Zenless Zone Zero doesn’t look like Genshin, and it doesn’t fight like it either. HoYoverse took pains to distinguish ZZZ from its other husbando collection simulators, and nowhere does this feel more obvious than in combat. Even cutscenes are skippable now to get us back in the action faster. Overall, HoYo’s gamble paid off. Most adjustments to combat feel thoughtful, and crunching your way through Hollows one bone at a time always satisfies. It’s not all sunshine and W-Engines, however. Some of the game’s riskier choices chafe against one another, in particular those surrounding its roguelite elements. Here’s the good and ill of the game’s combat.
Cutting the Team
It’s a common mistake to assume ZZZ‘s combat copies Genshin‘s. Shifting from an open-world design to smaller, segmented areas meant fights were bound to change, and change they did. When it comes sizzle, Zenless Zone Zero brings the spice. Battles are as pyrotechnical as you’d hope they’d be in an anime-inspired brawler. Stringing a Koleda fire combo into a bear bashing from Ben Bigger hits the spot every time. The swap from four-person to three-person teams wasn’t without consequences, however.
For some, creating team synergy and balancing roles is half the fun. Main DPS, sub-DPS, and support all play unique parts in Genshin, and dropping a team slot in Zenless Zone Zero had mixed results. You can argue that HoYo just reduced role redundancy, but having less room for your favorite friends hurts. The tag system gives Zenless that frantic Marvel vs. Capcom energy, but that only makes the lost team slot more apparent. ZZZ could become HoYo’s best work even with these jagged edges, but that doesn’t make them any smoother.
Zenless Zone Zero and the Reckless Roguelite
Setting aside the postapocalypse-punk and Tokyo street fashion vibe, Zenless Zone Zero struggles to zero in on its dungeoneering gameplay. Set foot in a Hollow and you’re confronted with a wall of TV screens acting as a roguelite map. Despite looking like something you’d find in Slay the Spire or Inscryption, Hollow dungeon progress lacks the spirit of the roguelite genre. Though its randomized rewards and tile-based progression pattern themselves after roguelite greats, there’s none of that substance here.
The Pressure mechanic sounds good on paper, but it doesn’t feed the combat loop in a satisfying way like Darkest Dungeon‘s Flame. Picking a careful path through a Hollow to avoid Corruption sounds engaging, but the actual experience is flat. Roguelites embrace meta progression in ways that roguelikes don’t, but gacha games rely almost soley on such progression. Get a hero, get a weapon, level them both endlessly, and then repeat. Zenless Zone Zero tries to wed such mechanics to its combat loop, but it comes off feeling shallow and forced. I’ll take any excuse to talk about Ben Bigger, but brand identity has never been a bigger issue for HoYo’s combat.
