Genshin Impact Developer HoYoverse Reveals New Open-World Game

The developer of Genshin Impact has revealed a new open-world game called Varsapura. The HoYoverse reveal arrived alongside a gameplay demo video that introduces players to the world of Varsapura and its basic plot.
HoYoverse has seen significant success in recent years, with successful games like Genshin Impact launching in 2020, Honkai: Star Rail in 2023, and Zenless Zone Zero the following year. Although these live service games are ongoing and still popular, the studio hasn't slowed down, and now it will be debuting another game.
HoYoverse has now announced Varsapura, and introduced the title with a 31-minute gameplay demo captured in-game with an Nvidia RTX4090. The demo looks to take place at the start of the game, with the player character, referred to as Hollowone, trying out for a mysterious organization called SEAL, aka Shadow Emergency Alliance. According to the description, the player protagonist appearance will change to "match each viewer's preferences." Much of the plot remains mysterious, but the demo introduces concepts such as a devastating Mindrot, and something called Cognosea disruption events. The player character briefly reveals her motives via dialogue options, indicating that she wants to join SEAL because an officer of the organization "killed her former self."
After an introductory period exploring the SEAL offices, a tutorial combat section was revealed, with the player character fighting monsters with an umbrella she kept from the SEAL agent she was "killed" by. She uses swift combos striking with both a closed and opened umbrella, which allows her to temporarily hover in midair, and at one point, performs a power-up technique that looks almost reminiscent of summoning Personas in Persona 3, but uses her hand instead of an Evoker. Her umbrella can also be used as an auto-returning thrown weapon, and as a method of transportation, as seen in one segment of her traversing a multi-level puzzle. So far, the game seems to bear a similarity to Control, with a decidedly spooky and unnerving atmosphere.
Stealth combat is also an option, with automatic assassination moves if the player is successful in creeping up behind an enemy without drawing its attention. She also utilizes an ability to stun enemies, giving her a moment to move in if spotted. The real-time combat segments also introduce two other characters, showing how they can rapidly swap out to continue combos or utilize their unique movesets to take down enemies. The end of the video demonstrates some of the open world outside of the SEAL offices that players will be able to explore via car and on-foot.
Unfortunately, Varsapura does not have a release date at this time. At the end of the video, HoYoverse revealed that it's hiring for numerous positions to work on the game, including programming, design, art, and marketing. Judging by the fact that they're still looking for team members, it could be some time before players get their hands on HoYoverse's newest project.