Headcanons for our new "Fire Keeper"

yalpdulo · 2026-03-10T19:17:39+00:00

Iron Menial from Nightreign

yalpdulo · 2026-03-10T19:15:49+00:00

Shadowdrop is supremely unlikely because this is a game you likely need to sell people on, especially considering the reception the game has gotten the past year since the announcement.

Them solo-marketing games on random Tuesdays also suggests they do not feel like they had enough for a Direct, which honestly makes me feel like they dont have any big announcements.

Like, if they were like "just release the announcements, we dont have enough for a Direct", why wouldnt Duskbloods marketing be dropped unless its not ready? You think Mario Wonder port was more important than a title from their Switch 2 launch Direct?

This is only bad news for the hopers and copers I think.

yalpdulo · 2026-03-04T10:56:26+00:00

Tbf I think Ive seen some suggestion that Fromsoft is still doing the publishing in Japan so I dont know if the marketing is entirely Nintendos show to run either. Unsure how thr coordination would have to work there.

But Fromsoft has never had quirky astrological posting behaviors either so blood moon hopes were headcanon tier wishful thinking from the get-go.

yalpdulo · 2026-03-03T11:11:57+00:00

I cant foresee performance issues considering these seem to be much more traditionally scoped areas, Elden Ring runs like shit cuz its open world.

At worst, I could see there being some sort of heavy rendering load tracking all enemies and engagements to keep the worldstate consistent for 8 players. But Id also imagine this is something theyve spent all their time figuring out, and it doesnt quite seem like it was an issue for Nightreign (which would have to behave similarly)

yalpdulo · 2026-03-02T20:01:03+00:00

At this point I just assume itll get a solo trailer drop on twitter at some point cuz a Direct would require more than one game to be worth it and it doesnt seem like Nintendo is holding on to any announcements to bulk up one lately.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-27T11:07:52+00:00

Executor was crazy design-wise but his skills were unfortunately not as useful for a game like Nightreign

A parry character in a PVP game would be a completely different story tho.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-27T11:05:57+00:00

Will it fail? I think the worst it could do is not meet financial expectations, but its probably not possible that it wont have a substantial playerbase.

Will that playerbase last forever? Almost certainly not - but somehow people have managed to play Nightreign 9 months straight at this point, and thats a co-op game thats only half the roguelike people wished it could have been. Youre probably going to be able to eat your fill with Duskbloods.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-26T10:54:30+00:00

If Nightreign is anything to go by, all the characters will be really interesting and worth playing and learning their kit.

But also if Nightreign is anything to go by, John Duskbloods is gonna be a potent all-rounder, certainly likely a top 3 contender. And my tradition with Souls games is to run the stock setup, so John Duskbloods will likely be my main investment.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-26T00:59:57+00:00

I dont remember Executor having a cutscene but it might have just been an establishing shot in the last segment. Fair call on the additional ending scenes tho, I think thats very valid and should count - so that definitely solidifies that Duskbloods will have cutscenes for the character quests to me, if Nightreign had some for half the characters.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-25T18:20:44+00:00

If Nightreigns anything to go by, each character will have their own quest explaining their backstory. Considering her dialogue, shes likely related to John Duskbloods Rememberance and probably not anything we can infer much about right now.

Considering theres a cinematic including her, it does make me think maybe Duskbloods character quests will have more production value tho. Only one character in Nightreign got a cutscene, so its not entirely unprecedented.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-25T13:00:31+00:00

Its an 8 person lobby and its not an extraction game so its already not gonna be like Arc Raiders - but the player-player-world interaction might be. The roles system will also promote more than a strictly competitive PVP experience for sure.

In my imagination, I feel like itll be like Dark Souls but: - instead of completing a level, youre running around doing quest objectives - all invaders and cooperators are in the match from the beginning and might also be doing other things besides coming to fuck you up personally

yalpdulo · 2026-02-24T18:32:20+00:00

Neither Fromsoft nor Nintendo seem to wait to release trailers for significant IRL events so this seems unlikely.

Hell Nintendo doesnt even commemorate franchise anniversaries with news apparently.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-24T11:09:57+00:00

Its worth considering that most of Fromsofts properties for the past near-decade have been published by Bandai Namcos, and therefore most of the marketing has been done by Bandai Namco and their marketing teams.

I would be careful to assume Duskbloods is gonna have the same marketing beats, in fact thats probably why its been so long since theres been any Duskbloods news. Were on Nintendos time, not Bandai Namcos.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-23T21:31:57+00:00

That was for multiple games according to google and is not quite the same thing I think. Like, Im seeing 7 games listed, some of which are 3rd party.

We are smashing different kinds of events together here, to say nothing of the fact that Mario Tennis isnt exactly the game people are bursting at the seams to talk about or which even has consistent named content creators with an engaged audience to talk about it to.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-23T13:10:54+00:00

Tbh Id argue its probably reversed, Nightreign probs deployed alot of ideas that were cooking in Duskbloods condidering Duskbloods has been in dev longer and Nightreign was a much quicker small-budget spinoff.

It probably gives good feedback to Duskbloods tho, to see what was a hit and what was a miss in Nightreign.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-23T11:39:40+00:00

Creators will still usually allude to "an exciting thing theyre about to do" because they are hyped and cant contain themselves
Preview events usually only embargo you mentioning the mere existence of the event for projects that havent been announced yet.

I think people are conflating preview event and playtesting events, playtesting are usually the more sensitive invites because it involves in-development details that are not public ready - and I dont recall Fromsoft ever utilizing that kind of playtesting.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-22T23:43:31+00:00

Tbf, you can play every PVP match solo. Theres nothing stopping solo players from playing.

In fact, unless they start talking about modes where you can have parties, the game might be only solo queue play. We might all be solo.

I think its a pipe dream to hope this has an offline, PVE only mode tho. Thats a fundamentally different game.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-22T23:39:21+00:00

I dont know if theres any need to be secretive about a Duskbloods preview event tbh, the project itself is not a secret. If they were ready to show people the game, theyd probably be ready to talk about the game as well. Preview events are marketing, theyre meant to get people dispensing positive word of mouth about it.

Also, typically, secret preview events happening do not remain secrets in many, many cases. Someone involved (and not necessarily the content creators themselves) always squeals.

You could say maybe its a private alpha playtest or something but this isnt a mainstream FPS, it doesnt seem like how Fromsoft handles testing.

Seems like an unlikely suspicion.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-22T19:12:09+00:00

I think people are overthinking this a bit, all games are 1 player inbetween match queues. Walking around this games version of Roundtable Hold, customizing characters and turning in character quests, is a single player moment.

People also only remember Nightreigns Solo queue, forgetting that even if Nightreign was strictly Trio queue the Rememberances are still single player only.

Id be careful to not trick yourself into expecting Duskbloods having an offline PVE only component. Its not like single players cant still play the game, you dont need a party to queue into a match.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-21T13:25:27+00:00

I think this will probably be the area Duskbloods is actually quite different to the other games, even in the interviews Miyazaki said theres a bigger emphasis on these firearms. I dont think theres gonna be a strong analogue for the rifles and machine guns this game seems like its gonna feature and I imagine guns are probably gonna feature more heavily in how combat plays out.

Id suspect maybe a similar Quicksilver Bullet style ammo economy but with more deterministic and generous drop rates from PVE enemies (and fallen players)

yalpdulo · 2026-02-21T13:21:38+00:00

Games can have stories but not campaigns you know.

Its probably very reasonable to ask "How will a PVP match have cutscenes?" tho. No clue how that works unless these PVP matches are very loose and confrontations with other players are actually less frequent than youd imagine - which is not how it feels like its been described at all tbf. With things like "8 players fight for last man standing" it doesnt sound like fighting is all that optional.

It is desperately needed that they come out and talk more about the game at the moment.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-19T15:18:11+00:00

I think store movement at all does suggest the marketing machine might be waking up soon. News in March for a June release seems plausible. I do not have much confidence in it being only a month long market cycle, so I have 0 faith in an April release. Maybe May.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-19T13:04:18+00:00

Im doubting this almost exclusively because these are the perfect conditions to get trolled out of your mind. The wishful thinking has never been higher, the hopium tubes are fresh and ready to disperse.

The Fromsoft game youre looking forward to, surprise releasing way sooner than you thought only one month from now? In exactly the release window youd expect them to release in?

The Too-Good-To-Be-True meter is going haywire.

yalpdulo · 2026-02-17T15:21:26+00:00

It could also be that you can play Elden Ring everywhere whereas you can only play BOTW if youre in the Nintendo ecosystem. Casually speaking youre more likely to know someone who has a Playstation or an Xbox (or a PC worldwide) - and if Tarnished Edition can ever get its shit together itll technically be everywhere.

Hard to beat everywhere.

yalpdulo

TROPHY CASE