Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) is HoYoverse’s third recreation launch in 4 years. You’d suppose that HoYo’s system would get stale with yet one more free-to-play gacha RPG dropping simply 15 months after the discharge of Honkai: Star Rail, however that could not be farther from the reality. The developer has managed to create one other acquainted however distinct gameplay expertise by as soon as once more studying from previous missteps to ship a recreation that’s each iterative and revolutionary on the identical time. The draw back right here, nonetheless, is that ZZZ places a number of new and fascinating parts collectively however forces you to spend probably the most time with the least fascinating of the bunch.
Zenless Zone Zero has extra model and aesthetic excellence than each Genshin Affect and Honkai: Star Rail, all in a a lot smaller bundle by way of world dimension and scale of places. At this level, Genshin Affect’s open-world has turn out to be virtually too giant and sprawling to facilitate a snug or compact cellular gaming expertise, which means it is best skilled on PC or console. In the meantime, Star Rail is the precise reverse as a result of its turn-based fight and auto-battle options are an ideal match for cellular gadgets. Zenless Zone Zero sits squarely in the course of these two experiences by combining roguelike puzzle dungeons, fast-paced motion fight, and chill life-sim actions into one diversified gameplay loop.
The story additionally deviates from what we have come to anticipate from HoYoverse. The world-building remains to be sturdy, however it’s scaled again significantly. As an alternative of high-stakes conflicts with gods and better powers, up to now, Zenless Zone Zero has you observe the every day lives of two tech-genius siblings–Clever and Belle–as they discover methods to generate profits legally and illegally. You get to select which sibling you play as, however regardless of who you go together with, each stay within the story as characters who get common dialogue. The principle distinction is that you just select what your protagonist says and management them whereas exploring the town of New Eridu.
Clever and Belle work as Proxies–individuals who can share their consciousness and sync with small digital creatures named Bangboos. Syncing with a Bangboo permits the duo to make use of the Hole Deep Dive (HDD) system to information scavengers generally known as Hole Raiders as they discover and navigate harmful, shifting dimensions known as Hollows. A number of these phrases get thrown at you from the bounce, however they’re going to turn out to be comparatively straightforward to piece collectively and bear in mind by the top of the prologue chapter. The siblings use and share the alias Phaethon when working as Proxies since scavenging Hollows for treasure and loot is an unlawful line of labor. They’re probably the most well-known Proxies in New Eridu although, so Hole Raiders usually pay them high greenback for his or her companies. And outdoors of their Phaethon persona, they handle an old-school video rental retailer, Random Play, to earn cash on the correct aspect of the regulation as a canopy for his or her shadier ventures.
Though the stakes are low as of Model 1.0, Zenless Zone Zero does an incredible job of addressing frequent pacing issues which have plagued previous HoYo video games by telling its story with stellar presentation. Comedian-book paneling and character portraits maintain almost all main dialogue from turning into stale. The comics maintain you engaged as they slide from scene to scene with the choice to return to earlier panels if you happen to miss any data. In the meantime, character portrait conversations are totally animated to convey practical feelings via mannerisms that assist you perceive the demeanor of the characters who’re talking. And each the comics and portraits are totally voice-acted–including all dialogue from Clever and Belle.
Anby, Billy, and Nicole are the primary Hole Raiders you meet, and so they’re the proper trio to exhibit how dynamic these conversations may be. Anby’s monotone voice and calm demeanor subsequent to Billy’s over-the-top expressions are felt even via the comic-panel stills because of some nice voice appearing. In actual fact, lots of the vocal performances and character personalities make even the longer chats really feel like they’re price listening to.
The largest a part of the gameplay loop has you accepting commissions for the residents of New Eridu by exploring Hollows whereas finishing totally different targets. You management a Bangboo because it strikes via TV units like a tiled board, and much like a board recreation, sure TVs set off particular occasions that result in fight, further dialogue, rewards, and extra. These Hole board sections are intriguing initially, however it quickly feels such as you spend far an excessive amount of time inside TVs when these gameplay hours needs to be unfold extra evenly with fight.
There are three important forms of commissions: Story, Fight, and Exploration. Story commissions are often probably the most fascinating, as they relate to the principle plot and use extra of the storytelling parts talked about above, blended with the TV boards and fight sections. These commissions turn out to be out there as you progress however are typically gated by degree necessities that pressure you to do different fee sorts and full aspect actions within the metropolis. That is par for the course in quite a lot of gacha video games, however it may be irritating to grind via much less participating content material to get again to the good things. That stated, the early degree grind in Zenless Zone Zero at the very least feels a lot faster than in earlier HoYo video games due to how little time it takes to complete commissions.
Fight commissions are strictly about preventing totally different enemy sorts discovered inside Hollows, providing you with an opportunity to take management of your favourite Brokers (characters you possibly can pull for with the gacha options). Exploration commissions are the weakest of the bunch, as they principally contain fixing very simple puzzles on the Hole TV boards with little to no fight alternatives in anyway. Exploration commissions would not really feel as tedious if the puzzles provided extra of a problem, however because it stands, they really feel like a chore. They arrive in stark distinction with Fight commissions, which may be accomplished on multiple issue with timed targets to check your expertise and squad constructing.
However that is to not say fight is not additionally comparatively easy–because it’s. It is simply that fight is, by far, probably the most participating facet of Zenless Zone Zero gameplay-wise because of HoYoverse making it look as stunning as potential. The sleek actions and flashy results had me hooked immediately.
There are two important offense buttons: one for primary assaults and the opposite for particular assaults. A meter fills as you carry out primary assaults, and as soon as it is full, you need to use particular assaults and EX particular assaults for extra damaging combo chains. There’s additionally a dodge that you need to use to evade enemy strikes on the final second when an indicator flashes. Good evades decelerate time to create extra offensive openings, and as you assault, enemies’ Daze meters will enhance, finally beautiful them.
The true star function in fight, nonetheless, is the Help mechanic, which lets you immediately swap between your three get together members. Swapping characters proper earlier than an enemy assaults results in Good Help parries, evades, and particular interrupt strikes that set off a number of the most visually thrilling moments within the recreation. Good Assists devour Help Factors, and it’s essential to stun enemies and carry out chain assaults along with your get together to regain these factors. In any other case, you possibly can solely use common evades to dodge enemy assaults. You are rewarded on your response time whether or not you could have Help Factors to make use of or not although. The Help switches, together with the gorgeous animations and presentation, are what make the fight so participating.
However as famous earlier, the fight is just too straightforward, particularly early on earlier than onerous mode and the endgame are unlocked. You may button-mash all you need so long as you get your defensive timing down. Defensive timing issues as a result of there aren’t any healers on the roster. As an alternative, you possibly can decide up and use therapeutic objects whereas transferring via the TVs in Hollows. There are Brokers who create shields and focus on tanking or assist as options, however realistically, you need to be avoiding most injury with well-timed evades.
Your selection of assaults not often feels prefer it issues, although, so long as you possibly can sustain a combo to achieve Decibels–the vitality that fuels Final assaults. There are such a lot of well-crafted animations and superior skills, but they do not matter as a lot as they need to. For instance, Lucy performs baseball together with her Guard Boars to assault, whereas Nicole shoots bullets and bombs out of a small briefcase. However I needn’t fear about every character’s distinctive transfer set as a result of enemy encounters constantly really feel trivial. Until you are going up in opposition to a boss–which are sometimes enjoyable, cool battles–mobs simply stand round, ready to be killed whereas throwing out assaults that may barely damage even when they did land. Possibly this may change as we transfer ahead from Model 1.0, however as of proper now, even the higher-difficulty fights might stand to be tougher. On the flip aspect, this lets you construct whichever characters you want most with out worrying about any type of meta, for probably the most half.
Your selection of get together members is nearly extra necessary than what you really do with them in fight, as having a combination of weapon ranges and elemental skills to focus on enemy weaknesses makes fights simpler. So, you must construct at the very least a few characters for every ingredient, however it doesn’t really feel like their function (Attacker, Help, or Stun) makes a noticeable distinction as you breeze via the principle storyline. Brokers with the identical faction or elemental attribute additionally achieve further fight skills. It is a good contact that characters who know one another and work collectively within the story have added significant synergy in fight.
The ZZZ endgame dungeon crawler mode, Hole Zero, is likely one of the solely components of the sport the place you see a problem in fight, however it might be good if the sport taught you higher habits or methods with more durable enemies earlier than reaching that time.
If you’re not exploring Hollows, your completely authorized day job entails managing the Random Play video rental retailer. Your managerial duties embrace retrieving overdue video tapes from neighbors in New Eridu, selecting which tapes to show within the retailer, and answering prospects’ questions on film suggestions. Random Play is an oddly nostalgic and charming retailer that brings me again to the times earlier than Netflix and different digital streaming companies pushed bodily rental spots out.
This old-school vibe extends to sure menus and options as properly. The video archive for rewatching outdated cutscenes is laid out like a shelf of outdated VCR tapes, every with distinctive cowl artwork. The archive makes it potential to replay chapters in case you missed something or need to see earlier scenes once more, not like in Genshin Affect and Honkai: Star Rail. Zenless Zone Zero goes a step additional, providing you with the liberty to expertise complete story missions as many instances as you want.
The Random Play retailer is positioned within the first important hub, Sixth Road. And in addition to your managerial duties, you can too go purchase and eat meals for short-term fight buffs, and play mini-games on the native arcade, amongst different actions. These actions are nothing particular, however they introduce you to a number of different shops and NPCs within the neighborhood that make the world really feel lived in. You will discover a stunning variety of unique-looking NPCs to work together with for aspect commissions if you happen to take the time to stroll round Sixth Road and the opposite small hubs, and you may even chat with Brokers throughout the town who’re simply residing their common lives.
The character designs are enjoyable and becoming for the world. There are a number of factions that every home two or extra distinctive Brokers. You may inform which Brokers belong to the identical faction virtually instantly because of their clothes or uniform, however the characters usually nonetheless really feel distinct in each model and persona. This 17-character launch roster comprises a wolfman butler, a blue oni, an android, and even an enormous speaking bear sporting a gold chain (we love Ben Larger on this home), simply to listing just a few standout Brokers. There’s additionally a day/evening cycle and Persona-style Social Hyperlink system that permits you to spend time with particular person Brokers and full character-specific aspect quests to boost their Belief Stage for rewards as time passes. It is good to have one other significant strategy to work together along with your favourite characters exterior of Story commissions, however the day/evening cycle provides virtually nothing to the expertise apart from a man-made timer that encourages you to open the Random Play retailer each morning and forces you to relaxation on the finish of every day.
On the character constructing aspect of issues, you possibly can grind for almost all foreign money and degree up supplies in two locations: the Hole Investigative Affiliation (HIA) and Hole Zero. These supplies are used to boost ranges, degree caps, ability energy, and improve W-Engines and Disc Drives. W-Engines and Disc Drives are the principle tools in ZZZ. Each present further stat boosts, however the former additionally gives a single important buff impact, whereas the latter has two-piece and four-piece set buffs relying on what number of you could have outfitted.
The VR challenges within the HIA mean you can customise every situation as you grind, providing you with the choice to select enemy sorts, issue, and important rewards. This successfully limits the quantity of RNG you must take care of when seeking to improve particular Brokers in your roster.
Finally, you additionally achieve entry to Hole Zero, the repeatable roguelike mode. Hole Zero is much like Star Rail’s Simulated Universe, besides as a substitute of standard motion exterior fight, you are caught in TVs once more. You gather buffs, strengthen your group, and make your strategy to the top of the Hole to finish it. That is additionally the place fight lastly will get a bit tougher as a result of you possibly can struggle stronger bosses and customise your expertise, identical to within the HIA. And after Hole Zero comes Shiyu Protection–a totally combat-focused mode with timed encounters that enhance in issue like Genshin Affect’s Spiral Abyss. That is every part you’d need from the fight, however it does take some time to achieve this level.
For gacha video games that are not based mostly on established properties, I often discover one or two options or moments early on that basically suck me in, whether or not it is interesting gameplay, superb character designs, a forgiving pity system, or one thing else totally. Genshin Affect has its huge open world complemented by deep lore, and Star Rail has its easy but difficult turn-based fight blended with sci-fi fantasy. Zenless Zone Zero’s aesthetic is what grabs me, however I do not know if I’ve discovered the factor that persuades me to turn out to be a every day participant who could even spend a little bit cash. It feels prefer it needs to be the fight system, however the enemy encounters really feel too primary and few in quantity as you progress naturally via the principle storyline earlier than unlocking Hole Zero and Shiyu Protection. For almost all of the expertise, I simply loved the retro-futuristic vibe whereas seeing the numbers get larger, as with every RPG.
Regardless of that gripe, Zenless Zone Zero is yet one more strong entry within the HoYoverse portfolio as of Model 1.0, and it is easy to see the potential as new Brokers get added alongside Story commissions. It is a disgrace that the brilliant spots are dimmed by an entire lack of significant challenges on the subject of almost all commissions–for each puzzles and combat–in the early chapters of the sport. However the present expertise nonetheless shines because of how enjoyable and vibrant the path is in all sides of the sport.
