If you've been playing Medieval vampire RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker and you're wondering why you're having a hard time during the day, as a human, versus as at night as a vampire, then don't worry: you're experiencing the game as intended. It's not supposed to be balanced, apparently.
"Yes, you should," game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz told me when I asked if you should feel more powerful as a vampire, and more underpowered as a human. "You should. When I created the idea for the protagonist the Dawnwalker, it was supposed to be something like the werewolf, which in the day as a human [you are] weaker than at night.
"But it's possible to play and finish the game [as a human] and it makes you always more grounded, and it allows us to tell the stories with different antagonists or different events where you will not be overpowered, and you don't need – like in the superhero movies – to create even stronger villains every time you create a new story."
I experienced this disparity in power while playing The Blood of Dawnwalker for review. I specifically noted that where I didn't succeed in assaulting the vampire Brencis' castle in the day in human form, but instead succeeded at night as a vampire shortly after. Tomaszkiewicz unpacked a few of the reasons why the vampire form is more powerful a little later into our chat.
"The first of them is that your damage with the claws develops with your level, which means that you don't need to spend points anywhere," Tomazkiewicz said. "You can boost it in the character development but with every level, your claws are stronger. In human form, you need to find a better sword, buy it or upgrade it.
"The second thing is that to heal in combat in human form, you need to craft potions, because without them you cannot heal yourself while you are fighting. In vampire form, you can heal by biting your enemies, and you can also drink consumables like the blood vials that you find in the world. Additionally, you can develop your vampire skills so you have a lot more health, like another segment of [your health bar], and after combat, this segment will always regenerate to full. And you can, of course, drink the animals, humans, and so on to refill your blood."
One other thing is a skill you can unlock as a vampire that replaces health when you attack. "It means that the vampire has a lot more abilities which make him stronger than the human," he said. "And that was the idea to differentiate it like this."
The vampire form's power is balanced by protagonist Coen having access to witchcraft abilities through the day which aren't accessible at night, and these spells can be hugely powerful, though I found Coen's being a witch a bit narratively underexplored and confusing next to him also being a vampire. It felt more like this originated from a mechanical point of view.
That seems to tally somewhat with what Tomaszkiewicz said. "We knew that [day and night] needed to be different, but we also knew that they needed to be interesting because we were afraid that if, in the human form, you did not have some strong skills that allowed you to finish the game, it would be problematic from many points," he said.
The first of those points, Tomaszkiewicz realised, was that if The Blood of Dawnwalker offered a human form, the game had to be finishable in human form as well, meaning challenges would have to be accomplishable as a human, without any "blockers" impeding progress. Some activities you can only do at night, and some in the day, but many activities are achievable in both forms. Also, quite simply, if developer Rebel Wolves failed to offer something appealing, people "would just skip to the night", the studio realised.
"In human form, you have a few ways you can finish the game" -Konrad Tomaszkiewicz
This is where witchcraft came in. "But the special skills we created, we thought they needed to be maybe not equally [powerful], but they needed to be good," Tomaszkiewicz said. "Vampires should always be stronger, but as a human with witchcraft, you should also have strong skills for many reasons."
Also, perhaps you don't like being a vampire, he said – which seems like an odd preference if you're going to play a vampire RPG like this. Or maybe you want a human-specific ending, because, "In human form, you have a few ways you can finish the game," Tomasziewicz said. "I don't want to spoil it too much, but you can do it by yourself, maybe with the allies, and more," he teases. Maybe you merely want to mix things up – the game is all about 'freedom of choice' after all, therefore your approach should be up to you.
Still, at least it's official: the hardest way to finish The Blood of Dawnwalker is in human form.
The Blood of Dawnwalker was released at the beginning of September and seems to have been a success, selling 1m copies in three days, though no updated sales figures have been released since then. Solid reviews were tainted slightly by gripes about game performance, technical issues, and some gameplay quirks. But the good news in this regard is The Blood of Dawnwalker's first major patch may be only days away, with an update planned for early October.
The divisive time mechanic is not being patched out, though, much to some people's frustration, I'm sure, though I really liked it. But apparently this time mechanic was once much stricter in early designs of The Blood of Dawnwalker, and even though it features heavily in this game, the time mechanic won't necessarily return for future Blood of Dawnwalker games.
Source: Eurogamer