Nintendo definitely hasn’t been wanting for immense hype about the Nintendo Switch 2, and the console’s recent direct only amplified this red-hot anticipation. New features like the Joy-Con 2’s mouse controls and GameChat are certainly exciting, but the slew of first-party and licensed third-party titles for the Switch 2 are tantalizing as well, and The Duskbloods may be the most tantalizing of all.
With its fantastical Victorian setting, focus on melee-and-gun combat, and allusions to blood and the moon, The Duskbloods has already drawn more than a few comparisons to Bloodborne, FromSoftware’s other Gothic horror outing. Audiences have been begging the Elden Ring developer to follow-up Bloodborne in some capacity over the years, as the 2015 hit represents some of the studio’s best work. Given the ripe potential of Bloodborne‘s world and the massive fan outcry for a sequel or remaster, the fact that FromSoftware and publisher Sony have almost totally neglected the property has long been a head-scratcher. It would appear that Nintendo has recognized this latent potential, giving FromSoftware the green light for, essentially, Bloodborne 2.
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The Duskbloods Is Basically Bloodborne 2, and That’s a Good Thing
A Bloodborne Spiritual Successor Just Makes Sense
There are plenty of gamers who would no doubt give an arm and a leg for a proper Bloodborne sequel, but most have more or less accepted that such a game will never come. This isn’t necessarily bad: not every game needs a sequel, and a big part of what makes Bloodborne special is its identity as a strange, standalone project. Indeed, Bloodborne is undeniably unique, but it could become less so if it were forced to become a franchise.
But that doesn’t mean that FromSoftware can’t leverage the broader concepts of Bloodborne, those being its Gothic aesthetic, steampunk influences, and Lovecraftian lore, for a spiritual successor. Games like Lies of P prove how powerful these ideas can be, and more than a few smaller games have marketed themselves as being “Bloodborne-influenced,” so there’s certainly demand for Bloodborne-likes.
FromSoftware doesn’t exactly love sequels—Armored Core and Dark Souls are its only major, contemporary franchises with more than one entry—but it does reincorporate ideas and design trends. There’s no greater example of this than Elden Ring, which clearly borrows a lot of mechanical and storytelling methods from Dark Souls without being directly connected to it; Elden Ring may have served as a way for FromSoftware to introduce new gameplay, lore, and world design elements to the Dark Souls formula without being restricted to what was already established by previous entries. The developer could be doing the same thing with Bloodborne and The Duskbloods.
Sony Has Slept On Bloodborne, and Nintendo Has Woken Up To It
The Duskbloods proves that FromSoftware is open to revisiting many of the core thematic and design elements of Bloodborne, which begs the question, why hasn’t Sony pulled the trigger on this kind of spiritual successor? In the past, one could forgive the gaming giant for being bearish about publishing yet another uber-difficult soulslike, but in the wake of Elden Ring‘s success, Sony should be tripping over itself to partner with FromSoftware again. As it stands, it feels like Sony has left money on the table by not pursuing Bloodborne-adjacent projects.
Of course, there are likely myriad reasons why FromSoftware is partnering with Nintendo over Sony for The Duskbloods, and it’s no surprise that the general public isn’t privy to them. But still, it’s rather surprising that this game, which is so clearly reminiscent of Bloodborne, is releasing on Nintendo’s upcoming console instead of on the PlayStation. It will be interesting to see if and how the latter responds.
Based in Japan, FromSoftware is a development company best known for the Souls series and Armored Core franchise. Other popular games from From Software include Elden Ring, Sekiro, Bloodborne, and the King’s Field series.