HoYoverse delivered quite the beautiful conundrum when they finally released the highly anticipated Zenless Zone Zero this year. As someone who was blessed with early access, I was able to dip my toes into New Eridu, and experience the hype firsthand. It’s a beautiful game with interesting characters and simple story to follow. What’s not to like? Well, there might be a few things–personal or otherwise.
That being said, the 1.4 update is quite the literal gamechanger–and truly deserves your attention. It’s the “soft reboot” no one expected, and took a lot of players by surprise, myself included. If you’re still on the fence on whether to try Zenless Zone Zero out, or, like me, would like to return to the warm embrace of our favorite burger fiend, Anby–there are a few awesome reasons to download and install.
Less Yapping, More Slapping
Now, update 1.4 didn’t exactly get rid of the Monitor Array system–but hear me out. It’s optional instead.
Yes, you can toggle Array Mode on and off and decide how you’ll go about your gameplay. It’s worth noting that this is only for the first 3 chapters. It’s yet to be announced if succeeding story content will bring this back.
Instead, you’re immediately thrown into the action, with some sections replaced with real time Bangboo puzzle and platformer sections. If you weren’t a fan of “TV mode” before, you’ll definitely enjoy this particular change.
Communal Ultimates No More
Remember how we had to switch between characters, use our EX Specials, and chain assists, all while deciding carefully who’ll be using their ultimate? Well, you still have to do the first three–but now you don’t need to choose who’ll be bursting in the end. Now, each character has their own decibel coinmter–essentially allowing them to unleash their ultimate attacks separately. That’s 3000 decibels each, not 3000 shared among all three.
While this will definitely ramp up the amount of damage you can dish out, it also means anyone who all the Sons of Calydon will be having all the eye candy they can handle.
Quality of Life, Quality Time
We’re introduced to a slew of quality of life features that’ll definitely make your life easier and more engaging around New Eridu. This includes a few charming updates to overworld navigation. Proxy Journey is a nice summary of your completed chapters that includes a few free pulls. Prior to 1.4, you had to jump through hoops in leveling your agent’s trust just to use their avatars in the overworld. Now, all you have to do is pull for them.
Speaking of Quality Time, you not only get to do Trust Quests with your favorite agents, but you also get to spend literal quality time with them to build that trust even further. Yes, you can now take out our favorite burger girl for burger time. Hopefully, we get an update that actually shows the burger time animation.
Leveling and prepping characters is easier with a detailed “Special Training Plan” that offers suggestions on how to build your character. Once you’re all geared up, you can challenge Shiyu Defense’s endgame content–and sweep through lower stages once you’ve reached higher levels. I’ve yet to complete the stable and disputed nodes, but it’s nice to know I can look forward to this feature.
Events Ahoy
The main story quest for Hollow Special Operations Section 6 is now live, and Miyabi is finally here–after 48 years. Yes, the fluffy-eared, katana-wielding badass that we saw at the very beginning makes her way into the game, and she’s absolutely busted as a DPS character. If you’re a returning player, or a newbie pulling for their first featured banner main, you literally can’t go wrong.
Alongside HSOS6’s main story, we also get ZZZ’s very first free 5-star character, Asaba Harumasa–an equally busted, ranged DPS. The current events will garner a variety of free currency and leveling materials that will definitely help in building up your characters. Aside from this. an upcoming event will garner players a free 4-star weapon that suits Asaba to a T.
Combine this with all the beginner freebies (if you’re just starting), and you’ll be blitzing through the game in no time. I just returned to the game a couple of days ago, was able to grind non-stop, and have since pulled both Miyabi and her signature W-Engine. It’s also worth noting that we still have almost a month left to get both.
It truly is the best time to get into ZZZ.
It’s Always Been Good
In spite of the divisiveness that some features yielded, Zenless Zone Zero has always been a solid title. I was never a fan of the Monitor Arrays, but I acknowledge how some people enjoyed it. It sets the game apart from HoYo’s other heavy hitters like Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and the OG–HI: 3.
With a steadily growing roster of intriguing characters and a compelling story unfolding, we have much to look forward to. Of course, if you were never a fan of gacha titles, this won’t mean much to you. But if you have an active rotation of titles on your phone and PC, then Zenless Zone Zero just might be that new addition you’ve been looking for.