The Blood of Dawnwalker - Fantasy ARPG from ex-CD Projekt RED developers

[Alienman]

Sollus Sodomitus

 

[Thalstarion]

Europe is the birthplace of civilisation and the associated aesthetics not only hold up well, they're iconic for good reason.

There's some JRPG's that I quite like, though they're dated now as they were made in the PS1 era.

Modern JRPG's are pure slop for the most part. Too busy preaching to the player so the likes of Square Enix can stuff their faces in the ESG trough.

 

[mediocrepoet]

So what distinguishes this from all those other interchangeable medieval fantasy games?

The Wall blowing his load over a stuttery cinematic trailer like the lowliest of fanboy shills.

 

[Dark Souls II]

Main villain is a roman, his name is Sillius Soddus

Why is he speaking English instead of Latin with English subtitles? Or speak Ruthenian or whatever the fuck was being spoken in 14th century Carpathians. But no, it must be modern Simple Wikipedia English. Too much trouble to find voice actors who speak Ruthenian? The least they could do is go the Felvidek way and put some effort into antiquating the language. Instead there's a guy speaking Netflix English with a British accent. In 14th century Carpathians. What were they thinking?!

 

[toro]

But vampires are not le good here, right? The cinematic is pretty ambiguous as to their intentions, but the description of the setting implies the vampiric influence on the local gentry and the protagonist to be a negative?

The world needs what it fear [vampires]

This could be the reference to the protagonist: he is a vampire (or half-vampire) so he is feared, but the world needs him to protect it. The trailer clearly shows they feed on human meat (or maybe blood. Hard to tell), at the very least. So the protection could be from other vampires (hence the mentions about Coen fighting for his humanity), as well as from other monsters. This would imply the vampires aren't a benevolent force, just more pragmatic - yet still ruthless - overseers. I would expect Dawnwalker to be morally grey so that it is easy for the player to side with either side. Oh, and you will probably have to fight your sister as the result of your ultimate choice (or whoever that girl is Coen is trying so hard to save).

Copilot has the answer:

In The Blood of Dawnwalker, vampires are not portrayed as the traditional "good guys." Instead, they are depicted as a dark and oppressive force that has taken control of medieval Europe during the 14th century. The primary antagonist, Brencis, is a powerful vampire who imposes a "blood tax" on the human population, leading to widespread suffering and servitude.

The protagonist, Coen, is a "Dawnwalker," a being who exists between human and vampire. He must navigate this grim world, making choices that can either embrace his vampiric powers or cling to his humanity to save his family.

So, while there may be individual vampires with different motivations, the overarching portrayal of vampires in the game is more aligned with the traditional "villain" archetype.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Main villain is a roman, his name is Sillius Soddus

Why is he speaking English instead of Latin with English subtitles? Or speak Ruthenian or whatever the fuck was being spoken in 14th century Carpathians. But no, it must be modern Simple Wikipedia English. Too much trouble to find voice actors who speak Ruthenian? The least they could do is go the Felvidek way and put some effort into antiquating the language. Instead there's a guy speaking Netflix English with a British accent. In 14th century Carpathians. What were they thinking?!

Now you are just being fastidious...

 

[Lyric Suite]

But vampires are not le good here, right? The cinematic is pretty ambiguous as to their intentions, but the description of the setting implies the vampiric influence on the local gentry and the protagonist to be a negative?

The world needs what it fear [vampires]

This could be the reference to the protagonist: he is a vampire (or half-vampire) so he is feared, but the world needs him to protect it. The trailer clearly shows they feed on human meat (or maybe blood. Hard to tell), at the very least. So the protection could be from other vampires (hence the mentions about Coen fighting for his humanity), as well as from other monsters. This would imply the vampires aren't a benevolent force, just more pragmatic - yet still ruthless - overseers. I would expect Dawnwalker to be morally grey so that it is easy for the player to side with either side. Oh, and you will probably have to fight your sister as the result of your ultimate choice (or whoever that girl is Coen is trying so hard to save).

Copilot has the answer:

In The Blood of Dawnwalker, vampires are not portrayed as the traditional "good guys." Instead, they are depicted as a dark and oppressive force that has taken control of medieval Europe during the 14th century. The primary antagonist, Brencis, is a powerful vampire who imposes a "blood tax" on the human population, leading to widespread suffering and servitude.

The protagonist, Coen, is a "Dawnwalker," a being who exists between human and vampire. He must navigate this grim world, making choices that can either embrace his vampiric powers or cling to his humanity to save his family.

So, while there may be individual vampires with different motivations, the overarching portrayal of vampires in the game is more aligned with the traditional "villain" archetype.

More like (((vampires))) then?

 

[Lyric Suite]

Main villain is a roman, his name is Sillius Soddus

Why is he speaking English instead of Latin with English subtitles? Or speak Ruthenian or whatever the fuck was being spoken in 14th century Carpathians. But no, it must be modern Simple Wikipedia English. Too much trouble to find voice actors who speak Ruthenian? The least they could do is go the Felvidek way and put some effort into antiquating the language. Instead there's a guy speaking Netflix English with a British accent. In 14th century Carpathians. What were they thinking?!

Now you are just being fastidious...

Does the game indicate the vampire was sleeping since Roman times?

Because if not, why would he be speaking Latin.

 

[Ibn Sina]

Main villain is a roman, his name is Sillius Soddus

Why is he speaking English instead of Latin with English subtitles? Or speak Ruthenian or whatever the fuck was being spoken in 14th century Carpathians. But no, it must be modern Simple Wikipedia English. Too much trouble to find voice actors who speak Ruthenian? The least they could do is go the Felvidek way and put some effort into antiquating the language. Instead there's a guy speaking Netflix English with a British accent. In 14th century Carpathians. What were they thinking?!

Now you are just being fastidious...

Does the game indicate the vampire was sleeping since Roman times?

Because if not, why would he be speaking Latin.

Well he is wearing a gladius. Not a medieval weapon.

 

[Harthwain]

The protagonist, Coen, is a "Dawnwalker," a being who exists between human and vampire. He must navigate this grim world, making choices that can either embrace his vampiric powers or cling to his humanity to save his family.

So, while there may be individual vampires with different motivations, the overarching portrayal of vampires in the game is more aligned with the traditional "villain" archetype.

Huh. They made it much easier for the players to pick a side than I thought they would.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

They made it much easier for the players to pick a side than I thought they would.

They’re vampires. Any writer in their right mind would recognize that vampires are inherently villainous. An individual vampire might fight their darker nature and rise to the status of a tortured antihero, but vampirism itself is no force for good.

 

[Tyranicon]

They made it much easier for the players to pick a side than I thought they would.

They’re vampires. Any writer in their right mind would recognize that vampires are inherently villainous. An individual vampire might fight their darker nature and rise to the status of a tortured antihero, but vampirism itself is no force for good.

Modern writers: Hmmm, blood-sucking monsters cursed and abhored by everything good or.... the patriarchy.

Subversive!

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

According to one of the leads on the project, you can accidentally kill people if you don't manage your vampiric thirst properly. That includes quest NPCs.

 

[mediocrepoet]

They made it much easier for the players to pick a side than I thought they would.

They’re vampires. Any writer in their right mind would recognize that vampires are inherently villainous. An individual vampire might fight their darker nature and rise to the status of a tortured antihero, but vampirism itself is no force for good.

I blame years of shit writers and fan fiction for turning what was an inherently monstrous and horrific creature/idea into some sort of dark romantic thing. Or even worse, sparkly romantic thing.

 

[Storyfag]

According to one of the leads on the project, you can accidentally kill people if you don't manage your vampiric thirst properly. That includes quest NPCs.

I shall believe it when I see it.

 

[Harthwain]

They’re vampires. Any writer in their right mind would recognize that vampires are inherently villainous. An individual vampire might fight their darker nature and rise to the status of a tortured antihero, but vampirism itself is no force for good.

I meant putting the protagonist's family/sister in the humanity's camp. I expected her to be in the vampires' camp.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Looks interesting. Cautiously optimistic.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/t...ake-his-dream-vampire-rpg-we-had-crazy-ideas/

The Witcher 3's director explains why he had to leave CDPR to make his dream vampire RPG: 'We had crazy ideas'​

The leader of Rebel Wolves speaks

For PC Gamer magazine's upcoming The Blood of Dawnwalker issue, I flew out to Warsaw to visit developer Rebel Wolves and speak to a number of its key devs, including founder Konrad Tomaszkiewicz: Best-known for being the director of The Witcher 3, one of gaming's greatest ever fantasy RPG experiences.

Tomaszkiewicz also worked as a co-director on Cyberpunk 2077 before leaving CDPR. The obvious question is why an established and proven director would feel the need to move on from somewhere they'd helped to such success.“I set up Rebel Wolves because I felt that I wanted to make something that is unique with my friends,” says Tomaszkiewicz. “Of course, we have a huge love of RPG games, and what has been done before in the past. [But] I feel that those things, those rules of RPG games, can be expanded and evolved. We had crazy ideas. We knew that, you know, if we wanted to make them, we needed to open our own studio, because it would be hard to convince any big company—you know, with non-IP—to change, and do something new, and do something crazy. Actually, it’s risky, because we’re doing some solutions which are new.

"And the second thing is that we have a studio where we work with the people, and among them, not like at the bigger studios where it’s harder. I felt that a smaller team is capable of doing more, because the communication inside the team, and it’s easier to speak about the vision. It’s easier to feel the creative fire, and to do something special.”

The Blood of Dawnwalker concept art showing the Vale Sangora's lead city, Svartrau. (Image credit: Rebel Wolves)

Indeed, Rebel Wolves seems to be packing serious RPG heritage in its veins, as Konrad has been joined at his new studio by multiple other former CD Projekt developers, including the game's design director, Daniel Sadowski, as well as creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, both of which worked on the acclaimed Polish studio's The Witcher series.

Tomaszkiewicz is now game director on Rebel Wolves' new fantasy RPG, The Blood of Dawnwalker, which sees gamers step into the shoes of Coen, a half-human half-vampire. The basic setup sees Coen fighting back against a group of powerful vampires who have kidnapped his family, and taken over the entire Carpathian Mountains valley in which they live, the Vale Sangora.

The devs at Rebel Wolves don't appear to be resting on their reputations, either, with the studio looking to evolve the RPG genre in some interesting ways, including a fresh 'time as a resource' mechanic, which links every completed quest or task to the passage of time on a day-night cycle. This plays into the game's 'narrative sandbox' approach where gamers will shape their own stories in-game by choosing which quests and tasks they're going to do (and which they are not, as they can't do everything at the same time) in order to take-on and, hopefully, beat the vampire antagonists.

Concept art showing The Blood of Dawnwalker's vampire antagonist. (Image credit: Rebel Wolves)

Speaking about the studio's reasoning for introducing the time as a resource system, Tomaszkiewicz says, "when you’re playing The Witcher 3 and you know that Ciri needs help, but you decide to go play Gwent – it’s something which, you know... you feel that it’s a game, and it’s a really good game. But it’s a game. And maybe if you had some resource, and you know that maybe if you don’t go, something would happen – then your thinking about this game would be different, and maybe the immersion would be better, and maybe your emotions would be different.”

What's important to note about The Blood of Dawnwalker's day and night cycle is that time only passes when Coen actually completes a quest or task, not when he's just exploring the Vale Sangora and speaking to its inhabitants. As such, the passage of time is not real time and their won't be immediate time anxiety for the player. Where the challenge will come will be in the player determining what they're going to do with the time they've got.

 

[Fedora Master]

Tldr some quests are mutually exclusive. This is a big crazy new idea that nobody has ever done before.

 

[Quillon]

Tldr some quests are mutually exclusive. This is a big crazy new idea that nobody has ever done before.

Yeah doesn't look like anything new/innovative; if anything it makes me think there'll be an optimal path with the best choices/minimal losses, gotcha decisions like some choice will pay off 2 quests later better than immediate results that you won't have any idea without meta knowledge etc. So yeah idk about this; C&C is always a good thing but packaging it and trying to sell it as "time as a resource" sounds like marketing buzzword at best atm and it doesn't do much more than give people pre-anxiety about playing the game it looks like lol

 

[Litmanen]

Please close this thread. Nothing makes sense anymore without Him.

 

[Reinhardt]

yeah, you need to be true fanatic to defend this slop