The Blood of Dawnwalker has a unique approach to structure, linearity, and player agency. The whole game is about trying to save your family from Brencis, the Knyaz of Vale Sangora, who has them held captive. From the moment the prologue ends, you have up to 30 in-game days to make your way to Greifberg Castle, the most fortified building in the region, and take down the big bad Brencis once and for all.
Pre-launch, however, developer Rebel Wolves made it clear that if players want, they can make a beeline straight for the castle and attempt a rescue mission. I consider myself to be a competent video game player, and action RPGs are one of my most-played genres, so as soon as the prologue came to a close, I set a waypoint for the castle and started running.
The Blood of Dawnwalker’s final boss will obliterate you
Folks, I cannot stress enough: I do not recommend you do this. I was doing it purely for science; of course I was going to reload my save and play the game at a normal pace afterward. But even getting to the castle is hell, because the further south you go, the stronger the enemies become. I had one hell of an entertaining dance with a huge green swamp worm before I could dash away to escape combat. Even the bog-standard wolves started to become a pain in my ass.
Eventually, I reached Svartrau, the only big city in Vale Sangora, and I navigated its streets toward the castle. I tell you what, dear reader: it was very amusing to see a pop-up warning me I was about to go past the point of no return when my playtime was just a couple of hours. Here we go, I thought; time to take down Brencis.
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Unfortunately not. Turns out, as soon as you enter Greifberg Castle, a boss fight happens immediately, and it is not Brencis. Almost like a pre-boss boss fight, if you will. I won’t spoil the dynamics of the fight, but let’s just say that even on the easiest difficulty, using such low-level equipment means you need to have absolutely mastered The Blood of Dawnwalker’s combat to even stand a chance. I managed to whittle down one of this boss’s many health bar segments before I found myself impaled.
So running straight towards the boss isn’t recommended. But it turns out there is a way to fight the very final boss even quicker, and bypass Greifberg Castle entirely. Thanks to my colleague, Johnny Wu, for finding this out: if you defeat Brencis during the prologue, shortly after you escape the mines, you will be taken straight to the very end of the game. No running across the whole map needed, nor do you have to win any pesky pre-boss boss fights.
No spoilers here for the final fight, but once again, I was quite obviously underprepared. It doesn’t help that, because it takes place immediately after the prologue fight, you don’t get a chance to heal. This means it’s essentially one big boss fight, and the final boss is effectively the second stage. If anyone is able to beat the game in this way, huge kudos to you. I’m going back to playing the normal way… but you can unlock the game’s secret ending right after the prologue too, if you like.
