Playing with nostalgia-filled imagery from the early 2000s, Zenless Zone Zero sees developer Hoovers pivot from the fantastical settings of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail to a fascinating urban dystopia. It’s a universe where you duke it out in dazzling real-time combat as a trio of streetwear-clad agents, helping them navigate the maze of encounters by solving simple puzzles as their handler between battles – and that’s a social side layered on top before you even get to the carousel. activities. Something so effortlessly stylish, full of tasteful influences, veers into a bit of incoherence, which is sometimes undone by a lack of depth. Yet Zenless Zone Zero got its hooks into me regardless; Its relentless charm compelled me to fight one battle, one combat puzzle, or one bowl of ramen at a time.
Zenless Zone Zero takes place in a world where demon-infested pocket dimensions called Hollows have destroyed civilization. While most of humanity has been wiped out, the cyberpunk stronghold of New Eridu survives through a co-dependency fueled by the Hollows and the valuable resources found within. You play as Belle or Vice, a brother-sister hacker duo with the skills to navigate this dangerous territory, facing the commission of a roster of lovable crooks looking for their next big score. It’s a unique and gritty setup that, while confusing at times, kept me engaged by testing my strategic instincts in a smorgasbord of challenges.
Your brawling adventure begins in the retro tech-strewn backroom of your sibling’s video rental store, where you’ll choose from an impressive roster of unlockable agents to form a three-person party and then dive into dangerous Hollows, trading for success. XP and upgrade resources. A review build provided by HoYoverse prior to launch gave me access to all of the agents currently available, and I soon found myself drawn to a group called Victoria Housekeeping with their charming British inflections and war maid outfits.
My personal favorite of the bunch, the shark-tailed Ellen Jo, swipes and slashes with an icy blade, stacking elemental debuffs on enemies and unleashing blaze quips in the process. While the makeup of your dream team will largely be in the hands of the Gacha Gods, as characters are unlocked through the usual randomized draw style method, it’s handy that story missions allow you to try out the cast without needing to draw first. .
Despite how intense it feels in pacing, Zenless Zone Zero’s combat is forgiving and approachable. You have a basic attack and dodge to avoid signposted attacks in time, as well as the ability to dodge debris with other agents, parry or compound their combos. Building up an enemy’s stun meter leads to a consistently satisfying chain attack, a slo-mo quick-time event where your allies swoop in to lay down the smackdown. Basic and ultimate abilities round out each character’s combat options, though like any good action game, plenty of variety is available through a combination of well-timed button presses and stealth passives.
The districts are full of details that make them a joy to explore. Challenging boss encounters popped up to test my reflexes, though I was rarely overwhelmed as long as I could connect the dots of my combat strategy and juggle incoming attack patterns to keep the various enemy types at bay. Complex build-tinkering systems, difficulty options, and endgame content help raise the skill ceiling for challenge-hungry players, but Zenless Zone Zero seems content to stay out of your way if you’re just looking to pick it up and make some cool moves.
Gorgeous animations footnote most of your attacks, like the way home monster Van Lykon gracefully lowers his metal heels after a kick. Ultimately, the focus is on invoking the fantasy of fighting alongside one of Zenless Zone Zero’s wonderfully designed and passionately acted characters rather than rivaling the likes of Devil May Cry with its combat nuance – a tradeoff I’m comfortable with, even if it means less. Mechanical depth.
Unfortunately, the dazzling combat is undermined by an abundance of hacker puzzles that aim to reveal the link between your team of agents and the proxy that guides them through the Hollow from home. You’ll be led into a maze of chunky CRT monitors between pockets of combat, which will trigger little avatars to trigger mechanisms that lead to your next checkpoint or encounter.
The mod’s uncluttered aesthetic is fun to look at, but the process feels arbitrary and kills momentum. After marching through the walls of the screen, I started looking for the next encounter as quickly as possible to boost my morale and get back to the frenetic action sequences that actually make Zenless Zone Zero appealing.
It could easily be a huge loop of taking on commissions and then venturing into the Hollow to complete them and that wouldn’t seem trivial, yet surprisingly, that’s only about half of what’s here. The other half is a life simulator where you roam cozy suburbs, manage your hero’s blockbuster-esque business and maintain relationships with the locals through dialogue-driven side stories in an atmospheric day-to-night cycle.
While not strictly open world, the stunning districts of Zenless Zone Zero are thoughtfully decorated with environmental details that make it a joy to explore. From rusty riverside kiddie rides to messy bedrooms and vandalized backstreets, attention is everywhere you look that helps center you in this fashion-forward science fiction world.
Once the initial excitement of exploring the Hollows began to settle, I became drawn to all the extracurricular activities at my fingertips. Stocking my video store has become an integral part of my daily routine, as every morning, I’ll begin by combining eclectic videotapes from my collection with people’s style demands.
After that, I have to go out in search of better merchandise, completing tasks for the locals like solving weird puzzles or taking editorial pictures to earn my VHS reward. That symbiotic process worked well to divert my attention to various social activities, not to mention the money provided by running my business certainly helped fund my story mission exploits.
This side of Zenless Zone Zero isn’t quite as focused as something like the Persona series it’s clearly inspired by, so there are some dull spots, but it should still provide a compelling workload for players to log in and tackle on a daily basis. is All your activities are well connected through a helpful submenu called Inter-Note, which allows me to find my rhythm among all the options assigned to me.
This in-game, everything app quickly became my best friend, taking on the role of job seeker, social media platform and, most importantly, scheduling tool, making sure I wasn’t completely paralyzed by the overwhelming prospect of what to do next.
I enjoyed getting away from my pressing responsibilities by chasing high scores in Godfinger Arcade, whose morish snake and spelunking minigames stole an embarrassing amount of my time. But the funny and sometimes profound substory left the biggest impression, reminding me of the human stakes in this world. A side quest involves a homeless robot whose ghostly silhouette terrorizes a local citizen, leading to a surprisingly moving cross-wire situation.
Easily forgotten in a sea of adorable shoppers and in-game currency, the underlying flaw of Zenless Zone Zero’s post-apocalypse is always in the frame. Overarching themes of displacement and corruption come through in the cinematic story and the design of its city wards, which range from dilapidated to bland.
Given the unusually generous nature of HoYoverse’s review builds, it was hard to get a clear picture of how Zenless Zone Zero’s progression systems will feel long-term, but nothing I saw seemed out of place with the developer’s other Gacha games. Still, it’ll be enlightening to start over on a new account at launch and get used to grinding in a more organic live service setting (and we’ll be sure to update this review if things are unexpectedly out of line).
Regardless, I made a strong connection to this rich world and its cosplay-friendly characters by the end of the main story that easily took dozens of hours to complete, and left feeling that this ambitious Pivot certainly lived up to the high standards set by Genshin. Impact and Honkai: Star Rail.