A vivid recurring nightmare of his sister turning into a bloodthirsty monster is what starts off Coen’s adventure in the game. It sets the tone quite nicely because reality is worse. When a Vrakhir (fancy term for vampire) named Brencis took over their small hamlet nestled between the Carpathian mountains (a fictional place in Romania), a lot of things changed. While the plague was no longer a threat in their valley, it was at the cost of the village being kept captive by the vampire. He sought the blood of his subjects to keep him well and nourished. It’s not a pretty thought. With this as the title, you can hardly expect “Blood of the Dawnwalker” to tread on lighter ideas.
Last year, I played Oblivion remastered and wrote a bit about the “building blocks of a solid RPG” like I knew what I was talking about. I take it all back. Having now played BotD, which is perhaps the best RPG I’ve played in the last few years, I can now tell you what a great RPG actually needs. It must have an excellent story to tell, and very clear and high stakes. Coen’s situation is well set very soon into the game. He has precisely 30 days before his whole family is sacrificed for Brencis’ coronation. He must stop the evil vampire before it. If this isn’t high stakes, I don’t know what is.
This time constraint is probably the most important mechanic of the game. It’s also the reason I love it so much. A single day is split into sun-time and night. And there are pseudo-hourly intervals within the clock as well. Every time Coen makes a decision to carry out a certain lead, time passes. So it is in his best interest to do the tasks that directly help him find and rescue his family, right?
Unfortunately for Coen, he knows nothing beyond the walls of his hamlet. So when Brencis burns down all the houses and he’s forced to depart, there’s hardly a trail to follow. He needs to pursue every avenue of clues that he can find. Unlike most open world RPG’s though, all of the options available to him, while it feels endless — are all helpful in some way or the other. If he decided, for instance, to go and help a neighbourhood armorer and to find his daughter, he probably should. Even if it seems pointless at the moment, it could help him in later interactions with other people and change the course of the story altogether.
I’m done with the whole decision paralysis of primarily dialogue and chance driven plot movement (you can just play real-life Dungeons and Dragons for that!). I’m really enjoying playing Coen the way I want to, rather than min-maxing and overthinking decisions to find success. I’m really digging the romance plotlines in the game too. And oh yes, there’s more than one of them — 30 days doesn’t stop our man from trying his luck.
I keep forgetting to mention the most crucial part of the game — which is that Coen is also a vrakhir. He’s only part Vampire — he’s a dawnwalker, who can face sunlight and live as a human in the mornings. Which means that in this game, he personifies hustle culture. He’s awake morning and night, getting twice the amount of work done making the rest of us look bad. And he harnesses a different set of powers (which allows for some really cool gameplay dynamics). In the daytime, he perfects his “witch” abilities, which let him hex enemies around him. And at night, he has some really powerful claws and some cool traversal methods. Once you unlock it, you can even actually run around as a wolf-like animal at night at super speed! Which is much more fun than fast travel in my honest opinion.
I’m curious to know what others think about the combat mechanics — because I did find it a bit challenging and interesting. The blocking mechanic can get quite complex as it also overlaps with special abilities, and it’s a bit annoying that the stamina bar exhausts very easily. It’s crucial for us to equip Coen with the right armor, charms, and weapons to make sure it doesn’t cause issues in large gauntlet-type situations that are so frequent in the game.
I got a review edition of the game to play on the PS5. It plays excellent on it with the controller, and would suggest you try it out if you have been yearning for a good RPG. This game has been an absolute 10/10 for me - and I’m hoping to have some time to replay it in future with slightly altered decisions to just mess around a bit more and see things I’ve missed. It’s a must buy if you enjoyed Witcher 3, Ghost of Tsushima, or some of the later Assassins Creed games.