About half a yr in the past, I posted a evaluation of Zenless Zone Zero that was fairly constructive, whereas additionally noting about its free-to-play mannequin that “I spent my time clearing all however the absolute hardest mode within the sport (i.e. Shiyu Protection Essential Nodes) with out spending any cash, and confirming that every one of it’s doable and satisfying as a free participant.”
Within the time since posting this, Zenless Zone Zero has undergone some fairly intensive adjustments, which has given me purpose to revisit a few of these remarks and weigh in on how these adjustments have affected each my capability to do all the pieces I wish to do within the sport with out paying and the way satisfying it’s to do these issues. I’ll go into extra element under, however the brief model is: Zenless Zone Zero has made itself extra partaking, more difficult, and appears to stay simply as free-to-play pleasant because it has been since launch.
After posting my preliminary evaluation, I’ve continued taking part inZenless Zone Zero on mainly a every day foundation, finishing story content material because it comes out, performing every day and aspect actions, and spending my timed-gated stamina factors to amass varied currencies and dump them into making my forged robust. The place I’m as of this writing with that is an account that has 6 out of the 11 restricted characters which have launched to date and 13 of the 16 characters which were accessible since launch, coming in at a complete of 19 out of 27 characters. 13 of the characters in my assortment are absolutely leveled up, and I plan to construct all of them.
Each restricted character I do not personal I’ve handed over deliberately as a result of I don’t just like the character or some purpose or one other, although if I used to be merely pulling the playing lever to get as many items as potential I may very simply (learn: assure) two extra restricted characters of my selecting given my present pool of premium foreign money I’ve gathered merely from taking part in the sport. I’d warning anybody studying this to not misread this abstract and assume that Zenless Zone Zero is remarkably beneficiant. I’ve sunk a ton of time into grinding out nearly all the pieces you may get from this sport, been very decisive with my foreign money, and been fairly fortunate when pulling to wind up with an account like this. Simply as with all playing, my outcomes should not predictive of what another person’s expertise is likely to be.
On prime of merely rising and constructing my assortment of characters, Zenless Zone Zero has additionally added fairly a little bit of content material to push the issue envelope additional than the place it was at launch. Shiyu Protection Essential Nodes are nonetheless within the sport and difficult, although it took me about 60 days on my account earlier than I may full all of these levels with out actually having an excessive amount of bother. Now the toughest stuff throughout the sport are Simulated Battle Trial and Lethal Assault, the previous being a kind of survival mode and the latter being a hybrid of a dps verify and rating assault affair. With my free account, I’ve cleared each set of Shiyu Protection nodes for the reason that launch of Jane Doe and solely only in the near past earned a full 9-star excellent ranking on the newest Lethal Assault challenges. I’ve not accomplished the Simulated Battle Trial flooring, although I’ve earned Diamond badges for finishing a good portion of each the everlasting cases and time-limited one presently accessible.
I’ve performed this all with out attempting too onerous to optimize my character builds or pull for characters which were vetted by the neighborhood and regarded “the perfect.” I shouldn’t have Hoshimi Miyabi or Tsukishiro Yanagi, two characters extensively thought of to be the strongest harm sellers within the sport. I’ve been primarily taking part in with three predominant carries: Zhu Yuan, Harumasa, and Billy. Two of those three characters are given out totally free. I’ve checked out a few guides for really helpful builds and put the primary accessible disc drive units matching stats every character desires on them and have probably not regarded again. In any other case, I’ve been relying on teambuilding, ability, and a little bit of persistence to get by many of the hardest content material.
The top result’s a extremely satisfying issue curve that I do know I can flatten a bit if I actually put my nostril to the grindstone in relation to gearing and min/maxing, however I am not in a rush to get to that time in Zenless Zone Zero. I am having sufficient enjoyable having the ability to do 90% of all the pieces simply superb whereas persevering with to construct all my characters and simply having fun with the world of New Eridu. Maybe when I’ve a sturdy sufficient forged of characters that may carry me by every elemental problem (I haven’t got mainly and ice characters as a result of I do not actually like all of them proper now!!), then possibly I will really feel that drive, however for now there’s nonetheless lots to love in regards to the sport and I do not really feel like I am lacking out on a lot.
On a last be aware, when you performed earlier variations of Zenless Zone Zero and fell off of it, it is value stating that lots of the clunkier gameplay design that was current in it at launch is mainly gone. That is to say there aren’t any extra TV dungeon-crawling sections of any variety. The expertise has refocused on placing you in command of its characters, whether or not that’s in fight or in its restricted open-world exploration and adventuring. I believe there’s one thing to be stated for the lack of this friction, however in the end I believe it’s for the higher.
So, the place does that go away me? Nicely, I proceed to maintain taking part in Zenless Zone Zero, as it’s nearly as pleasant because it’s ever been to me currently–if not better–and I have never needed to spend a cent on it. In doing so, I do not really feel notably unfairly gated, and usually really feel like there’s a deep and satisfying problem in leveraging its techniques to beat robust content material. Perhaps my tune will change in one other six months. I can write extra about it then.
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