The Blood of Dawnwalker is my favorite adventure this year, and I’ve already been seriously considering going back for another trip through Vale Sangora. My only real concern is the amount of overlap I’d likely run into. While there’s certainly a lot of variety to be found in a game where you can’t do everything in one playthrough, a lot of the bigger quests are ones I’d probably want to check off again. Perhaps my desires could be sated with the inclusion of a New Game Plus mode.
Game Director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz joined the PlayStation Poland team for a chat about the success of its new RPG and what lies ahead. While he was understandably coy about giving away too much of what’s in the future, he did suggest that the team is currently working through player feedback, and even name-dropped New Game Plus as a feature in the works, although he wouldn’t say when it might arrive.
Tomaszkiewicz notes that quite a few members of the team are on vacation following The Blood of Dawnwalker’s launch, but that Rebel Wolves are still working on updates and patches. “We released it, you gave us your feedback on what can be improved, and that process is still ongoing,” he notes (via machine translation from Polish).
“We analyze what you write online, in comments and so on, and we’ve organized all those points, starting with the ones that, in our view, come up the most frequently.” Tomaszkiewicz says Rebel Wolves has been ordering them “from the most annoying ones to the least annoying ones,” adding that the studio is working through that list while also considering some “new items.”
Then, at the 2:53:43 mark, right as things are wrapping up, he concludes, “Well, we’re doing our best to be, you know, a friendly studio and just make cool stuff for cool people. That’s it. And then there’s New Game Plus. That’s happening too.” Quite the bomb to drop out of nowhere unprompted, though he adds: “I won’t tell you when.” There’s also no indication of what it might entail – whether just skill points would carry over, or quest progression, or even removing the time mechanic.
While some of his coworkers might be taking a break, Tomaszkiewicz is still keeping busy. “They need me right now. I mean, they’ve always needed me, really, so it’s hard for me to get away for a vacation, but I have to go somewhere and unwind. I’m hoping to head off for some good surfing and catch some waves.”
During the rest of the interview, Tomaszkiewicz gets into a conversation about weapon upgrade systems and making hard choices resulting from the limited resources of games like Elden Ring. He says he played the overhauled Lords of the Fallen, “and it’s great,” remarking that he liked how each class already has a weapon type. “It turned out that the Rogue with dual daggers gave me the best vibe,” he recalls, “it really reminded me of Bloodborne.”
As for the future of Dawnwalker, Tomazskiewicz explains, “Look, you have to have ambition and set yourself big challenges – because that’s what really drives us to do better work, right?” He continues, “However you look at it, video games are obviously a form of art, but they’re also entertainment, right? And to create entertainment that others will enjoy, we have to have fun creating that entertainment, so we need those challenges.”