Nodusfall Gameplay Revealed With Monster Hunter-Style Combat and Free-to-Play Details

HoYoverse confirms characters will not require random gacha pulls, while other monetization systems remain unclear ahead of launch.

HoYoverse has now published the first real gameplay footage of Nodusfall, giving fans a better glimpse at its four-player combat, boss fights, exploration, and progression system. What we saw at Gamescom is so much more than the original teaser, with longer fights against gargantuan beasts, ranged combat, defensive abilities, horses, and what appears to be a dedicated player center.

The game’s large monster confrontations and fantasy-oriented action fighting will remind you of Monster Hunter and Elden Ring. Players will create four-player groups, do missions, roam large areas, fight enemies, and collect items to develop their characters. You can play solo until about the middle of the game, and things like thunder, cold, and force will probably affect combat.

The biggest announcement is perhaps on Nodusfall’s monetization. HoYoverse revealed the game will be free to play, but characters won’t be earned through random gacha draws. Rather, it appears that gamers can simply collect characters by playing the game for a longer duration.

However, this doesn't completely rule out gacha methods, as the authors still need to clarify how they would monetize weapons, relics, cosmetics, and other progression features. The gameplay also offers a better look at the game's class and progression systems. Classes will probably have multiple branches, active skills, passive abilities, and ultimate assaults that can change their roles.

Nodusfall: monster hunting, faster, easier fantasy fighting.

Weapons also seem to have a major impact on warfare, with footage showing sword and shield gameplay along with stranger fantasy skills and transformations. One of the prominent fights is the Mildrake Rider, which appears to be a multi-stage boss fight. The players battle the giant drake, and then the rider slips off and becomes a separate creature.

The last stage is supposed to transform the rider into a great celestial form capable of crushing the whole bunch. This suggests Nodusfall may feature more than the typical monster encounters. Another interesting aspect is defensive fighting. A sword and shield character can time a defensive skill against an approaching hit, apparently stunning the monster.

The game also has visual damage stats and maybe several elemental damages. Meanwhile, ranged combatants can unleash huge charged assaults, with one bow user firing a piercing bolt and another changing to get access to supernatural ranged abilities. The video also showcases Nodusfall’s party execution system.

It looks like players are playing with magic threads, and a group attack requires the whole party to be involved before it can be triggered. When invoked, the team summons a gigantic god-like entity that causes massive damage to the enemy. It doesn’t instantly kill bosses; therefore, the feature will probably be employed as a strong team attack rather than a guaranteed finisher.

Ranged classes use powerful bows, transformations, and devastating special attacks.

Early impressions are that combat is faster and more forgiving than Elden Ring or Monster Hunter. Those are the obvious points of comparison, although Nodusfall seems to favor a quicker pace of action and cooperative skills over the slower, more methodical combat of a Soulslike.

Mounts have been confirmed as well, allowing players to traverse the game's massive world. We don’t know whether other mounts can be obtained, customized, or used in combat. There’s also a player center from where gamers can travel between missions, do certain activities, and rest in spots like hot springs.

Nodusfall will work on most systems, but PC players will need enough hardware to run at higher settings. At the moment, Nodusfall is only available on PC. No official release or beta date; PlayStation, XBOX, and mobile versions are unconfirmed. The game is said to have been in development for a couple of years.

The PC requirements are fairly high too for a HoYoverse game. The minimum system requirements for the game include 16GB RAM, an Intel 12-series processor, an RTX 4060 or above, and 100GB of storage space. Older hardware might not be able to run the game at higher settings.

The additional film has increased the number of Elden Ring comparisons. The similarities in graphic style, fighting, and fantasy presentation have already led to a spate of online memes suggesting Nodusfall is heavily modeled on FromSoftware’s game. Whether these analogies ultimately come to define the experience remains to be seen, but their influence is evident.