Is HoYoverse’s new game Nodus Fall using Unreal Engine instead of Unity?
HoYoverse’s Nodus Fall isn’t just a visual departure. Discover why trading Unity for Unreal Engine 5 was a structural necessity for its heavy combat.
Key Takeaways
What: Nodus Fall is HoYoverse’s upcoming dark fantasy, co-op RPG.
Why: The studio abandoned its signature anime style to support heavy, physics-bound tactical combat.
How: Developing in Unreal Engine 5 instead of Unity enables massive environmental scales and monster-climbing mechanics.
The Real Reason HoYoverse Abandoned Unity for its Next Big Title
When HoYoverse stepped onto the stage at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 to show off Nodus Fall, the immediate reaction from the gaming community was a wave of visual comparisons. Observers quickly pointed out how much this dark, cooperative action game looked like a pairing of Elden Ring and Monster Hunter. The signature bright, cell-shaded anime style of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail was gone, replaced by a grim, realistic high-fantasy world.
But focusing entirely on the dark aesthetic misses the most significant change. HoYoverse is trading its highly successful, deeply familiar Unity pipeline for Epic’s Unreal Engine 5.
Conventional wisdom in game development suggests that studios switch engines to access better lighting or to make graphics look prettier. However, the move to Unreal Engine 5 is not just an aesthetic choice; it is a structural necessity driven entirely by physics and player movement.
HoYoverse has spent years perfecting fast-paced, floaty anime combat in Unity. Characters dart across screens with minimal friction, dodging instantly with generous invincibility windows. If you try to build heavy, deliberate, stamina-bound combat in that same environment, the physics systems struggle. Unreal Engine 5 provides the underlying spatial architecture and collision handling required to make giant weapons feel heavy and massive enemies feel physically present. The engine change is the direct cause of the tactical gameplay shift, not a byproduct of it.
Gravity and Grit: How the Combat Feels
The Nodus Fall trailer shows off a gameplay loop that is far more deliberate than anything HoYoverse has done before. Instead of executing rapid-fire ability rotations, players must manage their stamina and time their strikes to survive. The combat has real, physical weight.
This tactical approach is designed for cooperative play. Groups of players join forces as Weavers to hunt down colossal, mythic threats. The environment itself plays a role in this scale; the wide-open, barren landscapes are designed to make players look incredibly small compared to the monsters they are fighting. Unreal Engine 5’s physics allow players to scale these massive beasts, physically climbing onto their backs during battle—a feature that requires complex physical interaction between player models and moving enemy geometry.
Sunder the Nodus: Lore and the World of Weavers
In Nodus Fall, players step into a world where the old gods have fallen and divine authority has collapsed. With the heavens empty, the land is haunted by ancient dangers. As Weavers, players must wield remnants of divine power to fight back against mythic entities.
The creature designs depart completely from HoYoverse’s traditional, clean enemies. The trailer features a variety of grim, imposing creatures:
- A towering titan with its head engulfed in flames.
- Gigantic trolls forging weapons at massive anvils.
- Winged tigers that summon lightning strikes.
- A dark angel with rotting wings, reminiscent of classic dark fantasy bosses.
- Dragons and phoenixes lording over desolate landscapes.
This darker tone is part of a broader trend of experimentation for the studio. Over the past year, HoYoverse has also introduced Petit Planet, a cozy farming game, and Varsapura, an urban title with a very different aesthetic. Nodus Fall represents their most extreme step away from the style that made them a household name.
The Road to Release
Though the Gamescom presentation gave us our first detailed look at the project, Nodus Fall was actually teased on a website roughly ten months ago. Currently, the game is confirmed for a PlayStation 5 release, with other platforms yet to be finalized.
There is no release window or beta test schedule yet. Because HoYoverse is building this game on an entirely new technical foundation, development will likely take time as the team adapts to Unreal Engine 5. For a studio known for its rapid content updates, navigating a new engine will be their biggest challenge yet.