July 2024 saw the release of Zenless Zone Zero, a new game by miHoYo or HoYoverse. It so happened that ZZZ, at the start, could not repeat the financial success of the company’s two previous products—Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. The new project became an indicator, symbolizing the developers’ path. Today, the Blix team will thoroughly review the Zenless Zone Zero game.
Contents
Highlights
- A detailed review of Zenless Zone Zero
- Pros and cons of the game, gameplay overview
For Genshin fans we have created a selection that will help you find a game if you suddenly tired of the original Genshin: Best Games Like Genshin Impact (TOP-10).
ZZZ (Zenless Zone Zero) was met with a cold reception. In the background of the previous HoYoverse games, the scores for the new game are lower than those of its predecessors. The network has already started talking about the first failure of the Chinese, but is the game terrible? It may be a matter of inflated expectations. Let’s start the analysis with the plot.
What’s the plot?
At the start, the plot is presented in a blur. The city of New Eridu is one of the few places that survived the global catastrophe. Hollows appear on its surface now and then, inside which Ethereals – former humans and robots turned into dangerous monsters by etheric matter – dwell.
However, along with the dangers, the chaotic labyrinths are filled with valuable finds. The latter are what make players dive into the darkness.
We choose one of two “proxies”—characters that drive the main story. The brother and sister ( Wise and Belle) are hackers and navigational experts within the Hollows. They help the mercenaries avoid getting lost in space and give them a part of the collected loot. So, the couple earns a living and develops a small video salon.
As it is supposed to be, one day, the adventurers get involved in something they shouldn’t, and the yoke of the chosen one falls on someone, and that’s all there is to it. In addition to proxies, players utilize rabbit-like robotic assistants known as Bangboos.
The first three chapters on release are just the beginning of a fun detective story. The story is in comic book form or excellently staged animated scenes. It is shallow but well-written.
There are funny and touching moments (especially at the final of the second chapter) and well-twisted intrigue. The dialog, especially outside the main storyline, is a little pumped up. But if you’re not repulsed by plots in which the head of a multi-billion dollar corporation is a teenage girl who won’t part with a jet sledgehammer, it will be moderately entertaining to follow.
Of course, many players criticized the plot for its incomprehensible beginning; however, many reviewers also recognized that it was further straightened out. Interesting personal stories of the characters appear in the video archive.
You get used to the unusual world and even begin to find its charm. We constantly see witty and charming banter between brother and sister, and at times, we see cute scenes of caring. A big plus is that the characters don’t remain silent. They speak the dialog you choose.
Reviews were also written by ordinary users. You can read their opinions on Reddit:
Gameplay Features
The gameplay is split into two different modes: “TV Mode” and “Combat Mode.” TV Mode gameplay resembles a 2D dungeon crawler game, with the Proxy roaming on tiles that resemble TVs to find treasure, solve puzzles, and fight Ethereals. If the Proxy steps on an enemy tile, the party is sent to “Combat Mode,” where they fight in a 3D hack-and-slash-like game mode.
By combining the abilities of different Agents and Bangboos, players can deal more significant damage and combos (known as Chain Attack) onto enemies. The game features an in-game clock system, with the days split into morning, afternoon, evening, and midnight.
Combat System
Zenless Zone Zero brings back the impressive and fluid combat mechanics from Honkai Impact 3rd, simplifies them, and offers one of the best combat experiences in gacha games, all in a heavily stylized environment straight out of the comics.
When venturing into Hollows, the protagonist’s entire squad – three agents at once – comes under your control. During battles, you can freely switch between them. Timely change of the hero helps in battle: if you switch exactly before the enemy attack, the selected agent will make an enhanced counterattack. It deals a lot of damage and stuns a lot.
The game has gorgeous battle animation and generally looks very effective.
Enemies are moderately visually diverse, but the behavior patterns of ordinary mobs do not differ much. With bosses, the situation is different. Each boss is an interesting battle. In it, it is essential to quickly fill the stunning scale (for which the intimidation fighters are responsible), take the creep out of the fight for at least a while, and try to remove the rest of his health quickly.
Properly selected elements allow you to break through defenses; support or defense characters will help you in a difficult moment. The game offers to switch the fighter at key moments of the battle.
But with such a combat system, HoYoverse has driven both themselves and players into a trap. Of course, you will get the basic pack of fighters as you go through the first chapters. Some more will be given out in the course of events, but the rest you need to knock out of the gacha machine.
Naturally, you can’t get top S-class fighters just like that. You have to spin the roulette. And if you are unlucky, ZZZ loses all its charm, and the fights become depressing.
In the story campaign, the engine that pushes the player forward can still serve as a story, but the grind of resources for pumping will turn into a nightmare. A good squad “dismantles” enemies in battles for resources in 30 seconds (faster than similar battles in Honkai StarRail).
Without suitable heroes, the resource grind will be even drearier than in Genshin Impact, with constant dodging and attempts to inflict at least some damage on the enemy.
Side Tasks – Missions
In ZZZ, each mission is also a puzzle, and the map of this puzzle is formed by screens with different images. By moving your Bangboo from screen to screen, we make it possible for the squad, trying not to get adverse effects, to look in places where there are valuable items to approach the battle with the final boss in full force.
In some trials, you can earn resources and then spend them on pumping, which increases the level of agents and improves their abilities and equipment. You won’t get much at once: the trials require energy, which is saved up in real-time.
It takes 24 hours to restore an entire supply of 240 units. Most tasks spend 40-80 units of energy, so you’ll have to wait a whole day after three or four trips. You can also visit a coffee shop: a cup of coffee will restore 60 units of energy, but you can only drink it once a day.
This game mechanic doesn’t cause a wow effect. Still, in the mobile version of ZZZ, it looks organic and allows the player to switch attention from endless battles, making them less monotonous than in other mobile slashers.
In addition, it allowed the developers of miHoYo to realize the rogue-like mode harmoniously. Wandering around the screens is interesting, so the “exploration” mode for additional missions, which does not involve combat, plays well.
Gacha System
The gacha system in Zenless Zone Zero is the same as in other HoYoverse games. The primary way to get new agents is through “spinning” character banners. The system resembles a slot machine more than anything else, where the banner is a list of possible rewards, and the “spin” is a token that can be spent per attempt.
In Zenless Zone Zero, “twists” can be obtained in exchange for a unique resource—polychromes. They are given out for completing story quests, side missions, and combat challenges.
Donation options are similar to those in Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. You can buy resources to trade for “twists,” or a subscription that will give you some materials for 30 days. A paid Battle Pass also provides additional materials to pump up characters.
To complete the story and other quests, enough currency is given out to unlock several agents and pump them up, especially at the beginning of the game. Therefore, donation is not necessary at all.
You can also learn a lot about the game in this discussion:
End-Game Modes for Launch
Zenless Zone Zero features a Hard Mode, where the normal Story Missions can be played at higher difficulty, and a Challenge Mode, which increases the difficulty of story missions.
Hollow Zero is the end-game with the most content and the earliest to unlock, similar to Simulated Universe in Honkai Star Rail. You can play with three agents in this game mode, but the level begins with the leading agent. You must explore the Hollow to find the rest of your agents and add them to your team.
Shiyu’s Defense is a combination of Spiral Abyss and Memory of Chaos. You will have to fight through a horde of enemies at each level and finish the fight before the time runs out to complete the challenge. Finishing the battle quickly will give more rewards.
Notorious Hunt Hand are the end-game main boss fights you can play for a limited time weekly to earn rewards. The boss fights become challenging at higher and extremely easy at lower levels.
Technical Condition and Style
As always for HoYoverse, the technical execution of the project was top-notch. Of course, it was not without bugs, but the bugs found in the release were quickly fixed.
ZZZ looks excellent and has a style that differs from what HoYoverse fans are used to. It’s more aggressive and youthful but feels fresh and original overall. The designers and artists didn’t mess around.
This is an incredibly stylish game. It combines elements of cyberpunk and fantasy: fighting robots, AI-controlled construction cranes, girls with cat ears, and anthropomorphic bears. The juxtaposition is unusual, but it’s surprisingly organic given the setting.
The quality of the animations is also impressive. During the battle, the screen is colored by effects, and agents jump from one enemy to another spectacularly. Rollers look like episodes from an actual anime, not video-game cutscenes.
For anime fans, we have a great list of things to watch: Top Fall Anime List 2024. And you can also check out games with similar themes: Best Anime Games Ever: The Ultimate Top-10 List for 2024.
The music and sound design is also technically decent but may lack originality. You expect more from the creators of Genshin Impact and Hokai StarRail.
A Brief Summary of Pros and Cons
Zenless Zone Zero feels very fresh. The colorful design perfectly combines an unusual combat system and rich city life. On the other hand, many mechanics are wholly or partially borrowed from Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail.
The story and characters are interesting, but the over-the-top anime style will repulse someone. The basic gameplay quickly gets boring: a sound combat system with character changes rapidly becomes a chore.
Sometimes Zenless Zone Zero does surprise you with its over-the-top epic. But dialogs sometimes cause Spanish shame or look ridiculous. For example, the catgirls insert a “meow” in every sentence. And the cartoon hackers, who try to hack the main character’s profile, pompously comment on every action.
In the first few hours of playthrough, you’ll be presented with challenges, resources, currencies, and equipment. Each mechanic can be learned in a menu with tutorials, but at some point, they start appearing one after another. Therefore, there is a high probability of getting lost in everything in the game.
One of the disadvantages is that the combat system is too monotonous. The gameplay is reduced to “shouting” enemies with the usual attack button when playing for any of the agents.
Yes, occasionally, you must press a notable blow, activate a superpower, and switch to other agents to parry. But even so, you will usually use the same combo for the most pumped-up hero in the squad.
The small world open for exploration will disappoint those players who like to travel, enjoy beautiful views, and solve puzzles.
However, if you want to play a good slasher with good characters and beautiful, spectacular battles and are ready to spend time dealing with many things that will fall on you in the first few minutes, you will not regret the game.
IGN has also compiled its opinion of the game:
