In the summer of 2024, HoYoverse (formerly Mihoyo) unleashed yet another gacha game upon the masses—Zenless Zone Zero. Back then, the hype train was chugging along nicely, fueled by the studio’s previous mega-hits like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. Players were promised a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy with slick combat and a distinct comic-book aesthetic. Fast forward to 2026, and the game’s legacy is less “must-play masterpiece” and more “cautionary tale.” Let's dive into the hollows and see where it all went sideways.
The premise is intriguing enough—mysterious dimensions called Hollows have wrecked the world, but the city of New Eridu survived by turning Hollow-diving into a legitimate (and shady) profession. Players control Belle and Wise, a sibling duo who moonlight as "Proxy" guides for raiders, all while running a cover business as a video rental store. You’d think a hacker duo that literally sits in a secret hideout would have some cyber-security chops, but in the story, they get hacked not once but twice. That’s about as believable as a plumber getting flooded in his own basement. The narrative tries to dress itself up with comic-book panels and fully voiced dialogues, but the execution is a slapdash affair—speech bubbles overflow, panels look like a five-year-old’s collage, and basic options like adjustable text speed are nowhere to be found. Two years later, no patch has fixed these storytelling sins.
The core gameplay loop is simple: pick a commission, assemble a crew of three, and jump into instanced combat arenas. Combat is a one-button combo affair—tap, tap, hold, maybe tap some more. There’s a dodge that’s so forgiving you could play blindfolded, a character-swap trigger, and flashy ultimate moves that charge over time. The visual effects are undeniably crisp—every punch and slash explodes with neon particles. But strip away the eye candy, and you’re left with a system that feels about as deep as a rain puddle. Many players (including the original reviewer) completed entire stages using just left and right mouse clicks. That’s not gameplay; that’s a screensaver with QTEs. The combat is so divorced from skill that the only strategy happens before the fight—equip your biggest numbers, match a few elemental weaknesses if you’re lucky enough to have pulled the corresponding character, and then yawn your way through the fireworks.
Missions are as repetitive as a broken record. The map traversal—rendered as a board game with TV tiles—starts off novel but quickly becomes a tedious slog of blinking lights and monotony. It almost feels like the developers bolted on flashy effects to distract players from the utter lack of interaction. Meanwhile, the story makes a valiant effort to use comic-book-style cutscenes, but the result is a hot mess. Panels are cluttered, speech bubbles cover important elements, and scrolling through text is required because no one thought to implement adjustable text speed. For a company that rakes in billions, this is embarrassingly unpolished.
Of course, being a HoYoverse title, the gacha rears its head early and often. The rates are stingy—0.6% for a 5-star character, with the entire progression system dangling duplicates (up to six copies) and exclusive equipment on separate banners. There’s not even a B-rank safety net; everyone’s at least A-rank, which sounds nice until you realize it just dilutes the pool. The game practically shoves a dual battle pass and membership subscriptions in your face, making it crystal clear: open your wallet or prepare for a grind that would make Sisyphus weep. In the two years since launch, the monetization hasn't become any friendlier—if anything, power creep and new character releases have only widened the gap between free-to-play mortals and the whale elite. The gacha is less of a game mechanic and more of a digital mugging.
The English dub, while voiced by capable actors, suffers from awkward direction that often lands somewhere between “trying too hard” and “community theater after-party.” The dialogue tries to punch up the script with quips, but it ends up feeling like a stand-up comedian bombing at an open mic. The main duo, Belle and Wise, are supposed to be cyber-savvy geniuses, yet their go-to tech solution is essentially “turn it off and on again.” Ouch. At this point, a random NPC in Cyberpunk 2077 has more believable hacker credentials. The supporting cast leans hard on gimmicks—a quirky robot here, a sassy wolf-girl there—but none of them stick the landing emotionally because the script could put a caffeinated squirrel to sleep.
Despite a handful of updates and new characters dropped over the years, Zenless Zone Zero hasn’t quite managed to escape its mediocre launch. The community still pokes fun at its “subway surfers clip stapled to a TikTok” combat style, referencing the overuse of flashy character switches that feel more like ADHD-proof viewer retention tactics than genuine strategic depth. Meanwhile, competitors have moved on to deliver more engaging narratives and fairer gacha systems. HoYoverse’s own Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact continue to receive meaningful content expansions, while ZZZ remains the awkward middle child—slick on the surface but hollow (pun intended) where it counts.
So, is Zenless Zone Zero worth your time in 2026? If you’ve got a penchant for mindless button-mashing with a side of eye-searing visual effects, maybe. But for anyone seeking a gripping story, tactical combat, or a gacha that doesn’t treat your bank account like a piñata, this one’s a hard pass. The game’s potential is as vast as the Hollows themselves, but it remains frustratingly unfilled—like a fancy lockbox with nothing worthwhile inside. Two years on, Zenless Zone Zero is still a style-over-substance spectacle that proves even the mightiest developers can miss the mark when they prioritize monetization over meaningful gameplay.
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