Zenless Zone Zero review: "Wholesome stories in a stunning anime world"

Zenless Zone Zero welcomes you to New Eridu, a post-apocalyptic metropolis inhabited by humans, cyborgs, catgirls, furries, and space bunnies. Taking on the role of a 'proxy', a type of hacker with a space bunny disguise, this action role-playing game has you mingling with corporations and gangs in the last bastion of civilization. It's a weird setup, but it's not like we've come to expect anything less from Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail developer HoYoverse. 

As the second HoYoverse game launched in a post-Genshin world, Zenless Zone Zero undoubtedly felt it had to make an impression when it dropped me in the middle of a police-chasing-gang-chasing-terrorists opening sequence. However, while the slick combat and loveable band of a bossy pink-haired girl, quiet trooper, and trigger-happy cyborg were indeed enough to have me hooked, Zenless Zone Zero suffers from a few flaws that can lower the good time vibe. 

Zenless Zone Cinema

Let's expand on that 'gorgeous' part first; Zenless Zone Zero looks absolutely fantastic. Screenshots don't do it justice, but it's truly wonderful in motion – character movement is extremely fluid and the facial expressions feel incredibly natural. There's a lot of secondary movement going on in the hair and clothing, which adds a strong sense of realism to – let's face it – completely unrealistic character designs. Holding the middle-ground between 2D and 3D visuals, the depth of the animation effectively transforms Zenless Zone Zero's cutscenes into a truly cinematic experience, enhanced by brilliant voice acting. 

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Zenless Zone Zero doesn't stop there though, with HoYoverse imbuing its storytelling with even more style through the addition of comic book pages. They fir the game's cyberpunk vibes perfectly, with major portions of the story delivered as if you were reading a graphic novel – complete with dark, gritty action scenes and a healthy dose of humor. It's different, it's relaxing, and (although you're given the option) very much unskippable.

Make no mistake though; looks aside, Zenless Zone Zero's story isn't groundbreaking. While it is a lot grittier than HoYoverse's previous games, it's still very safe and rather predictable. Of course, the playable characters are all great friends. Of course, everyone escapes from the Hollow with their body intact. And of course, the more treacherous characters have noble motives and are instantly forgiven. Wholesome? Yes – but if you're looking for shocking plot twists, you won't find them here. 

Hollow hacking

Zenless Zone Zero's story is centered around the Hollows; supernatural dimensions inhabited by alien monsters. While the rest of the world was destroyed by the Hollows, the people of New Eridu somehow managed to extract resources from these mysterious realms, and, as a result, continued to thrive. Beware that those brave enough to drop into a Hollow and grab the goodies will get lost without a proper guide; only hackers known as Proxies can ensure safe passage. As a Zenless Zone Zero player, you take on the role of one such Proxy.

So, what does hacking a Hollow look like? A maze built from tiny TVs apparently; as you start a 'Hollow Deep Dive' story or exploration commission (a main or side quest), you will land on a Hollow monitor screen where you must move from tile to tile (TV to TV) to progress. That may sound weird, but it's similar to a dungeon crawler: some tiles are just for walking, others will get you a buff, some will inflict a debuff, and some will drop you into combat. 

Here's the problem though; there isn't much of a challenge on the Hollow monitor screens. The first of these roguelike-inspired areas are fun to explore as every new type of tile is a discovery, but they become rather tedious once you realize that most monitor screens are nothing but a place to pick up buffs before the action kicks off. Some early quests suggested more depth as their monitor screens introduced different levels and pathways, with buttons that needed to be pushed and railroads that needed to be altered – which, as a puzzle game enthusiast, had me excited – but I soon realized that the steps I took were really just part of a checklist, the order of which didn't affect the outcome much. 

These Hollow monitor screens are more disruptive to Zenless Zone Zero's flow than they need to be. I don't wish that they would disappear entirely, but I would happily see them altered to be less time-consuming, with fewer dialogue interruptions and sections that can't be failed. There are some solid concepts in here, such as the bomber-bunnies, where you basically play Bomberman against your opponents, but it requires such little strategy to win in its current state. Given that HoYoverse has positioned Zenless Zone Zero as a live-service which will evolve over time through frequent updates, I do hope that better balanced, truly entertaining dungeon sections arrive in the future. 

Slay 'em with style

Once you complete a hack, the Proxy and their monitor make way for a trio of playable characters who constantly swap places. As each character comes with a damage type, combat role, and skillset, part of the fun in Zenless Zone Zero is to find the best team compositions; will you go for a main DPS accompanied by a buff support and stun expert? Or perhaps a DPS accompanied by a specialized enemy debuffer and a sturdy tank? 

While the character build system isn't as detailed as previous HoYoverse games, it's still fun to mull over stats and character rotations. The one thing that may dampen your enthusiasm for Zenless Zone Zero's team-building a bit is its 'gacha' system; you must spend rare items on character banners for a chance to obtain a new character. If luck isn't on your side, and you're unwilling to throw an unspecified amount of real-life money into the game, you may never welcome your favorites to the team. Then again, you can play the full game without ever spending a penny – just not with a full character roster.

I mentioned before that the animations are flawless, and that's especially true in combat encounters. Each character has a unique moveset that may include gun-slinging pirouettes or sword-slashing backflips. But if you think the motion looks cool, you should see the ending of a battle; the screen becomes frozen as the killing blow lands, resulting in rather spectacular action shots. Ending a battle with as epic an end screen as possible (halfway through that backflip, for example) is a fun challenge in itself.

Besides basic attacks and special attacks, Zenless Zone Zero has two combat mechanics that feel particularly satisfying: the 'daze' bar and the 'perfect assist' move. Hitting an enemy will fill their daze bar and allow you to perform a sequence of slow-motion attacks, thereby swapping between characters. Swapping characters at the opportune moment during an incoming attack will perform a perfect assist, resulting in a counterattack. The process of waiting for a counter, landing the perfect hit, and absolutely obliterating the opponent afterward adds a nice flow to the battle. 

There's a downside to this gratifying momentum though – while it's nice to feel overpowered, that feeling wears off if you're overpowered all the time. During the game's main commissions, you're never truly threatened by enemies (bosses included). This problem is partly solved by a 'challenge' mode that makes quests slightly tougher, but it would be nice if this resulted in better rewards. Luckily, in the later stages, new challenge modes such as the 'Hollow Zero' or the 'Rally' commission, as well as a 'hard' timed mode for previously completed commissions, turn Zenless Zone Zero into the zenless action game it claims to be. 

The fun zone

Besides combat challenges, Zenless Zone Zero's main storyline unlocks an astonishing amount of additional gameplay features, including combat training, boss fights, bunny puzzles, exploration challenges, a store-management sim, dozens of NPC interactions, character background stories, and even an arcade where you can play Snake and Soul Hounds against other players. Of course, this isn't an open-world game where you can roam around for hours on end, but I somehow found myself exploring the world, playing Snake, and talking to local space bunnies (who are called Bangboos, by the way) for far longer than expected. 

Because of this, I feel I can forgive the hint of boredom that pops up every now and then. Zenless Zone Zero is an ARPG, but I'm playing it more for the 'RPG' part and less for the action, which is probably why I like it so much. If you're looking for a game to test the limits of your combat prowess, ZZZ isn't it, but if you want to experience wholesome stories in a stunning anime world with over a dozen different side activities, Zenless Zone Zero has got you covered.