Zenless Zone Zero might be HoYoverse’s most inviting game

If you could never stand the gacha grind of HoYoverse games, then Zenless Zone Zero could be for you. The next game from the developer behind Genshin Influence And Honkai: Star Rail is out on July 4th (just a few days away) and looks to bring some welcome quality of life changes to the formula that, if implemented, could make it the most user-friendly Hoyoverse game yet.

For the uninitiated: Zenless Zone Zero is a city punk action RPG. In previews and trailers prior to release, HoYoverse has highlighted combat as the game’s biggest attraction. The latest Advance special program went deep into the fight and showed how spectacular it looks. In contrast to the real-time action of Genshin Influence

(which can be quite simple), ZZZ seems to offer a deeper combat system with normal, special, sub, combo and assist attacks that allow players to mix and match their party composition to deal massive damage. Without going into detail, it seems to be a welcome improvement to the combat of Genshin Influence and comes just in time to compete with the fighting power of the Gacha competitor Wuthering Waves.

In addition to the focus on combat, HoYoverse also wants to give players the opportunity to progress through ZZZStory at a faster pace than is often possible in the company’s other games. In these games, you usually have to constantly complete daily quests to collect upgrade materials that make the characters more powerful before you can take on the latest story quests. (This is of course intentional to entice players to spend money and speed up the upgrade process.) The ZZZ

However, the team makes some big promises about how it will implement the usual grinda move that relies on two major design decisions.

The first is the removal of the stamina system that was present in previous betas. This system meant that you could only do a certain number of story missions per day, creating an artificial limit to how far players could progress. Thankfully, this has now been removed (as noted by Eurogamer in its latest preview). More notable is a character trial system that gives players access to party members of the right level for story missions, eliminating the need to keep your character collection perfectly upgraded and equipped with the right gear.

With this system, it sounds like players will be able to play through the story essentially like in a typical non-gacha game. I remember Honkai Impact 3.another HoYoverse game that later implemented story test characters with great success. Just a week ago ZZZProducer Zhenyu Li spoke of not penalizing players who want to take a break from the game. “Perhaps the team will try to find new ways to [returning players] experience the latest content without completing pre-determined missions,” said Li VG247. These systems seem to enable just that.

Some may question how a simplified path through the story can exist alongside traditional gacha mechanics. However, since there is a strong emphasis on moment-to-moment combat complexities in the gameplay, I think most players will still find upgrading and unlocking new characters a satisfying loop in and of themselves, even if they can play through the story at their own pace.

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