ZZZ 2.0 is a massive change of direction — and makes me wish for a HoYoverse management sim

Zenless Zone Zero and its Hollows are coming full circle with Version 2.0. There is nothing left of their stylized portrayal in the confined ‘TV mode’ that was envisioned as a core game concept at release. Instead, ZZZ’s world now works similarly to that of its elder sibling, Honkai: Star Rail — players can freely move in and out of the Hollows using teleportation points.

The Hollows are filled with treasures, small puzzles, collectible resources, and enemies. It’s all very traditional.

There is no doubt that this helps the gameplay flow more smoothly. ZZZ has significantly fewer loading screens now than it had in the past, even after a majority of the HDD-based gameplay has been phased out. At the same time, the game has lost some of its original uniqueness with these changes, making it more similar to its siblings. Again, that’s not a bad thing per se, but it’s somewhat sobering to see this bold experiment fail and see things revert to the standard recipe.

More importantly, the changes create this strange contrast between everything that happened before Version 2.0 and everything after it — it feels like it’s two different games and in a way it really is with how drastic the ZZZ devs overhauled their systems. But the original missions still run on those old concepts. Your HDD system is still sitting there, collecting dust. From time to time a computerized female voice says something, reminding you that Fairy is still a thing and was plot-relevant at some point. You remind yourself that you used to steer an abstract version of Eous around grid-based maps most of the time, but then Yixuan looks at you from the screen while being carried through an abandoned industrial hub (that’s actually physically there and doesn’t need to be imagined) by a raven made from living ink and you forget all about it.

It’s both a triumph to see the team adapt so quickly and effectively to player feedback and a tragedy to see its initial vision discarded so easily.

Complicated feelings around that aside, it is a lot of fun to explore the Hollows in this way. The comparison to HSR wasn’t randomly chosen: ZZZ hasn’t become an open-world game like Genshin Impact overnight. Its explorable areas are still limited in size and scope and mostly follow a linear layout with puzzles unlocking some side areas. You’re still limited to running around, so no jumping or climbing.

Having these areas as physical locations does help with the storytelling and immersion, though. It helps make combat more interesting as well sometimes. One new enemy type continuously spawns foes until they’re defeated, but the more complex combat stages allow them to hide from you, transforming the battle into a deadly hide-and-seek game.

I can’t really tell you anything about the stories playing out in these new environments, because the preview version I got to play hid all the story-related dialog and cutscenes — what I got from everything else is that Belle and Wise come to Waifei Peninsula with Yixuan and help with some investigations in the Lemnian Hollow. The Exaltists here seem to be much more advanced than the ones we’ve seen previously, as they can use the existing Ether Miasma here to spawn and control Ethereals. And then we go fight against them and kill their chief priest, or something of the sort — it’s hard to say without any actual information.

Similarly, I tried to play Ju Fufu’s Agent Story, the new Hollow Zero story, and the new events, but HoYoverse really held its card close to its chest this time — not even the model for Orphie, the upcoming Obol Squad character who makes an appearance in the Hollow Zero story, was implemented. So yeah, I can’t really share any impressions on these topics.

In terms of Agents, both Yixuan and Pan Yinhu really impressed me with their animations. The devs went all out for Yixuan: Her special damage type has golden colors, her moves spray ink and golden dust everywhere, and as already mentioned, she comes with a special movement skill that allows her to glide above the ground while looking at the player. 

I especially like one of her Basic Attack moves, which has her summon a whirling black hole of ink, which sucks in all nearby enemies and crushes them. In general, though, she feels great to play. Her independence of Energy still feels natural and gives her lots of opportunities to trigger Ultimates.

Pan Yinhu is everything you would expect from a literal kung fu panda and has some fantastic animations — from his battle stance to crushing enemies under him while he rides on his wok hat, it’s fun to watch him. Unlike Ben, who feels very clunky to me, Pan Yinhu is fairly easy to work into your combat flow.

Ju Fufu didn’t click for me as much as the other two, but her rapid attack speed and off-field capabilities were still apparent to me despite my less-than optimal skills.

The other big thing I was able to try out in the preview build is the Suibian Temple Restoration quest, which is partly integrated into the main story. You basically help rebuild the temple and make it prosper in this management game mode — and it’s one of HoYoverse’s best yet, to the point where I really want a full-blown management game from them at some point. With how many different management events they’ve done across games, there clearly is some passion for the genre there.

You can read more about the details in our ZZZ 2.0 Suibian Temple Restoration guide, but the gist of it is that you build an automated chain of resource collection, production, and sales to upgrade the temple and unlock shops in the neighborhood, which offer you additional quests and rewards. It feels very satisfying, it’s not too complicated or time-consuming, and it’s well integrated into the new map mechanics. As the resources you can collect in the Hollow play a role in the temple restoration process, they provide a nice bit of extra motivation to go out and explore — something ZZZ didn’t really need to provide the player with up to this point, but it’s certainly a concern now. The players need to show a bit more initiative by themselves to get the most out of ZZZ with Version 2.0.

In terms of visuals and audio, HoYoverse knocked it out of the park as always. Failume Heights, the new neighbourhood Belle and Wise live in, looks amazing. Anyone who feared that the more traditional-looking area would lack urban vibes can rest easy. There’s tons of graffiti, backyards with mini gardens, dirty alleys, chonky cats, and – my goodness – stylish NPCs. 

Sweety from the tea shop is probably my favorite NPC in the entire game and I’m really jealous of Uncle Hong, who gets to talk to her for much of the day.

The OST is the purest HoYoMiX stuff you’ve ever heard: Traditional Chinese instruments mixed in with the wildest electro and hip hop beats and it somehow works because they’re magicians.

The preview wasn’t entirely free of bugs: A blocker on one of the maps, which I should have been able to destroy with the new exploration mechanics the Proxy gets, simply wouldn’t go away, because of its auxiliary blockers (you take out two or three of these and then attack the main one) simply wouldn’t budge. 

One of the new enemy types moves around a lot – it’s like a mutated toad that jumps up and down – and sometimes forces you outside of your current combat area, making enemies respawn or restore their health to full, because the game thinks you’re simply running by. The former is something I expect to see fixed in the release version, the latter might be a bit of a teething issue that’ll take time to balance — it's not a massive deal in any case.

ZZZ 2.0 is a big change of direction away from the original vision and you can definitely see the seams of this strange construct, but these adjustments have been executed very well and make the result worth waiting for — from what I could tell, at least.

For more on the past and future of the game, check out our ZZZ 2.0 interview with producer Zhenyu Li.

More features on DBLTAP: