HoYoverse’s ‘Elden Ring Meets Monster Hunter’ Actually Plays More Like Final Fantasy 16

Combat is much like many other third-person action games: basic attacks, special attacks, dodges, and a unique twist on the parry that so many of you sickos have grown to love these days. But rather than pressing the right button at the right time, you charge up a heavy attack then, right when you’re about to get hit, release the button to “clash” with (i.e., parry) your attacker. You can additionally hold down the right bumper to access four equipped abilities, each tied to its own cooldown. Enacting these moves feels smooth and natural, though the hits don’t land with a ton of weight. The special attacks certainly have more flair. One character wields a flaming sword. Another turns into a flying demon and hurls giant orbs of miasma.

Image: HoYoverse

Our first mission, “Purge Evil Spirits,” tasked us with… purging evil spirits. After embarking from camp into the overworld, our party hopped on mounts — fantastical equine creatures who (sorry, Elden Ring fans) apparently can’t double-jump. The first evil spirit we came across was Quongqi, a 30-foot-tall gryphon with three health bars and tornado-summoning powers. As the close-combat sword wielder, I took the brunt of its focus (and quietly thanked myself for remembering to slot the healing spell into my loadout).

As we whittled its health down to about the halfway point, Quongqi ran away. We hopped back on our not-quite-horse mounts and chased after it, eventually bringing it down in the center of a dramatic subterranean lake. When playing co-op, weaken an enemy enough, and you can team up for powerful team attacks called “joint executions.” These moves are flashy as hell: In one, our party summoned a spectral giant who smashed his 30-foot battleaxe into the gryphon’s neck.

Image: HoYoverse

The final boss fight of the mission was against a similarly 30-foot-tall dragon named Maldrake. Also, Maldrake had a rider: the suitably named Maldrake Knight, an enormous dude who can summon a 30-foot-tall sword of light. (30 feet seems to be the standard unit of measurement in Nodusfall.) This played out much the same as the fight against Quongqi: three health bars, lots of spectacle. At one point, Maldrake Knight kicked me into the sky, then used his enormous weaponry to pile-drive me into the ground. To quote one of my party members: “That was awesome.”

Elden Ring’s boss fights obviously have flair, but are meticulous, demanding, patient affairs. Playing Nodusfall, I couldn’t help but feel like I was playing a cooperative mod for Final Fantasy 16, the divisive series entry that impressed even its biggest haters with those speculator boss fights. Summoning the giant axe-wielding spirit seemed like calling forth an Eikon from Square’s action-RPG. Maybe it’s because I was playing the most Clive Rosfield-like character in the roster, but even the basic attacks felt more like Clive’s reckless sword-swinging than like the Tarnished’s methodical expertise.

This makes sense for Nodusfall, what with its heavy emphasis on playing with other people. If combat in Nodusfall were as technical as it was in a FromSoftware game, it’s not hard to imagine how high-skilled players could get frustrated playing alongside beginners.

Nodusfall is a free-to-play game with a PvP component in the works, but it’s unclear exactly how microtransactions — which have been present in every HoYoverse game to date — will manifest here. In a press release, HoYoverse said that characters will not be obtained through randomized rolls and that additional purchases will be cosmetic in nature, but noted that it’s still fine-tuning exactly how microtransactions will appear in the game.

Nodusfall does not have a release date. HoYoverse said it will “definitely” be released on Windows PC but did not confirm other platforms.

HoYoverse provided Polygon’s flight and hotel for purposes of attending this preview. Read more about Polygon’s travel and ethics policy here.