Zenless Zone Zero - 6 Month Check-In
About half a year ago, I posted a review of Zenless Zone Zero that was quite positive, while also noting about its free-to-play model that "I spent my time clearing all but the absolute hardest mode in the game (i.e. Shiyu Defense Critical Nodes) without spending any money, and confirming that all of it is doable and satisfying as a free player."
In the time since posting this, Zenless Zone Zero has undergone some pretty extensive changes, which has given me reason to revisit some of these remarks and weigh in on how these changes have affected both my ability to do everything I want to do in the game without paying and how satisfying it is to do those things. I will go into more detail below, but the short version is: Zenless Zone Zero has made itself more engaging, more challenging, and seems to remain just as free-to-play friendly as it has been since launch.
After posting my initial review, I have continued playingZenless Zone Zero on basically a daily basis, completing story content as it comes out, performing daily and side activities, and spending my timed-gated stamina points to amass various currencies and dump them into making my cast strong. Where I am as of this writing with this is an account that has 6 out of the 11 limited characters that have released so far and 13 of the 16 characters that have been available since launch, coming in at a total of 19 out of 27 characters. 13 of the characters in my collection are fully leveled up, and I plan to build them all.
Every limited character I don't own I have passed over intentionally because I do not like the character or some reason or another, though if I was simply pulling the gambling lever to get as many units as possible I could very easily (read: guarantee) two more limited characters of my choosing given my current pool of premium currency I've gathered simply from playing the game. I would caution anyone reading this not to misinterpret this summary and think that Zenless Zone Zero is remarkably generous. I have sunk a ton of time into grinding out just about everything you can get from this game, been very decisive with my currency, and been pretty lucky when pulling to wind up with an account like this. Just as with all gambling, my results are not predictive of what someone else's experience might be.
On top of simply growing and building my collection of characters, Zenless Zone Zero has also added quite a bit of content to push the difficulty envelope further than where it was at launch. Shiyu Defense Critical Nodes are still in the game and challenging, though it took me about 60 days on my account before I could complete all of those stages without really having too much trouble. Now the hardest stuff within the game are Simulated Battle Trial and Deadly Assault, the former being a sort of survival mode and the latter being a hybrid of a dps check and score attack affair. With my free account, I have cleared every set of Shiyu Defense nodes since the release of Jane Doe and only just recently earned a full 9-star perfect rating on the most recent Deadly Assault challenges. I have not completed the Simulated Battle Trial floors, though I have earned Diamond badges for completing a fair portion of both the permanent instances and time-limited one currently available.
I have done this all without trying too hard to optimize my character builds or pull for characters that have been vetted by the community and considered "the best." I do not have Hoshimi Miyabi or Tsukishiro Yanagi, two characters widely considered to be the strongest damage dealers in the game. I have been primarily playing with three main carries: Zhu Yuan, Harumasa, and Billy. Two of these three characters are given out for free. I have looked at a couple of guides for recommended builds and put the first available disc drive sets matching stats each character wants on them and have not really looked back. Otherwise, I have been depending on teambuilding, skill, and a bit of patience to get through most of the toughest content.
The end result is a really satisfying difficulty curve that I know I can flatten a bit if I really put my nose to the grindstone when it comes to gearing and min/maxing, but I'm not in a rush to get to that point in Zenless Zone Zero. I'm having enough fun being able to do 90% of everything just fine while continuing to build all my characters and just enjoying the world of New Eridu. Perhaps when I have a robust enough cast of characters that can carry me through each elemental challenge (I don't have basically and ice characters because I don't really like any of them right now!!), then maybe I'll feel that drive, but for now there's still a lot to like about the game and I don't feel like I'm missing out on much.
On a final note, if you played earlier versions of Zenless Zone Zero and fell off of it, it's worth pointing out that a lot of the clunkier gameplay design that was present in it at launch is basically gone. This is to say there are no more TV dungeon-crawling sections of any kind. The experience has refocused on putting you in control of its characters, whether that is in combat or in its limited open-world exploration and adventuring. I think there's something to be said for the loss of this friction, but ultimately I think it is for the better.
So, where does that leave me? Well, I continue to keep playing Zenless Zone Zero, as it is just about as enjoyable as it's ever been to me currently--if not better--and I haven't had to spend a cent on it. In doing so, I don't feel particularly unfairly gated, and generally feel like there is a deep and satisfying challenge in leveraging its systems to beat tough content. Maybe my tune will change in another six months. I can write more about it then.