By Isaac Espinosa

With the fate of New Eridu shrouded in mystery, what lies ahead for the Legendary Proxy Phaethon? Zenless Zone Zero, the newest, primarily free-to-play gacha game created by HoYoverse. Zenless has had quite the development cycle, going through three closed beta tests over the past four years, before finally launching this summer. Has its long gestation from the makers of Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail lead to the company’s greatest creation to date? Or does it fall flat?

You see the game through the point of view of a brother and sister, Wise and Belle, who share the Proxy account, Phaethon, and are the most respected Proxies in New Eridu. (Proxies act as guides that make their living by taking on commissions to help others with navigation-based jobs.) As Proxies, Belle and Wise explore the Hollows, dangerous environments in New Eridu where monsters lurk and treasure is abundant. This is fully illustrated as the two aid the Cunning Hares, a gang consisting of Nicole, Billy Kid, and Anby, who are currently on the run after stealing a safe from some rivals. Anby and Billy end up falling into a Hollow during a scuffle, and Nicole requests the aid of Phaethon to help them out. At this point, it was clear to me that Zenless offers enough content to uncover its main plot, and as updates are released, more stories will be added.

Once Nicole reunites with Anby and Billy, Wise and Belle lead the Cunning Hares out of the Hollow, bringing the prologue to an end –  but not before Phaethon’s account is hacked by an unknown assailant, forcing Belle and Wise to abandon it. The Phaethon account must be restarted, which means Belle and Wise must work to rebuild their reputation and reclaim their legendary status by accepting numerous new commissions. 

Presently, the game has three main story chapters and tons of Agent Stories, in which you go on mini-adventures with Agents and learn more about them. Agents are the game’s summonable characters, but because Agent Stories give you a free demo of each featured character, you don’t need to acquire the Agents through the Signal Search in order to play these stories. Zenless’s best feature is its characters, all of whom, whether they’re the construction workers of Belebog Industries or the elegant employees of Victoria Housekeeping, are incredibly interesting and charmingly designed.

Some of my favorite inhabitants are Anton from Belebog Industries, who is so passionate about his work that he calls his tools his bros, and Jane Doe, a member of the Public Security faction who is part of the Criminal Investigation Special Response Team, tasked with gathering intel from within criminal organizations. These designs feel like a step up from HoYoverse when it comes to embodying the character’s personalities, and each has a unique style of movement and self-expression. This is enhanced by how animated the game is, both in fluidity and character motion; each movement the characters make shows off who they are and how they act. 

In addition to its astonishing appearance, I can confidently say that Zenless has better gameplay than any of HoYoverse’s other games. The main reason for this is the sense of satisfaction you get from creating an optimal and efficient squad that comes together in battle. During combat, your objective is simply to take down any foe that’s in your way. You can do this with any of the Agents in your arsenal, whether they be Attack or Anomaly agents suited toward inflicting the maximum damage per second, or Support and Defense agents designed to buff the rest of the team. You have the ability to parry attacks, dodge, and swap between agents mid combo, which all feels responsive and clean. I began to master the game’s more interesting ways to play, such as Anomaly Attributes that inflict an injured status onto the foe like electrical shock or freezing. Beyond this, every agent has a unique passive effect that makes them stronger when partnered with certain team members. I began to see the benefit in actually creating a strategic game plan for my team. Sound complex? The game also gives you recommendations for how to upgrade your agents, and even offers examples of how other people online would normally build them out. Zenless continually rewards you for creating a team that can take on a higher difficulty content, which is useful because the game becomes challenging very quickly once you start pursuing the side content outside of the story. 

Zenless also includes a more exploration-based mode, in which your work as a Proxy is put to the test. You’ll be in charge of navigating through a Hollow and finding the many different treasures there. Because their Proxy work is primarily conducted via the technology at their home, Belle and Wise see the areas dubbed Hollows on several TV screens, which they use to direct those who are navigating to them. The goal of these exploration missions might be simply guiding a lost individual through, or deciphering some kind of mystery by retrieving hidden records from an archived library. The game gets very creative with this concept, even using the TV mode to invoke certain emotions when the main story requires it. For instance in Chapter 3, when you’re being chased by ghosts and must turn on the lights to scare them off, Sometimes the screen will start shaking when a giant enemy or boss has entered the Hollow. This effect not only conveys their power compared to that of normal enemy encounters, it adds tension. 

It’s unfortunate that HoYoverse may be limiting how many missions will feature this TV mode. The official X account for Zenless Zone Zero states that “In the upcoming Version 1.2 main story and important future storylines, the TV mode will be replaced with story stages as the major means of experience. This optimization will also be implemented in the main stories in future versions.” Thankfully, though, Zenless Zone Zero seems to be responding to people who still want the TV Mode within the game. A few days after the initial announcement, Zenless Zone Zero posted “Thank you for your feedback dear Proxies! We will prioritize improving the gameplay and enjoyment of the tile-based (TV gameplay) system based on the best upvoted suggestions from everyone, rather than completely removing it!” TV Mode complements the game’s combat, so it’s going to be exciting to see what the devs have in store going forward. 

On the subject of the game’s issues, there is one that everybody agrees on: Resource Acquisition through Polychromes. Polychrome is the substance you use to summon and play as agents (characters). Packs of these cost from $1 to $100, if you don’t want to grind through. That’s the way HoYoverse makes money with Zenless. Doing errands will give you another currency called Dennies to get upgrades. But it’s very expensive to do so, since Dennies are extremely scarce as you go further in. You’ll end up using around 10,000 Dennies to initially upgrade characters, and that number keeps increasing to somewhere around 400,000 Dennies in order to fully upgrade the Agents you want. This means that horizontally investing in multiple agents that you like is harder than it should be, which encourages you to vertically invest in a few particular characters in order to get the best bang for your buck. Thankfully, the devs are continuing to hear feedback from players and resolve these kinds of problems. In this most recent update, 1.2, the game makers even added a pack you can acquire after doing some of the harder content, in which you can choose a higher rarity material for free. 

 On September 25th, the game launched its latest update, with a brand new story, new Agents Caesar King and Burnice, and tons of quality of life changes that make exploring the overworld much smoother and easier for players. I’m currently saving up my Polychrome to summon Burnice. After that, I’ll save to acquire Hoshimi Miyabi, who’s one of the game’s most popular characters right now, even though she isn’t yet playable. Gacha games are a genre that can be an addictive experience for many and are often compared to gambling due to how much money people spend on them. HoYoverse isn’t exempt from this, as demonstrated by Honkai: Star Rail, and especially Genshin Impact, which were notable for their lack of generosity. But developers seem willing to listen to feedback and make things easier for players, indicating a change in mindset regarding Zenless. 

I absolutely made the right choice in Zenless Zone Zero as my first HoYoverse experience. Zenless has a welcoming air, and all the development HoYoverse put into constructing its fascinating combat system and its continuously expanding story is absolutely paying off. 

Bronx native Isaac Espinosa is a Member of the New York Videogame Critics Circle. Along with being named the Circle’s first assistant Mentor, Isaac also coaches students for CEI Esports.

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