Nodusfall was the surprise HoYoverse pulled out at Gamescom, and the most interesting thing about it is not the monster hunting — it is the business model. HoYoverse, the studio behind Genshin Impact, is building a free-to-play co-op action game that flatly refuses to be a character gacha. For anyone who follows how games actually make money, that is the headline.
The hands-on backs up the pitch. After three boss fights, Nodusfall makes a sharp first impression: fast, readable, and more forgiving than the games it is obviously learning from.
A Boss Hunt That Borrows Smartly Without Copying
You play as a Weaver in a fractured world where divine authority has collapsed and corrupted beasts — the Dreadnodi — roam a mythic continent. Squads team up to bring these creatures down, exposing weak points and then punishing them with coordinated bursts of damage. The Elden Ring and Monster Hunter DNA is right there, but Nodusfall is snappier and less punishing, trading slow, deliberate stamina management for a quicker rhythm. Fans of loot-driven action RPGs like Path of Exile 2 will recognise the appeal.
Built on Unreal Engine 5, it also looks the part. HoYoverse has the resources to make a live-service game shine, and the early encounters suggest a team confident enough to iterate on the genre rather than clone it.
Free-to-Play Without the Gacha Slot Machine
Here is the part that should make competitors nervous. HoYoverse says characters in Nodusfall are not pulled from random draws. You unlock them through play. Monetisation leans on cosmetics instead of the pity-timer psychology that powers most of the studio’s catalogue.
That is a meaningful departure. Gacha mechanics are lucrative but increasingly scrutinised by regulators and burned-out players alike. A HoYoverse title that grows without them is either a hedge against tightening rules or a genuine bet that goodwill converts better than compulsion.
Why HoYoverse Ditching Draws Matters for the Industry
When the biggest name in gacha experiments with a no-draw model, the whole free-to-play market takes notes. If Nodusfall retains players and still earns on cosmetics, it hands every rival a proof point that you can drop the slot machine and survive. If it stumbles, expect the industry to quietly conclude that gacha is still king.
Either way, this is a rare case where the monetisation design is as newsworthy as the gameplay — and both are pointing in a promising direction.
The Takeaway
Nodusfall is early, and a couple of boss fights are not a full verdict. But a slick Unreal Engine 5 co-op hunter from HoYoverse that skips gacha is exactly the kind of experiment worth watching, whether you are a player or a studio plotting your own live-service move.
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