Varsapura is HoYoverse’s new open-world, Control-like game set in…Singapore?

Earlier last week, HoYoverse lifted the veil on a new, open-world game the company is working on titled Varsapura. While details about the game are sparse, from the looks of it, it seems to be set in our very own Singapore, or at least in a setting inspired by it.

That’s based on a 31-minute gameplay demo that the company released, which showcased the game’s combat mechanics as well as an open-world section. And it’s in the latter that we get a glimpse of the game’s setting, as we see two characters driving around what looks to be the CBD area.

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It’s not exactly a one-to-one remake, but rather a mish-mash of iconic sites in downtown Singapore, including NAFA, Duo Galleria and CHIJMES (and even a Sim Lim Square sign placed on a building that, admittedly, looks nothing like SLS).

There are also various road signs making references to streets like Rochor, Kallang and Serangoon Roads, though we don’t know whether these will be replaced by fictional road names. The skyline also more closely resembles Shanghai’s rather than Singapore’s, though perhaps the game could also be taking influences from various locales.

As for the game itself, it’s a bit of a departure from HoYoverse’s other titles. One particular distinction is that it’s built on Unreal Engine 5, rather than the Unity engine which Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail were developed on. 

The character designs are also a step farther from the more directly anime-influenced look HoYoverse’s other games. Instead, it looks closer to Lumi_N0va, the company’s in-house Vtuber whose model also happens to be built on Unreal Engine 5. The gameplay showcased in the demo is running on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

As for the combat, on the surface, it’s a hack-and-slash that’s reminiscent of Zenless Zone Zero, though special attacks are limited to a burst bounded to ‘E’ and an ult bound to ‘Q’, similar to Genshin Impact. Like other HoYoverse games, you can swap between characters mid-gameplay, though, so I suppose we can’t count it out from being a gacha game just yet.

Some commentators have also noted that the game takes cues from 2019’s Control, not just because characters in Varsapura utilise psychic powers, but also because the game sees you becoming part of a shadowy law enforcement agency. In this game, its SEAL, an organisation fighting against a malevolent influence called ‘Mindrot’.

Not to mention the surreal undertones that the game has, with a mysterious, umbrella-wielding shadow man conducting your SEAL job interview in a dark dreamscape. It’s a far cry from the colourful, stylised world we’ve seen in other HoYoverse games. It’s also worth noting that rain is a recurring motif throughout the demo; in fact, the “Varsa” half of the game’s title could be derived from the Sanskrit word for ‘rain’ or the monsoon season.

This demo is just about all that we’re going to see from Varsapura for a while, as the demo’s main purpose was to recruit people for the game’s development. Given that we’re probably years away from the game’s release, it remains to be seen how much of the world or character designs will be retained in the final product. Varsapura is currently HoYoverse’s third upcoming game, alongside Petit Planet and Honkai: Nexus Anima.