Duskbloods retain the most iconic soul-like feature (not combat!)

Duskbloods is yet another radical departure for FromSoftware, following the company's jackknife dive into live-service multiplayer i Fire Ring Nightreign. But at the same time the audience can get mixed up Night rule and Duskbloods due to their always-online, PvE(vP) nature, such comparisons ignore how new Duskbloods really is.

Fire Ring Nightreign is ultimately one Fire Ring by-product; Duskbloods is a brand new, original FromSoftware world, one that has been in development since at least 2019. This timeline suggests that Duskbloods was actively developed before the industry-shaping success Fire Ringand before the positive reception of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The importance of this historical context is this: Duskbloods is not simply a response to FromSoft's recent successes, nor an attempt to build on something similar Night rule. All signs point to the game being a fresh and ambitious FromSoftware project, potentially the company's most significant release since Fire Ring. As such, its story and tone are just as important as its combat and exploration.

How blood history and fate work in The Duskbloods

The Duskbloods Lore will be nothing to sneeze at

In typical FromSoftware fashion, topical promotional material for Duskbloods do little to explain its real story. However, from trailers and interviews, it can be ascertained that the game will follow a clan of vampire-like creatures known as the Bloodsworn, also known as Duskbloods. These Bloodsworn will race across space and time to serve First Blood, a substance associated with an event known as the Twilight of Mankind, which signals the end of humanity.

Lore in The Duskbloods will be delivered unconventionally

FromSoftware games, especially those directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, deliver their stories in a unique and blunt way. Although there are some films, these are almost always vague, abstract and interpretable: characters do not have normal conversations, but instead speak in poetic, opaque monologues. The biggest lore insights come from clues in the environment, enemy locations and, most importantly, item descriptions.

The details for Duskbloods' item economy has yet to be revealed, but Miyazaki has suggested that the game will use the same basic narrative strategies. In an interview with Nintendo, the director said:

“One thing I love to do in any game I direct is to leave fragments of lore and world-building details, giving the player the fun of using their imagination to make connections. Duskbloods is no exception to this.”

He went on to say that character customization, which will take place in a hub area, will be framed as changing one of the protagonists' “blood history and destiny.” This process can lead to changes in a character's appearance or abilities, but also “internal characteristics to the role they play in the world and relationships with other characters.”

Blood and Destiny and FromSoftware are kicking things up a notch

In the same interview, Miyazaki would eventually describe Duskbloods' narrative as “fragmentary.” It certainly sounds like a typical FromSoft story, but the protagonist-centric nature of the story of blood and fate makes this style fundamentally different. Simply put, lore fragments in previous FromSoftware games are usually about the world around the player character; Duskbloodsfragments can be about the player characters themselves.

What blood history and destiny can mean for Duskbloods

A character's “blood history and destiny” could literally correspond to their own backstory, but since the Bloodsworn derive their powers from “special blood”, it is also possible that blood history and destiny refer to the lineage of those granted the same blood as a given character. This would be related to Vampire: The Masquerade's lore: each of the IP's six vampire clans is defined by blood continuity, with six types of blood corresponding to six ancient vampires.

That would explain the “history” part, but not so much the “fate” part. But considering Duskbloods time-jumping premise, it is not too far-fetched to assume that this “fate” refers to future events. Without temporal constraints, and with the variety that comes from having so many playable characters, blood history and destiny could lead to extensive and expansive lore, both in terms of character background and world building. Hopefully putting this information into a customization system will make it easier to digest compared to other FromSoft stories.

It remains to be seen how different Blood Story and Fate will be from traditional FromSoftware progression, lore and customization. These three systems have historically been linked in the developer's previous ARPGs, but never in such a personal, character-specific context. Duskbloods seems to be getting more interesting every day; Here's hoping that FromSoft's continued experimentation yields results.