Rebel Wolves, developer of the upcoming medieval vampire RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker, has confirmed plans to allow players to carry their save data into future installments of the series. This ambitious feature, also seen in BioWare's Mass Effect saga, aims to create a cohesive narrative experience across multiple titles.
The save-game carry-over functionality was detailed in two parts. Game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz explained the studio's long-term vision, stating that the entire cycle of planned games was considered from the outset. This foresight allows for the integration of story elements and events in the first game that serve as hooks for subsequent entries.
"When you know what you want to say in the next games and where they lead, it's easier to plan the story for [the first] game and to put some events and story elements in which will be the hooks for the next things which will happen," Tomaszkiewicz said. "If you are not thinking about it then later you have a problem because you start the next game, you have some ideas for the story and you start to think, 'Okay, I will move the saves for the players and what kind of decisions I should predict, and how should it be connected? And how to make it smooth and organic?' We prefer to do it this way."
Publisher Bandai Namco corroborated these plans, confirming that "There will be an option to carry the save from the first game."
This approach draws parallels to Mass Effect, where player choices and save data influenced subsequent games. However, the complexities of managing extensive choice-and-consequence systems from imported saves proved challenging for BioWare, which did not repeat the feature in later titles. The Blood of Dawnwalker centers on Coen, a half-human, half-vampire protagonist who can seemingly live for centuries. A post-credits scene in the Summer Game Fest trailer depicts Coen in the present day, approximately 600 years after the game's 14th-century setting.
Tomaszkiewicz clarified that future installments will not necessarily be set in the modern day but will instead leap across different historical eras and cultures. "This is the kind of thing exactly, to travel through the ages and through cultures," he remarked. "This is really important for many reasons. There's more fun in telling different stories from many places on Earth, because we need to learn those cultures, we need to learn those legends, we need to think how to fit into these historical events, which are in that particular place."
This narrative structure invites comparisons to the Assassin's Creed series, which explores various historical settings linked by an overarching plot. Tomaszkiewicz differentiated Rebel Wolves' approach, stating, "This idea but made differently. I would prefer to use the Interview with the Vampire example... because there is more fantasy about this particular way and there is more storytelling in this. Assassin's Creed is a cool game but from my perspective, it's like those are separated stories and separated heroes, and we want to tell the story about this particular hero and his adventure, and the plot through all of this stuff."
Despite The Blood of Dawnwalker's release date of September 3rd, Rebel Wolves has already dedicated significant effort to planning its sequels. "We're thinking about it for a long time," Tomaszkiewicz said, "and we know how this whole story arc will look of the other game[s], and we already start to think about the sequel, about the events we want to have there, because we needed it to put the particular stuff in this game."
While a specific time period for the sequel has not been revealed, the team is excited about the potential for variety. Environment artist Adam Payet noted, "if the saga had however many games and all of them were 14th century, at some point you'd get sick of 14th century and doing the same thing."