Nodusfall and the First Gank: When the Community Judges Before the Match Begins

The first moment I saw the comparison images between Nodusfall and Elden Ring, I was reminded of an evening in 2026, when I was 17, writing a blog analyzing Yu Dabao's header against South Korea. I called it a 'rising ultimate', called the South Korean defense 'an enemy jungle being stolen from'. The community back then didn't argue about whether Yu Dabao was 'copying' anyone. They only asked: was the play beautiful, was it effective? But with Nodusfall, everything is different. After just one reveal trailer, the global gaming community raised the 'rip-off' sign before anyone actually held a controller and played this game. This is the first gank, but it doesn't come from the game's jungle — it comes from the dark corners of social media comments. The context of this story is clear. HoYoverse, the Chinese company behind Genshin Impact and the Honkai series, known for its anime style and gacha mechanics, suddenly announced a new project called Nodusfall. What's shocking isn't just that they abandoned their familiar anime style for dark fantasy with realistic graphics, but the level of visual similarity between the characters in the trailer and the iconic characters of Elden Ring — the Game of the Year 2026 title from FromSoftware. A winged character reminds players of Malenia, a white-haired woman is compared to Melina. With just a few still images, the community concluded: HoYoverse went too far beyond taking inspiration. But I learned an important lesson from the 2026 World Cup, when I wrote about Croatia — the team I called 'all rare skins' with Modric and Rakitic. I idealized them so much that I forgot France had a more complete squad, and the 2-4 result in the final was inevitable. I wrote 'The final gank failed: Croatia fell exactly when the enemy had completed their build' — a tearful article, but afterward I realized I was wrong to place so much emotional expectation on a team. Since then, I've forbidden myself from writing 'will definitely win' because no one controls the meta of reality. And with Nodusfall, the community is making a similar mistake — but in the opposite direction. They're not idealizing, they're burying before having enough data. The most important point this analysis makes, and I fully agree, is the fundamental difference between the two games. Elden Ring is a single-player action RPG focused on open-world exploration and challenging combat. Nodusfall, according to trailer information, focuses on co-op boss hunting with up to four players. This brings it closer to Monster Hunter — a completely different genre — than to Elden Ring. Some in the community have recognized this by comparing Nodusfall to a combination of Elden Ring and Monster Hunter. But the majority remain stuck comparing still images, which cannot show the actual gameplay. From the perspective of someone who has followed the Chinese game industry's development for years, I see this as not just a story about a game suspected of plagiarism. This is a story about a financial giant — HoYoverse, with billions in revenue from Genshin Impact — trying to expand into a completely new market segment: premium console/PC games for Western audiences. Elden Ring proved that demand for the dark fantasy soulslike genre is massive, and HoYoverse wants a piece of that pie. Financially, they have the resources to do it. In terms of design, they face a big question: can a studio known for anime gacha games pivot to a genre they've never attempted? I remember the 90 days of lockdown in 2026, when I interviewed Mr. Li Wei, a 52-year-old goalkeeper coach, over Zoom. He said: 'The whistle sounds and fades, but my standing position remains.' That sentence changed how I view patience in sports and in life. With Nodusfall, HoYoverse's standing position remains — they're still in development, still have a chance to prove their own identity. But the community has judged before the match began. They ganked from the bush before the jungler could level up. There's an irony in this story. HoYoverse, the company once criticized for its 'money-draining' gacha model, is now criticized for 'copying' another game. This reveals a long-standing pattern in the global game industry: Chinese developers are often suspected of plagiarism, no matter what they do. This isn't an unfounded accusation — there have been real cases of plagiarism in the past — but it also reflects a persistent bias. When a Japanese studio creates a game similar to another, it's called 'influence'. When a Chinese studio does the same, it's called 'rip-off'. However, I don't take sides in this controversy. I just want to reiterate a principle I learned from years as an esports commentator: never judge a match before it ends, and never judge a game before you've held the controller. A trailer is just a preview, not the entire game. Still images cannot convey the feel of combat, the rhythm of movement, or the difference in co-op mechanics. Nodusfall could be a great game, or it could be a disaster. But we can't know that from comparison images on social media. The Nodusfall story is also a story about how we consume information in the digital age. A trailer is released, and within hours, thousands of articles, videos, and comments are created to judge a game no one has played. This is like watching a football match based only on the starting lineup, without watching them play. You can guess which team is stronger on paper, but you can't know which team will win on the pitch. Football, like games, always has surprises. I remember the match between Saudi Arabia and Argentina at the 2026 World Cup, which I called 'a low elo team fight taking down the boss'. No one believed Saudi Arabia could win, but they did thanks to a high defensive line to trap offside — a perfect 'reading the enemy jungler' move. If we judged that match only by the two teams' reputations, we would have missed one of the greatest moments in World Cup history. Similarly, if we judge Nodusfall only by its visual similarity to Elden Ring, we might miss a game with unique co-op mechanics no one has seen before. From a legal perspective, the risk HoYoverse faces is low. Copyright law generally doesn't protect game mechanics — things like soulslike combat or dark fantasy settings cannot be monopolized. Only specific expressive elements like character designs, art assets, or names can be considered infringing. The similarities described in the analysis — a winged character 'reminding' players of Malenia, a white-haired woman 'compared to' Melina — are archetypal similarities, not direct copies. The real risk lies in reputation, not law. If the 'rip-off' narrative sticks, it could affect pre-orders and launch sales, especially in Western markets where Elden Ring has a massive, passionate fanbase. But there's something this analysis points out correctly: this controversy could become motivation to attract attention. In the game industry, as in sports, there's no such thing as bad publicity. If HoYoverse can prove its own identity — through an impressive showcase of the four-player co-op mechanic — then the current controversies can become a springboard to attract more attention. This is like an underdog team that wins convincingly after being doubted — the victory tastes sweeter because everyone doubted them. I still remember the feeling of writing my ebook 'Offline Server: An Epic for Those Not Broadcast' during the 90-day lockdown. No one bought it, but a university professor used it as teaching material. I learned that a work's value lies not in the number of readers, but in whether it reaches the right people. With Nodusfall, the game's value won't lie in whether it looks like Elden Ring, but in whether it delivers a fresh experience to players. And that can only be assessed when the game launches, not when the trailer is released. The Nodusfall story also raises a bigger question about the future of the Chinese game industry. HoYoverse, with its superior financial resources, is leading a new trend: Chinese developers moving into the premium console/PC segment for the global market. This is a significant strategic shift, and it could reshape the competitive dynamics of the global game industry over the next 3-5 years. If Nodusfall succeeds, it could pave the way for other Chinese developers to follow. If it fails, it could make them more cautious about expanding into new genres. But all of this is still ahead. Right now, we only have a trailer and a wave of controversy. I don't know if Nodusfall will succeed or fail. I don't know if HoYoverse can prove its own identity. But I know that judging a game before it launches is a mistake we've made too many times in the past. And I know that, as I wrote in my ebook, 'the biggest battle begins from a quiet evening'. With Nodusfall, the biggest battle hasn't begun yet. We've only heard the war drums from afar. The snow has melted but the song remains on the field, like a position no one occupies. With Nodusfall, that position is still waiting — waiting to be filled by real gameplay, waiting to be judged on its true value, waiting to be played by those who will love it or hate it for legitimate reasons. And when that happens, we'll know whether the community's first gank was accurate, or whether it was just a 'steal' from the bush with no real target.