The Blood of Dawnwalker Review

I first discovered Volk when a chance encounter with a merchant pointed towards a monthly errand that Coen's father would participate in with none in the family all the wiser. An old, ornery bastard; he would tell me of Pieter's history, the misadventures that had made him who he is. There was nothing particularly special about these chance encounters; every so often I would take a break from my more pressing quests with booze in tow, helping Volk with a few chores and partaking in a friendly spar or two, alongside hearing a tale of Coen's father.

Coen's journey is about rescuing his family, but there's actually remarkably little you know about them from the start of the game. Many of The Blood of Dawnwalker's most memorable quests touch on that; the history of the family that is only seen at the very beginning and end of the game, but is at the heart of Coen's character. The struggle Coen faces between whether to try and retain his humanity or to embrace his new vampirism isn't just because of the changes impacting him, but the often silent acknowledgement that things will never truly be the same for him no matter what awaits at journey's end - and what that means for his connections with those he loves.

There is so much I want to write about Dawnwalker's story and sidequests; how much they moved me, and how I want to gush about how the game's writing is possibly the absolute best I've seen in an RPG. Like I'd mentioned during my preview last month, there's a level of gravitas and nuance that permeates the game's writing - and I'm pleased to report that this remains the case for the game as a whole. I talked about Volk, but characters such as Vicho, Lacra, Anca, and Crake - they're all multi-faceted, and discovering their quests and learning more about their characters is a huge part of what makes the game feel so special.

Of course, story and sidequests are only a portion of Dawnwalker's appeal. The rest of the game has to be designed around them; especially when considering the game's focus on Coen's changing kit as a Dawnwalker.

Chances are you're already aware of The Blood of Dawnwalker's main conceit as an RPG; players have an in-game month to rescue Coen's family, and while time does not pass on its own, almost everything you do will slowly move time forward. In the day, Coen can walk among mortals as a human, devoid of his vampiric powers - and yet sporting witchcraft taught to him by his mentor, Anca. At night, he regains his vampiric powers, as well as a nigh unquenchable thirst for blood. While you're far more mobile and resilient under the moonlight, speaking with NPCs is a constant gamble. If your health is too low, or you take too long to decide your response, Coen's hunger can and will get the better of him - and even quest NPCs aren't safe.

It's a wrinkle that constantly tasks you with deciding how you want to play the game. If you want, you can attempt to avoid Coen's vampirism entirely - using the night to spend skill points, or waiting them out entirely. While many missions will only be accessible at specific times of day, others afford you the option to choose whether you'll attempt them as a human or as a vampire, with greatly diverging results. This is pretty novel, and I appreciate how the game actively lets you decide how to tackle specific quests - but I do wish there were just slightly more impactful quests that actively played around with the idea. Too many are locked to the day or the night, and while some of those make sense, others feel a bit hamfisted.

I'm of a similar mind regarding combat. Enemies will attack you from one of 4 different directions, and by blocking the right direction with the right timing you can open things up for a counterattack. Attacking enemies will also build up charges that can be spent for skills that bypass the regular tenor of the combat entirely, and which can be upgraded with several perks. For example - one attack might entail several sweeps of your sword around you, with the overall damage of each receiving a buff for each enemy that gets caught in the crossfire. Another might have a low chance to instantly kill an enemy; with upgrades not only increasing the damage of the skill itself, but also the likelihood of the instant kill activating.

Combat starts and remains fairly basic, but once you've unlocked a few key perks it really comes into its own. For example, one will mark a cardinal direction for you to counterattack from following a parry for a guaranteed critical hit; another will gradually increase the damage of your attacks up until you attack from the same direction twice in a row. Once I'd gotten my bearings, I even turned off the directional indicators for enemy attacks to rely on their actual animations, which ended up making the combat feel better - even if things hadn't actually changed.

That being said, I do wish things would have actually changed between daytime and nighttime combat. There are certain skills that will only apply to combat either during the day or during the night, but the bulk of combat effectively doesn't feel any different regardless of the time of day. Yes, Coen can only access his Witchcraft skills in the day and his Vampiric skills at night, but while the skills themselves are different they're cut from much the same cloth outside of bloodsucking. Enemy variety could have been just a bit better, too; you could probably count the number of each unique enemy types outside of bosses on two hands. 

Despite those complaints, Dawnwalker delivers where it counts. If you're at all a fan of the types of WRPGs this side of The Witcher 1, The Blood of Dawnwalker is an absolute must play. With writing I'll be thinking about for the foreseeable future, Rebel Wolves' debut project is something the team should be very proud of - and is currently my favorite RPG of 2026.