What is it?

Zenless Zone Zero is an action lite-RPG game that meshes together the frenetic stylish combat of DMC, the narrative heavy on dialogue of a JRPG, as well as the ridiculous amount of side-content and mini-games the Yakuza games have been known for, to give us an experience we can take on the go quite unlike anything we’ve seen in gaming.

Perhaps chief amongst all of its offerings, the combat system has elevated this game in the eyes of many and pushed what was traditionally more of a waifu gambling genre into a league way above that: The moment you pick up your phone/controller and take a team of 3 characters for a run, you will immediately notice the snappiness and fun-factor the frenetic action combat proposes. From flashy camera angles to chaining dodges, parries and counters; the game goes all out in giving the player a spectacle worth their time investment.

That is not to say the story side of things is an afterthought, quite the contrary! Fully voiced scenes and a likeable set of characters evolving in an immersive, vibrant world give this game an identity that many other gacha games lack. You will be at the minimum curious to know what happens next to the main cast from chapter 1, all the way through the recent finale of chapter 5.

Why I love it

I’ve already listed a lot of the positives I feel about this game while presenting it, so this will be brief. At the end of it, I have a bit of a toxic relationship with gacha games. HoyoVerse does handle its business expertly, making sure to be fair, but never give out paid resources in abundance. You will have to swipe, more than once, if you easily fall for the trap of waifu collecting. Even worse yet, with how tough some of the end game content can be, you will even be tempted to multi-pull for a specific character, risking losing multiple hundreds of dollars at best, thousands at worse.

Regardless of gambling mechanics, the game itself, with its stylised approach, the insanely good soundtrack, as well as plethora of fun mini-games and creative modes coming as part of the live-service monthly rotations has made this my go-to forever game. Plus the fact that it runs so well on my mobile device, I never even have to worry about launching it on my PC.

The Chinese Factor

China has been the source of many controversies thanks to their political regime, the way they treat individual rights, as well as a tendency to completely disregard copyright or intellectual property when it comes to western countries. For all those reasons, HoyoVerse does not necessarily instill me with confidence as to the handling of my personal data and potential malwares being installed on my devices. However, there is no inherent problem in my mind with appreciating a piece of art coming from China, especially in light of how good of a job they’ve done developing this game, pushing ever so slightly the boundaries of what we can expect as mobile-first gaming experiences.

I look forward to many more months of enjoyment as a light-spender F2P wannabe player.

May the Lord have mercy for your wallets but I’m not.