The Duskbloods: Hidetaka Miyazaki Admits Even FromSoftware Doesn’t Know How Players Will Play the Game

The Duskbloods may be one of the strangest games FromSoftware has ever made, and apparently even its creators are still discovering what it can become. In a recent IGN interview, director Hidetaka Miyazaki admitted that the sheer number of ways to play has left the studio unable to predict exactly what players will “latch onto” once they get their hands on the game and become familiar with its core mechanics.

In other words, this is a multiplayer game built around systems that can interact in ways the developers cannot fully anticipate until thousands of actual players start breaking them. And with the first closed network test now over, those first reactions are already giving FromSoftware plenty to chew on.

Hidetaka Miyazaki Says Player Feedback Will Shape The Duskbloods

FromSoftware has spent years building games around the idea that players figure things out for themselves, but The Duskbloods changes the equation. Its multiplayer focus means the studio will have to pay closer attention to how people actually play, particularly when the team itself cannot predict every strategy that might emerge.

That was the context behind IGN asking Miyazaki how much FromSoftware would be willing to adjust the game based on player feedback. His answer was unusually candid: the sheer number of possible approaches means even the developers do not yet know what players will latch onto or what they may want changed:

I think with The Duskbloods being so complex and there being so many different ways to play, there’s a lot that even we really can’t see currently in terms of what players will latch onto and what players might want to change.

Miyazaki isn’t saying FromSoftware will simply follow whatever the community asks for, either. He says the feedback can help the team understand what it actually wants the game to become:

If anything, we’re looking forward to the feedback because it helps us further clarify what it is that we want to do with the game. It’s definitely something we are looking forward to, for sure.

The Sigil system in The Duskbloods is a good example of where that philosophy gets more concrete. Miyazaki specifically said the team wants to see how players engage with Sigils before deciding whether anything needs to change, while also keeping an eye on how much randomness works for item and enemy placement and map events.

The Duskbloods’ First Test Has Already Given FromSoftware Some Answers

Testers have already had their first taste of the game. | Credits: FromSoftware

The first closed Network Test for the game ran from August 21 through August 24 after FromSoftware opened registrations last month, finally giving players (albeit a few selected ones) a chance to see how its unusual multiplayer formula works outside trailers and developer explanations. The early reaction has been about as varied as the game itself.

Going off of the megathread in the official r/TheDuskbloods subreddit as well as a separate post in r/Games, some testers loved how differently each character plays, with Zork’s (one of the game’s many characters) jetpack movement getting particular praise, while others came away feeling that the game simply was not for them.

The comparisons to Elden Ring Nightreign were inevitable too, especially from players who felt its characters could blur together more than those in The Duskbloods. There were also concerns that players were already finding ways to optimize Virtue and builds, potentially leading to a rigid “competitive meta” once everyone knows the strongest routes.

That does not mean the game is in trouble, of course. If anything, it gives FromSoftware exactly the kind of feedback Miyazaki was talking about. The test has shown that The Duskbloods can click hard with some players while leaving others cold, even among people who already love the studio’s games. Now the real question is what FromSoftware decides to change after seeing how people actually played it.

Have the first impressions from the Network Test made you more interested in the game, or does its multiplayer focus still leave you waiting for FromSoftware’s next single-player game? Let us know in the comments below!