Zenless Zone Zero is the next HoYoverse game, and it takes players into a world of hacking, a futuristic reality where bears can talk, little rabbit things can journey into other realms, and mysterious realms called hollows that are filled with strange monsters.
Along with being the HoYoverse next game, it’s also one that has a lot to live up to. While HoYoverse has made games before, Genshin Impact really threw them into the spotlight, and they deserve it because the game has an excellent combat system, well-designed characters, and a story that’s rollercoaster of emotions.
Honkai Star Rail launched earlier this year, and it came out swinging with a fun turn-based combat system, a story that immediately claws its way into you, and the same character design and moreish progression systems that HoYoverse fans both love and hate, depending on how good your luck is with in-game RNG.
TV Time!
Zenless Zone Zero doesn’t bear the Impact or Honkai names – it’s a brand-new thing, albeit with some familiar feeling progression mechanics and some names you’ll recognize from other games. Your exploration involves going through TV screens as an entity known as a Bangboo as you find buffs, overcome battles, and figure out puzzles.
There’s a little bit of exploration outside of that in a little hub town, but if you’re doing a mission, you’ll likely be going through these TVs. It’s an odd system and one that feels built for efficiency over fun. It’s rare that one of these dungeons feels inspiring, as they’re just a vehicle to get you into some fights along the way. The system isn’t boring – it’s just not especially exhilarating.
Put ‘Em Up
Combat is where Zenless Zone Zero game shines, and it’s likely what is either going to make or break the game for you. You’ve got your basic attack, a special attack that gets stronger as you gain energy, an ultimate that’s very flashy, a dodge, and the ability to change characters. Each team you take out can have three characters in them, and you can cycle between them. If you do so at the right time, the incoming character will parry the thing that’s attacking you, too.
The combat feels good. Every attack has weight, and you feel like a badass when you’re beating up the various weird monsters the game throws at you. The ultimate animations are also a good excuse for the game to show off the character designs. Even Billy, a character who uses dual pistols to fight, feels like he’s slamming enemies with every attack, which isn’t easy to do.
If you like fighting and like feeling cool while doing it, then Zenless Zone Zero delivers. We’ve yet to find anything especially challenging in the game, though, which suggests that those looking for a challenge will likely have to keep their characters under-leveled. Speaking of characters…
Related: Can You Link iOS and Google Play Account to HoYoverse?
Haha, Gacha
The gacha system in Zenless Zone Zero, at least at this point, is much the same as it is in other HoYoverse games. This time around, rarities are letter ranked, with S being the highest and B being the lowest. In the early days, it’s hard to tell how big of a difference there’ll be in power levels here, but characters are all A or S anyway.
Zenless Zone Zero is going to be an expensive game, and while playing the early hours of the preview, getting premium currency for the gacha system felt like a slog. It’s something worth noting, but obviously, this could change massively between now and the apparently late 2024 release of Zenless Zone Zero. Also, if you’re someone who’s playing Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail already, adding another HoYoverse gacha game into the mix is basically an impossible task.
Catwalk Style
Having spent a few hours with the closed beta test version of Zenless Zone Zero, there’s no doubting the style of the game. It just oozes out of every aspect of the game, and even when in the TV dungeons, you get little animations to make the game feel reactive and cool. However, outside of the combat, it’s hard to say how much else there is.
Zenless Zone Zero feels a bit trimmed down compared to other HoYoverse games. There’s no doubt it feels good to play, but it doesn’t feel quite as all-encompassing as their other offerings. That could well be intentional, after all, as not everyone wants to spend hours upon hours exploring in Genshin Impact, but that’s sort of being covered by Honkai Star Rail.
We’re still looking forward to seeing what Zenless Zone Zero is like when it’s actually released, but the outlook is a little more mixed than we were expecting.
