Nodusfall Called an Elden Ring Clone: Wait for VAR Before Pulling Out the Card

When the first images of Nodusfall appeared, the global gaming community instantly had a reaction very similar to a VAR room during a big derby: everyone saw an incident, but very few read the rulebook before shouting for a penalty. The winged character was placed next to Malenia; the white-haired woman was placed next to Melina; the desolate dark-fantasy landscape was placed next to the Lands Between. Within hours, the word "rip-off" flooded forum threads. I have watched this kind of controversy evolve for fifteen years, both in football and esports, and I keep seeing the same pattern: emotion comes first, evidence is found later to justify that emotion. As a result, two static screenshots side by side become treated like an official referee report, while the heart of the matter — actual gameplay, camera movement, controller feel, pacing — has never been shown. The offside line was never straight; today it only looks curved. In the case of Nodusfall, that line is being drawn from a three-minute trailer. Let us put it under review. MARKET CONTEXT: WHY HOYOVERSE LEFT THE SAFE ZONE HoYoverse is known for anime gacha games with massive revenue, from Genshin Impact to the Honkai universe. The company has strong financial power, a loyal fan base, and polished live-service operations. But Nodusfall sends a completely different message. It abandons anime representation in favor of realistic dark fantasy and co-op gameplay. This is not a minor update; it is a change in the studio's design DNA. The timing is also sensitive. Since Elden Ring launched and won Game of the Year 2026, the game industry has witnessed a wave of new projects adopting a soulslike direction: difficult combat, minimalistic but dense open worlds, and a bleak atmosphere. FromSoftware did not simply create one game; they created a reference frame against which every action RPG is judged. When a company with HoYoverse's capital and scale announces it is moving into that frame, it is inevitable that Elden Ring is used as the measuring stick. I understand the temptation to judge immediately. From images alone, everything seems to say "same world," "same character silhouette," "same palette." But anyone who has watched offside replays knows that a single still image can fool the eye. Angles, lenses, lighting, and composition can make two unrelated scenes look identical. Conversely, two tackles in the same body position can be very different when placed in the actual match context. The same happens in games. A screenshot of a winged character cannot replace thirty minutes of gameplay. A moody trailer cannot answer the question: does the dodge system work like Dark Souls, or is it built from scratch? Are weapons genuinely weighty, or just visually polished? Is the world a highly woven spatial design, or a string of attractive cinematic set pieces? All such questions require data from a playable build, a development diary, or a live gameplay presentation. CORE ANALYSIS: WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE? In my view, the Nodusfall debate has three layers. The first is surface-level visual comparison. The second is design-system comparison. The third is brand identity. At the first layer, accusations seem reasonable. Anyone familiar with Elden Ring will notice familiar silhouettes. But "looking familiar" is not the same as "deliberate copying." If we apply the standard of an official match review, we need multiple angles, multiple segments, and context from production. The second layer is where real differences may live. Verified information about Nodusfall indicates that the game focuses on co-operative boss hunting with up to four players. This is a major distinction from Elden Ring, which is primarily a single-player experience despite its spirit-summon mechanic. Four players coordinating to bring down one boss implies a different combat rhythm, a different mission structure, and possibly different player roles. If executed well, Nodusfall could feel closer to Monster Hunter than to Elden Ring. Community observers have already compared Nodusfall to a combination of Elden Ring and Monster Hunter — a more honest comparison than the word "rip-off." Having watched esports matches, I recognize the difference between a "meta" and a "move set." A patch can make a champion strong, but that champion's moves may have existed for years. In games, patches are invisible referees. In this industry, Elden Ring itself acts as a major patch to the aesthetic of action RPGs. Anyone shipping after it is placed under FromSoftware's shadow. But that does not mean that everything visually similar is stolen. Dark fantasy, high difficulty, ruins and ash — these elements are not exclusive property of any one studio. They are shared genre language, just as football rules are shared by every club. The third layer is brand narrative. HoYoverse has a clear identity: bright anime, gacha mechanics, charming characters, and long-running stories. Nodusfall breaks all of that. A successful company stepping out of its comfort zone will naturally create suspicion. In football, when a defensively minded team suddenly presses high, pundits also doubt before waiting to see the result. Suspicion is part of the game, but it should not become a verdict before the case files are complete. It must be emphasized that there is still no evidence in this controversy proving that HoYoverse copied specific intellectual property, such as source files, identical 3D models, or stolen code. Current comparisons sit at visual resemblance. In my experience examining copyright disputes in sports and video games, game mechanics are rarely protected; only specific expressions — such as character design, models, music, dialogue, or trademarks — may constitute infringement. A wing, white hair, a standing pose: all remain in the gray zone of inspiration, not the red line of plagiarism. CONTRARIAN VIEW: VICTIM OF BIAS OR DELIBERATE FOLLOWER? The biggest question is not "Does Nodusfall look like Elden Ring?" That is too easy to answer with the naked eye. The real question is: why would a company like HoYoverse let its opening trailer fall into such a disadvantageous comparison? Was it carelessness or strategy? I lean toward the former. A studio with strong legal resources must have already reviewed its character designs. They may have believed that the similarities were only at the level of inspiration, not infringement. Yet they forgot that law is not the only court that matters. The courts of Reddit, X, Facebook, and gaming forums do not require legal proof; they require one image beside another. I also notice an undercurrent in the criticism. HoYoverse is not a company without enemies. The international gaming community has long debated gacha monetization, the ethics of gambling mechanics, and the studio's anime-style output. For many players, HoYoverse represents a studio with money but without a proven design pedigree. When Nodusfall appears wearing Elden Ring's clothes, they have a chance to say: the gacha giant is finally chasing FromSoftware. Prejudice is not entirely baseless, but when we listen with a prewritten verdict in our ears, we stop hearing facts. If we turn the spotlight back, FromSoftware itself was once compared to Demon's Souls, to King's Field, even to Castlevania. Japan's developers once learned from Western designers, then created their own language. Every creative industry needs cross-pollination. The line between influence and imitation is always thin, and fans are the only ones who can draw it — but they should draw it with a ruler, not with a thick marker pen. I remember a match where the referee missed an obvious foul, then I realized after reviewing replays that his view was blocked by another player. VAR is never wrong. The people operating VAR are only human. The same applies to the community: we are watching a heavily edited trailer, not sitting inside HoYoverse's studio. The mistake is that we watch a highlight reel and rush to grade a player without watching the full ninety minutes. PROCEDURAL RECOMMENDATION: DON'T LET ONE TRAILER DECIDE A FATE In football, procedure comes before a card. In games, we should apply the same standard. First, we need actual gameplay data. Second, we need interviews with the development team to understand the designers' intentions. Third, we need to weigh the contested elements against the differences in combat design. Fourth, we need to look at the broader market: is a co-op boss-hunting game actually competing directly with Elden Ring, or aiming at a completely different player group? In my view, the answer is "not directly." Elden Ring creates a solitary world where every player must survive alone. Nodusfall places four players in the same boss encounter. That is not a small difference. It changes boss design, damage balance, map layout, and even how players share stories. An Elden Ring player feels loneliness within a vast battlefield. A Nodusfall group will constantly communicate, coordinate, create comedy, and produce moments that a solo game cannot replicate. In their core experience, the two games may end up being more different than alike. In the worst case, if HoYoverse truly borrowed Elden Ring's shell to make an empty product, today's criticism will prove to be a useful early warning signal. But even then, we should not convict before release. In sport, a denied penalty can be corrected by VAR. A hole in the law cannot be fixed by one decision. The same is true in games: a disappointing trailer can be corrected by another gameplay trailer, but once the community locks a label onto a product, HoYoverse will have to work twice as hard to break free. I use VAR as a metaphor because VAR teaches us that referees are not perfect; they need tools to make better decisions. The gaming community is no different. We need more than side-by-side images to separate truth from falsehood. We need in-depth design analysis, long gameplay footage, and transparent explanations from developers. Until those data arrive, every conclusion is only a hypothesis — and a hypothesis should not be written in capital letters as a judgment. A checklist of thirty-eight criteria cannot save a season, but it can save the reputation of the referee. For Nodusfall, such a checklist may include: Do the character designs violate specific copyrights? Does the combat system use the same counter-attack formula? Is the map designed as a multi-layered maze in the same way? Does the story share the same mythological template? Most importantly — after ten hours, do players genuinely feel they are playing a HoYoverse game, not a FromSoftware game? If only the first two or three points remain suspicions, we can wait. If the fifth criterion fails, that is when to open a formal trial. I READ THE MATCH REPORT BEFORE READING THE NEWS In my professional habit, I read the match report before reading the news because the match report does not lie. For an unreleased game, the match report is the log of internal playtests. HoYoverse owes the community such a document — not to defend itself, but to prove itself through something stronger than words: real gameplay. If they are confident, the smartest response is to release a long, unedited gameplay video clearly showing the four-player boss-hunting mechanic. When players see four characters dodging together, managing aggro, and splitting roles, the old comparison images will fade. There is also the opposite possibility. If HoYoverse keeps releasing cinematic trailers without showing gameplay, the "Elden Ring clone" story will harden into belief. Once belief is set, changing it after launch costs ten times more in communication effort. That is why I believe the next response cycle from HoYoverse will determine not only Nodusfall's fate but also the company's communication strategy for years to come. The ball has not moved, yet a card has been shown. Nevertheless, a referee may also retract the card after watching the replay. I once wrote: "The match does not end with the whistle; it ends when people have finished reading the report." Nodusfall's report is still being written. Whoever writes the rules also needs someone standing outside the line to check their signatures. The gaming community is trying to stand outside that line, but it forgets that it is also holding a pen and a notebook, not just the whistle. Until the evidence from real gameplay is sufficient, I will place Nodusfall on the "pending verification" list, not on the "obviously guilty" list. That is how a just system operates: even when the suspect has a bad record, even when images seem to condemn, the verdict must rely on the case file, not on public sentiment before the trial. Is Nodusfall a masterpiece or a faded photocopy? Nobody knows. And that lack of knowledge is reason enough for us to lower the whistle, observe carefully, and wait to see whether HoYoverse can deliver the decisive shot. In football, a hand-ball goal can be canceled after video review. In games, a title that looks like Elden Ring may feel completely different once the controller is in the player's hands. Let the game speak first. After that, we will know whether to raise a card or celebrate. It is time to stop analyzing side-by-side screenshots and ask HoYoverse a simple question: Where is the first real gameplay footage of Nodusfall? The answer will reveal far more than any excuse. If they answer with a long trailer showing the four-player boss mechanic, the conversation will change. If they answer with vague community statements, pressure will increase. The referee is in place. The ball is on the penalty spot. Fans are shouting. HoYoverse is about to shoot. Will they aim for goal, or pass the ball sideways to preserve the deadlock? For me, this is not a scandal about copying but a test of sound product-launch procedure. All we have seen so far is a billboard outside the stadium. That billboard may echo the colors of the other team's board, but the real match is played on grass, where each side must prove itself with its feet. Let Nodusfall step onto the pitch, let players hold the controller, and only then will we count the goal or the own goal. Everything else is noise beyond the touchline. "Eleven men are on the field, but the match truly belongs to the one who carries the rulebook in his head." Nodusfall has not yet reached the field, but the rulebook has already been flipped too quickly. Let us turn it back to the beginning — slowly, carefully, page by page.