Developer miHoYo has become a giant in the gaming market in a relatively short period of time, and it's hard to argue against the dominance the Chinese studio has when it comes to the lucrative gacha genre with titles like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail under its belt. Now it's time for another microtransaction-filled experience to see the light of day, and with Zenless Zone Zero, the studio aims to strike a chord with new and old players alike by landing somewhere in the middle of its two other successes.
Like its older siblings, Zenless Zone Zero operates, as already mentioned, in the gacha genre where a free entry is balanced by a heavy focus on microtransactions and gambling-like playability. In other words, you can download "ZZZ" without paying a dime, but you'll soon realise that many rare items, cosmetic gear and valuable currencies are hard to come by unless you're willing to cough up some extra cash. So, you can still play, even if you don't want to pay, but you can expect your progress to be slowed down quite a bit compared to those who throw in money in various forms and denominations.
This is because the whole concept is built to keep players in an attractive game world and get them to log in continuously so that they can spend more money. In the shadow of this, it is of course easy to see the negative side of Zenless Zone Zero, where the money-grabbing design, the simple playability and the incentives to create an addiction hold your gaze. That being said, it doesn't mean that everything is awful, because miHoYo can't be accused of shipping bad and identity-less experiences, but just like in the case of the studio's other titles, ZZZ exudes a lot of quality, charm and atmosphere.
The story follows two siblings, Wise and Belle, who, along with various agents, try to make a career out of visiting alternate worlds and bringing home the riches hidden there. However, everything is not as simple as it sounds as there are grotesque monsters inside these portals, and as an outsider you also risk being corrupted and turned into a brain-dead creature yourself if you do not manage to get out in time. Personally, I appreciated this more stripped-down story instead of the usual one where you have to save the world from a great evil, and for me it was much easier to empathise with the characters when their goals and purpose were more everyday-human than exaggeratedly heroic. The characters themselves are also something the developer has done very well, as almost every character manages to allude to some kind of humanity. Sure, it's by no means a deep dive into the complexities of human nature, but there's a charm that permeates the experience and makes you feel connected to what's happening on screen.
The presentation is also very good as the fancy cartoon graphics are well accompanied by swinging music, good voice actors and fancy and smooth animations that give the whole a lavish impression. Much of the story is also told through well-crafted comic strips, and it is a narrative style that suits the story well with a lot of comedy and light-heartedness in focus.
The gameplay then mixes freely between simple action moments, story-driven dialogue, menu-gameplay, and simple exploration, and as I mentioned above, the overall design of making money holds back the enjoyment of the game. Nothing is really given a chance to flourish, and while the action sequences can be entertaining and great to watch, they could have been a little more engaging if they were allowed to flourish in a different environment.
Ultimately there are a lot of things about Zenless Zone Zero that I enjoy, but unfortunately a lot of my own experience stumbles because of the genre it has chosen to embrace and the playability it then tries to adapt to. If ZZZ had been a more classic action role-playing game with a focus on its story and the eye-catching battles, the impression would have been much better, and instead of building the whole adventure to grind for new items, it would have been more rewarding to explore the world and its characters as well as the game mechanics in depth. Now, unfortunately, it becomes a limping story that does some things well and other things worse, and the rating can thus be nothing more than a simple "okay".