Few upcoming games have been harder to explain than The Duskbloods. Ever since FromSoftware unveiled its new Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, players have been trying to figure out exactly what they're looking at. Is it a Soulslike? An extraction game? A PvPvE action RPG? Depending on which trailer or interview you watched, you could easily come away with a different answer.
Next month, the guessing finally stops.
FromSoftware has confirmed that a closed network test will take place between August 21 and August 25, giving selected Nintendo Switch 2 players their first opportunity to experience The Duskbloods instead of analyzing every trailer frame by frame. That's an important difference.
Trailers are great at showing spectacular attacks, gothic castles and terrifying monsters. They're much less effective at explaining why a multiplayer game feels satisfying. The flow of a match, the tension between players and the split-second decisions that define PvPvE combat only really emerge once real people start making unpredictable choices. That's exactly what August's test is designed to reveal.
At the center of The Duskbloods are the Bloodsworn—warriors competing for the mysterious First Blood in matches that support up to eight players. The battlefield isn't occupied by players alone. Dangerous creatures roam every map, creating constant pressure and forcing everyone to balance greed against survival.
Do you challenge another Bloodsworn who's carrying valuable rewards? Do you keep hunting monsters to grow stronger? Or do you leave while you're ahead instead of risking everything in one final fight? Those decisions won't have a single correct answer, and that's what makes The Duskbloods interesting. The game isn't trying to script memorable moments. It's trying to create situations where players generate them naturally.
Movement reflects that philosophy too. Alongside melee combat, firearms and supernatural abilities, players can use traversal tools like jet-powered gliders to quickly reposition or escape dangerous encounters. Combined with FromSoftware's trademark emphasis on timing and precision, it creates a combat system that already looks noticeably different from the studio's previous work.
It's tempting to think of network tests as little more than technical rehearsals before launch. For The Duskbloods, they're much more than that.
This is FromSoftware's first brand-new multiplayer-focused IP in years, and no amount of internal testing can predict how thousands of real players will interact with its systems. Some mechanics that seem perfectly balanced on paper may immediately produce dominant strategies. Others could turn out to be far more exciting once players begin improvising together.
By the end of August, the developers will almost certainly have pages of data about matchmaking and server performance. But the most valuable takeaway may be something far simpler: they'll finally see whether players understand The Duskbloods the same way the studio imagined it. And after months of speculation, players will finally be able to answer the question they've been asking since the reveal. “What kind of game is this, really?”
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