter camera behavior or just on-screen readability when multiple players and their Kin are flying all over the place. One tactic I began using was to just try keeping everything in front me to mitigate the limitations of the camera and lock-on system.Perhaps the co-op DNA can take some of the edge off, too. When facing Trespassers, you can temporarily link up with other players to split the work and all participants get Virtue points if the group defeats. You can also queue into duos matches where two players share Virtue points to advance – the difference being that in the final phase, it's the two best teams who go into a 2v2 fight for victory. So, The Duskbloods doesn't always have to be a lonely endeavor.From Dusk 'Til LaunchMiyazaki said it himself that board games and tabletop RPGs were a definite influence when coming up with the rules and mechanics for The Duskbloods. Thankfully, there's a lengthy tutorial that does just enough to prepare you – he admits that it is the most complex game he's worked on, but like a good board game, once you grasp the rules and get enough reps, matches will start to flow naturally.This was just the Network Test, meaning it's a small portion of what will be available on launch. FromSoftware doesn't have a release date or even a release window yet, and it seemed like Miyazaki and the team are still working out the game's features while looking at the Network Test as a way to finally get player feedback for adjustment. In our conversation, he emphasized character customization and different options that can change the way you approach matches if you don't exactly love the PvP aspect so you can still work toward unlocking additional features for characters and story content back at the hub area called The House of Night. These things aren't in place quite yet.I asked him if he's concerned about a skill gap growing as time goes on, given the emphasis on PvP. Miyazaki said matchmaking will account for skill level, but the team is also working on systems to incentivize veteran players to assist newcomers and for ways to make the early game feel more welcoming. He said story cutscenes and progression won't be so reliant on winning matches either, so making it to the final phase and focusing more on the PvE aspects will still be rewarding. However, if you are a PvP fiend, he hinted at an Invasion-style option where you can be a ninth player dropping into an ongoing match to simply fight other players, and perhaps that'll be another one of those curveballs FromSoft likes throwing into its games.I really enjoyed what I played because The Duskbloods is clearly built for those who crave discovery, enjoy the unexpected nature of FromSoft's work, and the sort of meta you'd see in fighting games. It'll be a tricky balancing act with all these moving parts while trying to maintain an audience for a fairly complex game on Switch 2. Miyazaki didn't seem too concerned, though, saying that even though he's not great at action games himself, he wanted to build something that he would enjoy, and I suppose that's all you can do in a time when multiplayer games struggle to find their footing. FromSoft has the chops, and I can't wait to see what The Duskbloods becomes when it actually comes out.My Interview With Hidetaka MiyazakiYou can get a lot more detail on the development history and future plans for The Duskbloods from my conversation with Hidetaka Miyazaki, the FromSoftware president and The Duskbloods director. We talked about the Nintendo partnership, features the team is still working on, and his multiplayer design philosophy. Read more.While you're here, check out these previews of other big upcoming games we've played recently!Star Wars: Zero CompanyFire Emblem: Fortune's WeaveMarvel's WolverineAliens: Fireteam Elite 2Michael Higham is an editor at IGN who regularly contributes with reviews, previews, features, and news in written and video form. He's usually entrusted with covering long RPGs and tech products, but he's got range when it comes to games. You'll also catch him at events and hosting video content, including IGN's weekly podcast Unlocked.