The Blood of Dawnwalker
An open-world dark fantasy action RPG out September 2, 2026 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. You play Coen, human by day and vampire by night, trying to save his family in 14th-century Europe. It's the first game from Rebel Wolves, a studio built around ex-Witcher 3 developers.
What is The Blood of Dawnwalker?
The hook is the day/night split. By daylight Coen is an ordinary man who walks into towns, talks to people, does quests the normal way. At night he becomes a dawnwalker — faster, stronger, able to leap across rooftops — but the vampire side has its own costs, and the world reacts differently to it.
It's set in a 14th-century Carpathian valley cut off from the rest of the world after a plague, now ruled by vampires. The story is shaped by your choices, and the studio has said a full playthrough runs around 30-40 hours rather than the 100+ you'd expect from the genre. Smaller on purpose.
Rebel Wolves was founded by veterans of CD Projekt RED, including Witcher 3's game director. Bandai Namco is publishing. That pedigree is most of why this game has been on watchlists since its first trailer.
Release date and price
September 2, 2026 — it's out now — worldwide, on Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Steam still lists it at $69.99 with no discount. No Switch version announced.
Standard edition price on Steam as of Sep 25, 2026 — still no discount, three weeks after launch. Prices on PSN and Xbox match the standard AAA tier.
The console performance question
Worth knowing before you buy: the console versions were heading for a 30fps-only launch, and reaction online was not friendly. Rebel Wolves walked it back within a day — a day-one patch added a 60fps performance mode on PS5, PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X. Xbox Series S stays at 30fps. We break down the details on the page linked below.
Quick FAQ
- When does it come out? September 2, 2026.
- How much? $69.99 standard.
- Is it multiplayer? No, single-player only.
- Will consoles run at 60fps? Yes on PS5, PS5 Pro and Series X via the day-one patch; Series S is locked to 30fps.
- Do I need to have played anything first? It's a new IP, no prior games.
Worth a look if
- You want a Witcher-style story RPG that doesn't ask for 100 hours
- The day/night vampire mechanic sounds like your kind of system to exploit
- You were holding out for reviews — they're in now, and they're mostly warm
How it landed
Three weeks on, the reception is kind for a studio's first game. 87% of the 15,434 English Steam reviews are positive (26,219 if you count every language), and the critic average sits at 86 on OpenCritic and 84 on Metacritic. In a look through recent negative reviews, the gripes that keep coming up are combat feel, the hard time limit on quests, and optimization — not the story.
No discount either. Three weeks at $69.99 with no sale is ordinary for a Bandai Namco release, but it does mean the "wait for a price drop" half of the argument hasn't paid off yet.
Watch it
Official story trailer: The Blood of Dawnwalker — Story Trailer (Bandai Namco).