Most RPGs spend their opening hours Easing you in with tutorial wolves and bandit camps. The Blood of Dawnwalker has a different idea: why not throw the game’s terrifying main antagonist at you before the story has even properly begun? As PC Gamer recently highlighted, players will get the chance to face off against Brencis — the vampiric big bad at the heart of Rebel Wolves’ dark fantasy epic — right there in the prologue.
Who Is Brencis?
For those just tuning in, The Blood of Dawnwalker is the debut RPG from Rebel Wolves, a studio founded by former CD Projekt Red developers, including The Witcher 3’s game director. Published by Bandai Namco, the game is set in the Vale of Sangavia, a 14th-century Carpathian valley plunged into eternal night after a powerful vampire court seized control. At the top of that court sits Brencis, an ancient and merciless vampire lord whose actions set the entire plot in motion.
You play as Coen, a young man turned into a “Dawnwalker” — a hybrid creature caught between the world of the living and the undead, capable of walking in daylight. Cursed with a ticking clock, Coen has roughly 30 days to rescue his family from Brencis’s grasp, making every choice and every hour count.
Facing the Big Bad Early
So what happens when the prologue puts you in the same room as Sangavia’s new overlord? Exactly what you’d expect from a creature who has spent centuries perfecting the art of killing: things go badly, and they go badly fast. The confrontation is clearly designed to establish Brencis as a genuine threat rather than a cutscene villain you’re simply told to fear. You get to feel the power gap firsthand, swinging away at an enemy who shrugs off everything you have.
A Classic RPG Power Fantasy Setup
If this sounds familiar, it should. Games have long used early “unwinnable” encounters to fuel a narrative of growth — think of scripted losses that later pay off when you return, stronger and wiser, for the rematch. It’s a tried-and-true storytelling device, and it fits The Blood of Dawnwalker’s revenge-and-rescue structure perfectly. The prologue humiliation is essentially a promise: by the end of the game, you will be the monster that monsters fear.
Of course, determined players will inevitably try to break the script. Whether Brencis can technically be felled in the opener — or whether the game simply refuses to let it happen — remains the kind of challenge that soulslike veterans and curious experimenters live for. Either way, the encounter sets the tone for what Rebel Wolves is going for: a grounded, grim fantasy where power must be earned.
Why the Prologue Fight Matters
Beyond the spectacle, opening with the antagonist does smart narrative work. Too many RPGs hide their villains behind dozens of hours of buildup, leaving them underdeveloped by the time you finally clash. By putting Brencis in front of players immediately, The Blood of Dawnwalker makes the stakes personal from minute one. You know exactly who took your family, you know exactly how outmatched you are, and every hour of progression afterward is colored by that early defeat.
With its blend of The Witcher 3 DNA, a day-night duality system, and a hard 30-day time limit shaping player choice, The Blood of Dawnwalker is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing dark fantasy RPGs on the horizon.
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Source: PC Gamer