The Duskbloods Network Test: Rough Connections, Promising Game

A Weekend of Dropped Connections and High Hopes

The Duskbloods has been on Switch 2 fans’ radar since FromSoftware unveiled it during the Switch 2 Direct back in April 2025. This past weekend, the game finally let people in through a network test, giving players and press alike the chance to try six playable Bloodsworn characters across the Lands of Dusk. The catch: the servers had other ideas.

Nintendo Life’s Ollie Reynolds described his time as “utterly plagued with network issues,” and editor Gavin Lane reported his first session was “rained off” entirely before he managed to get about an hour in on Saturday night. Disconnections were a recurring theme across the preview. To be fair to FromSoftware, finding out where the seams are under load is literally the point of a network test. Still, it made forming coherent first impressions a bit like trying to read a book with every third page missing.

What Actually Got Through

When matches did work, both writers came away with real enthusiasm. Reynolds called it “an absolute blast,” and praised FromSoftware for making The Duskbloods feel distinct from its catalog despite borrowing specific mechanics from earlier games. He cited the counter-attack system from Elden Ring and the dodge mechanic from Bloodborne as familiar touchstones, but noted that the quadruple jump is something entirely new, adding that it is “awesome.” The verticality that mechanic enables, combined with what he described as some of the most beautifully colored skyboxes in FromSoftware’s history, left him eager to spend more time with it when the full release arrives.

Lane gravitated toward a character named Zork and, in a very relatable admission, announced he plans to main the guy regardless of how the competitive meta shakes out. His session involved the classic FromSoftware onboarding experience: wandering around, getting stabbed to death by a basic enemy, and then slowly figuring out the attack timing. He also accidentally tried to club what might have been a potential ally. Normal stuff.

The Alliance System and Why Solo Players Might Not Need to Panic

One of the more interesting details to emerge from the preview involves how PVP actually works. Reynolds, who describes himself as someone who generally prefers to be left alone in Soulslike games, went into the test apprehensive about the multiplayer focus. He came out reassured. According to his impressions, players are not required to fight each other constantly. PVP conflict is concentrated at Ritual Sites, which only become active during the second and third phases of a match. Outside of those windows, forming temporary alliances with other players is not just possible but mechanically beneficial. How players learn to exploit and manipulate those alliance systems over time is something Reynolds said he is genuinely curious to watch develop.

The broader suite of systems, including Virtue, Sigils, Kin, and more, remains largely unexplored after just a few sessions. Reynolds acknowledged the preview barely scratches the surface of what the full game will contain.

A Long Wait Ahead

The Duskbloods is expected to launch later this year, which means there is still time for FromSoftware to smooth out the server side of things before a much larger audience arrives. The network test existed to stress-test exactly that infrastructure, and by all accounts it found plenty to work on.

Lane’s closing thought stuck out: he wondered aloud how the game will look when he returns to it a year or two after launch, once the community has had time to fully map its systems. That kind of long-term thinking is a reasonable way to approach a FromSoftware multiplayer title. These games tend to reward patience, and The Duskbloods, network hiccups and all, already sounds like it might be worth the wait.