Zenless Zone Zero Review Summary

Fast satisfying combat and beautiful graphics with excellent character designs, but the generous gacha system hides predatory mechanics and requires multiple launchers.

Combat is fast and satisfying: Players frequently praise the combat as fast-paced, flashy, and satisfying. It is described as a pleasure, with responsive mechanics like dodging and parrying, and is considered the best hack-n-slash combat among gacha games.

Excellent character designs: Character designs are consistently highlighted for being unique, diverse, and visually appealing, with distinctive personalities and vibrant aesthetics. Art style and character models are major draws for players.

Generous gacha system praised: The game is frequently compared favorably to other gacha titles for its generous gacha system, which rewards both free-to-play and paying players with ample currency and pulls. It is considered the most generous gacha from HoYoverse, even surpassing other popular games.

Beautiful animations and graphics: Animations and graphics are frequently described as beautiful, phenomenal, and top-notch. Visual quality is a standout feature, with impressive character models and stunning effects.

Excellent soundtrack: The soundtrack is highly praised for being excellent, incredible, and varied. Music and cinematics enhance the overall experience.

Predatory gacha mechanics: The gacha system is widely criticized for its predatory nature, with complaints about high costs, unfair pity systems like 50/50 and 90 pity, and pressure to spend money. Players feel it drains resources and can be addictive, with specific mentions of losing 50/50s multiple times.

Multiple launcher requirements: Players complain about the need for multiple launchers when starting the game, even when launching via Steam. This process is cumbersome and defeats the purpose of Steam integration, with issues like crashes on Steam Deck and lack of proper optimization.

Inconsistent story quality: The story quality is inconsistent, ranging from mediocre to nonsensical, with some arcs being hit-or-miss and characters not fully developed. This inconsistency leads to a loss of identity and uniqueness for the game.

Persistent performance issues: Performance issues are prevalent, including frame drops, stuttering, and poor optimization on Steam Deck and high-end PCs. Features like DX12 and DLSS also cause problems, affecting gameplay smoothness.

Over-the-top fanservice designs: The game is criticized for excessive fanservice and sexualized character designs, with recent designs focusing on revealing clothing and repetitive patterns. Players find this overdone and a turnoff, with some labeling it as a 'gooner game'.

Action RPG Gacha Hybrid: The game is an action RPG with gacha elements, focusing on character collection and pulling, with endgame content and low grind requirements.

50/50 Pity System: The gacha system uses a pity mechanic with a 50/50 chance on limited banners, similar to Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact, with soft pity at 70 pulls and hard pity at 90.

Real-Time Parry Combat: Combat features real-time action with character switching, parry mechanics, dodging, and team rotations, requiring responsive inputs and strategic timing.

Dodge and Counter Combat: The combat system emphasizes dodges, counterattacks, character switching, combos, and quick assists, offering a layered action experience.

Story Skip Available: A skip button is available for story dialogues, allowing players to bypass narrative segments if desired.

FPS drops and stuttering widespread: Users report severe FPS drops from 180 to 40-120, stuttering during combat, and constant frame drops to as low as 30 FPS. Shader compilation does not resolve these issues.

Steam Deck performance varied: Multiple reviewers confirm the game runs on Steam Deck without special Proton configuration, though some report launcher crashes and performance issues. The experience varies from playable at low settings to problematic on the Steam version.

DX12 and ray tracing stutter: DX12, ray tracing, and DLSS cause notable stuttering and frame drops. DLSS lacks Nvidia Reflex and is considered broken by some users, negatively impacting performance.

City areas performance poor: Cities and populated areas cause significant performance drops, with FPS falling below 20 in hubs and general struggle in crowded zones.

Ray tracing optimization subpar: Ray tracing optimization is poor, causing low frame rates and high latency. It requires at least 8GB VRAM, limiting accessibility.

Highly recommended overall: Players consistently rate the game very highly (10/10) and strongly recommend it, often calling it one of the best gacha games available.

Excellent combat and style: The game is praised for its action combat, stylish animation, music, characters, and quality localization, appealing to fans of fast-paced gameplay.

F2P-friendly and generous: Multiple reviews highlight the game as F2P-friendly and generous with rewards, making it a good choice for free-to-play players.

Avoid unhealthy spending: Many reviews caution against irresponsible spending, advising players to be careful with money, plan pulls, and avoid impulsive decisions due to gacha addiction risks.

Focus on story first: Players recommend focusing on the main story (especially season 1), treating it as a secondary game, and skipping cutscenes if desired.

Game completion: 90.0h.

Story completion: 90.0h.

Zenless Zone Zero often feels slow and frustrating at the start due to its TV mode and repetitive early story, but many players find it becomes engaging after pushing through the initial friction, especially as combat and story improve.

Friction: TV mode pacing killer; boring early story; repetitive combat; confusing tutorial; gacha grind; stamina limits.

Unlock drivers: reduction of TV mode; learning combat mechanics; story improvement; getting better characters; understanding game systems.

Waifu Devotee: Pulls exclusively for favorite female characters, ignores combat mechanics and story, spends money or time to obtain them, and treats the game as a character collection/dating simulator. Motivation: Emotional attachment to specific characters (waifus) and the desire to see, hear, and interact with them. Stance: buy.

Meta Grinder: Focuses on endgame content, optimizes team compositions and rotations, follows meta shifts, and invests time in mastering combat mechanics to clear high-difficulty content. Motivation: Challenge, optimization, and achieving top performance in endgame modes. Stance: sale.

Casual Story & Vibes Enjoyer: Plays at a relaxed pace, enjoys story and events, skips dialogue when not interested, does dailies quickly, and does not chase meta or endgame rewards. Motivation: Relaxation, immersion in the urban fantasy world, and enjoyment of characters, music, and varied event content. Stance: buy.

Performance varies widely by hardware tier: lower-end Windows systems and Linux setups generally run well, while high-end Windows and Steam Deck users face significant stuttering, frame drops, and optimization issues.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: mixed. Players report frequent stuttering, inconsistent frame rates, and poor DX12/DLSS implementation, with roughly equal numbers recommending and not recommending the game.

Windows <8GB VRAM / <16GB RAM: positive. Most players find the game playable despite noticeable frame drops and stutters, especially in hub areas; a minority report severe performance issues.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: positive. The majority report smooth performance at high settings, though some note optimization could be better and DX12 may cause regressions.

Steam Deck: Zenless Zone Zero on Steam Deck requires significant tinkering to achieve a playable state. Users must bypass the launcher to avoid crashes, deal with inconsistent anti-cheat support, and accept sub-60fps performance with stuttering. While the game is not completely broken, it does not work out of the box and demands manual configuration.

Linux and Proton: Zenless Zone Zero on Steam has mixed Linux compatibility. While some users report it works out of the box, many others require workarounds such as using Proton 11 beta, custom launch options to skip the launcher, or alternative launchers. Anti-cheat toggling has caused intermittent blocking. Overall, the game is playable on Linux with tinkering, but not universally reliable.

Monetization: Standard Gacha Monetization

Request for Point Shop: A player requested the addition of a Point Shop feature, suggesting a desire for more in-game content or customization options.

Criticism of Main Character: One player made a crude comment regarding the main character's buttocks. While the feedback is limited, it indicates some dissatisfaction with character design.