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Welcome back to New Eridu! Zenless Zone Zero Speed Report.

14K View2023-11-25

A year has passed since the last test, and during this year, the official account of Zenless Zone Zero has never been idle, constantly updating information about the game's settings and the daily life in New Eridu. But how can these tidbits satisfy the players' expectations? After briefly getting my hands on Zenless Zone Zero, my only expectation is - with such a high level of completion, hurry up and go live!

The Combat

The overall combat difficulty of "Zenless Zone Zero" is not high. I feel it's very suitable for newcomers, though I can't rule out the possibility that the difficulty was deliberately lowered for this test. We're here just to explain the mechanics—final difficulty will be based on the official release version.

As an action game, "Zenless Zone Zero" focuses on "imbalance and switching" in combat. At the beginning of the fight, players deploy a team consisting of three agents and a rabbit. Bumb acts mainly in a support capacity, providing various effects during the battle. The main characters of the combat, of course, are our agents.

Each agent in "Zenless Zone Zero" has five skill effects: a normal attack, a skill attack, a super attack, an assist attack, and a "Link Attack" which is only triggered under the "imbalance" effect. All enemies in the game have a yellow "imbalance bar"; players can build up "imbalance" thorough attacks. When the imbalance effect is fully stacked, it triggers two effects: the first is a temporary vulnerability where damage dealt during this period has a 150% impact; second, and more importantly, is the link attack effect, where every character in the team performs a linked attack on the target. Accompanied by the combat direction and performance that HoYoverse excels at, this segment of imbalance is not just visually impressive for its damage but also for its exhilarating visual and performance impact. Additionally, this effect will automatically target enemies that have not been defeated until each character has taken their turn.

In this test's boss fight, an additional "Extreme Defense - Blade Parry" mechanism has been included, where players can use precise basic attacks to block the damage caused by the boss. If the previous designs were meant to make the game more enjoyable for average players, then this design is a stage set for the experts. How to precisely determine the timing to act, achieve victory, and fight with elegance and flair is a challenge left for the more advanced players.

The most efficient combat routine involves using characters with normal attacks that induce imbalance to quickly bring enemies into the imbalance state. Once in imbalance, switch to high-damage characters for maximum output, and finish with a flashy super move. If there are still enemies alive on the battlefield after that, repeat the process.

Compared to the last test, this test encourages players to continuously switch characters and experiment with new combat styles even more. Each time characters are switched, there's a brief exchange of dialogue between them—like when Billy tags in for Nicole, he might say, "Boss, let me handle this," or when Nicole rotates in for Cat, she might quip, "Go play with a yarn ball on the side." From gameplay to the overall design and presentation, "Zenless Zone Zero" offers a lively and bustling atmosphere. Combat isn't a solitary affair; it fosters a sense of everyone fighting together.

World and Exploration

After discussing the combat in single rounds, let's move on to the exploration aspect of "Hollows." From the promotional material continuously released earlier, we have learned that the city of New Eridu is plagued by a special type of disaster known as Hollows. The exact cause isn't very clear, but Hollows appear randomly in various locations throughout the city, resembling folded other-dimensional spaces that are much larger than they seem.

Within these other-dimensional spaces, known as Hollows, there is a plethora of items ranging from technology that surpasses the current era to ancient relics of past technologies, and there may even be junkyards. However, these treasure troves aren't places one can simply choose to visit at will. Normal people who fall into them would turn into monsters due to the higher concentration of Aether within. Agents generally possess a certain level of Aether adaptability, but this doesn’t mean they can stay inside indefinitely. If they do not find a way to retreat in time, they too will succumb to the Aether's corrosion and turn into monsters. Therefore, players must cooperate with the character they play, known as the "Rope Smith," to complete exploration missions together.

From the player's perspective, the exploration part of the performance may feel a bit like moving through a grid, which is actually a mechanic for roguelike exploration elements.In the maze of an old-fashioned television set, players might encounter battles (the part we've just discussed), events, special thresholds that require spending coins to pass, and a ubiquitous atmosphere of tension and puzzles to solve.

We've talked about the negative effects of the Hollows. In the game, this is represented by a constantly increasing pressure value during the exploration of certain areas. When the pressure maxes out, a negative effect, like a brand, is applied to all members of the player's team. At this point, players must carefully plan their route, deciding when to push forward despite the pressure, when to pause to regroup and heal the team, or even when to retreat. These are all critical aspects that need to be considered.
The addition of puzzle-solving is a new feature in this test. Players can manipulate mechanisms within the maze to clear obstacles or create unfavorable conditions for enemies. In the main storyline, players must utilize three large boxes to open up a path, blocking the train to create an opportunity for their own infiltration.

Based on my personal experience from two test runs, the inclusion of puzzle-solving reduces the repetitiveness of combat encountered during exploration and adds to the enjoyment of exploration itself. This can be seen as a change that aligns with game design principles, making the game more fun to play.

Once again, welcome to New Eridu.

The player's life in New Eridu is also an important part of the game experience. As mentioned earlier, the exploration part is represented through a series of old-fashioned televisions, which is closely related to the background setting of the protagonist. The protagonists of this game are still a pair of siblings who, on the surface, run a videotape rental store, renting out various retro films to people; in reality, they are the legendary Rope Smiths "Phaethon," who can traverse the Hollows.

These two jobs may seem unrelated, but they both embody the desire to "connect worlds" and to help others. Within the Hollows, they serve as guides for various agents by decoding Hollow data, which is the golden fleece that ensures the agents' safe return from the labyrinth. When they emerge from their adventures in the Hollows, their first task is to retrieve overdue videotapes from a neighbor's house, bringing joy and smiles through the videotapes. The game takes great effort to portray their life within the community and their interactions with neighbors, with everyone loudly and busily going about their tasks, relying on the assistance of comrades or neighbors, together creating a vibrant street corner.

Although the explorable map area of "Zenless Zone Zero" is not large, the details are particularly rich, featuring ramen shops, record stores, arcade centers, 24-hour convenience stores... It's like the most convenient kind of neighborhood you could live in! And most of these shopfronts are accessible and offer interactive experiences. Specifically, the arcade center in the game has real playable games, such as popping balloons, Snake, and more, complete with a server-wide leaderboard. These things are always better when done with friends you're familiar with—come at me if you dare!

"Vibrancy," "Trend," and "Street" are the concepts that HoYoverse is trying to convey to players in "Zenless Zone Zero." Players live in New Eridu, make a living in the rope network, and provide services to gang members. In terms of music and the design of details, HoYoverse has also chosen to feature a DJ and street fashion style, with character equipment resembling combinations of various record fragments. This concept suggests that each person in the neighborhood is a melody; they might not mean much alone, but when blended together, they become extraordinarily powerful.

A bustling neighborhood, of course, should also have an equally lively plot: whether it's the initial safe robbery battle, the mid-game life-or-death speed chase with a train filled with explosives, or in the very end, where a crane surprisingly starts a romance with a demolition building—these stories seem as though they are meant to happen here. No matter how absurd, thrilling, or heartwarming, any kind of story could emerge.Here, anything can happen, and nothing that happens would be surprising.

The character development system in the game isn't much different from other HoYoverse games. But the animation for the gacha pulls is really cool, as every character comes with their own background music, like superstars—S-level superstars, could you please come to me quickly? If not, the test session is going to end soon!

written by TapTap editor Loadstar

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Zenless Zone Zero

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Comments

ZI AG

i hate pre registered

2023-11-26

Samira

this looks so cool how to download it

2024-01-06

robust

The concept of New Eridu being plagued by disasters known as 'Hollows' and the rogue-like exploration vibes really intrigue me. Add a combat system that focuses on teamwork and strategy? That's gaming heaven!

2023-11-27

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Zenless Zone Zero hosts special showcase at TGS

During today's special live broadcast event at TGS, HoYoverse provided in-depth insights into the gameplay, characters, and story setting of Zenless Zone Zero. Whether at Gamescom in Germany or at TGS in Japan, the game has garnered significant attention from players. We had the opportunity to try out the game earlier, and the overall impression is that Zenless Zone Zero stands out in terms of gameplay and presentation.

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