Dip into New Eridu for our Zenless Zone Zero review and find out why the stunning new free-to-play from team otaku is more than just another pretty sequel in the HoYoverse.
Last week, HoYoverse launched another new RPG. The newly minted Zenless Zone Zero is the latest in a line of unique ideas turned into anime RPGs, but this one really does stand apart. Available now across PC, PlayStation 5, and mobile devices, the city of New Eridu is certainly not your average Mondstadt. Even compared to the opulence of Penacony, the heart of this new free-to-play has a rhythm all its own. Opening up into a world where rifts in reality leave the shopping malls and clean-cut parks of another age in ruins, only one bastion of civilization remains. New Eridu is a modern urban megalopolis buzzing with activity, full of noise, bristling with life, and always a little rough around the edges. Drawing on the contemporary urban sprawls that could be any anime version of Tokyo, the team that once traced elegant historical architecture into the lands of Liyue make a new home that’s as unusual as it is familiar.
Glimpsing New Eridu for the first time, elder millennials might feel a little nostalgic between the back alleys and pedestrianized corners of Sixth Street. A mix of arcades, VHS rental shops, convenience stores, and consumable facades all feel at once familiar and unexpected. Urban style and sprawling concrete architecture give way to retro detailing and an anthropomorphic police cat, who all mingle happily along the same kerbside. It’s instantly outlandish and invariably loud, not at all like the elegantly carved waterways of Fontaine.
Despite the new look, the opening moments are instantly recognizable as HoYoverse. The visual layout of the in-game UI, character details, and environment draws on the work that established the Honkai franchise, but with its own ideas. Much like the aforementioned backdrop, the opening animations, character design, and cut scenes all lean into pop culture. The entire title embraces a modern feel that dispenses with any decorative fantasy. The animation, gameplay design, and visual motifs all call back to the likes of Persona and The World Ends With You, while wider pop culture references are littered across the game. Everything from Super Sentai to Snake and the Minions gets a nod along the way. This all blends into an undeniable vibrancy, color, and finesse to this rag-tag tale of heroism that makes it more appealing than the average Shonen Jump and as slick as any Ufotable anime. If you’ve already had the pleasure of viewing the in-engine action and the cacophony of trailers, then you might have an idea of what to expect. If you haven’t then the Red Fang Gang, Lumina Square, and the guts of Hollow Zero are seriously going to tickle your inner otaku.
Proxies, Agents, and Action Time
Even with a new façade, touring the unfamiliar streets of New Eridu as one of two Proxies does, however, feel a bit familiar. Picking one of a sibling set, HoYo hasn’t strayed too far from its established direction. Players will navigate a host of unusual citizens and weird requests to venture out of the norm and into the Hollows. These rips in the fabric of space hold valuable resources, trap unsuspecting victims, and present a huge variety of potential challenges. Thankfully, you’ll be able to bring along some exotic new friends to do the grunt work. Trained combat Agents take the place of Archons and Stellaron Hunters in this outing, giving players a range of characters to wield, pull for, and pair up into a fighting force. Where Honkai Star Rail realized a wonderful balance of turn-based combat in instanced dungeons, Zenless Zone Zero manages to take that idea and pull in different directions. Leaping out of the local arcade and into a dangerous fissure with no hope of escape, Proxies must rely on a wild array of Agents with outrageous weapons, a clumsy little Bangboo, and some surprisingly deep combat systems to succeed.
Barrelling in with as much energy as an opening from Studio Trigger, combat is at the core of Zenless Zone Zero. While Genshin delivered a free-form foundation and Honkai took things in a different direction, this time it’s all about real-time triggers, precise timing, epic combos, and even more outrageous animation. Big numbers, explosions, sweeping skills, and flying kicks all drag the likes of Anby, Nicole, and Billy into a series of dungeon encounters that unfurl into adrenaline-fueled real-time combat sequences. This modest mix of potential combatants is dropped into the chaos of a Hollow, with a choice of easy or hard mode instances that can be as deep or meaningless as players choose to make them.
Story Mode, Hollow Zero, and a range of training scenarios follow the content scenarios and reward systems found in HoYo’s other titles. However, enter the action and it’s combat that stands apart. Largely unchanged from early previews, a trio of eccentric weapon-wielding characters churn through a variety of big and small opponents using basic attacks, special moves, dodges, and ultimate techniques. Evading telegraphed damage, triggering counterattacks, character swapping, and combo systems are all predictable enough, while movement always feels responsive when the real-time chaos kicks off. Anybody with a mouse, mobile, or controller can generally feel accomplished by hitting a few buttons at the right time. Blazing guns, shocking melee weapons, frozen swords, and more bring a choice of weapons and bonus effects help bring down any opposition easily, even on the small screen. Movement never feels encumbered, and there’s something cathartic about the outrageous display of firepower that it’s possible to unleash, but the factions of Zenless Zone Zero are more than a flashy firefight.
Best played with a controller, Zenless Zone Zero combat draws more than a few ideas from modern fighters. Beyond simple Agent swaps and easily telegraphed counterattacks, it’s possible to start unpeeling the hidden depths of combat. Beyong the break bar and triggering flashy chain attacks, characters have a range of particular abilities that you might only notice once you’ve had some time to experiment. Holding down an attack can generate more damage when wielding a huge buzzsaw, but charging that attack at the right moment can set up a different chain of events. Firing a gun in the correct way can influence the damage output, and even just swiveling the analog stick can change an attack. There’s a nuance to engagements that you don’t need to understand, but I’m sure it’ll help when it’s time to get serious.
While keeping these street fights front and center continues to be a highlight for us tourists in New Eridu, other less welcome elements remain from our first hands-on. Delving into the fissures, known as Hollows, uses a remote HDD system, which relegates the simple act of navigation into a top-down grid puzzle. Despite adding in new concepts, extra challenges, and a number of modifications, this still feels like the weakest element of this new RPG. It certainly makes navigating dungeons less problematic for smartphones and small screens, but it’s a stark divergence from the action combat and makes these intermissions feel jarring.
Rewarding Gameplay ?
Whether you choose to take on an Exploration, Story, or Combat mission, surviving in one piece will provide plenty of rewards. Like any good dungeon run, these are ranked upon completion. A whole range of loot is dispensed, and there are even a few Dennys to loot during a mission. This is crucial. The wider gameplay loop and progression systems are vast and consequential. While a gacha system and character pulls still remain, the number of Agents available to whale for is low. HoYo just announced the first new characters since launch with the best Agents added to the traditional banner system, and that isn’t even the start of your cashflow problems.
Upgrade systems are critical to power creep in New Eridu. Add-on equipment called W-Engines and companion Bangboos are both available to go full gacha on from around level 10 or so, and they’re a huge resource sink. W-Engines are a core power system, and akin to weapons in Genshin. These tend to suit specific character attributes and unlock a series of additional upgrade slots. These slots and their surrounding tracks can all be enhanced along the way, and that’s just the start of the options.
Bangboos are an added combat companion. Loitering alongside Agents in combat encounters, these adorable little minions trigger active and passive enhancements, from buffs to machine guns, making them a compelling choice to throw your premium currency at too. I’m not going to delve deep into the gacha statistics right now, but it’s clear that Zenless Zone Zero isn’t light on the spending. Like many HoYo games, a whole host of free pulls, daily passes, and the usual reward track do mitigate the worst impulse to overindulge in digital weebery. Even the myriad of daily duties scattered across New Eridu all drop some form of reward. From a high Snake score to just grabbing a coffee, almost anything is an accomplishment.
Gacha pulls, upgrades, and roster additions do present a problem. While each of the in-game upgrade systems progress in a meaningful manner, a breadth of choice can lead to a grind. Throw together a myriad of skill progression and character levels for every potential Agent, and an uphill upgrade path unfolds for any given roster. Routine can quickly set in as you tackle repetitive content to secure the correct currencies. This tedium is gated behind enforced story beats, energy systems, and empty coffers. Players looking to pick up upgrades will find themselves quickly deciding between waiting or stumping up for an energy recharge. Anybody looking to progress the story may find themselves forced to scour the streets and in game message boards for account experience. There’s a clarity of purpose to this gated design, but it largely results in content repetition. Even when things get into battle, casual players are likely to miss some of the subtle nuance that exists. Encounters across the Hollows reuse a number of enemies and ideas, and it’s only forgivable because the action is so engaging.
Between those frustrations, Zenless Zone Zero still manages to shine. After spending a few moments grabbing a coffee or exploring the abandoned streets of Ballet Twins Road, you’ll find a vibrant overworld, This city is filled with relatable but utterly outlandish characters. People go about their business. Loads of activities are open to try and there’s an attachment to daily life that the Traveller would never understand. New Eridu is, simply put, cool. There’s an attention to detail that makes it feel anime authentic. This permeates the main story too. A diverse range of Neko, androids, bears, and combat maids are all beautifully animated, with a story that teeters between the mundane trudge of returning video tapes and armies of invading monsters. Somehow, it all wraps up into a vibrant adventure that still has far too much of my attention.
the latest from HoYo is an intriguing new direction for a studio that has the opportunity to try new things, and it’s an admirable new entry in my free to play library. Check out Zenless Zone Zero on the official website now.
