Nodusfall and the Shadow Behind the Elden Ring 'Rip-off' Controversy: When a Game's Rhythm is Decided by a Single Trailer

I don't analyze matches, I remember every face when the match ends.

Three years ago, I stood in the corner of a press room after a German football team's defeat, recording the eyes of a 22-year-old midfielder as he stared at the ground — not out of fear, but knowing that people would write about him for an entire week after. That night I understood something: in sports, people often judge too quickly what they haven't yet understood.

Video games are no different.

When the first trailer for Nodusfall — HoYoverse's new action RPG project — appeared on social media platforms last week, the global gaming community almost immediately attached a label to it: "Elden Ring rip-off." The winged character was compared to Malenia, the white-haired woman was placed beside Melina, and the dark atmosphere was compared point by point with FromSoftware's 2026 masterpiece. The term "rip-off" — a harsher word than "copy" — appeared in thousands of comments within just the first few hours.

The first beat isn't with the feet, it's with the ears.

In the sound of community outrage, I recognize a familiar frequency: the outcry of fans when they feel something familiar is being threatened. Elden Ring is not just a game — it's a milestone that changed how the gaming industry views open-world action RPGs. And anyone entering that space must face the question: did you come here to create something new, or just to enjoy the fruits of those who came before?

HoYoverse, the company that built a gacha empire with Genshin Impact and anime-style games, now faces a strategic choice: abandoning its familiar anime identity to enter the realistic dark fantasy territory — a genre that Japan, through FromSoftware, has completely redefined.

The season has no cheers, only the sound of boots striking the ball.

With no matches to analyze, I shift my attention to what's happening in the silence of design rooms. According to data compiled from game development forums and industry sources, production costs for a realistic dark fantasy action RPG are significantly higher than traditional anime-style products — realistic graphics require new engines, new digital assets, and more importantly, a design team experienced in a genre HoYoverse has never attempted.

This is not a small financial decision. HoYoverse can boast billions in revenue from Genshin Impact, but abundant financial resources don't automatically translate into design capability in an entirely unfamiliar genre. And that's why, in my observation, initial design haste may have created the visual similarities the community is now criticizing.

Elden Ring won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2026, becoming FromSoftware's best-selling title with over 20 million copies in its first week. Its impact on the industry is undeniable: many new projects have chosen similar combat styles, world design, and atmosphere. This is the industry "meta" — and anyone entering this space must face inevitable comparison.

The rhythm keeper never stands in the middle of the field.

In tactical analysis, people often discuss what's happening on the field — but the most interesting thing lies in what happens in the locker room. For Nodusfall, the core differentiator the community is overlooking is the co-op boss-hunting feature for up to four players.

This is a completely different mechanic from Elden Ring — which is a single-player experience. Comparing Nodusfall to Elden Ring is like comparing a football match to a tennis match: both use balls, both require skill, but the nature is completely different. With its co-op mechanic, Nodusfall is actually closer to Monster Hunter — where players cooperate to hunt monsters — than a copy of Elden Ring.

The community has already recognized this themselves. Some comments on major forums have begun defining Nodusfall as "a combination of Elden Ring and Monster Hunter" — and that's exactly the position HoYoverse should exploit. When fans create a new comparison framework themselves, that's a sign the story can be retold.

"We watch matches, but we live in the silence between matches."

The current controversy is based solely on a trailer — no gameplay footage has been released. This is the tactical blind spot the community is overlooking: judging a game based on static images from a trailer is like evaluating a player only through a photo taken during a halftime break. No one yet knows what the actual combat mechanics look like, no one has experienced the gameplay rhythm, and no one understands the feeling of four players coordinating to hunt a massive boss.

Legally, this comparison becomes even more complex. Under intellectual property law, gameplay mechanics are generally not copyrightable — only specific expressive elements such as character designs, art assets, and names can be accused of infringement. A winged character "reminding" players of Malenia, or a white-haired girl "similar to" Melina, fall within the scope of archetypes — common templates in the dark fantasy genre — rather than direct copies.

However, law and public opinion are different battlefields. In the "court of public opinion," the line between "inspired by" and "ripped off" is decided by collective emotion, not legal precedent. And that's where HoYoverse is facing real risk.

The fan's pain needs no tactics to be heard.

There's a layer of Elden Ring fans — especially in Western markets — who regard the game as a personal work of art, not just an entertainment product. For them, any similarity is an insult. But there's another layer — Monster Hunter players, those who love co-op experiences — waiting for something entirely new. And they are Nodusfall's true target audience.

The biggest risk isn't a legal lawsuit — the likelihood of FromSoftware or Bandai Namco filing a copyright infringement claim remains low, as the described similarities are thematic and archetypal, not direct asset copies. The real risk is a "second wave" at launch: if Nodusfall's actual gameplay feels derivative — not just looks similar but plays similar — the outrage will escalate because the community will feel validated from the start.

"At St. Pauli, I learned that a training session has its own heartbeat."

HoYoverse, with financial resources far exceeding FromSoftware's, can afford to recruit talent, iterate designs, and polish the product to the highest standard. Capital advantage can partially offset the design pedigree gap. But what they need right now isn't money — it's a strong enough communication move to change the narrative.

The current controversy is certainly not what HoYoverse wanted when releasing the first trailer. But in the creative industry, sometimes negative attention is still attention. The question is whether they can turn it into motivation to attract curiosity, instead of letting it define the product before the product has a chance to define itself.

When the stadium is empty, I understand who I'm keeping rhythm for.

The time window to change the game is very narrow: it lies between now and the next gameplay reveal. If HoYoverse can demonstrate well-executed co-op mechanics, if they can showcase unique gameplay found nowhere else, the story will shift from "ripoff" to "diversification." But if the next footage continues showing similar static images, judgment will be sealed.

In football season, people often say the real match doesn't happen on the field — it happens in the training sessions no one sees. For Nodusfall, the real match isn't happening in social media comments either. It's happening right now, in the design room, where the final decisions are being made. And only when the game launches, when players truly hold it in their hands, will we know whether this is a mediocre copy or a bold step into unexplored territory.

That's why, in this silence, I choose not to rush to conclusions. Because I've learned from years standing in the corner of fields that: sometimes, you need to let the match end before understanding what it really wanted to say.

And Nodusfall's match, as a game, hasn't truly begun yet.