When HoYoverse drops a brand new recreation, gamers have come to anticipate sweeping, high-fantasy orchestral preparations and space-opera symphonies. However Zenless Zone Zero fully shatters that playbook, swapping out live performance halls for the gritty, high-energy pulse of underground membership tradition and classic aesthetics. From the lo-fi chill of Sixth Avenue to the high-octane EDM pounding by the Hollows, New Eridu’s music rises above most online game soundtracks because the driving heartbeat of the whole expertise.
Behind this pivot into funk, acid jazz, and digital sub-genres is Yang Wutao and the tight-knit staff of producers and composers referred to as Sān-Z Studio. Working extra like a collective of late-night crate-diggers than conventional gaming composers, Sān-Z Studio’s philosophy is fiercely simple: prioritize uncooked emotion over trade developments. Whether or not collaborating with world digital icons like Tiësto or capturing the quiet, solitary headspace of a single character, the staff approaches each monitor as a standalone piece of artwork meant to exist outdoors the boundaries of the sport.
With the sport’s extremely anticipated bodily soundtrack dropping on vinyl by way of Laced Data on April twenty ninth, followers are getting a tactile, analog technique to convey a bit of the sport’s world into their very own dwelling rooms. IGN sat down with Yang Wutao to debate the creation of the music for Zenless Zone Zero.
IGN: One of many standout options of Zenless Zone Zero is how each Agent feels very distinctive. Whenever you’ree creating the character EPs, what is the inside course of for choosing a style to match an Agent’s DNA? For instance, how did you land on EDM?
Yang Wutao: Music exists to precise emotion — in any other case it is simply sound. So we have by no means had a “style choice” course of on the subject of character EPs. There’s solely ever one query: who is that this character, and what do they need to say?
The IP staff offers us a basis, however we’ll proceed to dig deeper from there. We’ll work out issues that are not written into the lore, however an actual particular person would naturally have. For instance, no person advised us what Yanagi thinks about on her commute house, however she’s so busy, so used to taking good care of everybody else, that I naturally discovered myself questioning: when she’s strolling house alone, what is going on by her thoughts? That is the second I needed to seize. Caesar seems to be robust on the surface, however she’s a Pisces, somebody who’s genuinely delicate beneath. So we leaned into that aspect of her. Burnice is wild and filled with vitality, so EDM’s explosive really feel simply made sense.
We do not actually assume alongside the traces of, “Oh, this style is trending, let’s use it.” Emotion comes first, and the style follows. As soon as we’re clear on who the character actually is, the sound will naturally discover itself.
After listening to me say all this, possibly return and provides all of the EPs one other hear — you may even spot just a few circumstances the place we fell flat by way of expression.
IGN: We have seen the sport collaborate with large names like Tiësto and accomplice with festivals like Creamfields. It is clear that membership tradition is baked into the sport’s soul. How does the vitality of dance music affect the design aesthetic and music?
Yang Wutao: It is the opposite manner round, really. Digital music did not form Zenless Zone Zero, however reasonably, it is extra like a gaggle of like-minded individuals got here collectively, and what we made simply naturally turned out this manner. That is precisely why collaborating with DJs like Tiësto felt like a pure extension of what we had been already doing.
EDM suits this recreation as a result of it is inherently energetic. It has no lyrics, not a whole lot of melody, and is constructed on loops. However by verses, build-ups, drops, and different kinds of unconventional sound design, it impacts us emotionally. You need not perceive it, you simply must really feel it. That is precisely the type of expertise Zenless Zone Zero desires to present gamers.
And actually, a whole lot of video games within the trade are going orchestral. We did not need to go down that street — we needed to be basically completely different. The undertaking staff and our producers gave us the area to do this, and we ran with that course.
The outcomes proved it was the suitable name. Whether or not it was Creamfields within the UK, ZZZ FES right here in China, or ZLive occasions in Japan, US, and different places, we did not have any flashy high-tech stage setups. We simply performed the music, and the gang went wild. That is not us being spectacular, it is simply the vitality that digital music carries by itself. It has this factor the place it places you within the zone proper then and there.
IGN:The character EPs typically really feel like they belong on a competition stage reasonably than a conventional recreation soundtrack. Whenever you’re within the studio, are you approaching these tracks as online game music or are you attempting to jot down a standalone pop or rock tune that could possibly be a success on the radio?
Yang Wutao: Whereas within the studio, we have by no means as soon as requested ourselves, “Is that this recreation music or a pop single?” That framing simply is not a part of our preliminary concerns in any respect.
We solely ever begin from one place: does this music have emotion, does it have vitality, and is it well-made? When a bit of music actually lands, it stops being purely useful — it turns into a tune. The sport has a whole lot of tracks, and a few of their respective scenes are quick, so some tracks are extra for utility. And that is positive. However character EPs are completely different — these are those the place we maintain ourselves to the best customary.
In fact, we additionally acknowledge that the sport and the music elevate and complement one another. The truth that ZZZ’s music has reached so many individuals and resonated the best way it has, that would not have occurred with out the sport as a platform, and we’re genuinely grateful for that.
However now we have a much bigger purpose in thoughts: if sometime somebody who would not play Zenless Zone Zero, and even somebody who has no connection to this ACG world in any respect, hears the music and loves it purely by itself phrases — that is the largest type of validation we are able to get. If we get there, nice. If not, we hold working. Easy as that.
IGN:The Hyper Fee OSTs cowl a large quantity of floor. How does the staff divvy up the workload between composers and make sure the music feels cohesive? Particularly, how do you distinguish the vibe of day by day life on Sixth Avenue from the high-stakes, chaotic vitality of gameplay contained in the Hollows?
Yang Wutao: The general cohesion is actually extra of a pure byproduct than one thing we intentionally engineered.
ZZZ’s artwork course has a really robust sense of id. From the second I first noticed it, the vibe hit me instantly, and I knew instantly that digital music needed to be the inspiration. However digital music itself has a whole lot of branches. The chilliness day by day life on Sixth Avenue and the strain of fight contained in the Hollows name for fully completely different sub-genres. No matter feeling a scene offers you, that is the course the music goes.
It was simply me to start with, so I attempted to cowl as many types as potential whereas staying inside the class of digital music — and that is in all probability how the “extensive ranged however nonetheless cohesive” impact happened naturally. Because the staff grew, everybody who joined was a musician and understood the ideas, and the inspiration carried on. Even in later variations the place we have explored some non-electronic instructions, the core scenes and fight music have stayed true to what was set from the beginning — so it by no means drifts too far.
The workflow is fairly easy: when duties are available in, we break up them up, everybody does their factor, after which we critique one another’s work. We’re direct with each other, and we belief each other. Typically the suggestions is brutal, however that is precisely how you find yourself with music that truly has character.
IGN:New Eridu has such a definite visible language, from the streetwear to the retro-tech. What sort of references is the event staff handing the music division? Are you taking a look at trend and road artwork simply as a lot as you’re looking at musical scores to search out the suitable sound?
Yang Wutao: Actually, there is no formal reference-sharing course of. The artwork staff simply sends just a few photos our manner, resembling character designs or character/scenic drafts, and from these we just about get a really feel of what to do.
However the deeper cause why that works is: that type of understanding wasn’t constructed in a single day. It exists as a result of we had been already the identical type of individuals to start with. The music staff, the artwork staff, the UI staff — we’re mates outdoors of labor, gravitate towards the identical issues, and our tastes line up. Typically, even a glance is all it takes.
We do not intentionally examine or analysis road artwork or trend developments. However we dwell fairly down-to-earth lives — and that life is a part of road tradition itself. We perceive the ambiance not as a result of we consciously observe it from the surface, however as a result of we’re already inside it. So when New Eridu’s visible language is sitting proper in entrance of us, we do not want it defined — as a result of that feeling is one thing carved into our bones.
You might virtually consider it this manner: we’re New Eridu residents ourselves — only a group of shut mates working completely different jobs.
IGN: Battle music in Zenless Zone Zero has a really particular sound to it. What was the core directive for the fight themes?
Yang Wutao: If I needed to identify one core precept, it is that the music needs to be alive. The foundational type was established a very long time in the past, and so long as we’re not straying wildly from it, we really encourage everybody to make no matter they need to make. I might a lot reasonably every musician convey their very own persona, preferences, style — even their life experiences — into the work. As a result of solely then does the music really come alive, as a substitute of simply being sound that sits beneath the motion.
Take Hugo’s fight monitor for instance: it’s extremely rock, very steel, completely completely different from the digital really feel of our fundamental storyline. However it’s alive and has a persona. The second you hear it, you understand who made it.
When every musician brings one thing that is genuinely theirs, the fight music can have a soul of its personal. To us, that issues an entire lot greater than stylistic consistency.
IGN:New Eridu is obsessive about “outdated tech” VHS tapes, CRT displays, and naturally, vinyl. Does this retro-future aesthetic affect your manufacturing methods?
Yang Wutao: VHS tapes, CRTs, vinyl data — these are very particular visible symbols which are immediately recognizable. However music is summary. You may’t play a word that “attracts out a picture” of a CRT monitor. So reasonably than saying this aesthetic type influenced our manufacturing methods, I might say it triggered a type of feeling in us — an impulse to return and discover the sounds we keep in mind.
Our staff spans completely different generations, so everybody’s definition and relationship with “retro” is somewhat completely different. However that is really a energy — it offers us a wider pool of recollections to attract from. Somebody may affiliate it with the grainy texture of lo-fi hip-hop; another person may consider jazz or bossa nova; another person could possibly be listening to the musical high quality of 90s anime. Put these issues collectively and also you get a type of retro that feels layered and wealthy reasonably than flat.
So the aesthetic’s affect on us is much less about “approach” and extra about “what feeling are we attempting to precise.” Method is in service of expression, and expression is our core. We hope to make use of the instruments of as we speak to convey again the sounds every of us heard rising up, and provides them a house in New Eridu.
IGN: In-game, gamers spend a whole lot of time at Bardic Needle tuning Drive Discs. Music is not simply background noise in Zenless Zone Zero, it is a mechanic for character development. Did the lore surrounding Elfy and her document retailer change the way you seen the soundtrack’s function for the participant?
Yang Wutao: I do not assume it is the Bardic Needle’s perform that modified how we see music. If something, it is the other — This design confirmed what we might been doing all alongside.
The truth that the Bardic Needle works as an idea inside the recreation’s world says one thing: the residents of New Eridu see music the identical manner we do. It is not simply ambiance — it is tied to how a personality grows.
That stated, the worldbuilding would not actually have an effect on how we really make the music on a technical stage. We nonetheless method issues from the scene itself. The Bardic Needle as an area — all these crops, Elfy’s complete aesthetic — naturally made me consider South American vibes. However she carries herself with such magnificence, somewhat completely different from the passionate, high-energy really feel of samba, so bossa nova was our selection. That is how the monitor “Tipsy Muse” happened.
The scene convinces us, not the lore or worldbuilding. They, nevertheless, did make us really feel just like the music issues to New Eridu, and that counts for one thing.
IGN: The style transitions in Zenless Zone Zero are extremely seamless. How did you compose the music in such a manner that it might transition between very completely different atmospheres?
Yang Wutao: Actually, we do not really assume the transitions are that seamless ourselves.
Zenless Zone Zero is a live-service recreation, and it may well’t have the type of cohesion a standalone single-player recreation can. A standalone recreation has an entire expertise primarily based on an entire world from begin to end, so the type can keep constant all through. However we go lo-fi one second, digital the subsequent, then rock after that — there’s really fairly a little bit of leaping between variations and modules. We’re very conscious of that.
However the cause gamers may nonetheless really feel okay about it’s in all probability this: every bit of music we write for a module is matched to that particular scene and people particular characters. It is not simply sound we’re creating to fill in a spot — it is the sound that belongs in that second. So long as every bit lands the place it ought to, even a giant stylistic soar would not really feel jarring, as a result of each transition has a cause behind it.
So reasonably than saying we designed some type of “seamless transition system,” it is extra that we simply tried, in every particular person second, to get that scene’s music proper.
IGN: miHoYo is understood for the orchestral sweeps of Genshin Influence and the space-opera really feel of Honkai: Star Rail. Zenless seems like a pointy pivot towards Funk, Hip-Hop, and Acid Jazz. Had been there particular artists or eras that helped outline the sport’s musical id?
Yang Wutao: Most video games construct their soundtracks round mainstream scoring, with standout moments in choose particular person tracks. ZZZ as a substitute took a distinct method: the general tone is intentionally non-mainstream, and we have really performed some extra “standard” music in sure EPs as a type of distinction — so individuals get to listen to one thing that sounds a bit extra “regular” too. So when individuals name it a daring pivot, we by no means actually considered it that manner. We’re simply this group of individuals, and what we make naturally finally ends up sounding like this.
That is additionally why ZZZ’s musical vary is so broad. It wasn’t a deliberate selection — it is simply that every of us has fully completely different influences. Fortuitously, our producer Zhenyu Li trusted us sufficient to present us the liberty to precise ourselves, which is why all of this could possibly be applied. Even now, we’re nonetheless exploring new instructions — there’s rather a lot we’ve not gotten round to attempting but.
IGN: With the vinyl soundtrack dropping on April twenty ninth, followers are getting a tactile technique to expertise the music. Are there any tracks on this document that you just really feel particularly profit from the vinyl format?
Yang Wutao: With vinyl, it is actually extra in regards to the collectibility and ritualization. The second you maintain it in your arms and put it on a turntable is a totally completely different expertise from listening by earbuds whereas scrolling in your cellphone — it isn’t about audio high quality, it is that the act itself carries a type of weight. We’re actually stoked to be working with Laced Data to convey this to gamers.
As a vinyl document can solely maintain a lot, our logic for the monitor choice was easy: this document is for the gamers, so we decide the songs that imply essentially the most to them. No matter tracks individuals have had on repeat, these are those we chosen.
On the finish of the day, it is one thing meant to be saved and picked up. Music is summary, it floats within the air — however this document makes it into one thing you possibly can placed on a shelf, give to a buddy, pull out ten years from now and nonetheless keep in mind precisely the way you felt the primary time. That in itself, we expect, is value one thing.