Zenless Zone Zero, the latest game from Hoyoverse, is certainly built different compared to the developer’s past work. The free-to-play developer has grown its fanbase tremendously after making the big leap with Genshin Impact. What was a known China-based gacha game developer is now a household name by millions, even within the core video game audience.
Genshin Impact was on the headlines for its ambitions- which I, a core gamer who don’t play mobile games, personally think was never quite achieved and as such turned out disappointing. Honkai: Star Rail, the next game released after Genshin, has its fair share of fans thanks to it being in the same universe of the previous Honkai games Mihoyo/Hoyoverse was known for.
But with Zenless Zone Zero, a new IP, Hoyoverse has zero-ed in what they’re good and just pile all their efforts on making a slick, polished, stylish, flashy action game that can be engaging for mobile gamers and core gamers on PC anc consoles alike. They don’t need to prove the world they can make games worthy of a try to the core gamer audience. And it’s for the better.
Character Action For Everyone
It’s important for me to mention that ZZZ is made for mobile first, as it informs what amount of control the game gives. And working on that lowest common denominator, the control scheme of Zenless is, when compared to a proper character action game, simple. A basic attack, a special attack, a dodge, a tag button and an ultimate. No button for jumping or blocking (though they are integrated in some character’s moveset in some form). No complicated combos with pauses. Just mash the buttons (real or virtual) and something cool will happen.
While the combat is simple, it is simply dazzling. The attack animations feel impactful. Even a character wielding guns have their attacks feel punchy and satisfying as a dude with a pilebunker or a lady with a hammer bashing enemies are. The visual effects can be blinding but adds so much to making each hit feels good. The way the damage numbers pop. The hit sounds.
The combat loop also has a very simple, yet effective system in the form of a Final Fantasy XIII-style stagger system. Beat an enemy enough times until a bar fills up, then beat them harder when the damager multiplier kicks in before the bar empties.
And the controls are snappy. It’s quick and easy to cancel out of an attack with a dodge. Mashing basic attacks before switching into a special attack feels just right. And there are perfect dodges and perfect assists where it rewards your timing of pressing either buttons at the right time with a window of opportunity to take a breather and then keep on the offense. The timing for these perfect dodges and perfect assists is just right, and the dopamine hit is about the same dosage of nailing a parry in a typical character action game.
Many mobile games, or mobile-first games (these free-to-play games now tend to have at least a PC release these days) are doing the action genre now. Hoyoverse have done this before, and with Zenless Zone Zero, the team shows how much they understand the appeal of an action game and how to present it to an audience that had never, or will never, play an action game on consoles.
But the adrenaline and dopamine rushes are delivered in higher doses, as the game is designed to be played in bursts. And you should not try binge-play this like a typical paid game- too much of that combat razmatazz is not good for the senses.
Please Don’t Button Mash For Too Long
The combat is not without its faults. The reliance of relentless button mashing has lead to some physical pain on my side. And this game being an RPG with an abundance of upgrades and progression to get your characters strong, the difficulty mostly comes from enemies having beefier health and defences. And if you’re not upgrading properly, it will be a long, long fight.
Missions in ZZZ typically run under 10 minutes, because any longer and your fingers will go numb tapping and mashing the same thing over and over. You want an S Rank for a mission not because of the higher rewards. But if you get any lower that meant you literally suffered for having to mash buttons more than you should.
There are slower character archetypes that don’t require as much button mashing, but for people starting out, most of the starter characters do depend on a lot of tapping. A pause combo, where you stop an input for a bit before continuing the button input string, might alleviate this issue.
As someone who don’t play mobile games or gacha games on the regular, my pain point was around the later parts of Chapter 2, when the game asks to push for an Inter-Knot Level of 26. By then, the game expects you to already have Level 30 characters, but to reach that you’ll need to spend time training to get the materials to unlock the level cap. And said training is limited to how much battery you have, which recharges over time but basically you have limited tries per day.
Again, ZZZ is designed to be played in bursts. My attempt to binge-play and see all the content the launch has to offer without spending extra money has been thwarted by both game design choices (the timers) and my own two hands (attempting missions where enemies are way higher level is bad for the fingers and wrists).
At least I am progression-locked by energy. I don’t know how much I am missing out for not regularly pulling the gacha (this is a gacha game still) and not upgrading the star rating of characters at this point. It would be worse if I can’t progress because I’m not pulling the proverbial gacha lever hard enough. For context, I only played for 24 hours in the span of five days.
No Open World, No Problem
Both Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail feature open world exploration to some degree. Zenless Zone Zero however, is not treading the same path. You do get some exploration in the off time, but the urban scapes of New Eridu are small and cramped. And most of the missions, the commissions as it’s called, are presented in a unique way that does not involve roaming around the 3D world.
As a proxy, your player character guides the routes of the Hallow- a nebulous sector filled with monsters called Ethereal. The area can be like a maze, and for people to navigate in and out of it safely, they either work with the government’s investigators, or get the shady help from a Proxy, a hacker and navigator for hire.
And the way a Proxy guides their assigned Agents around the Hallow is via a TV array screen. It’s essentially a rougelike-ish overworld map where you navigate an unknown dungeon where secrets and traps can be found.
At first glance this may feel like a budget cutting measure to not make dungeons. But this is rather a design choice. There are more elaborate missions where you move around the 3D world (Rally commisions). But for most missions, it’s presented this way on purpose. And here you can also see the amount of talent the art and sound team at Hoyoverse are flexing. The many sound cues, the little looping videos on each TV tile. The way things are animated as things move from one CRT TV to another. Money and effort is being spent to make this look good. And it’s well spent.
ZZZ isn’t a roguelike per se, even the more hardcore Hallow Zero missions where the overworld navigation becomes more perilous doesn’t seem like each mission has randomly-generated maps. But it does have some deckbuilding elements, somehow, which makes the rougelike-ish comparisons stronger.
Closing Thoughts
In some ways, Zenless Zone Zero may seem less ambitious and smaller scope compared to Hoyoverse’s other live service games. Yet it clearly knows what it wants to be and goes all in on it.
Rather than having people like me comparing Hoyoverse games against paid games on PC and consoles and ending up disappointed, I instead am thinking how this is really, really good for a game designed around mobile game players first.
For that, I can only respect what it’s going for.
Zenless Zone Zero is out now on PS5, PC, iOS and Android.