Zenless Zone Zero arrived as HoYoverse's third launch in four years, following Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail by only about 15 months. In 2026, it remains a fascinating case study: a free-to-play gacha RPG that feels both familiar and distinct, iterative and innovative. HoYoverse clearly learned from past missteps, yet ZZZ also forces players to spend the most time with the least interesting parts of its design.
A Smaller, Sharper World
ZZZ has more style and aesthetic excellence than Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, but in a much smaller package. Genshin's open world can feel too large and sprawling for a comfortable mobile experience, while Star Rail's turn-based combat and auto-battle features fit mobile devices perfectly. ZZZ sits squarely in the middle. It combines roguelike puzzle dungeons, fast-paced action combat, and chill life-sim activities into one varied gameplay loop.
Story and Presentation
The story also deviates from HoYoverse's usual formula. World-building remains strong, but it is scaled back considerably. Instead of high-stakes conflicts with gods and higher powers, Version 1.0 follows the daily lives of two tech-genius siblings, Wise and Belle, as they find ways to make money legally and illegally. Players pick which sibling to control, but both remain in the story as characters with regular dialogue. The main difference is that the chosen protagonist speaks and explores New Eridu, while the other supports from the sidelines.
Wise and Belle work as Proxies, individuals who can share their consciousness and sync with small electronic creatures named Bangboos. Syncing with a Bangboo allows the duo to use the Hollow Deep Dive (HDD) system to guide scavengers known as Hollow Raiders through dangerous, shifting dimensions called Hollows. The siblings use the alias Phaethon when working as Proxies, since scavenging Hollows for treasure and loot is illegal. They are the most well-known Proxies in New Eridu, so Hollow Raiders often pay them top dollar. Outside their Phaethon persona, they manage an old-school video rental store, Random Play, as a legal cover for their shadier ventures.
Although the stakes are low in Version 1.0, ZZZ does an amazing job of addressing pacing problems that have plagued past HoYo games. Comic-book paneling and character portraits keep nearly all major dialogue from becoming stale. The comics slide from scene to scene, and players can return to previous panels if they miss information. Character portrait conversations are fully animated to convey realistic emotions through mannerisms. Both comics and portraits are fully voice-acted, including all dialogue from Wise and Belle.
Anby, Billy, and Nicole are the first Hollow Raiders players meet, and they are the perfect trio to demonstrate how dynamic these conversations can be. Anby's monotone voice and calm demeanor next to Billy's over-the-top expressions are felt even through comic-panel stills thanks to great voice acting. Many vocal performances and character personalities make even longer chats feel worth listening to.
Commissions and the TV Board Problem
The biggest part of the gameplay loop has players accepting commissions for the citizens of New Eridu by exploring Hollows while completing different objectives. Players control a Bangboo as it moves through TV sets like a tiled board. Similar to a board game, certain TVs trigger special events that lead to combat, extra dialogue, rewards, and more. These Hollow board sections are intriguing initially, but soon it feels like players spend far too much time inside TVs when those hours should be spread more evenly with combat.
There are three main types of commissions: Story, Combat, and Exploration. Story commissions are usually the most interesting because they relate to the main plot and use more of the storytelling elements mentioned above, mixed with TV boards and combat sections. These commissions become available as players progress but are sometimes gated by level requirements that force them to do other commission types and complete side activities in the city. This is par for the course in many gacha games, but it can be frustrating to grind through less engaging content to get back to the good stuff. That said, the early level grind in ZZZ at least feels much quicker than in previous HoYo games because commissions take little time to finish.
Combat commissions are strictly about fighting different enemy types found inside Hollows, giving players a chance to control their favorite Agents. Exploration commissions are the weakest of the bunch, as they mostly involve solving extremely simple puzzles on the Hollow TV boards with little to no combat. Exploration commissions would not feel as tedious if the puzzles offered more challenge, but as it stands, they feel like a chore. They contrast sharply with Combat commissions, which can be completed on more than one difficulty with timed objectives to test skills and squad building.
Combat: Flashy but Forgiving
Combat is relatively easy, but it is also by far the most engaging aspect of ZZZ gameplay-wise. HoYoverse makes it look as beautiful as possible. Smooth movements and flashy effects hook players instantly.
There are two main offense buttons: one for basic attacks and one for special attacks. A meter fills as players perform basic attacks, and once it is full, they can use special attacks and EX special attacks for more damaging combo chains. There is also a dodge that can evade enemy moves at the last second when an indicator flashes. Perfect evades slow down time to create more offensive openings. As players attack, enemies' Daze meters increase, eventually stunning them.
The real star feature in combat is the Assist mechanic, which allows instant swapping between three party members. Swapping characters right before an enemy attacks leads to Perfect Assist parries, evades, and special interrupt moves that trigger some of the most visually exciting moments in the game. Perfect Assists consume Assist Points, and players need to stun enemies and perform chain attacks with their party to regain these points. Otherwise, they can only use regular evades. Players are rewarded for reaction time whether they have Assist Points or not. The Assist switches, along with beautiful animations and presentation, make combat so engaging.
But combat is too easy, especially early on before hard mode and the endgame are unlocked. Players can button-mash as long as they get defensive timing down. Defensive timing matters because there are no healers on the roster. Instead, players can pick up and use healing items while moving through the TVs in Hollows. There are Agents who create shields and specialize in tanking or support as alternatives, but realistically, most damage should be avoided with well-timed evades.
The choice of attacks rarely feels like it matters, though, as long as players keep up a combo to gain Decibels, the energy that fuels Ultimate attacks. There are so many well-crafted animations and awesome abilities, yet they do not matter as much as they should. For example, Lucy plays baseball with her Guard Boars to attack, while Nicole shoots bullets and bombs out of a small briefcase. But players do not need to worry about each character's unique move set because enemy encounters consistently feel trivial. Unless they are going up against a boss, which are often fun, cool battles, mobs just stand around, waiting to be killed while throwing out attacks that would barely hurt even if they did land. Maybe this will change as the game moves forward from Version 1.0, but as of that launch, even higher-difficulty fights could stand to be harder. On the flip side, this allows players to build whichever characters they like most without worrying about any sort of meta, for the most part.
Party member choice is almost more important than what players actually do with them in combat. Having a mixture of weapon ranges and elemental abilities to target enemy weaknesses makes fights easier. Players should build at least a couple of characters for each element, but their role, whether Attacker, Support, or Stun, does not feel like it makes a noticeable difference while breezing through the main storyline. Agents with the same faction or elemental attribute also gain extra combat abilities. It is a nice touch that characters who know each other and work together in the story have added meaningful synergy in combat.
The ZZZ endgame dungeon crawler mode, Hollow Zero, is one of the only parts of the game where combat offers a real challenge. It would be nice if the game taught better habits or strategies with tougher enemies before reaching that point.
Life in New Eridu
When players are not exploring Hollows, their perfectly legal day job involves managing the Random Play video rental store. Managerial tasks include retrieving overdue video tapes from neighbors in New Eridu, choosing which tapes to display in the store, and answering customers' questions about movie recommendations. Random Play is an oddly nostalgic and charming store that brings back the days before Netflix and other digital streaming services pushed physical rental spots out.
This old-school vibe extends to certain menus and features. The video archive for rewatching old cutscenes is laid out like a shelf of old VCR tapes, each with unique cover art. The archive makes it possible to replay chapters if players missed anything or want to see previous scenes again, unlike in Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. ZZZ goes a step further, giving players the freedom to experience entire story missions as many times as they like.
The Random Play store is located in the first main hub, Sixth Street. Besides managerial duties, players can buy and eat food for temporary combat buffs, play mini-games at the local arcade, and more. These activities are nothing special, but they introduce several other stores and NPCs in the neighborhood that make the world feel lived in. Players will find a surprising number of unique-looking NPCs to interact with for side commissions if they take the time to walk around Sixth Street and the other small hubs. They can even chat with Agents across the city who are just living their regular lives.
Characters and Progression
The character designs are fun and fitting for the world. There are several factions that each house two or more unique Agents. Players can tell which Agents belong to the same faction almost immediately thanks to clothing or uniforms, but the characters often still feel distinct in both style and personality. The 17-character launch roster contains a wolfman butler, a blue oni, an android, and even a giant talking bear wearing a gold chain. Ben Bigger, in particular, became a fan favorite. There is also a day/night cycle and a Persona-style Social Link system that allows players to spend time with individual Agents and complete character-specific side quests to raise their Trust Level for rewards as time passes. It is nice to have another meaningful way to interact with favorite characters outside of Story commissions, but the day/night cycle adds almost nothing other than an artificial timer that encourages players to open the Random Play store every morning and rest at the end of each day.
On the character building side, players can grind for nearly all currency and level-up materials in two places: the Hollow Investigative Association (HIA) and Hollow Zero. These materials are used to raise levels, level caps, skill power, and upgrade W-Engines and Disc Drives. W-Engines and Disc Drives are the main equipment in ZZZ. Both provide extra stat boosts, but W-Engines also provide a single main buff effect, while Disc Drives have two-piece and four-piece set buffs depending on how many are equipped.
The VR challenges in the HIA allow players to customize each scenario as they grind, giving them the option to pick enemy types, difficulty, and main rewards. This effectively limits the amount of RNG players have to deal with when upgrading specific Agents.
Eventually, players also gain access to Hollow Zero, the repeatable roguelike mode. Hollow Zero is similar to Star Rail's Simulated Universe, except instead of regular movement outside combat, players are stuck in TVs again. They collect buffs, strengthen their team, and make their way to the end of the Hollow. This is also where combat finally gets a bit more challenging because players can fight stronger bosses and customize the experience, just like in the HIA. After Hollow Zero comes Shiyu Defense, a fully combat-focused mode with timed encounters that increase in difficulty like Genshin Impact's Spiral Abyss. This is everything players would want from combat, but it takes a while to reach this point.
The 2026 Verdict
For gacha games that are not based on established properties, players usually find one or two features or moments early on that really suck them in, whether it is appealing gameplay, amazing character designs, a forgiving pity system, or something else entirely. Genshin Impact has its vast open world complemented by deep lore, and Star Rail has its simple yet challenging turn-based combat mixed with sci-fi fantasy. ZZZ's aesthetic is what grabs attention, but it is not always clear if that is enough to persuade someone to become a daily player who may even spend a little money. It feels like combat should be the hook, but enemy encounters feel too basic and few in number while progressing naturally through the main storyline before unlocking Hollow Zero and Shiyu Defense. For the majority of the experience, many players simply enjoy the retro-futuristic vibe while seeing numbers get higher, as with any RPG.
Despite that gripe, Zenless Zone Zero is yet another solid entry in the HoYoverse portfolio as of Version 1.0, and it is easy to see the potential as new Agents get added alongside Story commissions. It is a shame that the bright spots are dimmed by a complete lack of meaningful challenges in nearly all commissions, both puzzles and combat, during the early chapters. But the current experience still shines thanks to how fun and vibrant the direction is in all facets of the game. In 2026, that foundation remains both the game's greatest strength and its most obvious area for growth.
Comments