Im very curious on the people that are complaining about combat and what they have played etc.
Me personally it looks like witcher 3 combat so if if feels like that I have no issue.
Is witcher 3 an amazing game? Yes so if this game is even half of that its still a good game.
Cause if I remember alot of people complained about witcher 3 aswell and well look how that went
I managed to every skill shown in the Skill tree from the recent presentation
from the very start with the leitmotif during the title reveal, to 'a ballad of night and day' which i honestly believe is a masterpiece, to the more high tempo tracks like 'Desperate measures', to the absolutely chilling ambient music that plays during the Night section of the most recent gameplay showcase, as a music lover i'm absolutely enthralled by the music,
for me music is a big thing that adds to the entertainment whether it's movies or games, this game understands how to make the player feel something,
the string instrument heard at 3:37 and 5:35 in the new gameplay video gave me the freaking chills! who ever is playing that i'd like to thank you if your seeing this for playing that instrument so beautifully,
and to the composers, thank you for understanding music and emotion and how Music for a game like this should feel and sound, you can really tell the music in this game is not made as background filler but made very carefully to deliver both beauty and terror,
i cannot wait for the entire OST, you best believe i'll be obsessed.
i make a post about this again to Clarify my concern, but first i preface by saying im very excited for this game, and it's because i am excited is the reason im making these posts, to some people i am 'complaining', or 'nitpicking' neither of which is true,
when im excited for a game, i want it to have the best quality possible within limits of budget/time ofcourse, if i was a hater i wouldn't even be on this reddit page, i have given feedback before which was implemented by the devs thankfully and it made the game better, i don't work for the studio nor do i want them to do everything i say on here,
im just a fan who's been following dawnwalker since it was called 'dawnwalker origins' so now let me get to my question,
Why isn't dawnwalker using motion capture for coens movement?,
we know through interviews that Rebelwolves were given a AAA budget investment from NetEase to make dawnwalker, to the many people out there that keep saying the game is AA and ''indie'' for some reason,
we also know that the game has been in development for 4+ years,
we also know that Rebelwolves partenered with Mocap.games to work on the motion capture for the game and we've seen the behind scenes in the showcase for combat animations,
we've seen pretty good mocap for the cutscenes and some combat animations (Bakir punches is the coolest),
so my question again, why aren't they using motion capture for Walk,Run,Sprint,Idle animations?,
are they going to use it?, is it too late?, why haven't they used it during early development?
i don't know,
''you are nitpicking'', ''it doesn't matter'', ''well atleast the game has a good story'', this is not the mentality of a great game,
why does any game using mocap for movement at all why even bother,
it's because the high quality animations give the character a sense of life, the character feels like a real person,
we know how humans move and what they look like so if something looks off it instanly sends signals and enter the uncanny valley, right now if you look at coens movements he doesnt feel like a human but more like a Puppet/robot that you ragdoll around,
whether you call it 'mocap' or 'realistic animations' or whatever doesn't matter, the character needs to feel like a human when im moving him around,
Dawnwalker has realistic visuals and serious themes but the character moves like a top-down JRPG.
Some people are disapointed about Coen’s animations, but the storyline will make you forget about that detail. If, like me, you care more about the narrative than character animation, you’ll be well served. There are quality writers behind this game.
Be open-minded and give it a chance, at least for the story.
For me, it’s a day-one purchase—I’ve already pre-ordered it on Steam because I know the game will offer a narrative experience that is rarely seen in video games.
Sorry, I tend to talk too much, but I just wanted to say that a game is not only about animations. The story, the characters, and their psychology… that’s what I’m also looking for above all 😉
TLDR: Start
The descriptions of skills aren't build of immersive in-game perspective, they are build based on human game external view. I want to change that. Additionally are skill premises to abstract to be felt to be connect or represent a vampire body that evolves that represent some cohesion integrity. I don't change any skill at all just the way they are ordered and dependent on each other to build a more immersive experience. I can't understand that this isn't factory standard.
Have a nice day!
TLDR: End
_________________________________________________
Construction of solution:
All skill and their description from Dawnwalker
General statement to skills naming and base derivation is to simple, abstractly alienated from the fundamental origin, which causes the skill tree to desimmersive player from the vampire entity and constructs an Arcade like game experience which is orthogonal to RPG.
My approach was to symmetric the both aspects of vampire and human. EXP driven development is a bad choice, as it builds a disconnection to the physicality of blood and EXP can't mutate anything, physics is physics (blood) and mind is mind (exp), how can the last conclude the first?
There are skills that define the body as a whole and mind that defines magical aspect or reciprocal, which are skills like. This skills are all some kind of dependent, one affects the other if seen as a one vampire body.
Corruption/Development/Metabolism
General metabolic efficiency
This I would use as amplification to drive corruption, what gives a vampire power, what is in the blood that it build the nourishment to heal or develop?
General is the body the "same" at day and night, the difference is just amplified form metabolic efficiency at night and at day amplifies the Nervous system. So I could say, the strength of whelding a bland or claw are the same and come from the same source. Now if I skill my Sword skill damage I skill my claw DMG too. There is no difference, this would look like this.
Equally I wouldn't use DMG, I would use the description newtons, 1 newtons = 0,20 DMG e.g.
Strength/Weapons/Claws
A solution:
It is possible to let a player skill a primary aspect of the vampire body, like:
"metabolic efficiency"
which can get 20 until 40 skills with every, what ever amount of skills, allows to chose a sub-skill to be picked from, like,
In this way a player can decide what he wants, there is no linear way to do it. This four or more skills would be able to chose in any way possible.
This could be enlarged further so that if metabolic efficiency reach a specific amount of skills, like 15, 30, 45 it unlocks a possibility for this skill:
Which allows to pick more active skills, Metabolic efficiency describes the capacity of whole vampire body, its evolutionary state. Again as such I prefer to differentiate magic from biology as far as possible.
The skill "Hastened Corruption" is more or less a skill that is meant to be the ability in which efficiency blood gets digested.
How to change the EXP system, as you need to drink blood to heal, the question is, that the skill of drinking blood in combat could give this mutagenic potential to evolve. As such it is the question what to do with the bodies as they normally abstractual represent EXP, you could say, after a fight you can absorb the surrounding blood that player can decide to heal himself or give him EXP, like:
Heal me until 50% transform the rest into EXP. To allow a player to not over spend in healing. You already have a precedent case of the old lady in the church.
I would complement/connect Witchcraft/human with mental elements that are on a meta level over vampire conditions.
As such I would introduce two main skill/traits into:
Visualization:
Example to visually separate nervous system, metabolism and canalization of mana/magics. You could increase the footprint on body with rising skill level.
A representative cell or gene strain to show the skill amount, the level of complexity of the vampire in relevant region to visualize its awesomeness.
I once saw from C&C3 an Cabal animation/visualization that showed some kind of mind map to express the spiritual complexity:
Cabal Picture
Some way of abstract lines (C&C3) circling on an mind entity like a Djinn of The Witcher
Abstract lines circling
Djinn
Some additional talk recommendations:
Why drinking someones blood or why surpassing stronger vampires, and couldn't be that there are vampires with different abilities, so it is interesting to kill drink them to integrate this abilities into yours -- vampire hunt. Equally like the elements of the "Vampire the Mascaraed" clan blood divergences but maybe not this stiff.
I would use some Witcher like mutagenic orientation show growing complexity and like more complex nervous system, way to express it:
I don't know your resource, but my recommendations should be possible to implement, doesn't change anything fundamentals, mostly description and skill premises. I don't understand why you didn't it yourself!? Nothing really special.
Here I gave some other examples of further individualization for a vampire, I can't do more:
The problem with the combat or skill system and its world mechanical implications
Little hurt that he hasn't heard of Dawnwalker before, but I suppose it may be a little niche?
Anyways, this... isn't great. Hopefully posting this here will push Rebel Wolves to update the system requirements with something more believable???
I'm still excited for this game to drop either way, even though I won't be buying it when it releases.
Still totally bummed it's not $40!
Now that we know there is a full wolf form, do you guys think there is a bat form we can turn into?
Witcher 3 with it's expansions to this day is still one of my favorite games of all time. I have played it for hundreds of hours. The best side quests in any game ever, incredible musical score, art direction, world design, enemy variety, writing, characters and even though the melee combat was subpar even back then (don't forget at the time of Witcher's 3 release we didn't have many great third person over the shoulder melee combat in games however there were still exceptions like Bloodborne, Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor e.t.c) the devs team still found ways to approach the combat in interesting ways like different oils, bombs, potions, signs, swords, decoctions depending on the monster and enemy you faced. I explained all that because the game is being developed by the old og Witcher 3 team. I will now express my concerns for Blood of Danwalker from the previews and what things i found interesting but also what things can be improved further even though some are more difficult to change at the end of development.
First of all the game has an interesting mix of the medieval era and vampirism which i find very interesting to explore because most vampire projects we see are mainly focused on gothic or pure fantasy or Victorian settings. Also each of the main villains has this unique backstory and them each been from a totally different era and civilization makes this very interesting. The time limit thing i think if it is implemented correctly it can work for the game very well so we will wait and see about this. I believe the side quests and writing will be strong based from what we have seen and the game being developed by the Witcher 3 devs. Also world building and exploration so far hasn't caught my eye too much like the Witcher 3 and i feel like one of the reasons is that this game is somewhat less focused on fantasy so variety in encounters and exploration in different regions could be a bit limited. I want to see more in terms of meaningful loot and gear progression. Witcher 3 had an interesting and progressive gear and loot system. UI and inventory seems very similar to Witcher 3 and it's ok i guess. I didn't mind the UI and inventory of Witcher 3 and the later patches of the game had improved it a lot. As for Blood of the Dawnwalker the UI on the game when playing the game (not managing and opening the inventory and map) like when you fight, i think it needs a bit of improvement. For example the bars of the enemies health and the status effects can be improved because right now they feel a bit "arcady" if you know what i mean. The map itself when you open it, feels and looks great and the points of interest i don't mind them personally but either i like them. I am sure the musical score will be very good and already has this same Witcher 3 vibe but i want to hear some new compositions too because if it is identical it will not have something to stand out. The use of U5 Engine as for the art direction feels very well implemented and it doesn't look the same as 90% of the games. I think the devs put some of their own spin on it to distinct it from almost all games that look kinda the same using it and that's a good thing.
My main concern for the game so far is the combat, rpg elements and progression. We had a good glimpse of the skill tree showing the stats and skills you can unlock and improve based on xp points and i must say am a bit disappointment from what i saw. The only drawback for the Witcher 3 for me was the melee sword combat and the skill tree that most of the upgrades were straight up meaningless stat grinding with basic numbers going up like +10% that plus that (like for crit damage for example) 20% the other (for bleed damage for example) and so on. I believe a game is more interesting when it finds better ways to approach the skill tree progression like new abilities either with different sword melee combat moves, different movesets or casting new spells and magic as well as defensive mechanics. The second main point of my concern of the game aside from the skill tree as i mentioned just before is the melee sword combat. The games have evolved with time so much that many games now offer incredible fluid combat while keeping it grounded and offering different ways to approach it based on movesets or skills. I feel like the only criticism from players for the Witcher 3 was of this exact reason and the devs could and should improve this in this game.
So to sum it up for the positives, i have faith in the devs based from what we have seen and their skill in creating interesting stories, quests, great writing, world exploration, musical score and art direction but the main weakness so far from the game from what i have seen is the melee combat, skill system and progression as well as i need to see more on the loot and gear system. UI can be also improved especially in battle encounters.
I’ve seen all the gameplay footage released so far, and honestly, nothing really stands out aside from the graphics. Visually, it looks decent, but everything else feels outdated—like something that would’ve come out around 2016. The combat looks stiff and clunky, with janky mechanics that don’t seem polished at all. Animations lack weight, and there’s no real sense of impact or fluidity. The open world also feels pretty empty and uninspired. From what’s been shown, there’s nothing that really draws you in or makes you want to explore. It just looks like a generic setting without much personality or depth. if you told me this is made by Ubisoft i would believe it. the fact this come around the same time as phantom blade zero, a game that looks flawless in comparison with the same price tag... i dont know
Against the toxic positivity
Which are the main critics about the game you have
I saw here some pretty interestings besides the price and the pc requirements that are out of game criticism
But things like
-The movement of the wolf version of coen
-About the map be empty of things to interact
-The absence of a horse to ride
Are true valid critics i things should be analyses by the develop team, because at least me i believe i want even more than devs that game be really good
So i invite everybody to leave a constructive critic of something you want to be improve in the game
Excited about story possibilities and way to play. Invest all skill abilities in human or vamp tree.
Let me try to understand your problem. If you see a divergence in quality where I can't see one please specify and given an example what or where exactly the problem or quality drop is.
Walking
Uncharted 4 vs AC Mirage – Walking Animation
The Blood of Dawnwalker — Gameplay Overview (Part III) 5:00
I see divergences but I can't define that the case of mirage example is a better walking animation, it is a higher pace and more expressive, doesn't mean every human being walks equally, defined by your foot stand and back position, Hollow back e.g. If you can explain pls do.
Running
The Blood of Dawnwalker — Gameplay Overview (Part III) 10:32
I can't see divergences
If you need to find a problem, we just need to go to stairs :-P
UE5.4 - Walking On Stairs Locomotion | Game Animation Sample Project
RDR2 vs Death Stranding | Stairs Physics
Best stair walking animation in a video game
Fast Running -- maybe your problem
The Blood of Dawnwalker — Gameplay Overview (Part III) 10:53
Running Animation in EVERY Assassin's Creed 0:12
0:12 could be what you mean, that the individual has different stage of running, beginning, middle and end in which the transition between to stages are more smoothly, primarily on the fast running. Beside of this I can't see a problem!
Example for clarification:
We should talk about Assassin's Creed Shadows parkour 0:52
Some example on another term maybe be helpful to further describe what you need or exactly mean, in the actual way it isn't helping! He describes it as stick and gives an explanation which is understandable, thank you.
I came across this add on Reddit, it had 99% same video content as the YouTube add from earlier in the week, but there was a brief moment featuring this character touching Coen’s shoulder.
This scene isn’t in the YouTube add, I triple checked, but she does seem to be the same character which we see Marat stabbing later in the trailer?
This might be an optional path, as famously we see Coen killing Marat too in the trailer which is likely only an option.
In the Reddit add she is shown in quick succession with Marat, Anca and Lacra - who are all heavily speculated to be romance options - could this be a hint to this lady also being an important NPC?
In my opinion, the time consumption mechanic doesn't seem to be justified in the context of the gameplay, or the developers simply don't know how to rationalize its presence to the players (communication problem).
From a design perspective, a limitation can be a powerful tool that adds depth and complexity to the gameplay, but it has to have a specific purpose and provide a benefit (reward) for the player, which improves their experience with the game.
The Resident Evil series typically limits resources and inventory space, but the gameplay benefits from this because it increases tension and builds atmosphere and a sense of struggle for survival, without taking anything away from you.
In RDR2, the player must eat, sleep, hunt, fish, cook, provide appropriate clothing (to avoid hypothermia and overheating), and care for their horse (it also needs to eat). Traveling is dangerous and time-consuming, the world remembers your misdeeds, so you have to pay fines, and so on. On the one hand, these are burdens that spoil the "cinematic western experience," but on the other hand, they perfectly fit the atmosphere of the harsh life as an outlaw in the Wild West, giving the whole experience more weight and depth.
Do you see what I'm getting at? Imposing restrictions and chores on players can be good, but they must have a clear purpose and benefit. Imagine you're playing The Witcher 3, but out of the several hundred quests available in the game, you can only complete 40. When the counter reaches 0, the quest system is locked. Would such a version of the game be better than the regular? What would the player gain from such a restriction? In short, nothing, it would only hurt the game and the player experience, taking away most of the content which is the greatest game's strength.
In this context, what does BoD gain from its time mechanics? I don't see any benefit. Some people might say its realistic, but the point is, that realism in video games is not valuable in itself unless it serves the gameplay or the atmosphere. This is why most game characters don't poop, and female protagonists don't have a mechanic for changing tampons during their period. Yes, it's realistic, but would the game benefit from it? Most wouldn't, which is why games usually choose which elements of realism to use and which to ignore. BoD isn't inherently realistic either (it's not a sim), yet it adds this time restriction to the gameplay... why? For what purpose?
Replayability is also a pipe dream. These days, people don't finish games at all, even short ones, so believing they'll replay an RPG that takes dozens of hours just to see a few side quests they previously skipped is naive. Furthermore, most players are incapable of playing they way that contradicts their own ethics and beliefs, meaning that when making decisions, they are unable to decide against their own morals just to see an alternative path, because it would disconnect them from the character they are roleplaying. This is why many players, despite completing The Witcher 2 multiple times, never follow the path of Roche or Iorveth. It would just feel wrong to them.
To sum up, in my opinion either the developers can't explain it clearly, or it simply doesn't make much sense.
I’m writing this post out of curiosity and to spark a discussion — not to blindly defend the game or criticize it for no reason.
My question is: how important are combat systems and animation quality to you?
I keep seeing people say that this game “looks outdated,” and to some extent, that’s true. But personally, that’s actually one of the things that attracts me the most. Maybe it’s because I love retro games from 10–15 years ago, or because I’m drawn to a rougher aesthetic — lo-fi music, indie films, less polished productions.
At the same time, considering how many recent games have delivered incredible combat systems and unprecedented realism, I find myself missing old-school RPGs where lore and player choices are truly central. I really hope this game delivers on that front, otherwise it will be a disappointment for me.
How many of you feel the same way?
On the other hand, I’m also curious to hear from people who expect more — those who want a 2026 game to feel technically up to modern standards. Especially when compared to something like Crimson Desert, which looks incredible on a technical level, but personally bores me because of its uninteresting story.
Of course, pricing plays a role too, although that’s more of a publisher decision, and not always a far-sighted one.
Curious to hear your thoughts 😄
