Zenless Zone Zero Review: Sorry Genshin, I Treated You Too Harshly

Zenless Zone Zero, the latest title from HoYoverse, invites players to take on the role of a Proxy to explore Hollows with the help of companion Bangboos and fellow characters. The game differs significantly from the likes of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail in terms of art direction, combat mechanics, and more.

Thus, despite achieving 45 million pre-registrations, as a die-hard fan of Genshin Impact and a regular Honkai: Star Rail player, I didn’t set high expectations for it. I am not much of a fan of sci-fi and tech-based storylines, and ZZZ brought exactly that without any open-world setting.

However, as soon as I launched it, its cozy world caught my eye, though I have mixed feelings about several other aspects.

Zenless Zone Zero Review [No Spoilers]

As soon as I started Zenless Zone Zero, I saw Bangboo and the protagonists of the game, Belle and Wise, and the video store, and instantly fell in love with the character design and art style of the game. While not as colorful and vibrant as Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, it was perfectly suited for the game’s modern era setting. I instantly knew I was in for good and fast-paced action.

Without much exposition, I reached the first cutscene, which was one of the few I liked, along with the ones where I saw Bangboo in action. It gave us a look at the cool and fun personalities of characters and their stylish action. However, considering the potential of HoYoverse after playing Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, I would say the rest of the cutscenes were not that intense or eye-catching. 

While the cutscenes of the other two games gave me chills, ZZZ's cutscenes lacked emotion. I understand that the genre and story setting of the game are completely different from HoYoverse’s other games, but given that it’s an action-focused title, I expected a lot cooler action sequences.

The character dialogues are hit and miss; sometimes I liked the humor, but other times, they just missed the punch. Additionally, the dialogue delivery and the tones for multiple characters often felt flat. However, the best thing about the conversations was the comic book style in which they were presented, at least most of the time. It reminded me of when I used to read comics as a kid, but each one of them only lasted me a few days. In contrast, Zenless Zone Zero feels like a comic book that I’ll have to read for years, which is too much even for an avid book reader like me. 

One of my favorite parts of the game was the combat and mechanics. It caters to both casual and try hard players who love to grind in the form of Casual and Challenge mode, which I would have liked in other HoYoverse games. It was either too easy, which bored me—like in Genshin, where if you have Zhongli, you can kill every boss easily—or too difficult, making me want to stop trying, like the Abyss. 

Switching between the characters is pretty quick, allowing me to execute unique and satisfying attack combos. Though it got harder as I progressed, this aspect of the game didn’t disappoint. The combat is also quite well optimized and smooth even on low end PCs, which is a great sign for mobile players as well.  

However, I couldn’t jump and that irked me every time I played. I understand there is no open-world exploration where you would need to climb mountains, but imagine how cool the action combos would be with it. Sometimes I just want to run while jumping and not being able to do it makes me feel that I am trapped, even while fighting. That said, Zenless Zone Zero is one of the most optimized games I have ever played.

Now let’s talk about the story, quests, and the world the game is set in: I don’t like the story and most of the quests. The tech terms that the characters use are hard for casual players to understand, making the story difficult to follow. I don’t want to keep Googling exactly what every term means and how it affects the outcomes. Additionally, to explore hollows, the protagonists and other characters communicated via the computer, which was a massive disconnect for me.

I want to play Genshin Impact from scratch because for me, it has the best storylines any gacha game has ever had. With Zenless Zone Zero, I continued the main story quest, hoping that it would get better and that I would connect with it the way I do with other games, but it just didn’t happen, and I gave up.

The TV puzzles featured in almost every quest were fun in the beginning but became more and more irritating as I progressed. I know that the story demanded it and they were easy, but I got tired of solving them so many times.

Talking about the world, I loved Sixth Street the most, though every city built is just so beautiful that I can't stop looking at. It felt cozy, and I can imagine myself just sitting at General Chop's shop or Coff Cafe and enjoying the rain. However, there is not much exploration to do when you are not doing quests.

The game is full of cute creatures like Bangboo, Howl, Mr. Panda, Officer Mewmew, etc., and I love the names that HoYoverse gave them. Standing next to them and simply watching them do their thing is what I love when I am just roaming around. Apart from these, you will also find a lot of cats that you CAN pet—yes, you read that right. The feature is finally here. 

As a side note: The Bangboo statue that you can find outside the Gadget Store would make an adorable desk buddy and keep it on my work desk so badly, but I have its mousepad (thank you, HoYoverse), so I am happy enough with that.

A review of a gacha game is not complete without discussing the grinding required for player progression and upgrading characters. This is the most tiring task in almost every gacha game, and Zenless Zone Zero is no different. Initially, you will be able to promote characters and increase your Inter-Knot level quickly, but as you progress, this task will drain your energy, just like in other HoYoverse games.

I think after spending enough time in Zenless Zone Zero, I will never say a word against Genshin Impact, no matter how many things are wrong with it. So, I am going to leave ZZZ for good and wait for the next Archon Quest to drop. Until then, I’ll sit in my home, Mondstadt and admire the beauty from the hands of the Anemo Archon statue.