I think miHoYo might just have a bit too much money. Somehow, they have yet another game on the way called Varsapura, yet another anime-looking, open-world action game, this time by way of psychic mishappenings. As many have pointed out, there’s a vague Control-like quality to it, at least in its newly shown off, lengthy gameplay demo.
The atmosphere and vibes are admittedly quite strong, miHoYo has always been fairly good at that. Within the gameplay demo, a fancy, government-esque building twists and reshapes itself into something surreal and abstract, enemies that look like office workers turned into shadowy monsters.
Narratively, this is all explained thusly: the titular Varsapura is a strange space that can be entered, with the protagonist’s appearance shifting “to match each viewer’s preferences. The origin of this parapsychological effect remains unknown.” There’s an organisation called SEAL, or Shadow Emergency Alliance, with the player character showing up at their main office (the aforementioned government building), in a particularly Control-like intro.
Then there’s the combat, which honestly, once you’ve played one miHoYo game you’ve played them all. It’s all flashily animated combos that let you switch between different characters with what appears to be not much substance. Don’t get me wrong, fun to look at, there’s just a similar aura to those videos of singing bits of fruit and vegetables that are rotting babies’ brains. Also I wish they’d let the psychic cop women wear pants, it doesn’t seem like the kind of work they’re doing really calls for a miniskirt.
Overall there’s still not much known about Varsapura, outside of the fact it’s releasing on PC. You’ll just have to keep an eye out on a release date in the meantime.
