Key Preview Takeaways:
- It’s a much darker art style and tone than we’ve been used to from Hoyoverse.
- Nodusfall doesn’t have Devil May Cry-type combat, but it does make you feel cool while in combat.
- It’s definitely not a soulslike (in a good way).
They told us that the Maldrake, the last of the three bosses my team squadded up against in Nodusfall, would be the one that would really try us. But it was the Qiongqi that really tested our group, wiping out our entire party the first time we attempted him. “Okay,” I said to our team. “Let’s do that again, but good this time.” Someone else pointed out that we hadn’t really been using our potions (I for the record, had, but I was just being judicious). We took a second to regroup and crack a couple more jokes, and then we ran back into the fight.
Nodusfall isn’t the kind of thing you’d expect from Hoyoverse. It’s not a bright game with an anime artstyle. It’s a much darker, almost post-apocalyptic world where, according to Hoyoverse, “divine authority has crumbled and order has collapsed.” Sounds rough. You step into the role of a Weaver tasked with restoring order. The coolest thing about Nodusfall is that it’s drawing from mythologies around the world, combining and reimagining “universal motifs and classic narrative archetypes.” Almost every culture has a flood story; dragons are common in everything from Beowulf to Chinese myth. Combining those disparate elements from cultures across the world to create something new seems pretty natural.
In my experience with Nodusfall, that means squadding up with some folks and killing really, really big monsters. But first, I had to select a character. After fooling around with my options for a bit, I settled on a woman with a fire sword who believed the best defense was a good offense. As I landed hits, I would build up a bar I could cash in for stronger, fiery-er (that’s a thing, right?) heavy attacks. The rest of my squad saddled up with an archer, a magic user/healer, and a large man in armor with a massive greatsword who served as our tank.
Then we were out in the world, saddled up on our mounts (I chose a very handsome brown horse, though I recall there being several options). My demo was essentially a boss rush that culminated in the Maldrake, the one I told you about at the beginning that was supposed to test us. But we weren’t just teleported to a boss arena. There was a floating yellow trail for us to follow, of course, but there was also so much to see on the way there. Nodusfall is stunning. We passed a flowing stream, other travelers sharing the road. Animals roamed around us. Our demo was pretty directed, so I couldn’t go explore wherever I wanted, though I did get distracted by the world around me long enough to take a wrong turn, and had to turn my horse around to catch up to the rest of the group. But I couldn’t help but wonder how much exploring and interacting with the road would be part of the full release as we rode.
Eventually, our path ended at a waterfall, and we fought our first boss: the Cleaver Fellstone. He was the opening act, not challenging enough to really wipe us out but perfect for getting a taste of Nofusfall’s combat. Inevitably, someone will call Nodusfall a soulslike, and when they do, but I would politely disagree.
Yes, there are light attacks and heavy attacks and a stamina bar. But how systems function matters in a game like this, and Nodusfall has actual combos here, not just the same animations repeating ad nauseum. Can you dodge? Yes, but these things are speedy and they encourage you to take risks, not just sit back and wait your turn. In addition, you’ve also got three abilities and one ultimate, not just one or two abilities that you occasionally get to use now and then as a treat. Nodusfall feels like an action game (complimentary). Thank God.
The Cleaver was a big guy, but he was fairly slow, and while our team wasn’t great at coordinating yet – we were learning on the fly, you know – we were pretty good at figuring out our roles and doing our jobs individually. And just when it seemed like he was about to go down, in swooped the Qiongqi, a massive horned lion with wings straight out of Chinese myth, who did a good chunk of our work for us. We hacked away at the Qiongqi, but he retreated to his lair, and we followed. Here, in a brightly lit, massive cave, we attempted to finish what we started. And the Qiongqi kind of kicked our collective asses for a while.
Part of it was that he loved to take to the air, which meant my abilities were pretty useless. All of them were about closing horizontal distance or, like my ultimate, was a series of so many acrobatic slashes that it would make Cloud Strife blush, cashing out my charges for a sword lit up like a Zippo and bigger damage. I had to get my licks in when he came down to the ground. Otherwise, it was up to our archer to lay on the pain. Our battle took on an interesting flow: myself and our tank up close when we could be, our healer/magic user in the middle to keep us all topped off, and our archer hanging back and shooting.
What really got us into a “Let’s do that again, but good this time” situation were these nasty red orbs that he summons, which damage you over time if you don’t take care of them. Since my beautifully animated, highly damaging abilities – which I always loved to see come off cooldown; Nodusfall feels like an action game, but like basically every modern video game, it wants to ensure that you’re never having too much fun – were useless while the Qiongqi was in the air, I decided to make the orbs my priority.
But the space was big, and even sprinting full speed, it took me a while to get to them, and they do a lot of damage real quick if you don’t. Down goes Frazier, and by Frazier I mean “all of us.” After regrouping (and a few of us realizing they had potions) and taking a second to work on our strategy, we tried again. A few of us went down during the fight, but we could pick each other up and get back into the fight if we were on the ball, and if we weren’t, we spawned right outside the fight and could run in. The Qiongqi tested us, but we came out of it stronger for it, and in the end, he fell to an absurdly cool execution animation involving all of us when we staggered him for the final time that involved a ghostly giant with an axe bringing said axe down on the Qiongqi’s neck.
Then it was time for the Maldrake, who came complete with a rider that had me saying, “Yo, why is there a Nazgul here?” out loud. This fight was trickier because, well… dragon. He could fly, breathe fire, swipe you with his tail, the whole nine yards. And his ride was no slouch, either. He was definitely doing his best Artorias the Abysswalker impression visually, but his attacks were wide and sweeping.
By that time, though, I was fully in tune with my character, dancing under the dragon’s tail, dodging through the knight’s blows, building up my fiery heavy attacks and unleashing my abilities and ultimates when I had them. Nodusfall isn’t Devil May Cry; it just doesn’t have the technical depth, but I always felt cool while I was playing it, which goes a long way, and working with my team was fun. After we did enough damage, the knight dismounted to meet us on the field himself while the dragon attacked from the air. Then, our tank transformed into a giant himself, and we watched the two of them go at it. Pretty rad.
Just when I thought the fight was over and we’d brought the knight down, he leapt into the air, stabbed the dragon in the chest, and stole the dragon’s remaining life. Props for style, admittedly, but now he was alone, and while he definitely seemed stronger, we knew the drill and hit him with everything he had. Eventually, my ultimate took him down, and the development team, who had been watching behind us, cheered as they had for every other squad. We’d been the last to finish, but it hadn’t been by much, and given how long the Qiongqi had taken us, I felt pretty proud of how we’d come together for the final battle. When Nodusfall scored our individual performances at the end, I was happy to learn I’d done the most damage. Fire swords forever.
I didn’t know anything about Nodusfall coming into it, but I came out very, very impressed by it. It’s no secret that the action game is in something of a bad way at the moment. Most things are kind of sauceless, a well-done steak. Nodusfall isn’t Devil Mary Cry or Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta, but it feels great and has an impressive amount of things to manage for a co-op game. It was one of the best games I played at Gamescom, and I’m really eager to see what other mythical beasties Hoyoverse is cooking up for me to whack with my fire sword. Everybody’s got a type.
While you’re here, check out these recent previews of other big upcoming games we’ve checked out recently!
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