Summary
- Former CD Projekt Red developers at Rebel Wolves unveiled their debut game, The Blood of Dawnwalker, with a cinematic reveal trailer.
- The Blood of Dawnwalker shares similarities with The Witcher, featuring an open-world RPG setting, dark fantasy elements, morally gray choices, and an outcast protagonist.
- The game incorporates Persona-like time management mechanics.
The Blood of Dawnwalker's long-awaited reveal trailer, primarily comprised of pre-rendered footage with brief gameplay glimpses, debuted recently. The trailer highlights the game's previously announced similarities to The Witcher, incorporating Persona-like elements.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is the inaugural title from Rebel Wolves, a Polish studio founded by former CD Projekt Red developers who contributed to The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. Initially announced as Dawnwalker in January 2024, Rebel Wolves described it as a narrative-driven open-world RPG with impactful choices within a dark fantasy setting.
Almost a year later, on January 13th, Rebel Wolves and publisher Bandai Namco presented a reveal stream for The Blood of Dawnwalker, culminating in a captivating cinematic trailer exceeding four and a half minutes. This trailer establishes the game's setting and introduces the Dawnwalkers, essentially powerful vampires within the game's lore, along with the protagonist, Coen, who becomes a Dawnwalker at the game's outset.
The Blood of Dawnwalker Reveal Trailer Echoes The Witcher
With its dark fantasy setting, monsters, and open-world RPG structure offering morally gray choices—further emphasized by the tagline "the world needs what it fears"—The Blood of Dawnwalker evokes a strong Witcher vibe, even independent of its development team's background. Fans of The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion, with its vampires and challenging decisions, will likely find the premise compelling. The game's emphasis on player choice is reflected in its morality system, allowing Coen to either embrace his Dawnwalker nature to save his family or cling to his remaining humanity.
The Blood of Dawnwalker Borrows from Persona
While superficially resembling The Witcher, The Blood of Dawnwalker introduces unique twists to the open-world RPG formula. Significantly, it integrates Persona-like time management mechanics, where each quest demands a time investment. Rebel Wolves co-founder and game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz explains, "There are multiple approaches to saving Coen’s family with no clear division between main and side quests; you decide on how you spend the time." Completing every quest and story arc in a single playthrough is impossible, a design choice fostering replayability and unique experiences, a concept Rebel Wolves terms a "narrative sandbox."
The Blood of Dawnwalker is currently in development for PC and current-generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Envisioned as the first installment in a trilogy, it will be published by Bandai Namco. While a concrete release date or even an estimated launch window remains unannounced, considering its 2022 development start and triple-A budget, a release before 2027 seems unlikely. Rebel Wolves has committed to showcasing gameplay in summer 2025.
