At this level, Genshin Affect and Honkai: Star Rail have firmly created the expectation that when developer HoYoverse units out to make a brand new recreation, it may be each like and fully in contrast to what it has accomplished earlier than. Followers of the studio’s video games will understand how getting new characters and ultimately constructing them will work (totally different names, identical construction), however the motion and tone differ fairly considerably. That is as soon as once more true for Zenless Zone Zero, HoYoverse’s subsequent undertaking that swaps out its bigger sandboxes for trendy streets with much more trendy characters and flashy motion fight.
I performed Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) for the primary time briefly in its second closed beta check, and once more for about 4 hours at a media occasion hosted by the studio. The lengthy and wanting it’s that in my temporary time with it, I really feel that ZZZ is essentially the most “cellular recreation” of HoYo’s most up-to-date releases. I do not imply that in a nasty method; what I imply is that just about every little thing could be accomplished in fast encounters – assume quarter-hour or much less. Whether or not you are diving right into a story beat, a personality quest, or simply finishing facet actions, ZZZ appears to take a bite-sized expertise method to most issues it presents. Not that some do not go longer (and I did not have an opportunity to play every little thing, in spite of everything), however that appeared in regards to the common.
What I like about that’s that whereas I can see myself spending hours serving to full missions for people across the metropolis of New Eridu or taking over repeatable fight challenges on PS5 or PC, it will be simply as straightforward to sneak in just a few actions on my telephone in between different obligations. And based mostly on how a lot enjoyable I had throughout my playtime, I do know I am going to actually need to when ZZZ is out quickly on July 4.
A Colourful Apocalypse
In ZZZ, the apocalypse struck with the looks of increasing, harmful bubble realms often called Hollows. The space-warping zones are stuffed with harmful creatures that may afflict people with a plague that will simply kill them or, worse, remodel them into monsters. Quite than relocate far-off from these Hollows, the residents of the town New Eridu have developed instruments to discover them for treasures and assets.
Whereas I can not communicate to how attention-grabbing ZZZ’s story is, as I used to be thrown into the sport at some extent the place the chapters had already been accomplished (replaying the marketing campaign missions was one thing I may hunt down, however I opted to discover different challenges), I do already admire ZZZ’s tone. It is extremely goofy. For example, whereas roaming round a building web site I discovered a Bangoo (small helper robots that fulfill all kinds of roles in New Eridu), Catloverboo, lovingly watching over a cat that was burying its enterprise in a pile of sand. Once I requested the Bangboo what the heck it was doing, it went on and on about how good cat paws scent, and sharing in its enthusiasm received me just a few useful resource rewards.
Delightfully, that goofiness continued. From misunderstood affection inflicting a number of characters to be flustered by a robot-lover’s advances at robots to cheeky textual content messages from different characters, ZZZ’s lighthearted tone creates a welcoming environment. It is as if the folks of New Eridu’s attitudes replicate the town’s enjoyable and vibrant design somewhat than the collapse of society at massive.
It is a Group Effort
Zenless Zone Zero’s playable characters are divided in an attention-grabbing method. The protagonist siblings Belle and Smart are “Proxies,” people who’ve the expertise and know-how to direct others in navigating the winding paths in Hollows. They do not go in bodily themselves and as a substitute information Brokers on their dives into the damaging realms. One chosen sibling is playable throughout metropolis exploration whereas the Brokers are playable in Hollows. The 15 at present playable Brokers are cut up amongst numerous factions usually related to their jobs, from teams like a housekeeping firm to a building firm.
Whether or not diving into fight from the marketing campaign, a facet quest, or by selecting to run via one of many many alternative fight problem modes, three Brokers and (relying on the state of affairs, although it wasn’t clear to me after they had been or weren’t allowed) a fight Bangoo make up a workforce. Like with different HoYoverse video games, workforce composition is crucial. Each character has a fight specialty sort (like protection, stun, or assault, amongst others) and a injury affinity (like bodily, hearth, or ether), each of which should be considered when constructing a workforce, particularly for harder encounters like boss challenges. Pairing a minimum of a couple of member from the identical faction on the workforce awards every of these characters an additional potential too.
I like that the Bangboo, which acts independently of the playable workforce and assaults on their very own, can fill in for a injury sort if you do not have a specific character able to tackle that function or do not need to swap any considered one of your favourite characters out. I spent lots of time utilizing members of the Belobog Heavy Industries and lacked a personality that would construct up an ether debuff on enemies, so I educated up the one Bangboo in my arsenal that did use ether assaults to assist out and it labored remarkably properly. Although ZZZ is not centered on elemental combos like Genshin Affect, contemplating affinities and enemy weaknesses nonetheless issues.
The fight itself is a ton of enjoyable, and I admire that sure encounters have a daily issue and a tough issue for gamers in search of additional problem. Encounters happen in dungeon-like areas that appear to be procedurally generated and in most conditions, you possibly can’t revive a personality on a workforce as soon as they’ve fallen. Engagements are flashy and fluid; gamers can hack-and-slash their method via, however those that take time to study assault combos and make use of the dodge counters and the chain assault will see their efforts rewarded. Plus, it is enjoyable to discover ways to optimize a workforce’s fight.
Switching characters at simply the proper time can result in a particular follow-up assault, and ZZZ helps gamers study this by initiating a callout on the facet of the display screen. The aforementioned dodge counters award, as famous within the recreation, “a short second of invulnerability and offers excessive injury and interrupts the goal.” This too is signaled properly with coloured flash and particular noise earlier than an enemy assaults, making what may very well be perceived as advanced fight somewhat learnable for anybody moving into extra intense motion video games for the primary time. Getting the dangle of those plus executing different combos makes the fight delightfully hypnotic.
It isn’t solely the fundamental mechanics that should be realized; every character’s playstyle was totally different too. For example, The Belobog Heavy Industries crew has an awesome bear character, Ben, whose dodge is a pitiful scoot to the facet and a shuffle ahead for his dash, so studying the right way to swap him out and in on the proper time was important for fights that required sooner motion. I look ahead to attending to see which characters pair finest collectively, whatever the group they’re from.
The Different Half of Exploring Hollows
Once I first performed ZZZ I used to be most shocked by its Hole Deep Dive System, the opposite a part of fight exploration that does not actually have all that a lot fight concerned. Quite than navigating repeating fight paths, ZZZ pulls gamers again a layer into what may very well be thought-about an imagined top-down view of the Hole represented via TVs on a board (as proven beneath). Right here, further fight encounters could be discovered together with navigation puzzles and rewards on hidden paths.
This view most clearly represents the Proxy’s perspective of the Hollows. Paths unseen by the Brokers on the bottom, however straightforward to navigate for these past. This board system is intertwined with fight within the marketing campaign. For gamers who do not favor it and simply need to get into the motion, although, there are particular “Fight” and “Exploration” divisions on the Hole Deep Dive menu that separate missions based mostly on the type of expertise gamers may have, with the Exploration choice stuffed with the Hole TV board.
Once I performed a random puzzle mission listed within the Exploration part, I used to be dissatisfied with how straightforward it was. In actual fact, in a single mission the reminiscence puzzle was solved for me. I hope these had been one-off situations and never consultant of the Hole Deep Dive exploration system as an entire. If there is not any problem to navigating these boards, then what is the level of getting them?
Character dialogue is one other situation within the Hole Deep Dive exploration. Perhaps it is not so unhealthy on a cellular machine or different small display screen, however all dialogue containers on this mode are relegated to the highest proper nook of the display screen. On a daily PC display screen, it was straightforward to overlook when dialogue began and awkward to concentrate to longer dialog factors. Provided that these “exploration” boards are a part of the marketing campaign, it makes me fearful that I am going to miss out on lore or good conversations between characters. General, although, I believe the board system may add an attention-grabbing combine to ZZZ’s gameplay, however I do hope it poses extra of a problem.
Strolling the Streets of New Eridu
Exploring New Eridu is proscribed. ZZZ is not an open-world recreation and it would not faux to be. As a substitute, gamers can discover a number of streets related by an in-game menu. As soon as on the chosen vacation spot, working via the whole thing of a road and its facet paths doesn’t take lengthy in any respect, although I discovered fairly quite a lot of folks to speak to and numerous actions to do. Lots of the NPC store house owners have stellar designs and I used to be delighted to see that playable characters could be freely discovered across the metropolis for conversations and facet quests.
An vital exploration facet of ZZZ is its in-game clock. Days are cut up into 4 segments; morning, afternoon, night time, and late night time. Because the time of day adjustments so do the town streets, guaranteeing people unavailable at a time of day. So far as I may inform, essentially the most significant adjustments at a specific time of day on a particular road are proven in an easy-to-access clock menu, so I wasn’t liable to lacking something too crucial. In response to the in-game handbook, issues like finishing story and facet mission duties and resting advance time somewhat than your actual clock. I am curious to see how this mechanic performs out in the long run, however in my playtime, it solely mattered to me when scheduling a meetup with an NPC for a facet quest and for opening the video store.
There are many different actions apart from digging into fight, like working the protagonists’ video store. That is extra of a fast non-compulsory job to kick up initially of every day the place you are requested to inventory three tapes based mostly on buyer style preferences. The higher your selections, the higher the income. Extra videotapes are acquired via exploring, facet missions, and working the store. As soon as a promoter is chosen to run the store for the day (new promoters could be employed too), you allow them to do the work, although you may as well work together with clients all through the day whereas the store is open. That is simply one of many few enjoyable facet actions I discovered that enrich the time of being in New Eridu.
Different actions included issues like minigames within the arcade (anybody up for aggressive Snake?) and serving to the street-based Officer Mewmew together with his record of facet missions for residents of the road. There are additionally useful actions like grabbing a every day espresso (in-game every day, not precise every day) from the lovable espresso store for buffs and a refill on rechargeable power used for particular fight encounters to earn supplies for character upgrades. Whereas New Eridu may not be sprawling now, it is simple to see how HoYoverse can develop the town with new streets, retailers, actions, and characters sooner or later.
Miranda Sanchez is the manager editor of guides at IGN. She’s a Shenhe predominant in Genshin Affect and a giant fan of stationery and fountain pens. You may generally discover her on Twitter/X.