I’ve made the error of underestimating HoYoverse video games earlier than. When Honkai: Star Rail launched final 12 months, I approached it very a lot with the belief that Genshin Impression had been lightning in a bottle — a one-off banger that I used to be pleased to make the only real exception to the rule that I had no real interest in F2P RPGs aimed toward a mobile-first market — and that I might cowl HSR for just a few weeks round launch after which quietly drop off as soon as the preliminary surge of curiosity died down. Extra idiot me, then, when it ended up changing into one in all my favorite video games of 2023, with round 200 hours on my account up to now.
I ought to’ve gone into Zenless Zone Zero with my expectations set fairly excessive. However, I might additionally heard rumblings that ZZZ wasn’t as much as par with HoYo’s different current output. Because of this, my expectations moving into have been… sophisticated: I used to be prepared to be satisfied, however not anticipating the world.
Even when you’re acquainted to HoYoverse video games, Zenless Zone Zero has just a few surprises up its sleeve for you. Dropped into the preview construct with no prior hands-on expertise, I discovered that untold hours spent enjoying each Genshin Impression and Honkai: Star Rail hadn’t ready me to hit the bottom operating in Zenless Zone Zero fairly as effortlessly as I might assumed. Information of HoYo’s different video games got here in helpful when navigating menus and calculating gacha alternate charges, as an illustration, however really interacting with its world is sort of a distinct expertise.