Asmongold explains why Zenless Zone Zero is “inferior” to Honkai Star Rail & Wuthering Waves

Asmongold has given his first impressions of Zenless Zone Zero, sharing his rating for the anime gacha game. 

Zenless Zone Zero is the latest action game from HoYoverse, the devs behind Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail. While ZZZ includes the usual colorful cast of characters, gacha banner mechanics, and HoYo’s flashy combat animations – there are plenty of differences. 

ZZZ is aimed at a more casual audience and focuses purely on combat with very little exploration. While this may not sound like a bad thing for those who want to pick up and play something between games, Asmongold believes ZZZ is a step back when compared to Wuthering Waves and other HoYoverse games. 

“I think that the story sucks, that’s number one. Number two, I don’t think that the gameplay is as good as Wuthering Waves. I think in some ways it’s cleaner than Wuthering Waves, but think of it like this. Wuthering Waves is a deeper pool, whereas Zenless Zone Zero is like a really pretty pond,” explained Asmongold. 

“It looks good but a lot of the things that I ended up doing looked really cool on screen, I was just pressing left-click over and over, and these things are just automatically happening. It’s like I was playing Final Fantasy 16 with automatic dodge, automatic attack, automatic parry – everything.”

Unlike other HoYoverse titles like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, the developers have stated that ZZZ offers a more casual experience. During an interview with Dot Esports, Zhenyu Li, the producer of the game, revealed that Zenless Zone Zero’s main goal is to create a game for both casual and hardcore action game players. 

While Zenless Zone Zero late-game may provide a more distinct challenge, Asmongold doesn’t believe that the game’s difficulty is its only problem. “I’ve played the game for like four hours, and I’m doing the same mobs in the same areas over and over.”

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“The aesthetic of the game is ok, but I feel like the open world aspect of the game is inferior not only to a game like Wuthering Waves, but it’s also inferior to a game like Honkai Star Rail. It’s basically just a lobby. Maybe later in the game there will be another area like the starting area that I’ll probably unlock, but it will have this same issue where it’s controlled,” said the Twitch streamer.

Asmongold believes the casual gameplay and lack of exploration will hurt ZZZ’s replayability, particularly amongst those who are familiar with HoYo’s other titles and open-world gachas. Even when playing on the game’s Challenge Mode setting, Asmon found the gameplay too easy. 

“If the mobs did twice as much damage and had twice as much health – that would not make the combat better. That’s not what makes combat good…If I were to rate my first experience with the game, it would be a six. I will play a game that is a six, and I think it will get better in time.”

It’s certainly early days for ZZZ and HoYoverse has already outlined several upcoming events, which you can read about in our event schedule. The introduction of new banner characters could also help mix up the gameplay, so be sure to check out the current and upcoming character banners.