The Long-Term Experience of Zenless Zone Zero

On April 18, Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) began its third test phase. Although the game is still some time away from its official release, it has already garnered 32 million global reservations - a record that is likely to continue rising.

This number resonates in my daily life. When I open ZZZ on the subway, several times, young passengers have recognized the game and even come over to discuss it. For a game that doesn't even have released, the anticipation is palpable.

After the optimizations from the previous two tests, let's delve into the long-term experience of Zenless Zone Zero. The core gameplay, centered around easy-to-pick-up action mechanics, has now been perfected. In short, the previously distinct "easy control, strong experience" has been enhanced to the extreme.

The high-speed movement of characters, seamless character swiching, and near-zeroo skill cooldowns - all these designs ensure that every player action gets effective feedback. This not only impresses the audience but also gives players themselves the illusion of being an action game master.

Each test, I've watched numerous streamer videos of gameplay. These videos often contain many mistakes, but that doesn't stop comments like "technical streamer" or "great skills" from popping up frequently. I, too, have often thought I had perfect runs, only to find my health bar significantly depleted without realizing where I went wrong.

The illusion is caused by two factors. One is the minimal negative impact when a player is hit. There are no frustrating moments like being knocked down or stunned, and sometimes it's even hard to nooticec when you get hit. The second factor lies in encouraging frontal assaults. Instead of dodging, the "Extreme Support System" is the key. In layman's terms, it's about switching characters at the moment of the enemy's flash to block and then immediately counterattack with a combo, accompanied by satisfying sound effects and cool camera shots.

(Players only need to press once to block twice, but from others' perspectives, it looks like they blocked four times, showing off their skills.)

This easy-to-trigger operation appears frequently in each match, making it seem like the enemies exist just for stylish blocking moves, keeping players' attention on the battle and ignoring their dwindling health bar.

Even with this easy blocking mechanic, the third test has introduced a dedicated story difficulty, further lowering the entry threshold.

This experience reminds me of some console game designs. In traditional action games, a successful move is often a simple process. However, in last year's Final Fantasy XVI and the newly released Blade Star, players can execute cool counterattacks and even get short, rich animations after successfully blocking or dodging.

When the rewards of an action are presented in an exaggerated way, players receive strong positive feedback.

While high-quality action experience is Zenless Zone Zero's biggest highlight, after ten days of long-term play in the more complete third test, I prefer to describe the experience as "leisurely" rather than "thrilling" or "intense," due to the development team's effort to "reduce burdens" throughout the game.

The main focus of the third test is the highly anticipated commercial framework. Zenless Zone Zero's main monetization points are characters and weapons, maintaining miHoYo's traditional payment model.

In recent years, many anime-style games have smooth sailing in their free tests but fall into a negative publicity whirlpool once paid testing starts. This is often because the game's content is not yet complete, leading players to associate the in-development version quality with commercial content, resulting in a poor impression of "not worth the money."

However, this issue is relatively rare with ZZZ. One reason is the game's impressive completion level shown in the first test, which has been further polished in the third test. Another reason is the players' familiarity with miHoYo. The consistent payment framework over the years means that most practices are within players' expectations.

First, there's the familiar 20% discount for the newbie pool, where 40 draws give you 50 pulls and at least one S-tier character. These 50 pulls also count towards the 300 draws needed for a selectable item in the permanent event. Conveniently, in Honkai: Star Rail, I was just 50 pulls away from the 300-draw mark in the permanent event, so I appreciate the changes in ZZZ.

Another player-friendly design is the unified exchange resources for the limited and permanent events, with no monthly cap on exchangeable draws. Each draw gives at least 2 tokens, and 40 tokens can be exchanged for another draw, effectively giving a small discount.

Additionally, there are some minor details, such as the weapon event having a guaranteed pull at 80 draws and the S-tier weapon's UP rate increased to 1%. These changes don't significantly impact heavy spenders but greatly improve the experience for small to mid-level spenders.

Regarding the daily gameplay reduction, it's more subtle. For instance, the "grid walking" gameplay has fewer grids and now allows for faster, one-click automatic completion. Daily tasks require just a few clicks to complete.

The daily tasks encouraging players to log in have become "trivial matters," like casually drinking coffee or playing with a cat, most of which only need a few clicks.

Clearing stamina is even simpler. You can customize the stamina consumption for material farming. If you want, you can truly "play two rounds and log off." Interestingly, the café offering material drop bonuses has a richer menu on Sundays, implying that there's no need to grind during weekdays. You can save your energy for weekends.

These design choices clearly aim to free up players' time to immerse more in battles.

Early in the first test, ZZZ implemented the much-requested "skip story" feature, even allowing replay. This treatment, unseen in other miHoYo games, can be seen as "listening to player feedback," but the real reason for granting players the power to skip the story lies in the development team's confidence in the core experience.

In other action games, players can enjoy the gameplay without knowing the character's story. This logic applies to ZZZ as well. Players can dive into the action for its fun, logging in daily for a few rounds of combat, which is ZZZ's greatest strength: low entry barrier yet sufficiently engaging combat.

Going back to the "leisurely feeling" in the game, besides the detailed small designs, the audiovisual experience also plays a significant role. Compared to "swords and magic" or "space adventures," ZZZ's urban theme naturally carries a familiar, everyday life vibe, making it easy for players to blend in.

I remember when Honkai: Star Rail first launched, its meme-filled writing gave players a sense of humor and familiarity. This design is further enhanced in ZZZ's fantasy urban theme. Players can enjoy light music and read humorous in-game internet content when not in combat, creating a relaxing online browsing atmosphere. You can even do nothing and just watch the dynamic background with soothing Lofi music in the menu interface, making it a perfect study or work wallpaper.

However, some burden-reducing attempts still have room for improvement.

One notable update in the third test is the iteration of the companion system-Bangboo. Now, Bangboo can follow you in battles, providing an additional combo attack, effectively becoming the player's fourth teammate.

Each Bangboo's combat performance is fun and varied. For example, Commander Bangboo summons a race car to fly at enemies, and Target Bangboo sets up a slingshot to shoot itself at enemies. The little Butler cooks a pancake on the spot and then smashes it at enemies. They're cute and versatile.

Some players worried that this companion system would bring the burden of monetization. Fortunately, in the third test, Bangboo is completely free to obtain. It has an independent gacha pool, with big and small guarantees. The tokens for gacha are mostly earned through various gameplay rewards, not purchasable with real money.

While this is also a burden reduction measure, it creates a peculiar contradiction in obtaining Bangboo. Is it free? Yes. But the difficulty of acquisition has increased. The tokens are limited, and getting Bangboo highly depends on luck. You might save up for a whole version only to have bad luck with gacha, leading to a poor experience.

Ordinary players may not get a stable return, and even paying users need to "think twice before gacha." If it goes wrong, not even money can save you.

The third test reduced Bangboo's grade classifications, keeping only A and S, which prevents some Bangboo from sitting idle in the warehouse, but it may still not be enough. I can imagine most players, after experiencing an A-grade Bangboo, will turn to the rarer and better S-grade Bangboo. This somewhat limits players' team compositions and wastes the carefully designed art resources of Bangboo.

Similar to the "wasted Bangboo," the abundant art quality enhances the game's overall quality but also makes some content sacrifices regrettable. For example, you cannot switch characters you pull at will in the game. Outside combat instances, players can only play as the sibling protagonists, unlike in Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail, where you can control your favorite character anytime. To make up for the interaction with characters, the game offers occasional character encounter stories, but in my ten-day experience, I've only encountered three times in the city.

Besides these content-related points, a good experience in ZZZ requires a decent device, preferably a PC or console. If your mobile device's specs are just near the game's minimum requirements, the experience significantly drops, with unstable frame rates, high power consumption, and the inconvenience of a small screen. These are common issues, considering the trend of recent mobile games leaning towards flagship devices or even PC configurations.

Of course, we must acknowledge that the game is still in testing and subject to changes. Overall, though, this is the most complete anime game test I've participated in recently-players who couldn't join the test can already look forward to its official release.