One of the biggest surprises directly on the Nintendo Switch 2 this week was the exclusive from Software’s exclusive Duskbloods. Although it is a PVPVE game developed by Soulsborne Studio, director Miyazaki Hidetaka said this does not mean that the company has changed the direction it moves forward.
In a new interview with Nintendo, Miyazaki talked about his decision to turn Duskbloods into a PVPVE game. The director said he “always found” the structure to enable a wide range of game design ideas, while allowing for a wide range of game design ideas while also leveraging the experiences of designing challenging enemy encounters.
“As a side note, please allow me to deal with one thing,” Miyazaki said. “As mentioned before, this is its core online multiplayer title, but this does not mean that we, as a company, have decided to shift more multiplayer-centric with future titles.”
He continued: “The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Eldenling has also been announced, but we are still going to actively develop a game that focuses on such a single player that embraces our more traditional style.”
Since the release of Eldenling in February 2022, I’ve done some experiments from Software. That DLC, Erdtree’s Shadow, tried out some interesting new power scaling methods in the form of Scadutree’s blessing. There is also Elden Ring: Nightreign is an upcoming cooperative survival action game that blends normal souls style with invasive storms, booty and character archetypes. The studio even went back to the mecha era with the Armored Core VI: Rubicon fire.
So at Duskbloods, Software is once again trying to do something a little different. In an interview, Miyazaki said that when the team presented it to Nintendo, the company outline for Duskbloods was “still very bare bones.”
Nintendo was interested in making it happen, and while the small team started the project for the original Switch, Nintendo approached it from the software with the idea of moving to Switch 2 instead. “The focus of new hardware on online features allowed us to remain as faithful to our original vision as possible. This was very good news for us,” Miyazaki said.
So, while Duskbloods may be a little different to regular Software games, the studio doesn’t seem to leave a complete “traditional” style that you’d expect. Put another way, let’s cook this from Soft.
But what’s the next single-player game from FromSoft focused on? Miyazaki says the developers are not currently considering making Elden Ring 2, but the door opened up late last year to future possibilities. It’s probably not a bloody two and not a big fan frustration.
For more information about the Nintendo Switch 2, check out all the roundups announced this week on Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. Also read chats with analysts about the Switch 2 console and some sticker shocks in its game.
Eric is an Passthecontroller freelance writer.
