Zenless Zone Zero - 12 Month Check-In

  In some ways, it's hard for me to believe that Zenless Zone Zero is just one year old. This probably has less to do with the relative amount of content and changes that have come to the game in that time (which, to be fair, has been pretty substantial), and probably more to do with how seamlessly it has fit into my daily game-playing alongside things like Genshin Impact.  

As with my 6 month check-in, I still have spent $0 in the game and been able to complete absolutely everything in it, including its tough endgame modes like Shiyu Defense and Deadly Assault. One of the things I have valued most about the experience so far is how well-tuned endgame difficulty is to make for satisfying challenges that can be overcome without necessarily needing the absolute best gear, stats, or characters.

Speaking of characters, I've also continued to be able to essentially pull whoever I want at will, provided I don't try to get each and every new character that comes out. Luckily, Zenless makes this pretty easy by way of having some really inconsistent character designs that put me off of plenty of the cast as well as some tight synergies for teams that make pulling for certain characters and not others a questionable prospect. Between this and playing daily to maximize the dripfeed of premium currency, I currently have 29 of the 37 available characters, and the remaining cast consists of seven characters I simply do not like and one that is only randomly obtainable through the virtual slot machine mechanics.

Outside of the gacha grind, it's worth noting that since my last check in the game released a 2.0 patch, which has included a whole new chunk of story, new locations, and other updates to change how the game looks and feels. While I appreciate the sheer amount of new stuff that has been added around the anniversary, I can't help but notice that Zenless Zone Zero seems to have lost a bit of its identity. At launch, this was a game that embraced a hard urban aesthetic, and ever since about six months in, much of this street style has been softened and rounded out with much more generic stylizing.

It also feels like Zenless has been phoning in its story a bit. It seems like every new character since March or so has had the same backstory and the overall plot has moved on from its roots around building up reputation as a proxy and moving into some generic superhero territory.

Some of these changes feel understandable as they are justifications to some huge gameplay revisions since the launch of the game. With the puzzle aspects of the game basically erased, it's hard to figure out how to fit proxy's into a story full of free-roaming combat. With all of this running around to supplant the hacking mini-games, it has also likely meant that Hoyoverse has had to gin up more reasons for you to go to different places and have a reason to explore them. My hope is that these things start feeling a bit more thoughtful and intentional moving forward as the development team adjusts to this new mode of development. That said, even if they don't, I am still enjoying the main draw of Zenless Zone Zero: the combat.

The one thing that has remained consistently awesome through Zenless's first year is its fast and fluid combat, which has seen some interesting tweaks both in terms of character and enemy design. Without something as intricate as Genshin Impact's elemental reaction gameplay to rely on, Hoyoverse has found a lot of other interesting layers to pile onto the much more action-oriented combat in this game: Enemies that can parry you, off-field "aftershock" attacks, and even scoring systems that reward pulling off certain manuevers as a sort of "style points" grading system have made it so each encounter always feels like a fresh challenge.

It's primarily for the ongoing combat developments that I am continuing to play Zenless Zone Zero. I don't hate the new areas or story by any stretch, but most of what it has offered over the last six months feels like it could be placed into any other gacha game and fit in just fine. Once again, I plan to keep digging in and playing daily because the core of what it offers is still satisfyingly challenging and unique, and I'll hopefully make it another six months and have more to say about it then.