Hidetaka Miyazaki didn't want to create ordinary vampires, so the creatures from The Duskbloods will have their own unique design and story

Hidetaka Miyazaki, legendary FromSoftware director, talked about the principles behind character creation in The Duskbloods. According to the developer, the studio is deliberately moving away from traditional notions of vampires and monsters, favoring a broader and more open approach to creature design.

The network test for The Duskbloods turned out to be a huge success – more people signed up for it than for Nightreign, despite it being a Switch 2 exclusive. One particular character grabbed players attention more than anything else: Zork, a diving bell-like creature with a beak that can rip hearts right out of its victims.

During a media briefing, Miyazaki went into detail about why he doesn't want players to think of the Bloodsworn as classic vampires.

In this game, the player character isn't a vampire, but something called a Bloodsworn. We didn't want them to just be monsters, but to give the impression that they are a species with intelligence and philosophy and culture and history.

Describing the game style as Victorian gothic, Miyazaki noted that he doesn't intend to restrict the design by existing traditional concepts.

Maybe it's just a quirk of mine, but my style of interpretation is basically 'If it's called a Bloodsworn, then it's a Bloodsworn.' Having a traditional conception is important, but I think the approach should be broadened when it comes to character design. I think you'll find that easy to understand if you look at Zork from the network test.

Zork design clearly draws from the masks of plague doctors, medieval healers who tried to treat patients through bloodletting with dubious results. In its own way, that could be considered a form of vampirism too, just a rather unusual one.