The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer breakdown: 5 key details you might have missed

The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer was finally showcased live on Twitch, with a shorter deep-dive video out on YouTube as well. This showcase revealed a lot about its vast, intricate open world filled with many locations and NCs, along with a bloody showcase of dynamic, nail-biting melee and magical gameplay.

However, the live stream of this showcase on Twitch revealed a lot more about its development, as key developers explained the game's core mechanics. As such, here are five key details you might have missed in the new The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer.

Hidden details in The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer

1) The role of Coen’s Duality

The game's main protagonist is Coen, a vampire suffering from silver poisoning. This situation has turned him into a Dawnwalker — someone who is a human during the day and turns into a vampire at night. He is a resident of the vampire-controlled medieval kingdom of Vale Sangora, ruled by the bloodthirsty Brencis.

In the Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer, Coen’s traversal and combat abilities will change drastically depending on the time of day. During the day, he is in human form, fighting enemies with swords and his unique blood-magic that seems to be tied to his sick sister Lunka.

At night, he dons his vampire form, which lets him traverse swiftly with short-range teleportation abilities (very similar to the Blink ability from Dishonored) and even climb sharp cliffs and rooftops with heightened agility, Therefore, you can play all missions in this game in the way you want where missions will play out differently according to the time of the day.

Also read - The Blood of Dawnwalker, new vampire RPG from ex-CDPR devs announced

2) Open-ended quest design

The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer showed its open-ended quest design (Image via Bandai Namco)

The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer revealed the open-ended nature of its quests. Since Coen's family has been abducted, he has only 30 days to find out their whereabouts. This timed-gameplay loop seems inspired by games like the classic N64 title The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.

The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer showed how this day and night gameplay loop directly affects all quests, where certain quests must be completed within a set time for you to succeed. Otherwise, you might fail these quests and have to start a new playthrough to play them again.

As such, The Blood of Dawnwalker has an interesting quest design where you must sort out your chores for the day, prioritizing quests that deserve your attention more because of their story significance and the probability of getting better loot. Since these quests have many dialog options, many will branch out depending on the choices you make.

Moreover, there will be many quests that you can attempt at a lower level. This allows you to challenge yourself in many ways within the game if you want higher loot earlier.

3) The importance of certain NPCs and Coen’s bloodthirsty

All NPCs in this game have unique personalities and levels of importance (Image via Bandai Namco)

When Coen turns into a vampire at night, his health bar becomes directly tied to his bloodthirst. Depending on how bloodthirsty you are, you must drink it to gain more total health. However, this will directly affect his combat prowess in this state, where certain vampiric abilities become stronger the more blood you drink.

There will also be many special NPCs in this open-world game. If you decide to feed on and kill them, their presence or lack thereof can alter various segments of the world and affect the outcome and availability of many quests.

The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer also confirmed that you could feed on animal blood if you are adamant about killing innocent humans. However, it seems that feeding on humans will provide more benefits, probably in the form of several buffs.

Also read - The Blood of Dawnwalker, by ex-CDPR devs gets a 2026 release window

4) Coen’s scarring, arcane magic, and directional combat prowess

The Blood of Dawnwalker will feature tactical melee combat (Image via Bandai Namco)

During the day, Coen can use melee weapons like swords and fists to fight, along with an array of various arcana spells. The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer revealed its directional combat system, where you can manually control the direction of your weapon swings. This seems to be inspired by games like For Honor, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and Blades of Fire.

Moreover, you can use blood magic spells, where you must carve runic symbols in your arms to cast them. It seems you can use them a limited number of times, and must wait for nighttime to heal your arms back as a vampire.

Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer also shows its tactical real-time combat system, where you can pause the fight midway to cast spells and execute various special attacks targeting specific body parts. This system seems inspired by games like the VATS system from the Fallout games, and even other action RPGs like BioWare’s Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

5) A vast, dynamic open world similar to The Witcher 3

The Blood of Dawnwalker will feature a dynamic open world (Image via Bandai Namco)

The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer also showcased its dynamically changing open world. Depending on the vital decisions taken at key points of the story, the world around you will change, proving to be both beneficial and detrimental. Moreover, the NPCs and their actions also change depending on the time of day.

While the Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay trailer mostly showed its main town area, you will get different locales like mountains, deserts, and more. With such a diverse open world and its overall UI and gameplay, this game seems highly inspired by The Witcher 3. As such, we expect this game to be worth waiting for when it finally releases in 2026.

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Edited by Adarsh J Kumar