As a new studio founded by ex-Witcher Alumni, Rebel Wolves and Bandai Namco allowed us an intimate four hours with the studio’s inaugural title: The Blood of Dawnwalker. While players may have been initially concerned about being rushed with the story’s thirty-day limit, our experience proved that there’s more than enough content here to enjoy the adventure at your own pace.

In The Blood of Dawnwalker, players take on the role of Coen, a perfectly normal human male with a single goal: to save his family from the clutches of an ancient vampire lord named Brencis. Our play session saw the opening act of Coen’s adventure, slaying wildlife for raw materials and handling the rudimentary tasks of the common man. It’s here that we were shown how the flow of time works in The Blood of Dawnwalker.

Rather than being constrained by a clock ticking down every second as Coen treks across the open world, Rebel Wolves opted for something more along the lines of Persona 5. Days (and nights) are split up into a number of hourly pips. Completing a quest advances the flow of time, and as enough hours pass, the day shifts into night. For the opening act, this first night meant attending a blood ritual with the local vampire cabal.

There wasn’t enough time to aid every single person in Coen’s village in need of assistance, so instead, I focused on the more important quests: tracking down a stolen flag that was to be hung during the nightly coven, securing a remedy for your sickly mother, and other lesser tasks that seemed pressing at the time. This meant leaving Coen’s siblings alone on their fishing venture to the north, simply because there were not enough hours in the day. Early on in the quest to secure that cure for Coen’s mother, the exact steps for preparing the remedy were given just once. Little did I know that I would need to recall that information again at the end of the quest; had I not scribbled the recipe down in my notes, it’s possible that I would have failed in my potion-making and left Coen’s mother too sickly to attend the night meeting. Even a pivotal moment like the first night of Coen’s adventure played out differently among the other journalists in attendance, as characters that were prominent (or missing) during my first night were instead present for others. 

Given Rebel Wolves' pedigree, firmly steeped in CD Projekt RED alumni, The Witcher’s influence in combat is noted, but with some unique takes. Here, the developers produced a combat system with both traditional and directional-based combat, if you want a little more precision in your strikes. Traditional combat is simpler, but Coen consumes more stamina while parrying attacks, whereas directional combat is the inverse and also provides certain buffs (many of which will be acquired in the three skill trees for Coen). When attacking, players input one of the four directional inputs for their swings, with the vertical inputs being more focused on their heavier overhead-style swings. Coen has a preternatural sense of foes around him, even before he becomes a Dawnwalker, allowing him to detect attacks coming from enemies offscreen.

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Because of how telegraphed these attacks are, juggling a 6-vs-1 fight wasn’t much of a challenge even on the highest difficulty on offer for our brief preview. There is a small amount of jank to the repetition of combat animations and attack patterns, but I would expect to see a more dynamic AI at play here when The Blood of Dawnwalker is available for all. The Blood of Dawnwalker’s story takes place in a small slice of the Carpathians known as Vale Sangora and ruled by Brencis and his three strongest vampire lieutenants. To face off against Brencis, players should first face off against each regional commander, though it isn’t strictly necessary.

During an impromptu group Q&A, we asked whether players would have to fully engage with the Court system for these lieutenants and work their way up to facing off against Brencis. One of the developers informed us that players could actually fend off Brencis in the introductory segments if they could parry all of his attacks. Given how weak Coen is prior to his Dawnwalker transformation, I could see this being an exercise in patience and taking far longer than our brief preview will allow (but I will certainly give it a shot in the full game). Our preview session wrapped up before we could engage too deeply in the Court system, but as I ventured to the south of Vale Sangora and started doing minor tasks like clearing out encampments, there was a gauge ticking up towards gaining the attention of one of these vampires. If thirty days is all the time Coen gets to rescue his family from the clutches of Brencis, perhaps a week per target will be sufficient.

By the end of Coen’s first night, he had already transformed into the titular Dawnwalker and slowly grasped the capabilities of his vampiric infusion. There was a large, yet intimately connected, open world to explore, and a couple of traversal skills tucked away in the corner of the skill trees gave Coen the power of mystical springing by day and the transformation into a wolf by night to expedite getting around the wooded landscapes (and yes, there are fast travel points that can be unlocked). There was a bit of surreal humor to the fact that as my four hours in Coen’s boots came to a close for his first night, at least three of the sidequests I opted to venture out into culminated in fighting a bear in melee combat. 

The Blood of Dawnwalker plainly wears the skin of its Witcher roots on display, but that’s only the surface of Coen’s adventure here. I’m eager to get back into his boots and venture forth in Vale Sangora for glory and the desperate rescue of his family, and yes, knocking Brencis out on Day One will certainly be on my to-do list once I get my hands on the full game. The wait is nearly over as The Blood of Dawnwalker will be available on September 3, 2026 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and PC.

[Editor’s Note: Bandai Namco provided Wccftech with travel and accommodations to attend their preview event.]

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