The Truth about Zenless Zone Zero (Updated Review)

I feel like Hoyo anticipated most of these kind of reviews from fans of their other games, likely because ZZZ isn't targeted at their usual playerbase. Its more casual, and I like that. The combat, at least for me, has been really satisfying and fun, i don't feel bad if i only hop in and do some daily stuff and log off for the day, but I've been enjoying the differing style of gameplay. I think the reason the pacing feels very slow for many players is that they are used to how much faster progression is in other games, however I thiink ZZZ was intended to bring a new audience into the scene and therefore pacing for the tutorial was slowed down to help ease new players into the whole system. But, ZZZ isn't for everyone, and that's totally okay, it fits a niche and for those that enjoy this kind of gameplay I've seen mostly positive feedback, however many of the OG hoyo players may not be as on board with this new style of game. But there are people like me out there who are enjoying it. Plus....character design... Also the TV system for me, it actually enjoyable, its like solving a puzzle and I've really enjoyed that portion. The game isn't going to be for everyone, none of the titles are, but I do think for those out there that enjoy this stuff its fulfilling its purpose. I like HSR and ZZZ but I have lost interest in playing Genshin over the years.

Fell the same about Rally, its really good, but there is not too much.
Like in that city Hub, they dont do a living traffic of vehicles for what reason? i dont know, its just feels awkward.
Why they dont include some parkour or jump puzzle missions? dont know
Why they dont include driving car missions or driving car in another way? dont know. I mean there is no need to make a whole city to do this...I dont know, Why.
I remember damn old Dreamcast game called "Head Hunter", which is 2001....and there was mortocycle missions etc, but not a full city or town and this was still fun and diverse in gameplay, thanks to this feauture. And now....we are in 2024, where company with budgets like this, cant do a simple things, i Really dont know Why.

The t.v. "situation" is completely overblown and irrational. There are not too many of them and 99% of them are interesting, fun minigames you get to play. If people don't like it, then the game isn't really for them, is it? Also there is plenty of combat in this game, people just have to... you know... play the damn game instead of bitching and schitzo-posting online non-stop...

i am still pissed that they don't just put the Rally Commission Level as the main level formula for the whole game instead those TV Sections

Why are these banners different colors, and most seem to be white.

ask this guy if he is getting paid

yeah i think TV is ONLY tolerable if you follow the story, if u follow the story, TV is important

The thing with WuWa is for mistakes they made, they apologized, compensated for the frustration and bad taste, and then made ammends. JP, where blunders happened in WuWa, is now the highest part of the revenue. Kuro knows how to treat playerbase.
Hoyoverse is the opposite. They make mistakes and call it their 'choices' and tell us to 'get used to it'. That's the issue and why WuWa is #1 for me.
I like this too, but purely for the style and vibes. I don't like combat as much.

skips the story
trashes half the gameplay
Yeah no wonder

I really like this game but the simple truth is that this game isn’t for everyone. Just look at the people mad about the characters or the story or whatever. Genshin is in my opinion a worse game (if you don’t count the amazing open world and I still love Genshin) but more accessible to a wider audience. ZZZ feels more like a game where you just ‘have to feel it’ rather than something that is objectively good or bad since it targets some very specific ideas and concepts in its gameplay. If you like the more slow, slice of life aspect of the game like me you will love it, but if you want a big bombastic story that is incredibly engaging and deep? This game isn’t it. If you want combat 24/7, this game isn’t it.

For example, many people hate the TV sections for taking way too much time and being in their opinion unnecessary. I don’t agree because the TV section exists to explain the world: it shows the train that is moving in Chapter 1 for example. The TV is a symbolic way of showing what is going on inside a Hollow and a way to have creative things happen while inside that Hollow. You really think that they’re gonna make a 3D space for every single TV section in the game that ALL need different assets and so many hours of programming and animation? Of course not and that is pretty logical. You chase Bangboo inside a Hollow, you ignite bombs etc etc etc… all of this is way too much work for a 3D space and so the TV section NEEDS to exist in order to tell you what is going on around the player in any given moment. People say that removing the TV would make the game better and for some people it might, but you forget that you would remove the glue that connects the lobby (open world) and the combat sections.

I do agree that the TV can be very painfull at times and I wish that combat sections like the Rally commissions are implemented more in the future. I also wish that they’re would a bigger number of unique arenas in the game rather than just ‘random boring ass building’ and I thought that a Hollow could have way more creative choices in terms of aesthetics.

it is funny with how big ZZZ is on PS5, not just mobile and WuWa dropping super hard lol

How has the launch been bad? There's been a lot of bitching on lame social media spaces like Reddit, but it literally had 50 million pre registers and the sales have been in first place pretty consistently

All valid and true points but I like it just cause of the art and style hopefully they improve everything else

I think they just have the tv shit to differentiate zzz from honkai impact. But honestly, having mostly combat instead wouldnt be much better, cause then you end up with the same problem honkai has where you’re just mashing buttons for hours and the combat gets stale fast

Mtashed put so many of my issues into words. I don't love how the rotations feel. And the child characters are freaking me out

the investigation on stuff exploration on lumiria bro i skipped everything if theres no fairy i will not finished that its so boring🤧

Got some conflicting opinions from me but the fact that they thought the collab news with SF was a good idea, this early.. was a bad idea

Since it just tells people "hey we have combat galore" even more and the whole TV thing just wasn't talked from them

20 min TV for a 2 min fight. I got Ellen at 5th pull, also got her weapon really early. But the game is so boring and confusing, i quit at day 2. I understand it gets better late game but i don't think it's good enough

Nice review, a few minutes in you say you have no idea what is going on in the game

I'm sure my comment will be buried but what I find most distracting is how visually engaging the game is, while everything else falls short. I comprehend the purpose, because gacha games are made to be more all-encompassing and they cannot sacrifice the immediacy bargain, but for god's sake.

There is zero depth here. I know, why would I try a gacha game hoping for DMC? That's not the point. Why are these games so limited to themselves that they're unwilling to push even a little bit more. Every button once used serves it one purpose-- there is no alteration other than the visuals / blatantly explained effect it gives.

I've seen more versatility and player expression from doing mario party minigames. The enemies are also just sandbags to punch even the bosses don't really fare challenge and I cannot accept HP values going up or damage going up as challenge.

IDK man. I'm probably talking to nobody at this point but yeah. This genre could have a market for me (fine if they don't) if they attempted to break constraint, but hey this shit makes money they don't need my dollar.

Spoken like an Aventurine main or an Aventurine cosplayer or ... dun ... dun ... he has become Aventurine ... or honkai star rail has made a character after Mtash or something 🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤😊😊😊

I really do enjoy ZZZ, I think more than most people that I've seen so far, but I HEAVILLYYY agree on the children thing specifically. I despise when they make child characters or characters that heavily look like children and they are in skimpy outfits like??? That's so predatory and gross. I would love it if they had a total of zero child characters in the game lol. Especially since this game is more raunchy than the other Hoyo games there just shouldn't be children in it at all. And the fact that a good majority of the characters are children (or just look child-like) in this more raunchy style of game it's pretty weird.

Also, agreed on the character designs. The animation is by far my favorite when it comes to Hoyo games but man the character designs are missing some depth. Though I do love miss Jane Doe's design who is coming out semi-soon.

"did it to save money" - ngl that isn't an excuse for a company making billions. They are the top of the top. They can afford it, they choose not to, thus resulting in a worse product. "To save money" should by default be a point in cons. They CHOSE to make the game worse.

i just need to kno when can i get the katana lady i just seen in this fire ass cutscene i just watched while playing. anyone knows when she is dropping?

theres way more to this game than just combat. If it was just fighting fighting fighting i wouldnt play, there should be a balance

TOTALLY agree with the artifact thing, there needs to be different pictures on each disk for the numbers jesus, and the numbers dont look like a proper number either wtf

The tvs are getting on my nerves...

I don't think Zenless is as good as Genshin but I think it's so far slightly better than HSR. HSR starts off good but once you get past the Russia looking part of the game it becomes a never ending sea of painful pretentious drivel.

Nice review, Mtashed. Agreed with many of your criticisms. No idea what they were thinking with the UI/UX and the TV gameplay.

Glad to see someone like you point out ZZZs flaws. ZZZ is a sims game with a comat mini game. The story ive played was a 9/10 and pretty much everything else that wasn't combat was exceptional. However the combat framework is really good, but their difficulty progression mirrors retail wow. Which is pathetic. It feels like they didnt even bother balancing the early game. If they made the Tv mode skippable I might come back and try the game again.

You think the combat you get to play is awesome, because you barely get to play it. If you go out of your way to make the game more challenging in the early game. You'll find like I have, that the ai is slow and stupid. Its possible the Tv mode is bad on purpose to condition you into believing the combat is good. Eventhough it lacks balance, difficultly progression, and competant ai. The framework of the combat is good, so if this where the beta, id say their moving the right direction. Also Im a mobile player and this game doesnt have customizable ui controls like Wuthering Waves and Snowbreak Containment Zone. So Mihoyo cut costs on their mobile release, not surprised they would fail at balancing the game.

The problem with girls looking like highschool freshmen or younger is a common problem in anime, and of course theres also lolis. Lolis being sexualized is definitely a controversial topic and I wouldnt mind if they dissappeared from gacha games. However if this game is marketed towards middle schoolers and highschoolers. Then it would make sense why their so many sexualized highschool girls. Thats definitely one pro of Wuthering Waves, they have really good age diversity.

i like the game

bias incoming, but i'm siding on the devs on this one.

this game markets itself as look at the animation, the cool music, the aesthetic etc. that kinda stuff would attract people that are just here for a good time and not looking to min max everything SUPER early (later on, maybe sure. but maybe that's why this game doesn't pick up difficulty wise 'til way later)

it wasn't for the tryhards and sweats and maybe that's why it didn't appeal too much for mtashed :?

like i have the opposite opinion on wuthering, awful optimization/my crappy potato aside, things like them having 20 different pronunciations for Chi Xia (one of the main characters btw) just took me out of it so fast. 1st main quest was awesome though that being said, gameplay, pretty sick. but kinda tired of playing 1 game 24/7 lmao

I really liked almost everything you complained about, I really hate Honkay and never got hooked, while in this one I am loving, it was combat only like you said, so I would probably give it up.

This game clearly isnt for you and your play style
Like, the rap lyrics when you get an S literally say "enjoy the ride"
If you cant enjoy the experience, then its simply not for you

Gonzalez Margaret Lewis Kevin Young Deborah

Perez Brian Hernandez Laura Gonzalez Deborah

Miller Thomas Johnson Jeffrey Lewis Michael

just got into zzz and got jane as my first 10. The tv and quest really ruins everything good about the combat and when the combat starts it's not satisfying enough. Traveling around zzz also feels like moving from fishbowl to another fishbowl instead of feeling like a "world hub". Everything is so claustrophobic

Thing that pisses me off most is the gambling. Every single hoyo game is just shoving micro transactions in your face and gives you time limits on getting characters you actually want. There is two options 1: Grind the game for days on end to get enough to maybe get the character you want or 2: Open your wallet.

Moore John Williams Donna Lewis Patricia

I'm already calling it z endless zone vagina, thanks to that i can save when a male character actually shows up, only spend 24 wishes for cat man 🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤😂😂😂

Gonzalez Kevin Wilson Nancy Thompson Jason

Miller Jeffrey Smith Daniel Hernandez Cynthia

If a gacha game cannot hook you in under 1 hour, I think it's safe to say it's a failure.

Walker Donald Martinez Anthony Young Timothy

Allen Gary Garcia Sarah Hall Robert