Review: The Blood of Dawnwalker is a fantastic action RPG with a dense, reactive open world that rewards your choices like few other games do. The Witcher 3 DNA is clear. But it also learns some key lessons and distinguishes itself in many ways as you progress through the game. Story & World: The first 20 minutes immediately establish the stakes. Coen has exactly 30 days and 30 nights to rescue his family from Brencis. Following the prologue, it drops you straight into a dark fantasy world, and from then on, every decision is yours to make. The world of Vale Sangora is filled with religious themes that have been corrupted by Brencis and his loyalists. Villagers are required to give blood sacrifices at the weekly Mass and the priests speak of Brencis like a gift from the gods. The massive (and stunning) cathedral in Svartrau is filled with portraits and stained glass windows that depict hellish scenes instead of holy ones. All of this perfectly sets the tone, and adds a ton of aura and mystique to the world. Time System: The time system is brilliant. Each day and night is broken into 8 time segments. Minor quests and activities cost 1 time segment, while major side quests can cost 3 or more. This actively forces you to decide which activities are worth prioritizing. That also goes for the skill tree. Not only does learning a new skill require skill points, but many of them require you to find a manual first. These can be earned in various ways from quests, to combat and treasure, and buying them from shops. But learning new skills often requires you to invest time as well. Once again, this forces you to decide which skills are actually worth focusing on. Upgrading 3 or 4 skills can wipe out half your night. It may sound punishing, but I actually think it's balanced well. I took down Brencis's three captains (Ambrus, Xanthe, and Bakir), cleared several major faction quests, and unlocked plenty of new skills, and still had 14 days leftover for open world exploration and clearing even more side quests. Gameplay: Gameplay completely changes based on the time of day. At night, Vampire form unlocks entirely new traversal options like the Shadowstep and Clawride to navigate rooftops. During the day, Coen can visit shops and interact with NPCs roaming the streets. This adds a lot of depth and variety to the world, and requires different approaches based on the time of day. Combat: Combat was actually better than I expected. The directional combat forces you to not only learn enemy attack patterns, but also react to the direction. It feels MUCH better in practice than it does from watching gameplay. There's also an ability wheel, that you can assign to shortcuts on the D-Pad (more on that later). All of this results in a combat system that was surprisingly engaging, and I would argue is actually better than W3's combat. Human form can be a lot more punishing due to your limited healing. In human form, food is significantly nerfed when you're in combat. Outside of a combat, a single apple will fully heal you over the course of 50 seconds. But this effect is severely limited during combat. The best way to heal mid-combat is by crafting healing potions from the Crafting menu. These potions require several resources though, which can be a lot harder to come by compared to random food items. This is a BIG lesson I think they learned from The Witcher 3. In Witcher 3, you could pretty much spam food items and heal infinitely by pressing a single button. In Dawnwalker, healing items are harder to come by, so you really have to make that one health bar count. Vampire form is a lot more forgiving though, and is overall stronger (as Coen himself admits). You can drain enemy health mid-combat, and there are simply more healing options overall. The trade-off for this is that drinking blood increases your Corruption meter. Your claws also deal more damage, and are snappier overall. Skill Tree: The skill tree is split into three major categories - Witchcraft, Swordmastery, and Vampirism. I focused mainly on Swordmastery and Vampirism. Witchcraft is only available in human form, and requires a lot more investment early on. Witchcraft abilities also come with the trade-off of sacrificing your health every time you use an ability. This can be mitigated with enough skill point and time investment, but I found the other two to be better for the early to mid game, especially since health comes at a premium in human form. Swordmastery abilities can be used either day or night and have a good variety of skills. Vampire skills can only be used at night, and focus on draining enemy health, and dealing bleed damage over time. Story: The story is actually quite good. Technically there's only one main quest - kill Brencis. Everything else is completely optional. But going straight to Brencis will result in you facing him severely underleveled and ill-equipped for the challenge. IMO there's a priority list of what quests you should focus on. Your first priority should be taking out the three captains Ambrus, Xanthe, and Bakir. Then, complete the major side quests chains related to various factions in the game. There's a faction quest featuring a rebel army called the Manumits, who are attempting to form a people's uprising against Brencis. There's another featuring Lacra, a fellow vrakhiri that's out to kill Brencis for her own reasons. Then there's one for Anca, the herbalist from your village, and a clear love interest that unlocks more knowledge on religion and Witchcraft in the game. These faction quests are easily some of the best in the game. Lacra's storyline unlocked a lot more backstory on Brencis and on the vampires themselves. The Manumit storyline explains how the citizens are organizing to fight back against Brencis. Completing these storylines not only gives you great backstory, but could also potentially unlock them as allies when you ultimately face Brencis. The catch is that you may not have enough time to do all of them in one playthrough - so I would suggest focusing on the ones that you find the most interesting first. Branching Paths: Narratively, the amount of branching paths and outcomes is truly staggering. The game remembers EVERY choice you make, which can often have side effects several hours later. Saving a random villager can unlock a favorable outcome much later in the game. A peaceful choice with an Uriashi woman in the city of Svartrau resulted in her village's leader on the other side of the map treating me as an ally, instead of attacking on sight. I would LOVE to know how many different endings and outcomes there are in this game, because every small decision you make has a lasting effect on the game world. Voice Acting: The voice acting is also top-tier across the board. I was floored by some of the voice performances from even the most random characters. Facial animations can be a little inconsistent, but the strong voice acting definitely makes up for it. Performance: As for performance, the game can be pretty heavy at 4K, but is surprisingly polished on day one. I encountered very few bugs, if any. The lighting, art direction, and thick foliage look stunning but I did struggle to maintain a consistent 4K 60 even at above the recommended specs. It was fine after lowering some settings though and 1440p is a lot more forgiving. Summary: ✅ Excellent story and voice acting ✅ Meaningful choices and branching paths ✅ Time management system ✅ Day/night mechanics ✅ Directional combat system ✅ Worldbuilding ✅ Visuals ❌ Some performance hiccups at 4K ❌ 30 FPS cutscenes ❌ Some targeting issues ❌ Can't flee or escape combat ❌ Inconsistent facial animations ❌ Map screen bug (known issue) Blood of Dawnwalker isn't just about clearing map markers. It makes you weigh the cost of every decision you make - your time, your health, and even your morals. The limited time to save your family is always in the back of your mind, resulting in an incredibly engaging RPG that requires you to fight for every minute. Most of my cons are minor technical issues that can easily be fixed with a day one patch. Rebel Wolves have done a fantastic job, and to me, this is a very strong candidate for RPG of the year. Final Score: 9/10 Playtime: 40 hours Platform: Steam Thanks to Bandai Namco for providing a review copy. #TheBloodofDawnwalker #Dawnwalker @DawnwalkerGame