The Truth Of Zenless Zone Zero Gameplay After 50+ Hours - How I Actually Feel

Summary

In this comprehensive review, the player dives deep into 'Zenless Zone Zero', a Hoyoverse game, discussing its unique gameplay mechanics, including combat, TV traversal puzzles, and city exploration. They share their experience with the game's difficulty, endgame content, and the daily grind, highlighting concerns about the game's slow start and the necessity of engaging early on. The video also touches on character complexity, the gacha system, and the potential for future content, concluding that while the game is enjoyable, improvements to the initial player experience are crucial.

Takeaways

• 🕹️ The game 'Zenless Zone Zero' (ZZZ) has a unique gameplay mix of combat, TV traversal puzzles, and city exploration.
• 🎮 The combat system in ZZZ is engaging, with features like Chain Attacks, perfect dodging, parries, and Ultimates for characters.
• 📺 The TV mode is a puzzle mini-game that allows players to navigate through TVs to complete missions, which some players find boring or too simple.
• 🛠️ The Hollow Zero endgame challenge offers a rogue-like experience, requiring players to strategize and adapt to enemy attack patterns.
• 🏙️ City exploration includes managing a Video Rental store, interacting with NPCs, and completing side missions with a humorous tone.
• ⏰ The game features a day-time system divided into Morning, Evening, and Midnight, affecting the availability of certain activities and missions.
• 💡 The story of ZZZ lacks a clear main plot or villain, focusing on a double life as a shopkeeper and a Proxy exploring supernatural zones.
• 🎨 Visually, the game is polished with high-quality animations, cutscenes, and a stylish presentation of dialogues.
• 🎶 The soundtrack is praised for its quality, consistent with other Hoyoverse games like Genshin Impact and Star Rail.
• 🔋 The game introduces a 'Battery Charge' system, similar to energy in other gacha games, which limits the amount of content that can be played without waiting for recharge.
• 🧩 The Hollow Zero mode is expected to be the main endgame activity, potentially becoming a grind for rewards rather than a continuous challenge.

Q & A

How many hours did the player spend playing Zenless Zone Zero during the 2nd Closed Beta Test?

The player spent about 50 hours playing Zenless Zone Zero during the 2nd Closed Beta Test.

What are the three major mechanics of Zenless Zone Zero gameplay?

The three major mechanics of Zenless Zone Zero gameplay are combat, TV traversal, and city exploration.

What is the TV mode in Zenless Zone Zero and why has it received mixed feedback?

The TV mode is a puzzle mini-game where players navigate through TVs to complete missions. It has received mixed feedback because some players find it boring or prefer to skip it and go straight to combat.

What is the main character's role in Zenless Zone Zero?

The main character is a Proxy who controls a Bangboo robotic creature and guides the agents inside places called the Hollows.

What is the significance of the daytime mode in the game and how does it relate to the Persona series?

The daytime mode splits the day into Morning, Evening, and Midnight periods, affecting when certain missions can be started or progressed. It relates to the Persona series by simulating a daily life for the player, although it's not as punishing.

Why does the player feel that the early stages of Zenless Zone Zero are too easy?

The player feels the early stages are too easy because combat can be mindlessly button-mashing without much strategy, and they believe the game should teach players more about its mechanics during this phase.

What is the Hollow Zero mode and how does it differ from the early game experience?

The Hollow Zero mode is an endgame challenge that offers a rogue-like experience, requiring players to think and react to enemy attacks, unlike the early game which is easier and more straightforward.

How does the player feel about the combat animations and soundtrack in Zenless Zone Zero?

The player finds the combat animations to be fast, fluid, and visually appealing, and they also appreciate the game's soundtrack, which they describe as not disappointing compared to other Hoyoverse games.

What is the Battery Charge system in Zenless Zone Zero and how does it affect gameplay?

The Battery Charge system is an energy mechanic that requires players to spend points to engage in commissions. It affects gameplay by limiting the amount of content players can access without enough Battery Charge.

What concerns does the player have about the inclusion of Bangboo in the gacha system?

The player is concerned that the inclusion of Bangboo, which have their own rarity, could lead to more summon currency being needed to get the best version of featured agents and potentially introduce more featured banners.

What are the player's final thoughts on Zenless Zone Zero and what suggestions do they have for improvement?

The player enjoyed the game but suggests that Hoyo should fine-tune the first 10 to 15 hours to make it more engaging and teach players more about the game mechanics. They also hope that the developers take early game feedback seriously to improve player retention.

Outlines

00:00

🕹️ Initial Impressions and Gameplay Mechanics

The speaker shares their extensive experience with the game 'Zenless Zone Zero', highlighting the combat system, character variety, and the unique TV traversal mini-game. They express mixed feelings about the game, appreciating its mechanics while also voicing concerns about its target audience and the feedback it has received. The speaker also discusses the game's three major mechanics: combat with collectible characters, TV traversal puzzles, and city exploration with the main character. They provide insights into the game's difficulty, endgame, and the 'Equalizing Test' beta version, noting that their opinions may not reflect future global versions.

05:02

🏪 City Exploration and Time Management

This paragraph delves into the city exploration aspect of the game, where players manage a video rental store and interact with various characters and shops. The speaker mentions the game's day-night cycle, which influences the availability of missions and the opening hours of shops. They also touch on the game's narrative, which lacks a central plot or villain, and consists of assisting different groups of agents across various chapters. The speaker appreciates the polished visuals, animations, and soundtrack, but criticizes the energy system 'Battery Charge' for its similarity to other gacha games, despite Hoyoverse's previous departure from this convention in other titles.

10:05

🤔 Combat Difficulty and Player Engagement

The speaker discusses the combat system's ease of use and the potential negative impact of making the first 20 hours too simple. They express concern that this might not engage players sufficiently to continue playing. The speaker also talks about the importance of enemy attack patterns and the game's generous timing for perfect dodges and assists. They speculate on the game's difficulty in the global release, considering the beta's generous provision of resources and the potential need for players to adapt their strategies for the endgame 'Hollow Zero' mode.

15:09

🛡️ Endgame Challenge and Combat Balancing

The paragraph focuses on the 'Hollow Zero' endgame challenge, which offers a rogue-like experience requiring players to strategize and adapt to enemy attack patterns. The speaker describes a challenging boss encounter that forced them to learn and adapt their tactics. They also mention the potential for the game to introduce modifiers that increase the challenge, and express hope for additional endgame activities to maintain player interest. The speaker finds the combat balanced, catering to both casual and strategic players, but notes the repetitiveness that may arise from using the same characters and tactics.

20:11

🎮 Gacha System and Final Thoughts

The speaker discusses the gacha system, including the introduction of 'Bangboo', robotic creatures that provide in-game buffs. They express concern about the potential for separate gacha banners, which could increase the amount of currency needed to obtain desired characters. The speaker also addresses the game's training mode, which allows for extensive testing of character builds. They conclude with their overall positive impression of the game, noting its controller support and high-quality production values. However, they urge the developers to consider feedback on the early game to ensure player retention post-launch.

Keywords

💡Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ)

Zenless Zone Zero is the central topic of the video, referring to a new game in the Hoyoverse. The game combines elements of combat, puzzle-solving, and exploration. It is the focus of the reviewer's analysis, who discusses gameplay mechanics, character progression, and personal opinions on its design and difficulty.

💡Combat Mechanics

Combat Mechanics are integral to the gameplay of Zenless Zone Zero, involving the control of three characters, known as Agents, with the ability to switch between them. The script mentions features like Chain Attacks, perfect dodging, parries, and Ultimates, which are all part of the combat experience.

💡TV Traversal

TV Traversal is a puzzle mini-game within Zenless Zone Zero, where players navigate through television screens to complete missions. The script describes it as a creative aspect of the game that can be fun but also potentially tedious for some players.

💡City Exploration

City Exploration allows players to interact with various characters and shops in the game's world. The script mentions the main character owning a Video Rental store and the ability to perform tasks like eating Ramen for combat buffs or buying weapons.

💡Hollows

Hollows are dangerous supernatural zones within the game's narrative. Players guide their Agents through these zones via TVs, which serve as portals for exploration and combat. The script notes a lack of visual representation of the Hollows' danger.

💡Persona Series

The Persona series is referenced as an influence on Zenless Zone Zero, particularly in the day-time mode that splits the day into three periods, affecting the availability of missions and character interactions. This adds a layer of daily life simulation to the game.

💡Gacha System

The Gacha System is a mechanic in Zenless Zone Zero where players can obtain new characters, weapons, and artifacts through randomized draws. The script discusses the rates, the inclusion of Bangboo as a new type of collectible, and the potential for separate banners.

💡Battery Charge

Battery Charge is the energy system in the game, similar to resin in other games. It is required to start missions and is recharged over time. The script criticizes this mechanic as it could limit progress if not managed carefully.

💡Hollow Zero Mode

Hollow Zero Mode is an endgame challenge in Zenless Zone Zero, offering a rogue-like experience. The script describes it as a test of player skill, requiring knowledge of enemy attack patterns and strategic use of the player's team.

💡Bangboo

Bangboo are robotic creatures in the game that act as a fourth member of the player's squad, providing buffs and abilities. The script discusses their cuteness and utility, but also raises concerns about their rarity potentially complicating the gacha system.

💡Training Mode

Training Mode is a feature in Zenless Zone Zero that allows players to test their character builds and understand game mechanics. The script mentions it as a valuable tool for both players and content creators to experiment with different strategies.

Highlights

50 hours spent playing Zenless Zone Zero, beating the hardest boss and exploring all current content.

The game's target audience is unclear, with mixed feedback from content creators and the public.

Gameplay consists of combat, TV traversal puzzles, and city exploration with a main character.

Combat mechanics feature Chain Attacks, perfect dodging, parries, and Ultimates for stylistic fights.

TV Traversal is a puzzle mini-game with creative missions that some find boring or too simple.

The game's Hollows are supernatural zones that have wrecked the world, explored via TVs.

City exploration includes a Video Rental store, shops, and character interactions with side missions.

Daytime mode splits the day into periods affecting mission availability and character interactions.

The game's story lacks a main plot or stakes, focusing on a double life as a shopkeeper/Proxy.

Visuals and animations are polished, with cutscenes and combat animations being particularly fluid.

The game introduces a Battery Charge system for entering commissions, similar to Genshin's resin.

Rally Commissions and VR Trials offer different ways to spend Battery Charge for various rewards.

Combat difficulty is initially easy, with endgame Hollow Zero mode requiring more strategic thinking.

Hollow Zero mode offers a rogue-like experience with power-ups and increasing difficulty modifiers.

The game's combat is balanced for casual and strategic players, with complex character abilities.

Gacha system includes characters, weapons, and Bangboos, with potential concerns for summon currency.

The game's early hours are criticized for being too easy and slow, requiring player engagement to progress.

Suggestions for improvement include teaching combat mechanics more deeply and innovating TV puzzles.

The game is considered fun with potential, but requires careful consideration of early game feedback for long-term success.

Transcripts

So, I spent about 50 hours playing the new Hoyoverse game Zenless Zone Zero, I managed

to beat the hardest boss as well as all the current content, I tried out every character

and now I am entering the daily grind loop.

And I gotta say –I like this game but at the same time, I also feel concerned about

several things.

So, in this video, I wanna talk about Zenless Zone Zero gameplay, the difficulty, the endgame

and a lot more, including some spicy topics.

Keep in mind, my opinion here is based around the 2nd Closed Beta Test or as Hoyo calls

it the Equalizing Test, so if you’re watching this in the future…

hi and things might be different from the global version.

Now to me, this game feels like an enigma.

I truly don’t know who is the target audience for ZZZ, I mean obviously people who are fans

of other Hoyoverse games such as Genshin or Star Rail might try it but it’s no secret

the game has been getting a lot of feedback both from content creators and the general

public and so with the amount of time I’ve spent on the game, I think I can give it a

fair assessment, so let me show you what the actual gameplay looks like to get the full

picture.

Basically, the game is made up of 3 major mechanics.

There’s combat where you fight with your collected characters, TV traversal that’s

sort of like a mini-game and then there’s the city and various areas you can explore

with your main character.

In combat, you take control of 3 characters called Agents but only get to play 1 at a

time by switching around, however, there’s a lot of cool things that can happen, for

example there’s Chain Attacks you can cause by building up the enemies Daze meter, there’s

perfect dodging and parries that can cause various effects and you can even unleash Ultimates

that look really cool.

Now the other major part of the game is this TV mode or as I like to call it TV Traversal.

Basically, it’s a puzzle mini-game, where you navigate through these TVs and have to

beat missions this way.

Compared to previous beta test, these puzzles feel a lot more fleshed out, they are creative,

have different objectives and can be fun… if you’re into that sort of thing.

I say this, because I’ve seen a lot of complaints online that this mode is boring or that people

wished you could just go straight to combat and skip these puzzles.

And the thing is – this TV puzzle will take up a lot of your time, at least initially,

since now that I ran out of missions to do for this beta, I don’t see those TVs that

much anymore and only the Hollow Zero endgame challenge has them, which is something that

I will talk about later in the video.

Now personally, I kinda like the TV mode but it really depends on the mission.

Some of them are fun and engaging, for example there’s a puzzle that’s like a tower defense

mode where you attack incoming enemies, other one had a quiz where you need to answer questions

based on your memory and so on.

However, I won’t lie – a good number of these TV mode missions feel too long or too

simple for my taste and I would get tired of them.

And you might be thinking – what is the deal with these TVs and what do they represent?

Well, the main character you play with is a Proxy – you take control over this cute

Bangboo robotic creature and you guide the agents inside places called the Hollows.

Hollows are dangerous, these supernatural zones have basically wrecked the world and

so when you travel through those TVs, you are actually investigating the Hollows.

But I dunno – every character in-game hypes up the Hollows like its some sort of death

zone of nightmares but even as someone who has a strong imagination, its hard for me

to think about the Hollows as a dangerous place because I don’t really get to experience

it visually that much, besides the combat arenas that you can enter into from the TV

and start the fights.

Now the last part of the gameplay is city exploration.

You as a main character and your sibling own a Video Rental store called Random Play and

it’s located at the Sixth Street – a place of many shops and characters that you’ll

meet.

You can go eat some Ramen for combat buffs, you can visit shops to buy weapons called

W-Engine, pull for artifacts which are called Drive Discs, you can talk to this mysterious

trash can to submit collectibles and so on.

And if that’s not enough – Sixth Street is just the first zone and starting from chapter

2 of the story, you also unlock a new zone of Belobog Industries construction site.

And yes you heard it right, Belobog from Star Rail in this universe is a construction company

and starting from chapter 3, you can also visit this plaza but it doesn’t have much

going for now.

Now the majority of your time during exploration will be spent running around and talking to

different people.

They will have some sort of side-mission available for you and most of them are pretty funny,

the game doesn’t really take itself that seriously.

What’s also interesting is that there are some elements borrowed from the Persona series

because the day is split into 3 periods – Morning, Evening and Midnight.

Some missions can only be started or progressed during one of these periods, sometimes you

can even set the schedule by yourself inside the DMs, which is pretty interesting.

To me, this daytime mode feels like a gimmick for now but I get it – it’s trying to

simulate a daily life for you.

Because for example, sometimes you’ll get special invites to hang out with one of the

Agents, to boost their Trust with you, so like they might want to hang out with you

during the Evening and if you miss it, then you have to wait until they are ready again.

So yeah, that’s a Persona vibe although not as punishing.

Also, during Midnight I think almost all the shops close down, so you can’t go inside

them and do things like buy stuff or pull for artifacts and you need to progress the

day.

But one major thing you will notice is that you only get to control your main character

– the agents that you obtain from the gacha, well you can only see them in combat but not

when just chilling out and exploring the city.

To me, this is a bit of a bummer – I get what they are trying to do here, since you

can easily find a lot of the Agents just hanging around the city, you can talk to them and

even improve their trust or obtain a new mission, which is cool but still, it would have been

nice to just run around with my obtained S-Rank agents around the city.

So now, you might be thinking – just what is Zenless Zone Zero about?

Well, the story that I’ve experienced so far has no main plot, no stakes and no big

villain group.

Instead, you just kinda live a double life of a shopkeeper / Proxy and you get reached

out during every chapter by a different group of agents.

Chapter 1 is all about re-acquiring some kind of mystery box for the Cunning Hares agents,

you know the ones that you see plastered all over the ads, while in Chapter 2 you assist

Belobog agents to locate the 3 missing machines they need to operate with.

Now I’ll admit it – Chapter 1 for me did not feel interesting, it was quite honestly

all over the place but in Chapter 2, the goal of retrieving the 3 machines and learning

more about Koleda, who is the leader of Belobog was actually really good and I think at that

point I understood that Hoyo this time around isn’t trying to introduce a major plot point

immediately, at least for now maybe.

And I get it – when you look at Genshin, the goal is simple – save your sibling,

so there’s a finality to that and I think no company that makes gacha games wants to

have a finality in their stories because then that means you either need to stretch out

the main plot or come up with bigger stakes for the 2nd arc, which I can imagine is not

an easy thing to do.

But yeah, visually the game is insanely polished.

Like, the animations feel super elastic and the stories are told in 3 ways – you either

have comic strips, cutscenes or just dialogues in this stylish manner between characters.

But damn, the cutscenes here feel like Hoyo dumped a ton of money into it, every time

a character talks, its very clear what emotion they are expressing, the movement is fluid

and overall, it’s an eye candy experience whenever you get to witness a cutscene.

The same could also be said for combat animations – they are fast, fluid and insanely gorgeous.

I also have to shoutout the soundtrack – Genshin and Star Rail have some amazing beats and

Zenless doesn’t disappoint in this department either, I mean you are after all listening

to it right now.

But one major thing that completely changes with Zenless compared to Genshin or Star Rail

is that you actually need to spend the equivalent of resin or trailblaze power to jump into

any of the commissions.

In this game, it’s called Battery Charge, so yeah, it’s your usual gacha energy system

and while you can talk to NPCs in the city and start the missions, the majority of them

will require you to go to your Hollow Deep Dive System located at the Video Store and

this is the place where you get engage with the TV Traversal and combat gameplay.

It usually costs between 20 to 40 Battery Charge to start the commission and you can

have a maximum of 180 Battery Charge that recharges 1 point every 6 minutes, so while

there’s more of it and recharges faster compared to Genshin, you still have to keep

in mind you cannot do the story if you don’t have enough Battery Charge to spend.

And look, I get it – I know that a majority of gacha games require you to spend energy

in order to play the story but Hoyoverse literally got rid of this convention both with Genshin

and Star Rail, so it boggles my mind why this decision was made for Zenless.

And the thing is – the rewards you get for spending Battery Charge are pretty mild, if

we talk about the actual daily loop.

The two major ways to spend it right now, besides story content is by either completing

Rally Commissions or by doing VR Trials.

Rally Commissions are these long combat arenas, they have various cool one-time secrets you

can discover, like starting a secret boss fight but at the end of it, you get materials

for advanced character skills and more importantly you get materials to pull for the Drive Discs

which are the artifacts.

But, here’s the funny part – it costs 100 Battery Charge to complete a Rally Commission,

so like more than half your max energy and the last stage gives you 60 of these Plating

Agents which is equal to 12 Disc Drive pulls.

By using this artifact gacha system, there’s a good chance to get S-Rank Discs and if you

salvage them, you can then save up enough to pull for just S-Rank discs which is pretty

cool, especially since you can select which set to pull for with increased odds.

But like the artifacts, each Disc can have different main stat and here, you can actually

pull for a specific Disc with main stats BUT… it costs double the materials.

So, imagine a scenario – you wanna do a 10 pull for one specific Disc main stat, this

will cost 100 Plates, which is about 166 Battery Charge if we consider the last Rally stage

rewards, so literally all your energy for the day, especially considering it still costs

100 to enter a Rally.

However, once a day you can drink this coffee for 60 energy with various farming buffs,

so that’s a plus.

But at least for now to me this feels like Zenless wants you to spend your daily energy

quickly but on the flipside, the grind is pretty short if you want a quick daily loop.

As for VR Trials – its just a stage where you select enemies from these cards, which

you can collect from exploration and then depending on the setup, you can quickly farm

up materials like money, character and weapon ascension mats as well as experience, which

is a pretty interesting and gives you unique control of how you want to spend your Battery

Charge for the day, especially considering that the coffee you drink for the day can

influence the drop rate of certain materials.

Now all this farming means the game is hard, right?

Well, it’s a bit complicated.

Like, legit the first 20 hours the combat felt braindead easy, I could just mash buttons

randomly and still clear everything without breaking a sweat.

However, we are talking about story mode and side missions – this is a Hoyoverse game,

when was the last time you felt like it was difficult to do this type of content.

But I think for this type of game, which relies on you reacting to enemy attacks, it’s a

bit like gaining bad habits since the endgame challenge called Hollow Zero will actually

force you to start thinking, so you won’t be able to just spam stuff and need to react,

something that you might have decided to not practice during story mode.

But, I could be biased here because in this beta, we’re getting tons of free resources,

leveling up characters is super easy and I don’t expect the devs will actually give

you free packages containing S-Rank weapons and characters as well as tons of materials.

So yeah, maybe the game will be a bit harder on global, since the characters compared to

the beta won’t hit as hard and take more damage from enemies.

Although things like enemy attack patterns that tell you when you can do a perfect dodge

or assist are kind of easy to execute, it has very generous timing, all you have to

listen to a specific sound and look out for a yellow light.

So I honestly don’t know what the actual difficulty of the game is but I am pretty

sure Hoyo wants to obtain a large and active playerbase with any of their games, that’s

why they are literally the biggest gacha games company in the world, so people who don’t

care about challenging content but want to engage with the story, will most likely have

a really easy time clearing those story and side missions, especially considering that

if you die with your characters there’s three revives you can use to resurrect your

team which just solidifies my point and honestly that seems fine but I also understand the

need for people who seek challenging combat but need to wait until they unlock Hollow

Zero mode.

Still, if you make the first 10 to 15 hours so braindead easy, will people actually stick

with your game?

Because it’s not just the combat that makes the game feel slow – it’s also the Hollows

you explore through the TVs.

Like, for me personally, it took a lot of willpower to get through those TVs but I am

used to this kind of thing – outside of YouTube, I actually play tons of board games

as you can see my massive collection here and I only mention this because there’s

this really annoying argument that you’ll often face in a board gaming community and

that you need to play the board game for an X amount of times to fully appreciate it.

This is legit the most stupid thing because – oh you don’t like this game after 5

hours?

Well actually you need to play it for 40 hours to really understand the finer things it offers.

No, its bullcrap – if a person doesn’t feel engaged with a game within the first

few hours, why would they want to continue until they get to the so called good stuff?

And heck, they might not even like the good stuff when they are finally there, after all,

gaming experience is highly subjective.

So, what I am trying to say here is that, yes – early game of Zenless Zone Zero, at

least to me, feels too slow and you really need to find something to focus on in order

to get through the braindead easy combat and often exhausting TV Traversal.

It could be the story or side missions that you’re curious to learn more about or it

might be the city that you want to keep exploring.

For some, of course it could be that the combat loop, even if its not that challenging at

early stages of the game, it could be enough to start practicing team builds and techniques

so you can prepare for the Hollow Zero mode.

But, what does the Hollow Zero mode offer?

Well, It’s a rogue-like experience, that shares a lot of similarities with Star Rail’s

Simulated Universe, you choose a party of 5 characters you own but then start with only

1, then as you move along the TVs, you recruit some of those chosen characters and pick up

various power ups which are pretty fun, at least for now.

I am not gonna lie – the first stages are still pretty easy, so you have to wait until

you progress your account level and unlock the 5,000 point challenge because, this is

where things get interesting.

So, there’s this boss at the end, this big pink creature – like I actually died to

it quite a few times and I was finally forced to learn its attack patterns.

There were things like seeking missiles you need to dodge in specific way, attacks that

you should perfect assist with your team and there’s even this cool AoE attack it does

that will almost instantly kill your character and the only way to survive is to quickly

hide behind one of these barriers that show up for a moment.

This is where I had the most fun – to learn and adapt to a big bad boss and utilize your

whole team.

What’s even better – once you beat this challenge, now you can enable up to 5 modifiers

the next time you attempt it, and each modifier increases your Risk level from Low to Extreme.

So, for example, one of these modifiers will mutate the enemies and turn them into more

powerful forms, which to me sounds super cool and right now I am stuck on this mutated boss

that I can’t beat mostly due to lacking better gear.

And honestly, I am busy making this video so I can’t focus on fully clearing Extreme

difficulty but I have already seen people who did clear it, so I am really curious to

see how long it will take for me to beat this hardest challenge that we have in the beta

right now.

But yeah, this Hollow Zero mode will probably be the main endgame activity for you to play

with your characters, although I have a slight suspicion that it will eventually become similar

to Simulated Universe, where it’s more of a grind than a challenge and you just do it

as a weekly activity, collect the rewards and carry on.

But I am really hoping Hoyo introduces other endgame activities, cause that would be awesome,

since the combat in this game is pretty addicting, at least to me.

And speaking of which – I think the combat is pretty balanced.

For someone who just wants to experience the action without too much thinking – you can

do it, it’s not that hard to counter enemies and setup combos, while those who want to

practice some cool techniques, it’s also possible.

For example, grouping enemies, using one character’s skill and then quickly switching to other

while the skill is deployed are just a few tactics that I was utilizing, although I have

to say that some characters feel a lot more complex in a good way, compared to others.

Like, as much as I love Billy, he was my favorite from the previous beta test, his complexity

wanes compared to Ellen’s, who is now my most favorite character to use because there’s

so much going on with her kit compared to Billy’s or even any other character’s.

And it’s not a coincidence, she’s a featured S-rank agent for the beta, so you have to

pull for her and I can imagine in the future, the game will keep on introducing more and

more complex agents into the game but I hope this doesn’t mean characters from standard

pool become irrelevant.

I am only mentioning complexity here because after playing the game for so many hours,

the combat does tend to become repetitive and using a fresh new character or building

different teams seems like a crucial thing, at least for me.

But yeah, if you want to learn about combat, in my previous video I talked a lot about

it, you can check it out here, although one big change compared to last beta is that character

elements instead of their attack types counter enemies.

You see, every character has an attack type and element but in this current beta, enemies

are weak to certain elements, while previously they were weak to attack types.

I dunno, maybe I am missing something here but this leaves me with a big question – what’s

the point of the attack types, besides building team comps based on these passive buffs characters

have, like for example including 2 Slash Agents to give benefits for Ellen and so on.

And also in terms of team building complexity – it seems like Mono teams are pretty popular

right now, since there’s this thing called Attribute Anomaly that you can build up on

enemies, so for example Ice agents can Freeze enemies and shatter them for big damage, while

Physical characters can cause Assault which interrupts the enemy, causes a lot of damage

and reduces Physical resistance for some time.

If I am not wrong, enemies can have attribute anomaly built up from several agents of the

same element, so that’s why Mono teams like Ice or Physical are dominating Hollow Zero

as of making this video.

But one thing I’d like to mention is that the game does offer a training mode with a

ton of options, so you can easily test your character builds, especially considering we

have some stats that is known very little about, like Penetration, Impact and Attribute

Mastery, so this is going to be a godsend for content creators and theorycrafters.

Because due to various mechanics in the game, I can easily see multiple ways how you can

build a character, for example, you could have one of them specialize in applying the

elemental effect on enemies faster, the other one could be good at increasing enemies Daze

for faster stun and chain attacks, while the 3rd member could be a hard hitting damage

dealer.

But yeah, I guess one more important thing to mention would be the gacha system.

I think the rates are about the same as other Hoyo games, however you can pull from the

banners either a weapon, a character or a bangboo.

These little robotic creatures are super cute and kinda act on their own as a 4th member

of your squad, they provide powerful buffs like increasing certain factions Critical

Rate by an insane amount and they also have some kind of an ability that triggers automatically

once in a while, like restoring your character’s energy, so for example, just look at this

Butler I got – this little guy makes you a breakfast to boost your energy, it’s super

cute.

BUT – there is one big concern regarding Bangboo’s – since they have their own

rarity, that means the game could potentially introduce three featured banners, so like

an Agent’s, the weapon banner and Bangboo banner, so this means more summon currency

you need to spend if you want the best version of your featured agent but there’s also

the fact that at least in this current standard banner, Bangboos are mixed together with weapons

and agents, so you can pull any of them, although for now, the only S-ranks you can pull are

just the Agents but it’s harder to pull for A-rank agents because both weapons and

bangboos are in the same pool.

Overall, if you stayed till the end of the video or maybe you just skipped to my thoughts

– here’s what I think about Zenless Zone Zero.

I think, it’s a really fun game if you put the time in but I hope Hoyo fine tunes the

first 10 to 15 hours of the game.

You don’t have to make it super difficult but put more emphasis on teaching the game

to players, instead of just letting us mash the buttons randomly before getting to actual

endgame.

For example, there was a great challenge I encountered at some point, where you only

can defeat enemies with chain attacks and a single hit from an enemy also defeats your

character, so it was fun to experience combat in a new way.

I mean, there’s like 20 different things I had to learn about TV puzzle mode, why not

do the same and teach players about combat more as well?

And I am sorry to say this guys – but unless the developers are desperate, the TV mode

is not going away, its too integral to the story and too many things revolve around them.

However, they can either make TV Traversal shorter or yet again, keep innovating on the

puzzle solving aspect like compared to previous beta.

Either way – I personally enjoyed the game very much, especially because it has an amazing

controller support, so my Xbox controller kept rumbling and reacting to various character

and enemy animations, basically I think right now this game feels like a fully blown console

title that doesn’t cost you a dime to try it out once it goes global but at the same

time, I also hope Hoyo takes the early game feedback very seriously because this is where

people decide if they want to continue playing and it doesn’t take an analytics team to

know that.

Right now, I want to believe this game is for somebody who is willing to do puzzle solving

and also enjoys fast-paced combat which to me seems like a pretty niche target audience,

however since this is a Hoyoverse game, some might play this game for the story, others

might want to just hang out in the city and enjoy the slice of life events, so I dunno

I think we’ll need to see how well the game fares after few months when it launches.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this video, I’ve been working on it for like a week now, it’s

my longest video I think, so I’d really appreciate it if you could press the like

button and subscribe to my channel because for sure I will be making ZZZ videos once

it goes global.

Thanks for watching and see you next time…