[1.7] The story so far - Zenless Zone Zero Season One (Part B)

*NOTES & CORRECTIONS*
- Re Dina and Twiggy: I failed to mention a detail here about what makes someone a Sacrifice vs an Ethereal. The biggest difference is that Sacrifices can exist outside the hollow while Ethereals can't. Currently, Bringer is the only enemy listed specifically as a Sacrifice. The other are considered a type of "ether mutants" which would put them at the mid-point between an Ethereal and a Sacrifice which could account for the wild variation between Twiggy and Dina's ether bodies. Also, Dina's serum couldn't make complete Sacrifices on its own, so it was a bit misleading for me to call her Sacrifice-Dina in the video. She's more of a prototype-sacrifice, hence the Ether mutant.

Not to be a creep, but your voice is gorgeous, it probably took a lot of work to develop, so cheers for that.
On the topic of the video, though. As much as I love Vivian's design and gameplay, I dislike how they handled her ability of death-predictions. Imo, with Paethon's dead specifically she had ample time to make preparations and alter events to the extent, where she does not have to face Dina 1v1 - in fact she just split with others moments before. Camilla's actions also do not make any sence in retrospect. And I dont want to talk about Dina x) Sorry I kinda need to let this out of my system.
Anyway, on a more positive topic, do you think Vivian's and Astra's abilities come from the same source as Yixuan and Paethon? Like they can control ether in unique ways, so they develop all those crazy abilities. Do you think, we will see way more characters like that in 2.0+? To be honest, I liked the aestetic of characters carrying special equipment if they deal particular elemental damage in game. Like Burnice carrying tanks with fuel, or Anby having batteries or electricity generator on her back (not sure what that is exactly. It feels like they may abandon that in the future, which would be sad. I also have mixed feeling about the whole "Paethon controlling ether" and "Not needing Eous to enter Hollows" things, since I like this setup a lot. There are characters doing utility stuff and characters doing the beatdown. Both are important and can be appreciated. I dont want this to turn into another overpowered MC trope, that hoyo uses in all of their games. But I'm rumbling at this point.
Thanks for a great video. It condences a lot of things that developers wanted to tell in their story in a neat package, that is easily digestible. You even cleared up some of my confusion about Sacrifices, so thank you for that too. I already watched all the ZZZ videos you have up to this point, so I'll watch HSR videos next, since I played this game before ZZZ, but dropped it after Penacony. Have a good the rest of your day!

Please keep making videos for ZZZ!!!

Was watching this in spurts and ofc we ate again~! Always glad to see more ZZZ lore getting covered, and even more excited about the Yunkui Summit and new storylines in 2.X

on the main quest after we met vivian and go straight to blazewood, im lost. how can we meet trigger before? is it on limited quest when trigger banner is running? is this like astra limited event? or am i missing something

One thing i love about Hugo is that his JP VA Jun Fukuyama is the VA of Joker from persona 5, the leader of a phantom thief group, and Lelouch from Code Geass, the heir of a powerful rich family that wants revenge from his father and the rest of the family. So Hoyoverse knew exactly what they were doing casting him for Hugo, such a perfect fit.

Hugos character is so well written, so much so that i never disagreed with his idealogy of killing a greater threat to save more lives. Even when his own master believed he will loose his way one day, Hugo never gave up.He understood to protect u must first learn how to defend.

whoever greenlit the construction of the starloop needs to share some of their drugs
that thing is a disaster waiting to happen

Any theory relating both ZZZ's qnd Genshin's MC's power to purify?

i like the lore of ZZZ. i have always compared it to the anime "Durarara!!" where every plot happens in a single city, and there are some overlaps between different factions.

The "Lalala~🎶" was our powers all along

I’m so thankful these videos exist. I main games on Xbox so idk anything about ZZZ if not for these videos

I thought so the first time, but after hearing the recap, I once again feel like Trigger's story was shoehorned too hard into the final stretch of the story. They probably want that plotline open for the introduction of Obol Squad proper in season 2, but I'd have definitely preferred to have that extra time for Mockingbird. Other than that, I'm impressed by how well-constructed the story has been so far. Thank you for the summary.

i love your zenless videos 🙏 ❤️

Vivian's obsession with Phaethon was very annoying

Does Hugo still have Astra's CD? 😭

They nailed castinf Lelouch's VA as Hugo's. The same over-the-top theatrics with 5D chess in his brain

Thanks for covering this great game. ❤🎉

So . . . Hugo is a reference to both Kaeya and Aventurine, making me tighten the connection I see between the knight-prince and his immernachtreich princess; Evelyn is a Jean reference ("parent and guardian") and is also named after the wife of Adam for Ragnvindr-Mondstadt reasons; and Lycaon is a reference to not just the pre-draconic Wriothesley-Adam figure I am 100% convinced exists in Genshin, but also to Diluc. Understood. 😂👍

New ZZZ video let's gooooooo!!!

love the random jane appearance.

ZZZ fans sold their game as a gooning game while it actually has a great story 😭

These videos are a godsend for casual players like me to catch up to the story

Wait, but what about the flowers event? Lol

How did we know where Landon's serum was located? We should have had no leads since Dina was the only one who knew were they were located

An Ethereal horde wouldn't be so bad. Four fucking Thanatos, on the other hand.

such a great vid. i felt like i havent even read half of the story but im all caught up now. keep up the awesome videos and i cant wait for your ether music theory

Your thorough research and narration are immaculate! Thank you for the video!

Dina failed to become a sacrifice she just etherealised like Pompey and Silver as her fathers serum doesn't always work.

I'm surprised you didn't mention how the Section 6 event explains Phaeton's power, as in one of the readables it is explicitly stated how the current method of burning ether to generate power is the most basic, almost wasteful, use of ether and that the theoretical limits of ether control effectively make you a god.


I'm really sad to say that I feel the story of ZZZ has taken a nosedive in quality with the new shift in focus the devs have decided to take. I already disliked the gameplay changes (yes, I am one of the weirdos who deeply enjoyed the TV mode) but I could accept that a more action oriented one would be better for most people (and so good for the health of the game), but the story changes are not justifiable.

ZZZ is making the common mistake of deciding on a plot and then forcing the characters and events to fit into that plot, instead of allowing the plot to flow organically from the characters and events. The best example is how the only real threats during the entire Mockingbird story come from the Proxy being physically there, instead of just using Eous as always. There is no justification for it, the Proxy has 0 reasons to be there, but they do so they can be the weak point that gets the far more competent agents in trouble.

Zenless's story has been... weird. I feel like that whole 'the final boss is some police chief youve vaguely heard about' had no real impact to the doomsday cult behind the scenes, so I was just laughing when the game gave him a end credits scene, and all the new stuff about 'oh your eyes are special and heres a fix so you can go into the hollows' kinda negates the whole Eous/bangboo and arguably, disability of the main characters making them less unique. I just feel like its flopping

thanks for the recap!

The mayor upgrading the siblings felt so out of place and strange.

Who else was here before the reupload? (Idk if I caught the glitchy audio you mentioned, but the video was a good listen.)

When you mention characters manipulating ether, i remember seeing someone comment how the zzz world doesn't have magic or superpowers, but all agents fights with technology instead. And how they get equipment with their element attribute depends on how much they spent. So i assume the order of elements from expensive to cheap would be Ether, Ice, Electric, Fire and Physical.

So Ether agents like Nicole, Astra and Vivian probably spent enough to use equipment with ether element and Zhu Yuan get access to her gun from her many achievements and the rest of the elements are easier to get and easy to see from their motif such as Grace being a mechanic, Qingyi being an android, Lycoan and Ellen probably get their gear from the mayor, physical agents like Caesar, Nekomata and Jane rely on their physical prowess and gunslingers like Billy and Pulchra just pew pew away.

For Miyabi's case, her curse blade is a family heirloom forge from etheric matter that's contained by technology (the handle and holster), so the ice is probably the handle and holster freezing the blade.

mine was like 669. nice

The only serious complaint I had after all the 1.x story is the way we never confronted Hugho about the stolen disk and the way we behaved in the store as if we're not sure who he is. And the way we didn't acknowledge Trigger at all, looks super weird after ending of her story mission, like total strangers

I don’t play ZZZ (only have time for one live service game) but I really enjoy these recaps. You’re a great storyteller

I am glad you clarified why Anby was helping us with investigating the Ravenlocks because I felt like many people, including myself, found it random that Anby was part of the team in the first place and simply dismissed it as “gacha advertising”.

Also, something I am concerned about regarding the story - I am not convinced that Vivian has yet prevented Phaethon’s death that she saw in her vision and I suspect that this foreshadowed “death” may occur during Season 2’s climax. The Imagery of the wings and seeing the inky wings of Yi Xuan make me suspect that it happens much later. (I haven’t finished the vid yet, so I’m not sure if you touch on this at all).

One thing i love about Hugo is that his JP VA Jun Fukuyama is the VA of Joker from persona 5, the leader of a phantom thief group, and Lelouch from Code Geass, the heir of a powerful rich family that wants revenge from his father and the rest of the family. So Hoyoverse knew exactly what they were doing casting him for Hugo, such a perfect fit.

ASHIKAI RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 😤😤🔥🔥🔥

thanks because of you i can skip the story <3

LFG ZZZ!