“Zenless Zone Zero is at its best when it's delivering stylish action over puzzles.”
- Strong identity and style
- Simple, satisfying combat
- Meaningfully connects characters in story
- Convenient for on-the-go
- Puzzle-to-action ratio feels off
- Repetitive combat strategy
- Grind can feel shallow
HoYoverse has made a name for itself over the years creating imaginative, ambitious games that have redefined the mobile market. Zenless Zone Zero is the latest feather in its cap, though one that doesn’t immediately impress as much as its predecessors. It doesn’t have the sprawling, open-world ecosystem of Genshin Impact or the layered turn-based system of Honkai Star Rail. In my Zenless Zone Zero preview, I highlighted the disconnect between the player’s role as the Proxy, a guide through the Hollows, and its otherwise satisfying yet simple action RPG combat. The final game doesn’t do much to bridge that gap, but I learned to appreciate its unique identity more as I explored its world and what it had to offer outside of action.
Zenless Zone Zero takes place in a futuristic world plagued by pocket dimensions called Hollows, which are filled with Ethereals, its bad guys. Only those that can withstand Ether corruption can explore the Hollows without turning into monsters themselves. That’s where Hollow Raiders like the Cunning Hares come in. Players take control as either Belle or Wise, two siblings running a video store as a front for their Proxy business. As a Proxy, players get to work with clients across the board to complete covert missions that no one else can take on without drawing prying eyes of journalists and law enforcement.
This strong setup offers a great reason to look into the lives of multiple charming characters and a uncover wider story of city politics, all while taking part in high-energy battles. Zenless Zone Zero may not be HoYovere’s best game, but it’s certainly its most stylish and unique to date.
Puzzling design
Like HoYoverse’s other games, Zenless Zone Zero is a mobile-first “gacha” game that features tons of playable characters and gear that can be won by paying for pulls. While that framework matches Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, Zenless Zone Zero plays nothing like its predecessors. It’s a full-on action RPG with hack and slash combat, motion comic cutscenes, video store management, and even an arcade that includes a multiplayer version of Snake. It’s MiHoYo at its most creative, though that energy yields mixed results.
It feels surprisingly stagnant for a game that boasts high-energy action as its main strength.
Before actually getting into battles, there’s a left-field puzzle competent to learn. After choosing a team of three, players hop into the Hollows to complete commissions like saving civilians or finding lost equipment. As a Proxy, players control of a creature called a Bangboo to guide teams through the Hollows, which is represented as a maze of TV screens that players need to move through to complete goals and initiate battles. Think of it like a board game. Each TV has a screen that triggers a different effect depending on its design like green icons for healing, gold coins for Gear Coins you need to unlock safes, and so on.
The odd concept feels suited to mobile because of how easy they are to complete on-the-go with touch controls. On the other hand, it creates a disconnect between breezy TV hopping and the actual gravity of the situation in the supposedly dangerous Hollow. While I can appreciate the breezy, puzzle-like navigation, it feels surprisingly stagnant for a game that boasts high-energy action as its main strength.
One of my major complaints with mobile ARPGs is how difficult they are to play on a phone, partially because of buttons cluttering my screen and cameras that seemed to have a mind of their own. To its credit, Zenless Zone Zero fixes that issue by using its TV screens, where players only need to worry about moving through puzzle grids to enter into smaller battle arenas. It’s a smart way to build a game with mobile in mind, even if it winds up taking attention away from the main attraction.
Strength in style
Zenless Zone Zero more consistently entertains when you’re in an actual battle. It oozes with the kind of stylish, snappy combat and animations you’d expect in big-name franchises Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. Crucially, it doesn’t demand the same level of skill as those games.
Each character has basic attacks that can string into a combo, a special attack and a charged version of it, and ultimate power accompanied by a splashy animation. It also incorporates timed dodges that you can take advantage of, either by using the dodge button for a counterattack or swapping in a teammate to trigger an assist. Its signature hook is related to that baton pass system, where players sub in one of their other party members after triggering an assist, who enters the battle with a big attack. It blends into a satisfying juggling act that gives players a chance to use all of their characters.
That’s not where the depth ends, either. Each enemy displays a bar for their health and another for their Daze Gauge. Zenless Zone Zero throws around terms like Impact (the ability to fill up the Daze Gauge) and Daze (the act of actually filling up the Daze Gauge) that players might not understand until later, but they all refer to a character’s effectiveness in filling up the gauge until the enemy is “Stunned,” leaving it open to heavy damage without defenses. It’s relatively easy to ignore this unless you want to min-max, but seemingly unnecessary aside from giving players a reason to stay. It’d be easier if there was a steady way to guarantee ideal gear, but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen anytime soon based on the gacha system.
It feels like HoYoverse is finally listening to players …
Compared to Wuthering Waves, a Genshin-like I played earlier this year, Zenless Zone Zero doesn’t value range of movement or combo diversity as much. I don’t mind entirely mind that. Its lack of aerial combos, for instance, doesn’t bother me as much as it may action game aficionados. The system feels designed around its smaller scope. The tight hallways inside the Hollows and streamlined combat make it much easier to play without complications. It didn’t happen often, but in the rare moment where I got stuck in a corner or the camera flipped on me during a fight, I was thankful that aerial combos didn’t add to the chaos.
On a smaller note, it’s refreshing to complete commissions without the text-heavy fluff you’d see in HoYoverse’s other games. I pop into a TV, solve puzzles, and mash buttons to brute force through enemies with only a few lines of text in between. It feels like HoYoverse is finally listening to players complaining about lines of filler dialogue and exposition, which it successfully tones down in Zenless Zone Zero to get to the action faster. It knows when to pump up the drama when it comes to the main story too, which delves deeper into New Eridu’s mysteries and character backstories.
To add to its identity, Zenless Zone Zero has bustling locales like New Eridu to explore outside of the Hollows. There, players can run a totally-legal video shop, drink coffee to boost their drop rate for the next combat exercise, and interact with locals in a Persona-like manner that adds charm to the daily routine. These small details are proof that HoYoverse really went out of its way to fine-tune this project, even if the eclectic vision doesn’t stick the landing as strongly as it did with past games. And as a bonus, its jazzy soundtrack makes completing dailies feel more soothing while I’m winding down from work or taking a short break.
Simple to a fault
It all may sound complicated so far, but Zenless Zone Zero is simple in a way that feels intentional. Take combat, for instance. The system incorporates timed dodges and assists that would theoretically make it more satisfying to rack up combos and clear content more efficiently, but it isn’t ever necessary to steamroll through the plot. An underleveled or gearless character can survive the first few chapters, even if it’d be more difficult without proper leveling. This starkly contrasts with more complex games like Honkai: Star Rail, which demands more strategy and investment to clear chapters.
I’m already starting to feel the strain of repetition.
I’m well past Level 30, so I’ve started grinding for the sake of strengthening my favorite characters. That experience is laid back compared to other live service endgames. There isn’t as much of an emphasis on min-maxing, I feel less pressure to have the best gear. I’m much more satisfied just playing with different team comps and slowly leveling up my characters when I have the time. While I’m no longer a newbie, I’ve still got a ways to go until I hit max level (Inter-Knot Level 60).
I’m already starting to feel the strain of repetition, though. Enemies have differences that make them distinct from each other, but the strategy is always the same: dodge or swap characters before they can hit you, and then mash buttons. Hardcore players are rewarded for their efforts with medals or high rankings during missions, but the difficulty is forgiving enough that earning medals usually doesn’t take long. As I delved deeper into the story, I gained access to more difficult commissions and monsters, but even those felt like they were lacking a good reward for doing the same loop over and over.
Thankfully, it didn’t take me long to pull strong, useful characters or build teams with good synergy. Because I only need three characters to make a team instead of the usual four in HoYoverse’s games, it takes less to build them. Players are guaranteed at least one S-Rank character, the strongest in the game, within 50 pulls on the beginner banner. Zenless Zone Zero also builds in at least 100 free pulls from reaching milestones on the permanent Road to Proxy Greatness Event, which gives players free pulls at Inter-Knot Level 5 and then every five levels from Inter-Knot Level 15 up to 30. The pre-registration rewards and limited-time login events, which will no doubt return later in the RPG’s lifecycle, also gave me about 80 free pulls. This was more than enough to satisfy me as a beginner and pull me past the 30-hour mark before I got to the grindy part: perfecting my team rather than putting it together.
After 40 or so hours, Zenless Zone Zero stands out as a visually distinct, streamlined mobile game that also plays well on PC and console. It has a lot going for it stylistically, but its combat lacks depth compared to competitors and feels like a chore after long stretches of time. I still see it succeeding with regular updates, its character-driven story, and intuitive gameplay, but I wish HoYoverse spent more time pushing the game in a direction with higher stakes and complexity rather than convenience.
Zenless Zone Zero was tested on PC, an iPhone 12 Pro, and a Lenovo Legion Go.
