Similar to Honkai Star Rail, Zenless Zone Zero is the most recent release developed and published by MiHoYo. As much as I enjoyed Honkai Star Rail, it quickly lost my interest. The turn-based combat clashed with the “fun-in-short-bursts” gameplay quirks woven into its mechanics. Despite the developers’ best efforts to make it function, divvying up a game into bite-size chunks of content only works well when the genre can adapt to it.
Despite my concerns regarding Zenless Zone Zero’s potentially similar tedium, I tried it out. However, its commonplace free-to-play mechanics meld with its hack-and-slash style to virtually eliminate the threat of boredom while letting its other aspects shine, for better or worse.
Zenless Zone Zero’s mission-based structure is more conducive to generating interest and engagement. It’s significantly more fun to boot up the game and complete a quick mission or two, instead of progressing slightly into a dungeon.
It also softens the impact of the sudden level requirements imposed on the player. Honkai Star Rail rarely brought up mandatory grinding gracefully, as it continually interrupted the narrative. Meanwhile, Zenless Zone Zero smoothly transitions the player from story progression to side content by adding it in the downtime between story missions.
I’d rather not have mandatory grinding, but I’m glad they made it fun and something the player wants to do. Each mission is satisfying to blaze through thanks to their short lengths and rewards that feel like they actually do something when making characters stronger.
Exploration is equally enjoyable, as dungeon exploration is snappy, rich and very rewarding. Each map could feature more secrets sprinkled throughout, but this lack of extra content doesn’t detract from the overall experience.
Each level also features satisfying combat encounters. Similar to how combat in Xenoblade revolves around pre-battle setup, fights in Zenless Zone Zero gain complexity from the characters one brings into combat. Squads gain buffs from the synergy between the characters they fight with, and every character makes the most of their limited movesets.
Despite the attempts at intricate design, the combat still ends up a little too shallow. I found myself craving aerial combos, additional attack buttons, or any other mechanics commonplace to the hack-and-slash genre.
Variation helps stave off this repetition, but high-level recommendations—and the time it takes to increase an agent’s level—unfortunately guide people toward a preferred yet restrictive loadout.
Speaking of repetition, this game enjoys reusing environments. Despite the differences across the several dungeons one explores,like rain or construction equipment,everything revolves around a core of bland white and gray cityscapes. It makes exploration feel lifeless and not in the way that wandering around an abandoned city block should.
It’s a shame most of the locales the player explores are drab because the game’s main hub area exudes personality. This area encapsulates a short yet rich slice of city life while still providing the player with all the stores and services they need.
The game’s atmosphere becomes fantastic due to the high-quality presentation. Character movement during animated cutscenes features a subtle bounce that makes everything feel more vibrant in a unique way, and it weaves perfectly with the funky soundtrack.
Zenless Zone Zero really goes out of its way to make exploration oddly restrictive, though. Certain events only happen at certain times of day, which only acts as a hurdle to step past rather than a means of making the city feel alive. The passage of time—as a gameplay mechanic—also constantly falls apart when the game freezes it for plot progression.
All in all, I give Zenless Zone Zero a 6/10 and would recommend it as a good starting point for those interested in the hack-and-slash genre if you’re able to resist the urge to buy microtransactions.
