Blood of the Dawnwalker Time Mechanic — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] Hey guys, Co here with Dandy and some other friends and real quick you are here because most likely you're wondering what I think of the time mechanic in Blood of the Dawnwalker. Now for those who don't know, Blood of the Dawnwalker, Blood of Dawnwalker is the game by Rebel Wolves.

[00:14] It is basically a lot of Witcher DNA and an entire new world and story. We're going to do a thoughts video on it later, but right now this video is about your specific question, what do I think of the time mechanic? Here's what I think about it. what you think of the time mechanic really depends on your perspective and likes as a gamer.

[00:31] I am a completionist, single playthrough kind of gamer. What that means is, is that when I play a game, I like to do all the things I can do in it, in one big playthrough, I love to slowly, methodically crawl through towns,

[00:46] do every possible thing I can. I feel like I've seen all the content doing that, and that's how I generally play games. This game, Blood of Dawnwalker, is not one of those games because of the time mechanic.

[01:03] The time mechanic in this game, you have pips for day and night, and there are things that progress those pips. Leveling up certain skills, looting certain equipment from chests, doing quests and multiple quest steps will take those pips.

[01:19] you have 30 days and 30 nights and as I've already found out in the tutorial area there is no possible way you're going to be able to do everything at the times that the game needs you to do it and to be clear I haven even gotten to any major consequences yet But here what I going to say If you play Blood of Dawnwalker as a single adventure game this is not a game for

[01:44] completionist players like me. Do not go into this game wanting and expecting to see all the content in a single playthrough, because what that will do is that will make it for the entire time you're playing you're just frustrated.

[01:59] the entire time you're playing, you're going to go, oh, I can't do that, and I wanted to. Oh, I can't do that, and I really wanted to. Oh, I just completed this quest. It did the thing I wasn't expecting. Now I can't do that one. Like, if you

[02:11] approach this game from the perspective of, I've played Witcher 3, I've played these other games, they let me do that, so this one will too, and I'm expecting it that it will too, then what you're doing is you're putting up

[02:23] expectations that the developers have specifically said, no, we're not doing that, and you're going to have a bad time. There's no else to say it. So that leads to the next question. How am I playing the game?

[02:36] I decided early that I'm going to play this game in the way that I think the developers intend. And what I mean by that is, I am not doing a full normal playthrough like I would want to in this game.

[02:49] Because I realize if I do that, it's just going to stress me out and it's going to make me frustrated. So I'm going to take this game as something kind of new, and that is I'm playing the game from the perspective of my player and his goals.

[03:01] His goals are to save as many people as he can and save his family So when I come up to my choice of quests as I recently learned I going to prioritize who do I want to make sure lives who do I want to make sure gets done

[03:14] and then I'm going to do those, and then all the ancillary stuff I'm going to kind of just do as it does. I'm also playing this game with blinders, so like, there's going to be lots of times when there's just not stuff I'm not going to be able to do, and I'm just going to charge

[03:26] forward to the end of the game. Do I like playing like this? I don't think so. Because normally, I never would play like this. Normally, I would do everything and go everywhere.

[03:40] Am I willing to give this a try because the devs are fully convinced that this is a cooler, more interesting way to play the game? Yes. And that is what I'm going to do.

[03:52] So, that's kind of where we are with the time mechanic. Do I like the time mechanic? The Witcher 3 completionist in me says, No, I hate this. What are you thinking? Am I willing to try the time mechanics?

[04:04] Yeah. Maybe it's going to put me in situations I wasn't expecting. Maybe it's going to make me feel more invested in ways that I'm not thinking about or anticipating right now. So I'm going to try it. But that's kind of where we are.

[04:16] Now, there's two important things that I want to finish this video on. First of all, there are already mods out to disable the time mechanics. and every single day that goes by those minds will probably get better and work

[04:31] more stronger. If you want to play this game and play it like a completionist you won be playing the vanilla experience but it is out there so something to keep in mind now the reason I say this is because even though that time mechanic may turn you off to this game

[04:47] there's a lot of really good stuff in this game so far the characters have been great the story has been amazing the combat feels almost, well we'll talk about the combat later, but it's way more timing based than I was expecting on the hardest difficulty

[05:00] and I'm kind of liking it there's a lot of really really good stuff in this game so far And in fact, there's so many good things in it that this is one of the reasons that I was like, you know what? Like, I'm just going to play it the way the devs want.

[05:13] There's enough good stuff in here to maybe like doing it how the devs intend. Maybe that's going to be the best way to play this game. I don't know. We're going to try it. But that's, you know, just keep in mind you can't turn that off if you want. And then the next other question I get pulled over and over is how would I would have designed it?

[05:28] I would have designed it as the time system being optional. I would have designed it with the time system being a difficulty level or associated with a difficulty. kind of like hardcore mode permadeath, like have the timing system be a box that the player could have turned on if they wanted and turned off.

[05:42] Now, of course, I say this, I don't even know if the game could exist without the time system. Maybe the entire thing was developed around the time system and you can't really have it without it, although the mods will tell us otherwise, but I don't know. But anyway, that's kind of where we are. So this has already gone on a lot longer than I was anticipating.

[05:56] TLDR, I'm not on board with the time system, but I'm willing to check it out because clearly the devs are super, super big about it and I want to see if it offers something I'm not anticipating. But that's where we are. So hope you enjoyed the playthrough. We're making this video

[06:10] so I don't have to answer this question every five minutes, and I will see you guys in the run. Alright, bye-bye.