Zenless Zone Zero has changed dramatically since it debuted last summer.
The game, which paced its story around controversial board game-inspired television segments, has seen its main quest structure completely revamped. The release now resembles a more traditional character action game, with combat gauntlets interspersed with simple puzzles and dialogue sequences.
With the release of v2.0, the outing’s anniversary update, HoYoverse has concluded the title’s transformation. A new district named the Waifei Peninsula sees unexpected protagonists Wise and Belle exploring a new non-linear environment named the Lemnian Hollow.
This is the culmination of a year of iteration from the ZZZ team, with the new location offering cinematics, action, and problem solving all in a richly explorable area. New abilities obtained by the aforementioned Proxies throughout the season one storyline see them able to influence the world directly, and removing blocked passages through their mastery of the hollows.
It’s mostly simple stuff, but it underlines the reinvention the release has gone through. At launch, all of this exploration would have taken place across television screens, but now you have full control over your characters, and can pick the party that you see fit to approach each mission. Enemies await in each area, with level indicators above their heads like a traditional RPG.
In some ways, it does feel like the game has lost a little bit of its identity, but we wilfully accept the board game-style mode was slow and visually uninteresting; this feels like the right progression for a release that’s targeting mass market adoption.
There’s still refinement to be made here, though: while we enjoy many of the hacking minigames and puzzle solving mechanics, it does mostly feel like you’re running through uneventful corridors from one conversation or combat arena to the next. The next step for the team is to fill these levels with compelling gameplay and more visual variety, because it does feel like you’re simply moving through identikit environments at times.
Nevertheless, to accommodate the more ambitious level design, HoYoverse has completely rebuilt the navigation systems. Each location now has a minimap marking points of interest, while a more streamlined exploration menu allows you to quickly fast-travel to different districts. There’s also a much larger world map that attempts to contextualise the makeup of each district within New Eridu.
One area you’ll be spending a lot of time in as part of this update is Failume Heights, the new downtown location which serves as a hub similar to Sixth Street in the launch version. The developer has improved the engine a lot here, so there’s very little loading between each building, making exploration much faster and seamless.
While the vibrant urban artstyle remains unchanged, this new district’s mix of industry and traditional Chinese imagery makes for a striking backdrop, and it’s all underpinned by the new Suibian Temple management minigame.
This feels like what the Random Play video store management mode was supposed to be, as there were clearly grander ambitions here involving the staff you selected and the video tapes you promoted which never properly got realised. In the end, it just became a quick and easy way to make Dennies and complete your daily tasks.
But here you’ll need to recruit Bangboo – separate from the gacha – in order to craft materials which you can then sell at your temple. The tycoon-style loop will see you making money which will enable you to gradually, over time, improve the facilities of the temple, changing it visually and unlocking new money-spinning opportunities.
It’s a deeper and more engaging side-activity that we think people are going to enjoy, and it’s something HoYoverse has been experimenting with across all of its games; tycoon gameplay has appeared in various events in Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail over the past year or so.
But while many ideas get shared across all of the Chinese titan’s titles, ZZZ has felt like the most creative to our minds for quite some time. Events over the past year have included side-scrolling combat, isometric action, and even a Fall Guys-inspired party mode. The latter feels like something the developer is definitely poised to iterate on, as the controls feel surprisingly tight and the gameplay works well.
But we still think there’s more that can be done with the moment-to-moment gameplay and team-building. While the game subscribes to a similar party system to the most popular gachas on the market, we generally don’t feel there’s a necessity to be as thoughtful with compositions of class types as there is in other games. Some may prefer the freedom on offer here, but it can all seem a bit shallow at times.
New enemy types in the Waifei Peninsula do at least pose fresh challenges, as enemies can buff themselves with a material known as Miasma. We suspect dealing with this will become crucial to the endgame at some point, so we’re excited to see how these mechanics mature.
We’re also fascinated to see which new characters the second year will bring us. Prior to launch there were rumours of a faction of cyborg idols, so it should be fun discovering their storylines and learning how they function in combat. Yixuan, who’s debuting alongside v2.0, introduces a new Rupture-style class, which adds a new defence shredding-type playstyle to the mix.
To conclude, we would just like to point out that we think ZZZ has been by far the most generous gacha over the past year by a country mile. That may be facilitated by the fact that the title’s struggled to match-up to the popularity of its more popular siblings, but between free S-Rank Agents and an impressive offering of in-game currency and pulls, we have no real complaints about how HoYoverse has been operating this live service. The release of v2.0 will even see fan favourite Ellen Joe completely upgraded, pushing her up the meta for all existing owners free of charge.
Conclusion
With out-of-this-world anime production values and a revamped structure that brings a better pace to the overall experience, Zenless Zone Zero is only going from strength to strength. With the introduction of its new district – featuring a pretty fun tycoon management-style minigame – and ever-increasing stakes, the coming year looks bright for HoYoverse’s hyper-cool urban outing.