You can beat The Blood of Dawnwalker before the prologue even ends

The Blood of Dawnwalker – Rebel Wolves' medieval vampire RPG – can apparently be finished before the prologue is even over. Publisher Bandai Namco confirmed to Eurogamer that defeating the main antagonist Brencis during the prologue's climactic battle counts as a legitimate ending.

The prologue is designed around a fight with Brencis that the game expects you to lose – that defeat is what kicks off the main adventure. But if you can actually beat him there, he dies, the story ends, and you're done. Bandai Namco confirmed it directly: "Yes, you can finish the game at the end of the prologue by defeating Brencis if you are good enough; it is a possible ending." The catch is that only a couple of developers at Rebel Wolves have pulled it off internally, and the studio describes it as "extremely hard to actually do." The Eurogamer journalist who previewed the game tried the fight and got wiped out in roughly two hits, still getting used to the combat controls.

This isn't the only shortcut, either. After the prologue, players who leave the Vale Sangora without saving their families can also trigger an early ending. And as previously reported, it's theoretically possible to sprint straight to Brencis's castle in the middle of the map the moment the prologue ends – though doing so under-levelled, without abilities, and against his vampire lieutenants makes that route brutally difficult too. The Blood of Dawnwalker is an open-world RPG with a freeform structure and a time-management system that limits how many actions players can take before the story's clock runs out – a mechanic Rebel Wolves says is meant to create tension and RPG stakes rather than rush players through content.

The Blood of Dawnwalker launches on 3rd September on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X. Whether any player outside Rebel Wolves can actually beat Brencis in the prologue at launch remains to be seen – but speedrunners will almost certainly be trying from day one.