The Blood of Dawnwalker’s magic will apparently be more subtle, focusing on elements of the occult with rituals and summonings.
Developer Rebel Wolves recently held a Q&A session on its official Discord channel for its upcoming title The Blood of Dawnwalker. During this Q&A , the studio has revealed a host of new details about the game, one of which is the fact that magic in the game will be generally less flashy than what players typically see in fantasy RPGs.
“Our magic is less flashy than that used in pure fantasy settings, and quite rare,” said the studio. “It revolves around the occult — rituals, amulets, relics, and summonings, rather than fireballs or lightning bolts.”
This likely means that, not only will players not be seeing magic used all over the place in The Blood of Dawnwalker, the few times they do get to see it, effects of these magic spells will likely be much more subdued, and perhaps even subtle. Rather than fireballs, we might see magic being used to subtly manipulate someone, for example.
While the studio hasn’t offered up any more details about the magic system in The Blood of Dawnwalker, it has revealed in the same Q&A that the upcoming RPG will feature a non-linear story, where choices made by players will tend to make for different gameplay experiences than other players. The studio has described the game as a narrative sandbox, rather than a linear title with a fixed story.
“The story is totally nonlinear, it’s what we call “a narrative sandbox”,” said the studio. “Each playthrough will be different, as the world changes based on your choices – not only direct ones, but also indirect. Your actions (or inactions) will matter too.”
By calling the game a narrative sandbox, the studio means that players will be making their own choices throughout the story, allowing players a high degree of agency over the direction the story takes. The game will also have many different ways to accomplish objectives, depending on players’ choices.
The studio also recently revealed that the game will be balanced in a way that protagonist Coen will never feel overpowered to players. Game director Tomaszkiewicz has stated that, rather than being a superhero, Coen will instead be more mortal, fighting with swords and magic, but with the potential to be killed by anyone.
In a social media post earlier this month, Rebel Wolves gave us a quick rundown on Coen’s backstory, including the fact that he is a relatively fresh vampire that has only recently been freed of the burdens he felt when he was young. The studio also confirmed that, while there will be some sort of time-based constraint in The Blood of Dawnwalker, players will still be free to explore the world without having to worry about a timer.
“No it doesn’t,” said the studio when asked about the title’s 30-day time limit in the story. “The game itself doesn’t have a hard time limit, and doesn’t require you to rush anything.”
The Blood of Dawnwalker is an open-world RPG being developed by a studio staffed with veterans of the genre. Among other companies, the developers of the game have previously worked at CD Projekt RED. Announced earlier this month, The Blood of Dawnwalker will be coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. There is, however, no release date yet.
