Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) is HoYoverse’s third recreation launch in 4 years. You’d suppose that HoYo’s formulation would get stale with 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 modern on the similar time. The draw back right here, nevertheless, is that ZZZ places a number of new and fascinating parts collectively however forces you to spend essentially the most time with the least fascinating of the bunch.
Zenless Zone Zero has extra type and aesthetic excellence than each Genshin Influence and Honkai: Star Rail, all in a a lot smaller bundle by way of world dimension and scale of places. At this level, Genshin Influence’s open-world has develop into nearly too massive and sprawling to facilitate a snug or compact cell gaming expertise, that 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 cell units. 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 different gameplay loop.
The story additionally deviates from what we have come to count on from HoYoverse. The world-building continues to be robust, but it surely’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 day by day lives of two tech-genius siblings–Smart and Belle–as they discover methods to earn a living legally and illegally. You get to select which sibling you play as, however regardless of who you go along with, each stay within the story as characters who get common dialogue. The principle distinction is that you simply select what your protagonist says and management them whereas exploring town of New Eridu.
Smart 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 often known as Hole Raiders as they discover and navigate harmful, shifting dimensions referred to as Hollows. Lots of these phrases get thrown at you from the bounce, however they’re going to develop into 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 essentially the most well-known Proxies in New Eridu although, so Hole Raiders typically pay them high greenback for his or her companies. And out of doors of their Phaethon persona, they handle an old-school video rental retailer, Random Play, to earn cash on the correct aspect of the legislation as a canopy for his or her shadier ventures.
Though the stakes are low as of Model 1.0, Zenless Zone Zero does a tremendous 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 preserve practically all main dialogue from changing into stale. The comics preserve you engaged as they slide from scene to scene with the choice to return to earlier panels in the event you miss any data. In the meantime, character portrait conversations are totally animated to convey real looking feelings by 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 Smart and Belle.
Anby, Billy, and Nicole are the primary Hole Raiders you meet, they usually’re the proper trio to show how dynamic these conversations could be. Anby’s monotone voice and calm demeanor subsequent to Billy’s over-the-top expressions are felt even by the comic-panel stills due to some nice voice performing. 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 most important a part of the gameplay loop has you accepting commissions for the residents of New Eridu by exploring Hollows whereas finishing completely different targets. You management a Bangboo because it strikes by TV units like a tiled board, and just 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, but it surely 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 fundamental kinds of commissions: Story, Fight, and Exploration. Story commissions are often essentially 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 develop into obtainable as you progress however are generally gated by degree necessities that power you to do different fee sorts and full aspect actions within the metropolis. That is par for the course in a variety of gacha video games, however it may be irritating to grind by much less participating content material to get again to the good things. That mentioned, the early degree grind in Zenless Zone Zero a minimum of 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 completely different enemy sorts discovered inside Hollows, supplying 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 any way. 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 could be accomplished on multiple issue with timed targets to check your abilities 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, essentially the most participating facet of Zenless Zone Zero gameplay-wise due to HoYoverse making it look as lovely as potential. The sleek actions and flashy results had me hooked immediately.
There are two fundamental offense buttons: one for fundamental assaults and the opposite for particular assaults. A meter fills as you carry out fundamental assaults, and as soon as it is full, you should use particular assaults and EX particular assaults for extra damaging combo chains. There’s additionally a dodge that you should use to evade enemy strikes on the final second when an indicator flashes. Excellent evades decelerate time to create extra offensive openings, and as you assault, enemies’ Daze meters will improve, finally beautiful them.
The true star characteristic in fight, nevertheless, is the Help mechanic, which lets you immediately swap between your three social gathering members. Swapping characters proper earlier than an enemy assaults results in Excellent Help parries, evades, and particular interrupt strikes that set off among the most visually thrilling moments within the recreation. Excellent Assists devour Help Factors, and you have to stun enemies and carry out chain assaults along with your social gathering to regain these factors. In any other case, you possibly can solely use common evades to dodge enemy assaults. You are rewarded in 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 laborious mode and the endgame are unlocked. You’ll be able to button-mash all you need so long as you get your defensive timing down. Defensive timing issues as a result of there are not any healers on the roster. As an alternative, you possibly can decide up and use therapeutic gadgets whereas shifting by the TVs in Hollows. There are Brokers who create shields and concentrate on tanking or help as options, however realistically, you need to be avoiding most harm 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 talents, 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 need not fear about every character’s distinctive transfer set as a result of enemy encounters persistently 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 might 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 may 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 essentially the most half.
Your selection of social gathering members is nearly extra necessary than what you really do with them in fight, as having a combination of weapon ranges and elemental talents to focus on enemy weaknesses makes fights simpler. So, you need to construct a minimum of a few characters for every aspect, but it surely doesn’t really feel like their function (Attacker, Help, or Stun) makes a noticeable distinction as you breeze by the principle storyline. Brokers with the identical faction or elemental attribute additionally acquire further fight talents. 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 among the solely components of the sport the place you see a problem in fight, however it will be good if the sport taught you higher habits or methods with more durable enemies earlier than reaching that time.
Once 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 clients’ 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 nicely. 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 Influence and Honkai: Star Rail. Zenless Zone Zero goes a step additional, supplying you with the liberty to expertise complete story missions as many instances as you would like.
The Random Play retailer is positioned within the first fundamental hub, Sixth Road. And apart from your managerial duties, you may also 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 may discover a shocking variety of unique-looking NPCs to work together with for aspect commissions in the event you take the time to stroll round Sixth Road and the opposite small hubs, and you may even chat with Brokers throughout town who’re simply dwelling 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’ll be able to inform which Brokers belong to the identical faction nearly instantly due to their clothes or uniform, however the characters typically nonetheless really feel distinct in each type 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 Greater on this home), simply to record a couple of standout Brokers. There’s additionally a day/evening cycle and Persona-style Social Hyperlink system that means that you can spend time with particular person Brokers and full character-specific aspect quests to lift their Belief Stage for rewards as time passes. It is good to have one other significant option to work together along with your favourite characters exterior of Story commissions, however the day/evening cycle provides nearly nothing to the expertise aside from a synthetic 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 practically all forex and degree up supplies in two locations: the Hole Investigative Affiliation (HIA) and Hole Zero. These supplies are used to lift 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 offers a single fundamental buff impact, whereas the latter has two-piece and four-piece set buffs relying on what number of you could have geared up.
The VR challenges within the HIA mean you can customise every state of affairs as you grind, supplying you with the choice to select enemy sorts, issue, and fundamental rewards. This successfully limits the quantity of RNG you must cope with when trying to improve particular Brokers in your roster.
Ultimately, you additionally acquire entry to Hole Zero, the repeatable roguelike mode. Hole Zero is just like Star Rail’s Simulated Universe, besides as a substitute of normal motion exterior fight, you are caught in TVs once more. You accumulate buffs, strengthen your group, and make your option to the top of the Hole to finish it. That is additionally the place fight lastly will get a bit more difficult as a result of you possibly can combat stronger bosses and customise your expertise, similar to within the HIA. And after Hole Zero comes Shiyu Protection–a totally combat-focused mode with timed encounters that improve in issue like Genshin Influence’s Spiral Abyss. That is the whole lot you’d need from the fight, but it surely does take some time to succeed in 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 actually suck me in, whether or not it is interesting gameplay, superb character designs, a forgiving pity system, or one thing else completely. Genshin Influence 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 develop into a day by day participant who could even spend just a little cash. It feels prefer it needs to be the fight system, however the enemy encounters really feel too fundamental and few in quantity as you progress naturally by 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 increased, as with all RPG.
Regardless of that gripe, Zenless Zone Zero is one more stable 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 a whole lack of significant challenges in relation to practically all commissions–for each puzzles and combat–in the early chapters of the sport. However the present expertise nonetheless shines due to how enjoyable and vibrant the path is in all sides of the sport.
