I already think the standard FromSoftware boss fight in which you're more likely to die the closer you get to touching someone is romantic in the way it makes my palms sweat. So I'm eager to learn if director Hidetaka Miyazaki will be able to scrunch my heart until it explodes with The Duskbloods, which will feature the first overt romance between players in a FromSoftware game.
Switch 2 multiplayer game The Duskbloods is set against the unnatural Dusk of Humanity, where up to eight players filled with powerful blood slash each other in the pursuit of a deeper red. But you don't only have to murder your opponents – you can marry them, too, with the Love Ephemeral sigil that allows one player to actually get down on one knee, take another's hands, and emote their devotion. It might be the most obviously romantic gesture in FromSoftware history, though Miyazaki doesn't necessarily see it that way.
He tells The Guardian in a new interview, "I feel it's less a traditional romance and more a sense of secure trust with a character in the world, and that's something I personally yearn for." And he's right, this is an option given to you repeatedly throughout the FromSoftware catalogue: put your delicate faith in a chosen one, even when you're among bewitched lands where delicate things are picked and burned.
2016's Dark Souls 3 allows players to marry Anri of Astora with the Ring of the Evil Eye, and 2022's Elden Ring makes a marriage alliance possible with Ranni the Witch – provided you slide the Dark Moon Ring onto her chilled porcelain finger. The different firekeepers, shrine maidens, and one special doll throughout Dark Souls and Bloodborne are also technically locked in these practical relationships with you as they remain committed to letting you level up. All these NPCs also have at least some degree of influence over their game's story events or endings, so pursuing them is prudent game-playing, too.
But since The Duskbloods' marriage occurs between two players rather than a player and NPC, it's more of a wild rose… or wildfire. Some The Duskbloods network test players report being killed by opponents while performing Love Ephemeral before they can squeak out a proposal speech, with one Reddit comment saying, "People are too aggressive when theres no reason to be! Im also looking for love."
Love and pain are counterweights, of course. But it seems like Miyazaki would rather not have The Duskbloods' marriage alliances be so contentious. He thinks of it the way a king surveys a soldier with her weapon.
"It's not necessarily a romantic pairing," the developer says, "it's having someone that you can ultimately rely on. This concept is carried through from characters like the maidens in Elden Ring… it's a transient, ephemeral love, which is maybe a motif I'm striving for."
But even if you tell yourself you're only in it for the convenience, handing your heart to another always comes with the risk of severe disappointment. I imagine this is doubly true if you both have guns.
Nintendo denies The Duskbloods' September release date in the least convincing way possible.
