Hoyoverse recently released their latest entrant into the pantheon of prolific Anime-style games with Zenless Zone Zero on July 4th, 2024. The nostalgia-inducing, story-driven gacha hero collector has taken the tried-and-true Hoyoverse monetization model and transitioned it to a fast-paced fighter. Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) has many similarities to other popular Hoyoverse titles, but will the differences be good enough for it to stand on its own?
I’ve had ample time with ZZZ over the past several weeks. After some hands-on gameplay with the game at Hoyoverse’s Singaporean Studio, and early access time with a starter and max-level account leading into the launch on July 4th, I’ve had ample time with the game as a brand-new player and at end game with a completely maxed out roster. There’s a lot to unpack when you start to consider the wide spectrum of unlockable game modes, characters, and general progression, but what surprised me most was how little those things mattered in the grand scheme of things.
Be Kind Rewind
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it’s important to grasp what ZZZ is about. Like Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact, you start with a choice of two characters, a man or a woman. The major departure here is that these characters are already named and an integral part of the story. Wise and his sister Belle are proxies known as Phaethon. While they are the protagonists and you choose to play as one or the other, they work in tandem from behind the “safety” of their computer by taking control of bunny-like robotic creatures called Bangboo, which they use to explore the Hollow.
You’ll explore the Hollow with the assistance of Agents, which will be the cadre of characters you collect. The story itself follows specific characters throughout multiple acts, and you’ll unlock their stories along the way. In many ways, these story missions act as trials for characters you may eventually unlock through the gacha system.
In my previous articles I’ve touched on the story, and due to the nature of the game, the story plays a significant part in why you should play – so spoiling it here is completely off the menu. I will say that narratively, ZZZ is a mixed bag of fantastic cinematic cutscenes, brilliantly illustrated comic panels, less entertaining talking heads, and lengthy audio or text strings that often hamper the flow of the game entirely. The story mixed through each of these mediums can often give you whiplash.
One moment you’re watching the cat-eared Miyabi cinematically fly across the sky in a dazzling display with her katana, and the next you’re watching a slow-paced conversation reminiscent of a cable news show panel. Hoyoverse is well known for their amazing storytelling, but the hard shifts between the way the story is told hurt the pacing and I quickly lost interest in anything that wasn’t a stylized comic or vibrant, exquisite cinematic. To be fair, the launch was officially the third time I had experienced the story, but I feel like many players would agree with me and won’t bother to sit through the less exciting questlines.
Traversing the Game Bored
Another fascinating piece of ZZZ is the quest exploration using the Game Board. I’ll keep the explanation of the board succinct, as I’ve covered this before. The Game Board is a 2D representation of The Hollow made out of dozens of screens. A tiny Bangboo icon that represents you – the proxy – will hop around to the different tiles, picking up rewards, solving puzzles, and meeting enemies.
Hoyoverse has used the Game Board to great effect throughout the story, presenting some simple puzzles and out-of-the-box representations of situations like boarding a train, which I never imagined I’d see visualized through fuzzy flickering monitor tiles. There has been quite a bit of feedback given to the team about the Game Board. In the worst of cases, it’s confusing and a little boring to traverse such a unique and exciting world in such an oversimplified fashion.
There are multiple game modes that you are required to access to advance the story which include the Story Mode, Exploration Mode, and Combat Mode. While each of these modes have a specific purpose, there is no way to completely forego dealing with the Game Board, so every player will need to succumb to some 2D panel hopping if they want to progress.
In the best of times, however, you have game modes like Hollow Zero, which is a roguelike mission system that lets you traverse the Hollow, pick up power-ups, and make some mild choices along the way. You also gain pressure while moving throughout the Game Board during Hollow Zero, which will eventually result in corruption, which debuffs your characters. It incentivizes you to move through the Hollow with purpose, as you don’t want to accumulate too many debuffs or it will make your battles more difficult.
Hollow Zero is the best use of the Game Board, and it’s my favorite game mode. I feel it should be front and center as the standard for all Game Board encounters. It isn’t perfect, as there are some tedious parts, such as the “Special Area 7777” which acts as a slot machine that you always win but are forced to continuously tap “pull again” 4 times. This somewhat encapsulates my main gripe with the Game Board and story. There seems to be tedious pieces that pull you out of what the game does exceptionally well.
A Bang(boo)-up Job on Combat
Setting aside the Game Board and some of the inconsistent pacing on the story, ZZZ excels in a few major components. The first major pillar that makes ZZZ worth playing is the combat. Hidden within the Game Board, in short instanced bursts, lies a deceptively exciting and fun combat system. If you’ve played other Hoyoverse games, gearing and progression should feel very similar. You’ll complete daily tasks with a limited amount of energy so you can obtain necessary resources to upgrade your characters.
You’ll earn gear pieces through missions, or by pulling for it in the gacha shop, just like the previous titles. You’ll upgrade your characters by obtaining multiple copies of them in the gacha shop, just like the previous titles. It’s easy to point out how the progression, gearing and elemental team-based system are lifted from other Hoyoverses titles, but that's essentially where the similarities end.
Unlike the other games, being skillful means far more in ZZZ than your roster does. I do have my favorite characters, most notably Ellen and Soldier 11 rock my world, but when I started my new account on launch day, I had neither of those characters and was still able to put the hurt on every encounter simply because combat proficiency can bridge the gap between a strong and weak character.
Through a simplistic system of combos, counters and dodges, the developers have managed to come up with an engaging fighter that can be played by anyone. More importantly, the game plays well using a controller, a keyboard, and on your mobile device screen. A lot of thought went into making combat accessible, while also providing advanced combinations for players that really want to dive deeper into everything battling has to offer.
While it’s clear that some advanced moves aren’t necessary to complete most missions, knowing your character can make fights vastly different. A great example of this is Anton, who utilizes a powerful electric gauntlet. Once powered up enough he can strike with his devastating special attack that increases the enemies Daze meter quickly, but unlike some other characters, you only need to utilize that special attack once before switching back to your normal attack. He’ll then perform a series of sizzle-and-pop electric strikes that can decimate even the strongest opponents.
Other characters may have different mechanics, such as Corin. For her, you’ll need to consecutively press her special attack button for her string of powerful buzz-sawing assaults. In many ways every character can be played similarly at first, but you get far more out of them once you unlock the knowledge of how to use them effectively.
Insert Reel and Press Play
The final pieces of the Zenless Zone Zero puzzle revolves around monetization and exploration. Starting with the latter, exploration takes place in multiple instanced hubs that consist of modern-day venues such as a coffee shop, a grocery store, a noodle shop, and more. You’ll also hop over to a military installation and some underground subways to fill out pieces of the story and complete quests. Many of the locales have a retro, nostalgic feel about them, which is one of the reasons the overall aesthetic is so appealing to a 90s kid like me. As a matter of quest completion, anything outside of the main hubs feel like a chore. There is a lot of instancing and zoning in ZZZ that I feel is hidden in games like Honkai Star Rail. It might be because most of the gameplay in ZZZ resides through menus, whereas Star Rail makes use of their larger open worlds.
In many ways this validates the notion that in ZZZ you’re playing as more of a regular person than you do in Hoyoverse’s other titles. Your dailies will have you scratching lottery tickets and grabbing coffee, while the real battles are outside of what your main character deals with firsthand. It’s a great departure from what we’ve seen before, but it has its drawbacks too, mainly in the disjointed feel of questing being split between the nonviolent real world and the abstract exploration of the Game Board for the Hollows.
Monetization we touched on previously, but it falls within the boundaries of what Hoyoverse is comfortable with. You’ll have characters, W-Engines (gear), and Bangboos (acts as a pet), available to roll for in the gacha shop. Alternatively, you’ll also have the Inter-knot membership, a daily polychrome (in-game currency) generator that you can buy in the “24-hour Store” which is a secondary store that sells bundles, in-game materials, and monochrome. Monochrome is the cash-currency that you use to trade into polychrome, which you would utilize to roll for new characters.
As with most Hoyoverse games, there are also limited time banners, and on launch my favorite character Ellen was listed, and will cost me a pretty penny if I want to get her completely maxed out. Unlike other Hoyoverse games, I feel like the usual “predatory” nature of the gacha system is lessened by the way the game handles combat. I don’t feel like I need the best characters. As long as I have a character of each elemental type, I feel like I won’t be hindered in the long run simply because I can make due with my marginally competent combat prowess.
Zenless Zone Zero achieves the flash and thrill of a modern fighter built for players of all skill levels. The fantastic combat can often get hampered by the pacing of story, and the mismatched feel of the world inside the Hollow and the slow-paced life outside of it. There are a lot of great game modes, some unique characters to collect, an enticing story and a fun arcade diversion that updates some retro classics. It’s obvious from the quality this is a Hoyoverse game. For the introductory price of free this is well worth your time, maybe even more than other Hoyoverse titles that require a higher cost investment. However, Zenless Zone Zero feels like it’s a Hoyoverse game that needs a little more time finding itself.
