When Zenless Zone Zero launched last year, it was one of those demonstrably good games I couldn't get into. An obstructive minigame and some bizarre design choices killed my interest despite superb vibes and animation, and there didn't seem to be much depth to the core combat at the time. There were things to love, but it felt like I couldn't reach them. So when developer HoYoverse touted ZZZ update 1.4 as a soft relaunch, I was interested.
Fast forward five weeks and you'll find me hungrily downloading ZZZ update 1.5 to dive into the new patch of my latest gacha fixation. I enjoyed Honkai Star Rail for a few months before I felt I'd had my fill, but ZZZ has hooked me in a way that a HoYo game hasn't since Genshin Impact first came out. The vibes and animation are even better than before, and added depth and focus has turned this into a fun action RPG that I can see myself playing for a good long while.
What changed?
A few big adjustments pulled me back to ZZZ. The headliner will be obvious to most players: the puzzle-lite TV mode minigame, which was previously woven into a lot of core content, has been dramatically minimized. There are still TV mode events for those who like it – and I do like it, in the right situation – but now you can play through main missions without the game constantly slamming the brakes to crowbar in an oddball mechanic.
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My problem with TV mode wasn't its sheer existence. What I hated was the way ZZZ would erratically jump between action combat and this slower, grid-based labyrinth navigation. I like to get into a flow state with games, and the original implementation of TV mode made that impossible. Just as I'd start to focus on the combat, bam, TV mode section, like stepping on a rake. I do see the argument for variety, but variety isn't exciting when it boils down to periodically taking away the thing I actually want. Now that TV mode has its own dedicated space and doesn't kill my momentum, I can enjoy it for what it is: a solid little side dish. The Baby's First 3D Platformer sections that have helped replace TV mode in some missions are also fine. Downright decent.
These structural changes have made it easier to enjoy the combat and story missions. While I do think update 1.5 has the weakest story content so far – a few too many contrivances and extremes that probably needed more time to explain themselves – it still looks and sounds incredible. Top-notch production and presentation is primarily why I've become so enamored with the world of ZZZ.
The driving plot is a serviceable collection of short stories and character anecdotes orbiting a pair of sibling freelance tech wizards with mysterious origins loosely tied to an apocalyptic disaster. It works, but I'm mostly here for what is genuinely some of the best animation I've ever seen in a game. Expressions, gestures, attacks, and even basic movements carry infectious personality and energy. Swelling music and impact frames remain the jump scares of animated fight scenes – a big red button in a case inscribed, "if you need an emotional response, break glass" – but I'll be damned if they don't work on me every single time.
Less effective is the button that ZZZ slams roughly every 14 seconds: positively unhinged jiggle physics. This stuff generally rolls off me like water off a duck, and the irony is that because ZZZ's sexualization is so universal, it ends up being less jarring than similar ploys in games like Stellar Blade, where out-of-place outfits just wear the character. People like Nicole, Jane Doe, and Lighter know they're sexy. They are! And ZZZ can also be serious when it needs to. This game and its community are never beating the horny allegations, but that shouldn't put you off. (Indulge me in this aside: Jane Doe, one of ZZZ's beast-people Thirens, is among the best characters HoYoverse has ever cooked up. Her silhouette is fantastic, and the way her resting posture uses the loops on her jacket to mirror rat paws is ingenious.)
Finally, some good combat
None of this would matter for squat if the action in this action RPG wasn't up to snuff, and recent updates have done some heavy lifting here too. Everyone on your team can use their ultimate now instead of sharing one bar, meaning you can fully engage with each character's kit. Newer end game modes like Deadly Assault and Hollow Zero – respectively, a timed boss gauntlet where you earn points for dealing damage and playing well, and a branching roguelike dungeon where you draft perks to juice up your abilities and overcome difficulty modifiers – have given ZZZ more room to strut its stuff while presenting different team-building challenges. Similarly, there's a new test-your-limits tower mode in the latest patch. And with a bigger roster of characters available today, teams deliver a greater range of experiences. For combat content and quality-of-life niceties, ZZZ is running laps around other HoYo games for version 1.5.
It turns out I do like ZZZ's combat; I just didn't like many of the launch characters. Ranged fighters like Zhu Yuan don't do it for me, while Ellen Joe is too stop-start. But story missions have introduced me to lots of characters I want to pull for so I can play them all the time. Caesar is a biker with a parry that feels distinct from the perfect blocks and dodges you can use on all characters. Yanagi, the textbook overworked office lady, excels at stacking attacks for satisfying burst damage. Upcoming bodyguard Evelyn has a wonderful sense of flow to her garrot wire swings. This patch, I'm most excited to pull for Qingyi, a pint-sized android cop whose bow staff lands with crispy thwacks.
ZZZ update 1.4 introduced two new characters, and they've been my workhorses. Miyabi is a fox girl with a cursed katana – the archetypal gacha game DPS bulldozer, and pretty easy to master at that. But she presents fun opportunities to layer in other characters while her long animations shred everything to ribbons. Miyabi is the reason I want Yanagi and adore Soukaku, and I hope to see more synergies like this emerge. Harumasa, meanwhile, is arguably the most complex character in the game, with superior combo variants unlocked by animation cancels that require careful timing and setup. It's a good thing Harumasa was given out for free, because learning his teams is what really convinced me that ZZZ has the sauce.
I can't remember the last time I had such a complete 180 with a game. At launch, ZZZ seemed unsalvageable for me, yet it's what I spent most of my Christmas break playing and now I'm excited to log in every day. Can I fit another gacha game into my life while still playing Genshin Impact daily? Should I? These are pertinent questions that I will continue to ignore until I have the characters I want and use them to stomp all end game milestones into the dust.
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