Zenless Zone Zero is a free-to-play action-RPG gacha game from the designers of Genshin Impact.
Easy to Play
Great Characters
Great Graphics/Art
Click a title to learn more about each topic.
Story & Themes
Zenless Zone Zero is set in an apocalyptic future where only a single retro-modern city remains, New Eridu. The rest of the world has been corrupted by dimensional portals called Hollows, which led to an invasion of creatures called Ethereals. Humans who spend too long in the Hollows are also transformed into Ethereals.
Players choose one of two siblings as a Proxy, a person who specializes in helping others navigate the Hollows. In addition to monsters, the Hollows also feature powerful technology and rare resources. Exploring the Hollows is a dangerous but lucrative venture.
Throughout the game, players will meet, add, and unlock adventurers to their roster, with up to three taking on Hollows missions as a party.
Navigating through the Hollows is via a side-scrolling minigame involving retro TVs. Combat takes place in 3D arenas featuring HoYoverse's stylish character designs and animations. It's fast-paced and includes special attacks, chain attacks, parries, and ultimate abilities as players actively swap between all three party members.
Between missions, players can explore New Eridu in a limited open-world (think Persona) and engage in various minigames, shopping, and socializing.
Save Points
As an online-only game designed for mobile, ZZZ cannot be manually saved, but progress is constantly auto-saving in the background.
Difficulty
Zenless Zone Zero is designed to slowly introduce players to its combo-based, multi-character combat, and thus is quite easy in the beginning. Combat is all about timing and chaining together combo attacks, as well as a dodging enemies. Players can choose between two difficulty levels, with Challenge Mode offering a slightly harder mode that should feel more like 'normal' for gaming veterans.
Heads Up!
Violence Combat in Zenless Zone Zero is fast-paced and flashy, with lots of sword slashes and guns-blazing. It's all highly stylized, colorful, and completely bloodless, like a PG comic book or superhero movie.
Sex & Nudity While Zenless Zone Zero doesn't have any overtly sexual content, many female characters are designed with exaggerated features and revealing clothing — and almost all of them feature breasts with "jiggle physics." Character designs are actually quite tame compared to many other mobile anime gacha games, but could be titillating for many Western audiences.
Consumerism Gacha games are among the most insidious of free-to-play titles. Instead of purchasing what they want, players earn (and purchase) "pulls" that offer chances at getting the characters and items they want. As with many freemium games, players can gradually earn premium currency (in this case, polychromes which create master tapes) by playing the game and participating in events. Or players can purchase premium currency with real money. ZZZ does offer a pity system where it guarantees a good reward after a certain number of pulls.
Online Community
As a free-to-play gacha game, Zenless Zone Zero must be played online and constantly synced with the game's servers. It does not currently feature multiplayer, however.
Conversation Starters
- Have you played other HoYoverse games such as Genshin, and if so, how does Zenless compare?
- Who are your favorite characters in Zenless Zone Zero, and what's your dream team look like?
- Do you find the gacha system fun, or frustrating?