The Blood of Dawnwalker Review: A Surprising Highlight of the Year

Review by Nate, originally published on Kytherion.

Coens’ adventure is a surprising highlight of the year...

The Blood of Dawnwalker is a lore heavy action RPG developed by Rebel Wolves and published by Bandai Namco that was released September 2026 and if you’re involved in any part of the gaming scene on social media then you’ll likely have seen the hype around this one and the similarities to another lore heavy RPG; The Witcher 3. Those similarities come from the fact a number of the Rebel Wolves employees are formerly of CD Projekt Red which - for many people - is reason enough to invest their time and money into this new IP.

Why I nearly skipped The Blood of Dawnwalker

Initially - and admittedly, foolishly - I disregarded this game on release as I felt it looked too similar to The Witcher 3, which is a game that - despite being a massive fan of the novels and an avid lover of Henry Cavill as Geralt - I have struggled many times to get into and eventually stopped trying as the cumbersome combat mechanics were frustrating enough that the experience felt dampened. However, I didn’t disregard it without first having a short go of the game when visiting my partner one weekend as she had the collectors edition pre-ordered and had spent months eagerly waiting for it to release. During the hour or so that I played and the time I spent watching my partner play, I felt many of the same frustrations that I had felt with The Witcher 3 regarding the combat and decided that The Blood of Dawnwalker wasn’t for me.

It was a few weeks later when Ben (retro_gaming_goods on socials, check him out!) came to me and asked if I’d like to review the game on his behalf that I decided to give Dawnwalker another try and experience what it has to offer in full by going for the platinum trophy. It was the decision to go for the platinum that led me to enjoy the game much more as the training wheels are taken off when playing in Duelist mode, which is the games highest difficulty and a complete playthrough on this mode is required when going for the platinum.

The Blood of Dawnwalker story

The story sees you play as Coen of Laslea who, alongside others, tries to make a stand against the vampire lord Brencis and his subordinates who control the Vale. As you’d expect, the attempt to make a stand fails as mere mortals are no match for a group of supernaturals and the ragtag group of rebels are almost immediately wiped out. Coen however, survives as a daywalker - a subset of the pure vampires and one which they look down upon, which honestly, doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t a daywalker be the ultimate form for a vampire? Why is Coen seen as a lesser species when he’s technically a more powerful variant? Regardless, with his new found powers Coen must rescue his family from Brencis within 30 days or they will be drained at the coronation. This is where the games primary mechanic comes into play as there’s no natural day/night cycle; instead, time passes in chunks and each activity you take part in will advance the current day or night by X amount of time blocks whether it’s a quest, clearing a point of interest, or speaking to certain characters. The 30 days given to rescue Coens family is a generous amount, and while you won’t be able to complete everything in a single playthrough, you can clear the vast majority of the game in the time given.

Combat and Duelist difficulty

The difficulties scale in the way you’d normally expect in that enemies have more health, do more damage and take less damage on higher difficulties with the exception of Duelist mode at which point the player also loses the directional indicators that signify which button to press in order to block an enemies attack. Why does that matter? Well, if you successfully perform a directional block you will lose less stamina than a traditional block and you can also create an opening to counter attack if you managed a perfect directional block; which is achieved by performing the block immediately prior to the enemies attack landing. The combat system is good in the sense that it is extremely accessible due to the block indicators but it can also feel incredibly mundane for that exact reason, hence why I had a much more enjoyable time on Duelist difficulty where the indicators are removed and enemies feel challenging.

Combat feels clunky at times but given the game shares a lot of DNA with The Witcher 3, it’s to be expected. Aside from that, I did find the overall combat experience enjoyable and extremely rewarding on Duelist mode; despite the fact I became good friends with the respawn screen in the early hours of my playthrough. Every fight in the early game felt satisfying and the process of clawing together enough experience to tackle the more dangerous locations was a slow but gratifying process.

Freedom of choice in The Blood of Dawnwalker

That brings me onto a highlight of the game for myself which is the freedom of choice presented to the player. As above, you can tackle any location as soon as the prelude is completed but you can also choose which quests to complete and at which point in the story. The same applies to locations in that almost any location can be tackled immediately; I spent the first 15 or so hours of the game exploring the map and would frequently find myself in areas I wasn’t appropriately levelled for.

Want to go straight for Brencis without taking down his court of vampires? It’ll be a tough fight but you absolutely can.

Want to ignore all side characters or focus on a specific one? The choice is yours.

Want to put all your skills into a single skill tree such as Witchcraft? Go for it.

Want to lean into your vampirical instincts and drink the innocents? You can!

This freedom of choice is one of the games main selling points as the world feels like a living entity, not just a mundane list of checkpoints you need to hit to advance the plot. One of my favourite moments was in the early game, I decided to explore the main city of Svartrau at night as I realised there was a way to get exp from destroying the banners around the city and by reaching each of the view points. As I was climbing back down from a view point in the Cathedral, a cutscene started and there I was locked in battle with none other than Xanthe, who is one of four main bosses in the game. Typically, you’d have to clear the court activities in order to anger Xanthe and trigger a boss confrontation so imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon her and three of her guards. I put up a good fight, managing to take down all three guards before Xanthe tossed me aside in a matter of seconds but the excitement of stumbling into a boss without taking the traditional path stayed with me throughout the entire game; every time I explored an area, I wondered, what will I be up against this time?

Infamy, lore and immersion

There’s also a great amount of detail given to immersion from the detailed lore you can find throughout the world to the way characters and even entire cities will react to the infamy of the player. Infamy is determined by how much chaos you’ve caused to Brencis rule of the vale. Destroying blood couriers, taking down vampires, and completing quests are among the ways to