{"id":248376,"date":"2024-07-08T05:08:13","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T09:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escapistmagazine.com\/?p=248376"},"modified":"2024-07-08T05:08:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T09:08:16","slug":"zenless-zone-zeros-gacha-system-dampens-what-otherwise-could-have-been-a-great-premium-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistmagazine.com\/zenless-zone-zeros-gacha-system-dampens-what-otherwise-could-have-been-a-great-premium-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Zenless Zone Zero\u2019s Gacha System Dampens What Otherwise Could Have Been a Great Premium Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While the majority of Americans took time off this past week to blow things up, chow down on beef and grilled meats, loudly gather in celebration, I indolently huddled down indoors to sink my teeth into HoYoverse\u2019s latest waifu-fulled offering, Zenless Zone Zero<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZZZ<\/em> is a feastful affair full of pop, color, and awe\u2014a free-to-play mobile game with a buffet platter of complexity for you to chew on that puts most other mobile games on the market to shame. And as I slid my way through the game\u2019s first chapter, I increasingly kept thinking, \u201cWow, I\u2019d happily pay tens of dollars for this, actually.\u201d Unfortunately, at the same time, it also became abundantly clear to me that if I wanted to play the game the way it seemingly is meant to be enjoyed, then I\u2019d have to play developer MiHoYo\u2019s game of slots\u2014a dangerous, money-siphoning game that rarely ends with little more than a brain full of frustration and an empty pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, the money-grubbing aspect doesn\u2019t put me off. Zenless Zone Zero<\/em> is free-to-play, after all, and it\u2019s not really doing anything different than other gacha games. In fact, it\u2019s downright standard. But it feels as if ZZZ<\/em>\u2019s gacha mechanics rub against the game\u2019s finely-tuned, character-driven gameplay with a friction that can spark a dumpster fire. Simply put, the game\u2019s too well made for its primary feature (team building and monster smacking) to be driven by random-chance collection, which essentially amounts to a dull time at the casino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ZZZ
Screenshot by The Escapist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now, I\u2019m no stranger to gacha games. I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m the most ardent player, but I\u2019ve dedicated years of my dumb little life to dumb little mobile games like Fire Emblem Heroes<\/em>, Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia, <\/em>and Pokemon Masters EX<\/em>. None of their gacha mechanics disappoint me the way ZZZ<\/em>\u2019s does. And that\u2019s largely because most other gacha games I\u2019ve played have shallow, bite-sized gameplay that mostly serves as a playground to place all your collectible characters and admire their cutesy glory. They\u2019re one-or-two button-tapping near-auto-battlers that you can futz around with for a few minutes before getting on with your life. You can happily pull new characters endlessly because, at the end of the day, it doesn\u2019t matter what you get. They\u2019re all ultimately the same anyway, and you\u2019re just trying to amass a collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, ZZZ<\/em>\u2019s sharp gameplay, which feels closer to a tag-team fighter, is far from brainless button tapping. Characters all have their own unique fighting style, all hitting with satisfying impact; they all synergize with one another differently; they\u2019re each attributed with elemental aspects that may be better or less suited for particular enemies. The game begs for you to build well-synergized teams while rotating out characters to adapt to fluctuating situations. But that\u2019s hampered when you have little to no control over the characters you unlock and your ability to level them up is limited by various stylings of far-too-many premium currencies with hard-to-conceive names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s nothing to say of its impact on the narrative. ZZZ<\/em>\u2019s meaty combat is intercut by flashy, comic book-styled visual novel segments (fun!). However, the fact that it\u2019s a never-ending gacha game means that the full narrative will likely never come to a satisfying conclusion, and most characters will inevitably have little story relevance. As such, you probably won\u2019t really<\/em> get to know most characters in a meaningful way (not fun!). For a character-driven game, that\u2019s a huge flaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ZZZ
Screenshot by The Escapist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The most frustrating part is that the fixes for many of Zenless Zone Zero<\/em>\u2019s problems would be clear as day if it were an average premium experience. You need only to make all<\/em> characters unlockable through the story and\/or through optional side quests, slap a traditional leveling system in there, and call it a day. When fleshed out, you\u2019d have a fun, addictive game that fully comes together as a cohesive whole, with lovable characters every fan could get to know and want to die for. There doesn\u2019t have to be much more to it than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I keep thinking back to Fire Emblem: Awakening<\/em>, a game that featured nearly 50 unlockable characters throughout its main story and side content. And most of its characters, including the optional ones, are all memorable and quite lovable, helped along by the game\u2019s support mechanic, which saw characters get closer to each other and progress in unique dialogue the more they\u2019re paired together. If Zenless Zone Zero<\/em> were to adopt such a system, it would surely be something special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps I\u2019m just being nostalgic for the days before rampant microtransactions when video games had a plethora of unlockable content. But I don\u2019t think so. Character-driven games need you to be able to access and interact with their characters, especially when the primary gameplay revolves around team building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Unfortunately, I don\u2019t think MiHoYo will ever stray from the HoYoverse gacha games they\u2019ve become known for. Not implementing a gacha mechanic into their games would probably feel like money left lying on the table. And for Zenless Zone Zero<\/em>, it\u2019s too late. The game\u2019s already out, and it is what it is. But who knows \u2014 maybe one day we\u2019ll get a proper, premium HoYoverse game that I can feel good about slamming some money down for. One can only hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zenless Zone Zero<\/a> is available now.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1211,"featured_media":169818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"article_type":"","gamurs_wordpress_blocks_hide_tags":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7806,7790,10],"tags":[13133,50466],"internal-label":[53131,53429],"invoiceable_action":[52805],"article_type":[52793],"coauthors":[{"id":1211,"display_name":"Seth Lowe","user_login":"seth.lowe","user_nicename":"seth-lowe"}],"yoast_head":"\nZenless Zone Zero\u2019s Gacha System Dampens What Otherwise Could Have Been a Great Premium Experience - 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