Though Nodusfall was one of several co-op games revealed during Gamescom Opening Night Live, the developer behind it is sure to have turned some heads. Formerly known as miHoYo, HoYoverse is a Chinese developer responsible for immensely popular games like Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone Zero, and the Honkai series. While I personally have never fallen in love with any of HoYoverse’s previous works, Nodusfall certainly grabbed my attention, likely due to my undying affinity for all things FromSoftware and the major Elden Ring vibes that its reveal trailer gave off.
Now, after around 30 minutes of hands-on time with Nodusfall at Gamescom 2026, I can safely say that HoYoverse’s next project has more than my attention. Though it wasn’t nearly enough time to really understand all of the interweaving systems at play, half an hour with Nodusfall has shown me that it’s a co-op game that could potentially stand toe-to-toe with giants of the genre like Elden Ring Nightreign and Monster Hunter, at least in terms of moment-to-moment gameplay and overall presentation.
Nodusfall Isn’t Breaking Any New Ground, But That’s Okay
My brief preview session with Nodusfall began with a basic overview of what players can expect from the game. HoYoverse officially describes Nodusfall as a “multi-mythology co-op action game” where teams of up to four players face off against some larger-than-life bosses.
Upon booting up the game, I was prompted to select from four characters, all of whom fell into traditional MMO archetypes. There was one male character — a tank hero with a big sword that looked like it had been ripped out of the pages of Berserk — and three female characters, two of which were ranged heroes with bows and one of which was a magical support character. Having to make a split-second decision on the spot, I fell back on my engrained Overwatch and Marvel Rivals habits and chose the healer.
Called the Hexsworn, Nodusfall‘s support hero has a moveset that revolves around dealing frost damage from afar and healing allies. Hexsworn’s primary attack is a small ice projectile that can be fired infinitely from her stave, the animations of which look remarkably similar to Elden Ring‘s Glintstone Pebble attack. The Hexsworn’s secondary attack is a wave of ice that travels underground and emerges at an enemy’s feet, damaging them. There’s an interesting passive ability tied to this secondary attack that grants players an empowered ability once three secondary attacks have landed, but more on that later.
In traditional MMO/hero shooter fashion, Nodusfall‘s Hexsworn is also equipped with three primary abilities and one ultimate, all activated by holding down RB and one of the face buttons on an Xbox controller (which was plugged into a high-end PC for my preview). These abilities include a beam that heals one teammate for an extended period, an AoE ability that heals all teammates surrounding the Hexsworn, an ice beam that deals continuous damage, and an ultimate that creates a large green ring that heals all those inside. Overall, the Hexsworn is essentially what MMO fans would expect a healer to be.
While I didn’t personally get hands-on with any of Nodusfall‘s other characters due to the time limits of the preview, I did speak with some fellow games press folks following the event, and it seems like each character not only has different attacks and abilities, but also a different passive based on unique mechanics. For instance, one of the ranged heroes has a passive ability that triggers when she’s dealt a specific amount of damage to an enemy. For those that are interested, Nodusfall will also have a full suite of customization options for each of its characters, allowing players to equip different hairstyles, outfits, and more.
A Short, Somewhat Confusing, But Ultimately Enjoyable Hunt
After choosing a character and playing a very short tutorial covering those attacks and abilities in brief detail, I was told to head over to an in-game notice board (seemingly located in some kind of treehouse-like hub area) and choose a contract, much like in Monster Hunter. Me and my team of three other journos were then told we were going to face off against three bosses in a row, teleporting to each one successively. It was a little unclear whether this will be how the final game is structured, or if there’ll be some kind of open area exploration that links encounters together in a more natural way.
We were then loaded onto a map and told to hop aboard our mounts, which we rode to the base of a waterfall where we found the first of our boss trio, the Cleaver Fellstone. While it was fun to see our tank rush into battle and deliver some impressive blows, and watch my ranged allies rain down hell from afar, I couldn’t help but feel a little useless in this first fight. My ice projectiles weren’t doing much damage and my teammates stayed at full health for most of the fight. The core soulslike movement and combat mechanics felt responsive enough, but I wasn’t feeling engaged in the action.
We were then teleported to a much eerier locale, an underground cavern where we faced off against Qionqi, a large horned lion with wings inspired by Chinese mythology. This fight was strangely the most difficult of the three by far, with the hulking boss delivering some absurdly powerful AoE attacks that I kept getting struck by due to the somewhat overwhelming number of visual effects on screen, with four players and a huge boss all unleashing some very flashy attacks simultaneously. More often than not, my teammates would die long before I could even press the input to heal them. We brute-forced our way through the fight and joined up to deliver a visually-impressive, brutal finisher that saw our tank transforming into a tall knight and beheading the mythological beast.
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Image via HoYoverse -
Image via HoYoverse -
Image via HoYoverse
Heading into the third and final boss fight, I was honestly feeling a little lost. None of my abilities were clicking with me, I didn’t quite understand what my teammates were doing, and I was desperately trying to figure out how my mana pool and cooldowns worked. But rather surprisingly, it all clicked into place in this final fight.
Inspired by Western mythology, the black dragon Maldrake and its armored rider bore a striking resemblance to Dark Souls 3‘s King of Storm and Nameless King. While the boss may not have had the most original design, it made for the most enjoyable encounter of the bunch, with its well-telegraphed attacks dealing just enough damage to my allies to make my healing abilities pivotal for success. Suddenly, my passive ability became my greatest tool, and I was intensely focused on a loop of dealing chip damage, earning an empowered ability, and using that to either heal my allies through some high-damage Maldrake attacks or deal some serious damage of my own with my ice beam power. On paper, this passive ability is incredibly simple and, again, not wholly original, but when it clicked into place for me, it was the key element that kept me fully engaged in the on-screen action.
With the mechanics finally falling into place, I found myself paying a bit more attention to Nodusfall‘s presentation. The music, at least during that final boss fight, sounded suitably bombastic, audio effects of magic blasts and sword slashes sounded crisp and satisfying, and Nodusfall‘s realistic visuals were high quality, though I did find the characters’ faces a little uncanny valley, similar to how I felt about Stellar Blade: Blood Rain‘s protagonist in that game’s reveal trailer.
Nodusfall Hands-On Final Thoughts
With only 30 minutes under my belt, I feel like I’m still scratching the surface of what Nodusfall might be. I definitely enjoyed my brief time with the game, but that enjoyment only really kicked in during the last third of my session, and if I’m totally honest, I think some of that enjoyment stems from the final boss fight imitating (whether intentionally or not) one of my favorite gaming encounters of all time.
There’s still a whole lot I don’t know about Nodusfall (its level structure being the aspect I’m most intrigued about), but based on what I played, I think it’s very likely to provide a satisfying and technically-impressive co-op soulslike/Monster Hunter-like experience when it eventually launches. Additionally, HoYoverse has confirmed that Nodusfall will be free-to-play when it releases on PC, and that characters will not be obtained through “random draws,” which is a huge shift for the company, and something that makes Nodusfall worth checking out at the very least.
GameRant was provided with travel and lodging arrangements for this preview event
