Over the past four to five years, HoYoverse has become a true juggernaut in the gaming sphere. From Genshin Impact, to Honkai: Star Rail, they’ve been releasing smash hits one after the other.
And this year, another game joins their family of games. Introducing Zenless Zone Zero, their latest urban action RPG. But just how does this game fare in their repertoire?
Welcome to New Eridu!
Zenless Zone Zero takes place in a futuristic city known as New Eridu, where a supernatural disaster has spawned what is known as the Hollow.
And immediately, this is one of the key aspects where Zenless Zone Zero differs from HoYoverse’s games. One of its catchphrases is “Dual Identities, One Story”, and it shows here. When picking a protagonist to play, the story won’t eliminate the other from the story. Indeed, both the male and female protagonists play a key part in the tale, which is amazing.
Admitedly, Genshin Impact sort of does this with the twin you do not choose, but I feel that the fact that still having Belle interact with the story while having picked Wise as my choice for the protagonist is a great approach.
That said, I would also say that Wise and Belle are, for the first time, 3rd person protagonists. You take on their role, but they’re not exactly playable in the strict sense of the word. Instead, you’re just in here for the ride, as you watch them perform their work as Proxies.
The Story of Zenless Zone Zero
The story feels episodic as you go through the lives of the twins doing their work. Each chapter has you deal with a specific case, with a larger story arc threading the needle throughout these chapters.
Zenless Zone Zero’s approach to the story feels like a breath of fresh air, as one story line isn’t bigger than the others. Every chapter has its own Intermission segment, which serves as a perfect break point for players to drop off for the night, or take a small break when deciding whether or not to build certain characters. Which leads into the single most impactful Quality of life changes made to Zenless Zone Zero; rewatching cutscenes.
Now, this is a feature that I have been requesting for goodness knows how long when it comes to HoYoverse’s other games, and Zenless Zone Zero delivered it. After you’ve cleared a certain chapter, all of the cutscenes you watched get stored in the form of videotapes which you can rewatch easily, and even replay certain portions.
This is massive. Because if you need a refresher, or want to relive that particular scene, your only option was to watch it on YouTube or start a brand-new account from scratch, neither of which are options I would consider to be at all viable.
This makes longer stretches of time between gameplay sessions feel less disconnected because a player can simply decide to rewatch a cutscene to refresh themselves, should they prefer. So, players that only come back when new story drops won’t feel lost when they return to the game.
Zenless Zone Zero’s Flashy and Smooth Gameplay
Zenless Zone Zero can be honestly described in one simple word: Smooth. Combat is extremely fluid, and quite flashy, to the point it might be a tad overwhelming at first. And it’s also a combat system that I found to be a match made in heaven with the DualSense controller.
As you deal damage with a character, you can quickly time your button presses and seamlessly switch between characters, dealing a lot of damage in the process. While these instances are fast, players will have more than enough time to react to them to maximize damage output.
Additionally, this will greatly charge the “decibel levels” of player’s team. These are a resource that are expended when a character uses their Ultimate. This is capped at 3000 and is shared between all of the characters, so players need to decide strategically on whose Ultimate to use and when.
This means that to have an optimal use, players should be taking advantage of switching as often as possible. For instance, this also means a stun character will be an important part of any team lineup, to ensure that an enemy’s guard can be broken as fast as possible.
This does make gameplay feel initially shallow, as most players will be able to stun enemies rather quickly but as the story progresses enemies will get harder. Forcing players to utilize all of their teams rather than sticking to a single tried and true one.
In regards to the difficulty, however, Zenless Zone Zero offers two difficulties. The first is Story Mode, which reduces the overall combat difficulty, and is targeted towards those who only wish to view the story, and not have to worry too much about combat. Those looking for a far more merciless challenge can enable Hard Mode, which greatly increases the amount of HP and damage taken.
Signal Search: Zenless Zone Zero’s Gacha System
In order to obtain new characters in Zenless Zone Zero, much like HoYoverse’s other games, you can either obtain them for free by clearing certain chapters and modes of the game, or…you guessed it, by performing a Signal Search, which is the game’s gacha system. Clearing story quests will reward you with Polychromes, which can then be used to exchange for Tapes that will summon a character.
Characters are divided into two ranks, A and S, and also wield a weapon called a W-Engine, which can be divided into three ranks: B, A and S. Naturally, S-ranked characters and weapons deal a lot more damage, but in my experience, I’ve generally found Zenless Zone Zero to not be a game where you’re absolutely required to get the latest characters. It all comes down to team composition, and if done right, you can even have some A-rank characters hit like a truck.
The TV Grid System of Zenless Zone Zero
Outside of combat, players will need to utilize a TV grid to explore around in the Hollows for the majority of missions in the game. This replaces the open world aspect, instead simplifying it into a series of symbols. Each of these exploration areas range from moving in a straight line to a destination to simple puzzles.
Admitedly, these sections can feel quite imbalanced, because while these missions will have a different main objective, the side objectives will always be the same; collect three data nodes. This data is rarely out of the way and I was personally able to easily find each data point without needing to venture too far out.
This makes them feel uninvolved, especially as some missions will only comprise of these TV sections with only a small amount of combat. And this is felt more clearly when rally missions become available which allows players to explore a small section of an area in the 3D environment, allowing players to see the characters they pulled that much longer.
The Sights and Sounds of New Eridu
While I don’t like to judge a book by its cover, it is undeniable that graphics can play a huge part in the perception of a game. That being said, Zenless Zone Zero is gorgeous― from the character designs with the cell shaded graphics to the aesthetics of the hub city New Eridu.
Now, while the city may be relatively small, it still holds a lot of character, with the various store fronts and the streets are filled with characters that makes the city alive. The drawbacks is that some of the battle arenas can look very similar and can be easily reduced down to a series of rooms and hallways. There are also some parts where it can feel a bit overwhelming on the senses, though that depends on how photosensitive you are.
This may be the reason why there is such a heavy reliance on the use of the TV exploration to avoid players noticing these environments being reused repeatedly. Still, the use of colors can be interesting even if it feels like a lot of the environments can be reduced down into construction zones.
Far from Perfect, but Compelling
Zenless Zone Zero is far from perfect but there is enough here that proves Hoyoverse knows how to create compelling games. While some of the more repetitive aspects of the title might drag the experience down for some players. The combat and hub city are beautiful and compelling enough that I had no problem going through the story as fast as I could.
Joys
- Smooth and fluid gameplay
- Charming cast of characters to meet and know more
- Adjustable difficulty, making it acessible to many audiences
Cons
- Story and missions feel rather shallow, especially in the beginning
