Zenless Zone Zero uses nostalgic early 2000s imagery to show how developer HoYverse elegantly transitions from the fantasy settings of Genshin and Honkai: Starrail to a fascinating urban dystopia. It’s a universe in which you compete in dizzying real-time combat as three street-clothed agents, and navigate a maze of encounters by solving simple puzzles between battles as their handler. And that’s before you even get to the social carousel. Come on over there. A multitude of tasteful influences combine to create something easily stylish, but a bit inconsistent and sometimes crumbled by a lack of depth. Nevertheless, Zenless Zone Zero captivated me. His relentless charm forced me to keep fighting through combat puzzles and ramen one ramen at a time.

Zenless Zone Zero is set in a world where pocket dimensions inhabited by monsters called Hollows have ravaged civilization. While much of humanity has been wiped out, the cyberpunk stronghold of New Eridu survives thanks to its tense reliance on the Hollows and the precious resources found there. You play as Bell or Wise, a brother-sister hacker duo navigating this dangerous realm and taking on jobs from a list of loveable villains bent on the next big coup. The unique, dark setting, though sometimes complicated, drew me in to test my strategic instincts with a variety of challenges I was eager to overcome.

Your brawl begins in the retro tech-filled backroom of the brothers’ video store. There you assemble a party of three from an impressive roster of unlockable agents, then delve into the dangerous Hollows, earning success in exchange for XP and upgrade resources. .Through a pre-launch trial offered by HoYverse, I had access to all of the currently available agents. And thanks to their charming British accents and battle-girl outfits, I quickly developed an affinity for the agents of a faction called Victoria Housekeeper. My personal favorite is the shark-tailed Ellen Joe, who slashes away with her ice blade, inflicting elemental debuffs on enemies and dropping profanities along the way. Putting together your dream team is largely in the hands of the gacha gods, but since characters are unlocked via the genre’s typical random selection method, it’s nice to be able to try out your cast in story missions rather than having to choose them first.

Combat in Zenless Zone Zero may seem intense on the move, but it’s forgiving and approachable. They have basic attacks and a dodge option to escape from marked attacks in time, plus the ability to switch to other agents to avoid or parry scrapes and boost combos. Increasing an enemy’s daze meter results in persistently satisfying chain attacks, slow-motion quick-time events in which your colleagues rush in and slam the enemy down. Basic and ultimate abilities round out each character’s combat options, but as with any good action game, variety abounds through timely button presses and potential passive combinations.

Challenging boss battles sometimes pop up to test your reflexes, but you rarely get overwhelmed unless you connect the dots in your combat strategy and skillfully coordinate your incoming attack patterns to keep the different types of enemies at bay. While a sophisticated build-adjusting system, difficulty options, and endgame content can help push the skill ceiling for players hungry for a challenge, Zenless Zone Zero seems happy to go out of its way to simply pick up and execute a few flashy moves. Most attacks come with elegant animations, right down to the way the house demon Van Lycaon gracefully lowers his metal heel after a kick. Ultimately the focus is on pursuing your combat fantasy with one of Zenless Zone Zero’s beautifully designed and passionately voiced characters, rather than competing with games like Devil May Cry for combat nuance. I’m happy, even if it’s a compromise. It means less mechanical depth.

Unfortunately, the dizzying combat is marred by over-the-top hacker puzzles designed to provide a link between your team of agents and the lieutenants who guide you through the Hollow from your home. You’re thrust into a maze of clunky CRT monitors between combat locations, and you have to push your tiny avatar around to trigger mechanisms that lead to the next checkpoint or encounter. The mode’s blurry aesthetic is visually stunning, but it makes the process feel arbitrary and kills momentum. After smashing through a wall of screens, I found myself searching for the next encounter as quickly as possible to boost morale and actually get back into the frenetic action sequences that make Zenless Zone Zero so exciting.

I enjoyed chasing high scores and avoiding urgent missions in the Godfinger arcade, but spent an embarrassing amount of time on the delicious snake and cave exploration minigames. But it was the entertaining and sometimes deep side stories that made the biggest impression, reminding me of the risks of humanity in this world. In a side quest, the ghostly silhouette of a homeless robot scares the locals, leading to a surprisingly moving situation where wires get tangled. Zenless Zone Zero’s underlying post-apocalyptic fragility is easily forgotten amid the waves of lovable shopkeepers and in-game currency, but it’s always in the back of your mind. Overarching themes of displacement and corruption are expressed in the film’s storyline and in the design of the city’s neighborhoods, which range from rundown to gentrified.

Given the unusually generous nature of HoYverse reviews, it was hard to get a clear picture of how Zenless Zone Zero’s progression system would feel in the long run, but what I saw didn’t seem alien to the developer’s other gacha games. Still, it’s beneficial to start fresh with a new account at launch and get used to working in a more organic live service environment (I’ll be sure to update this review if any unforeseen issues arise). Anyway, by the end of the main story, which easily took dozens of hours to complete, I’d grown strongly attached to this rich world and its cosplay-friendly characters, and felt that this ambitious turn was up to Genshin and the Universe’s high standards. Honkai: Starrail is certainly justice.

Verdict

By drawing on early 2000s nostalgia and combining it with a stylish vision of the future, Zenless Zone Zero creates a unique world that’s easy to empathize with. Exploring the new Eridu and getting to know this fascinating cast both in and out of combat was an exciting journey that I could keep going for hours. It’s not necessarily as deep as many of its gameplay inspirations, and the game’s demanding hacking puzzles can make you feel a little down at times, but with exciting, accessible combat and plenty of extracurricular activities to worry about, it’s always easy to turn around and find yourself drawn back into Zenless Zone Zero’s fascinating culture.