Harsh and Honest Critique on the State of Zenless Zone Zero (Closed Beta 2)

These are my honest thoughts. Hopefully hoyo takes them to heart! What do you think?

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#genshinimpact #hoyocreators #fontaine #genshinguide #spiralabyss #showcase #genshin #honkaistarrail #projectmugen #zenlesszonezero #honkaiimpact3rd #honkai #honkaiimpact #wutheringwaves

[JelloZoneZero]

Correction: there are a couple new zones you unlock to “explore” as your player character, one more after each story. However they’re still not engaging or interesting, and you still can’t run around with your playable characters

[QuackEasy]

Let's make a fast paced hack and slash but with a ton of slow puzzles, oh yeah it's also gacha and roguelike, what could possibly go wrong?

[leukos]

I was lukewarm on the game and figured it'd be the thing I'd play during patch downtimes for the other games I usually play but it's really disheartening to see 4 banners to milk the playerbase for on top of the bait and switch censorship - it just all leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I just figure this is the sort of game I'm okay with missing the launch and checking it out a year from now to see what has changed in that time-frame. Thanks for the detailed info in the video o/

[iyxon]

"The scope is too small for Hoyoverse" 100%

[banana__]

thank god someone finally call outs people who make vague statements like "its not for you" becuase they cant stand people criticizing their game

[plutoniumrooster]

I'll definitely give this game a shot on release, but I recognize that I'm probably in the 10% minority that actually enjoys the casual puzzle stuff. It looks like it would greatly benefit the game if they toned it down *significantly*. And yes, the characters you pay money for absolutely need to be in focus more.

The combat and other game systems look like they'd be up my alley, even if the setting and world aren't super enticing. But I'm definitely cautiously looking forward to what Hoyo will do with all the feedback from this beta round.

[sabirahnova]

I’m so sad I wanted to like this game but the more I hear about it the less exciting it sounds

[THESocialJusticeWarrior]

The flaws are more forgivable if you are coming from Honkai Impact except for the poor story. But we have been spoiled by Genshin's open world and there is no going back. Good review, thanks!

[wellwellwell]

The TV mode doesn't look appealing at all to me. The combat is what drew me in, but if you're required to do the TV stuff every time before that, it just looks like a buzzkill. Little things like that prevent me from enjoying a game, because I feel like I need to do a pointless chore before actually enjoying it. They probably wanted to add this kind of gimmick to distance itself more from HI3rd's system, but it's just unnecessary.

[wolfwoof]

I wish they made the main town like Splatoon main hub. The art style screams it. And add some multiplayer potential there, since everyone uses MC in this hub
It doesn't need something big, but just more engaging and lively. And make the place change with seasons, like xmas decorations in winter etc. Lots of games with similar art style did it before.

[orrthehunter]

I think it is just really coming down to personal tastes with the TV style of dungeons. Calling the TV maze design a puzzle shows a bit that the person may not have been exposed to similar games that follow this dungeon crawling design due to maybe getting involved more in the 3d instance dungeon crawling design that eventually replaced this Map maze dungeon system design.

They advertised this game to be more Rogue-lite dungeon game and the TV maze design is a rather old style of dungeon crawling design. I feel mihoyo is going for more old school dungeon crawler with this game. Something that is not done much these days due to the dominance of open and instance world dungeon crawling and exploring maps.

Most probably won't enjoy it because these days most dungeon crawler no longer use this maze map system and focus a lot in open or instance world maps. Certain amount of people having issues with the TV map design may not even be old enough to remember games that use similar Map exploration designs. A person's influence in personal taste when it comes to games and their design is often influenced by what type of game they are more exposed to after all.

[jessica_glass]

early 2000s vape-bro fidget spinner aesthetic.

[beancake]

Great honest review :) (Btw, don't worry what anyone says in the comments! Ever!) Watching you play a little bit, my first thought was that I can't really tell who the game is even for. Also, idk if it's bc I'm a girl, but I find the UI of this game really off-putting; it's super masculine in an off-putting way, to me at least.

[medbeth]

Great review! I honestly felt the same way about almost every aspect you discussed simply from watching an hour-long stream of the Beta. The story is vague, the player-character interaction cut to a minimum, the world is very restrained and I personnally find the combat very... dull despite it being fast-paced and flashy, but I am sure this last point is very subjective.
The only thing going for this game is its style and fluidity, reminiscent of Persona5. Something at the core of this game is missing and I don't think a few tweaks or improvs on the go are going to make up for it.

[SundayMatinee]

I agree. If it ships with the TV mode as is, I'm skipping the game entirely. Not even gonna download and roll, let alone reroll.

[phoenixlau]

The back to back video comparison with how vibrant Genshin looked made me realize why ZZZ's visual style wasn't clicking with me.
It's a very washed out desaturated color palette, exacerbated by most of the characters having too much grey on their clothing which makes them look overly similar.
I wonder if this is intentional to make the flashy fighting effects pop more?

[E_GD]

One of this game's problems is that you can't use the characters you pulled for in the overworld, making it feel like you don't own them.

[HazZzel-]

The fanservice in this game is ridiculous bro. The one pink haired girl breathes and the physics are insane. If they were going to make a full fanservice game they should've just committed to the bit, but I heard they censored some stuff..? I don't know, it's whack

[Leothemoose]

I think the response of "it isn't for you" has more depth when you're talking about things like style. Art style, coloring, and general aesthetic is SO subjective. Combat well...that depends, for example, you could say "the combat in Elden Ring sucks" and that's a fair opinion if you don't like that kind of game but it's not an objective fact. Genshin is high fantasy. HSR is Sci-Fi. ZZZ seems like urban fantasy (mild fantasy). Not liking how the ZZZ characters look or how the world looks is subjective. It's fine to say the lack of an open-world or more HubZones (like HSR) limits the visuals but we should be able to distinguish when something just doesn't appeal to our personal tastes in terms of style. The Hip-hop and streetwear vibes of ZZZ appeal to me on a personal level more than HSR or Genshin (which I do like and think are beautiful) but ZZZ is just more for me. Speaking purely about visuals, I won't comment on the gameplay or combat, just the visuals and overall aesthetic. I'm not a heavy waifu/husbando type guy, so ZZZ is a good blend for me.

[elainm]

I didn't get into the beta so I might be a bit biased, but I don't think being "forced" to run around as the mc is all that bad (I just wish either of them looked less boring). I'm excited for the combat and I HOPE it's more engaging than HI3rd (might just be me, but after reaching lvl 75 it just started feeling so dull).

The TV mode on the other hand...I have ONLY heard bad things...