Is Nodusfall a Rip-Off? The Asset-Copying Accusations, Examined

Last updated: October 7, 2026 — no verifiable evidence of copied assets has been presented; this page updates if that changes.

Short answer: no verifiable evidence of stolen assets exists, and the accusations are not the same thing as proof. The loudest threads on r/Nodusfall claim Nodusfall copied Elden Ring's art. What they actually contain is side-by-side screenshots of similar-looking creatures — which is a real observation about art direction, and a completely different claim from asset theft. Here is the difference, laid out.

What the accusations actually claim

The debate mixes three separate claims with very different evidence standards. Keeping them apart is most of the work:

Claim	What's offered as evidence	Verifiable today?
"The art direction looks like Elden Ring"	Side-by-side frames of dark-fantasy monsters and ruins	Yes — the resemblance is visible and worth discussing
"HoYoverse reused FromSoftware's actual assets"	No datamined filenames, no matching geometry, no source	No — nothing has been presented
"The art is AI-generated"	Stylistic suspicion about the reveal key art	No — and community zoom-ins cut against it

The first claim is a matter of taste and comparison. The second and third are factual accusations that require evidence. That gap is where most of the argument happens without anyone noticing.

Where the debate came from

Nodusfall debuted at gamescom Opening Night Live on August 25, 2026 — a new HoYoverse IP with a dark, grounded, monster-hunting aesthetic. That is a sharp departure from Genshin Impact's cel-shaded anime look, and the shift is what triggered the comparisons.

Three r/Nodusfall threads set the tone in the first week:

• "Everyone saying it copied Elden Ring assets" (133 upvotes, Aug 31) — the thread that named the accusation.
• "If you actually look closely, you'll see these are literally humans." (120 upvotes, Aug 29) — a zoom-in on the official key art arguing the dark masses are composed of human figures, not copied monster models. We covered that discovery separately: Fans Found Humans Inside Nodusfall's Reveal Art.
• "A lot of people calling Nodus Fall a rip-off or copy. Here's this." (69 upvotes, Sep 2) — a rebuttal thread compiling counter-examples.

All three are community threads. None is evidence of anything beyond what the community believes.

What is actually verifiable

Three things, and only three:

1. The art direction overlaps with the souls-like genre. Ruined stone architecture, fog-drenched vistas, oversized beasts — these are the visual grammar of the genre, and Nodusfall uses it.
2. HoYoverse has never been accused of this before. Genshin, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero all drew "this looks like X" comparisons at reveal, but none escalated to asset-theft claims.
3. No one has produced asset-level evidence. In cases of genuine asset theft, the proof is concrete: identical textures, matching mesh files, filenames left in a build. Two months after reveal, none of that has surfaced for Nodusfall.

Why the comparison happens anyway

Genre convergence is real and it is not theft. When a whole industry converges on one visual language, unrelated games start looking related:

• Unreal Engine 5 is now the default. A shared engine with shared lighting and material pipelines pushes studios toward similar-looking results. Nodusfall is UE5; so are most of its 2025–2026 peers.
• "Grounded realism" is the current market direction. HoYoverse deliberately moved away from cel-shading for this project. That choice lands it in the same visual territory as a dozen other games.
• Souls-like silhouettes are a shorthand. Towering, asymmetric monster design reads as "hard boss" instantly. Studios use it the way they once used anime hair.

The honest framing: Nodusfall's look is derivative of its genre, the way every open-world game after Breath of the Wild was derivative of its genre. Derivative is not the same as stolen.

The counter-evidence worth weighing

• The reveal art holds up under zoom. The community's own forensic examination found composed human figures in the key art — detail work that is the opposite of a copy-paste job. See our breakdown.
• The gameplay is not Elden Ring's. Nodusfall is a four-player co-op boss hunt with free-swappable Divine Skills and no stamina-management souls loop. We compare it properly in Nodusfall vs Elden Ring Nightreign — the closest FromSoftware cousin, and still a different game.
• HoYoverse's incentive runs the other way. This is a flagship new IP from a company whose brand is built on original characters. Copying another studio's assets would be an enormous legal and reputational risk for a cosmetic-only, no-gacha product that lives or dies on long-term trust.

What would actually settle it

Three things, in order of how convincing they'd be:

1. Datamining the beta or launch build. Asset theft leaves fingerprints — filenames, metadata, identical meshes. If nothing surfaces in a shipped build, the claim is dead.
2. A credible technical comparison. Someone overlaying meshes or textures and demonstrating a match. Nobody has done this; screenshots of similar-looking monsters are not that.
3. An official response. HoYoverse has not commented, which is standard practice for a company that does not litigate fan arguments. Silence is not an admission.

Until one of those happens, "Nodusfall is a rip-off" stays a claim, not a finding.

How we handle this

We are an independent fan site, not a court. Our policy on this story:

• We label claims as claims. Community threads are attributed to the community, with upvote counts and dates, so you can weigh them yourself.
• We do not assert theft. We will not write "HoYoverse copied X" unless there is technical evidence — at which point we will say so plainly and cite it.
• We will update this page. If datamining surfaces evidence for or against, this page changes and the change is dated.

Spotted something we should include, or evidence we've missed? Tell us at [email protected].

Related pages

• Fans Found Humans Inside Nodusfall's Reveal Art
• Nodusfall vs Elden Ring Nightreign: Souls-Like Looks, Different Games
• What Is Nodusfall?
• Nodusfall Hands-On Roundup: What Previewers Found

Nodusfall Hub is a fan-made site and is not affiliated with HoYoverse.