Breath of the Wild Is Still Shaping RPGs, and The Blood of Dawnwalker Is Proof

There’s a reason people keep pointing to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild when talking about what makes a good open-world game. It’s not just the freedom to climb any mountain or glide over a valley—it’s the fact that the game trusts you. And now, nearly a decade later, that trust shows up in the design of The Blood of Dawnwalker, an upcoming RPG from ex-Witcher developers.

The developers at Rebel Wolves aren’t just borrowing some visuals or UI tricks. They’ve taken one of Breath of the Wild’s boldest ideas—the ability to face the final boss whenever you want—and made it a core part of their own story structure.

In The Blood of Dawnwalker, you play as Coen, a vampire navigating a Carpathian world packed with folklore, danger, and a looming deadline. His goal is clear from the start: save his family from the vampire lord Brencis, who has taken over Vale Sangora’s castle. You can march into that final fight almost right away… or you can spend time building up Coen’s skills, weakening Brencis’ allies, and preparing for the final showdown in your own way.

Rebel Wolves call this a “narrative sandbox.”

You follow leads and chase clues not because a checklist tells you to, but because the game’s urgency pushes you to find answers on your own terms. The main quest doesn’t nag you. It looms. The time limit adds pressure, but not panic. It’s up to you when the moment is right to act.

This setup doesn’t just echo Breath of the Wild—it evolves it. Back then, players could finish the tutorial, glide off the Great Plateau, and walk straight into Hyrule Castle to fight Ganon. Most didn’t. They chose to explore. To prepare. That choice made every step feel personal.

The Blood of Dawnwalker takes that idea and adds teeth to it—literally. As a vampire, Coen’s powers grow and shift with a dynamic day/night cycle. Your strength changes depending on when you act. So even timing your moves becomes part of the strategy.

It’s not surprising that the team behind this game are Witcher veterans. There’s a similar sense of grounded fantasy here, especially with the Carpathian setting and myth-heavy worldbuilding. But Dawnwalker looks like it’s avoiding The Witcher 3’s massive scale. Instead of building a giant continent full of filler, it focuses on one major city and the surrounding region. Tighter scope, more attention to detail.

And in an era where open-world games just keep getting bigger without adding much depth, that’s a smart move. The devs seem to know that players aren’t always looking for the biggest map—they’re looking for maps that feel alive and meaningful. Even if they’re smaller.

Mechanically, combat looks like it’s trying something different too. Directional sword and claw attacks should give a nice mix of flow and ferocity, although how smooth that feels in actual gameplay is still a question mark.

Still, the more you look at it, the clearer it gets: The Blood of Dawnwalker isn’t just trying to be a vampire RPG. It’s trying to push the idea of agency further than most fantasy games dare.

There’s a lot riding on this game. It’s Rebel Wolves’ debut. It’s aiming for a 2026 release. And it’s going to be compared to not just The Witcher 3, but to Breath of the Wild, which still holds a 97 on Metacritic for a reason. But that kind of inspiration isn’t a bad thing—it means Dawnwalker is built on some of the most player-respected design choices in the genre.

It also shows that the open-world design conversation hasn’t stopped at “bigger is better.” Some studios are still chasing meaningful freedom—the kind that invites you to choose your own way forward, not just check off boxes.

So far, The Blood of Dawnwalker looks like it understands that. If it delivers on even half of what it’s promising—emergent quest freedom, layered combat, real consequence from exploration—it could be more than just a tribute to Breath of the Wild. It could be the game that pushes that design forward into something even sharper.