Dragons, flaming monsters and colossal boss fights dominate HoYoverse's unexpected new co-op RPG.
Gamescom Opening Night Live opened with one hell of a surprise: HoYoverse, the developer behind Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero, is making a new game called Nodus Fall.
What makes the reveal even more unexpected is just how different Nodus Fall looks from anything HoYoverse has made before. The studio appears to have abandoned its familiar anime style entirely, instead going for a dark, realistic high-fantasy look closer to the likes of Elden Ring.
Nodus Fall was initially teased through a website reveal by HoYoverse around 10 months ago.
Nodus Fall
Release date: TBD
Platforms: TBD
Developer: HoYoverse
What is Nodus Fall?
Nodus Fall is an original dark-fantasy cooperative action RPG/MMO where players take on the role of a “Weaver” in a world where divine authority has collapsed. Players will work together to hunt down and defeat powerful mythic beings scattered across the world.
And HoYoverse certainly went big with the creatures in its first trailer. The footage shows a dragon and phoenix towering over the landscape, wolves roaming the world, a gigantic titan with its head engulfed in flames and one particularly massive muscular figure hammering away at an anvil. The environments are just as expansive, with wide-open areas seemingly designed to make the players exploring them look tiny by comparison.
Combat also looks considerably heavier than HoYoverse's usual games. The trailer shows flashy sword fighting, stamina management and several players joining forces against enormous enemies, giving the whole thing a much more tactical feel. From the trailer, one would feel the strong Elden Ring: Nightreign vibes in the cooperative battles, while the focus on groups taking down giant monsters also might bring Monster Hunter to mind.
Nodus Fall is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, rather than the Unity engine used for HoYoverse's other major titles. HoYoverse has not announced a release date or platforms yet, with the Gamescom 2026 world-premiere trailer serving as the first proper look at the project.
