Zenless Zone Zero is HoYoverse’s newest darling, expected to premiere in mid-2024. After playing the beta, here are all the similarities and differences I found between ZZZ, Genshin Impact, and Honkai: Star Rail.
How Zenless Zone Zero is different from Genshin Impact & Honkai Star Rail
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Of the three games, Zenless Zone Zero has the most limited exploration features, with little focus on otherworldly encounters. There are NPC interactions and activities you can do in the overworld (like playing in the arcade), but unlocking areas is story dependent and the explorable world is extremely small.
All enemy encounters take place within Hollows, which are digital dungeons where you can find Observation Data, Supply Boxes (the equivalent of Treasure Chests), and solve puzzles with the help of props (like special drills to switch between “floors”). Even so, unlike HSR where you can greet enemies at any time, you can only do so in ZZZ while doing Commissions or re-entering existing dungeons. The exploration system feels closer to a combination of Arknights and Honkai Impact 3rd, plus a port of HSR’s Simulation Universe in the form of Hollow Zero.
Battle
ZZZ’s combat system takes a bit of everything from previous HoYoverse games while introducing more combat-focused mechanics. All combat takes place within Hollows with no overworld enemy encounters – a mechanic reminiscent of Honkai Impact 3. You can switch controls between Agents supported by up to three Bangboos, depending on the game mode. Unlike HSR, Zenless Zone Zero does not have any automatic combat features.
The combat system draws inspiration from traditional fighting games, with Perfect Dodge, Perfect Assist, Dodge Counters, Chain Attacks, Decibels (combo), Parrying techniques and other mechanics that will feel familiar if you’ve explored the combat realm before. It’s a fast-paced and action-packed experience completely different from Genshin Impact’s focus on Elemental Reactions and the turn-based mechanics of Honkai: Star Rail.
Graphics
Zenless Zone Zero’s graphics are top-notch, as expected from a major HoYoverse title. The in-game models have a softer shaded look, having a less distinct stroke and a more painted style. ZZZ’s characters come in all shapes and sizes and are not limited to specific models like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. This allowed the developer more freedom with character design. If Ben (the bear on the left of the picture above) appeared in Genshin Impact, he would probably be just as disappointing as Arataki Itto’s muscle-less form.
Despite the lack of overworld exploration and inability to enter shops, Sixth Street is well designed with a variety of ordinary looking NPCs and interesting shopkeepers. I find the environment inside the Hollow Deep Dive to be much less palatable—I quickly got sick of the sights of ruined cities and wrecked trains and hope that new area expansions will solve the visual boredom.
Character Design
Genshin Impact and Honkai: the character designs of Star Rail are mainly informed by the geography of the characters, such that characters of Inazuma will have a clear look and feel, different from those in Fontaine. Zenless Zone Zero does not have a large world, so the developers used factions to group characters with similar designs.
The image above illustrates Victoria Housekeeping Co., a human resources dispatch agency that thematically dresses in maid and butler-inspired outfits. Even their Bangboo is dressed according to the agents.
A story
Zenless Zone Zero is not a story-focused game, as evidenced by the existence of the jump button. The story itself is not difficult to understand, and there are no major knowledge drops outside of the daily newsstand and Inter-Knot message board. Unlike Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, both of which contain a massive archive of collectible reads for folk lovers, ZZZ has little to dissect.
However, the game makes up for the lack of an interesting story with engaging storytelling methods. It uses a combination of manga panels, dialogue and highly expressive scenes to deliver a fun, quirky and characterful story that focuses on exploring each faction and how they tie into the larger plot.
That being said, ZZZ’s story is so easy to understand. While Genshin can put you in a confusing samsara trying to figure out what exactly happened in Remuria, and Honkai: Star Rail might ask about Dan Heng’s past despite playing the story twice, you’ll have no trouble understanding ZZZ’s simple story.
Gacha System
HoYoverse’s gacha system is copy-paste throughout most of their games, and ZZZ is no different. It offers a standard banner (Stable Channel) and limited character and weapon banners that rotate regularly. The Stable Channel offers a free five-star selector after reaching 300 pulls, just like Honkai: Star Rail. Meanwhile, the limited banner offers a 50-50 system that guarantees you’ll get the Agent or weapon at speed every second damage.
What is different is the existence of a Bangboo channel, which is completely free-to-play (like the beta), because currency can only be obtained by playing the game. Bangboo are battle assistants that can be deployed to help the team eliminate Ethereals and other enemies in the Hollows.
Cooperative Mode
Genshin Impact allows players to enter each other’s worlds, play mini-games together, and often unleash engaging co-op events, such as the annual Windtrace. Meanwhile, Honkai: Star Rail doesn’t offer any semblance of co-op play other than being able to offer and use friendly supports.
Zenless Zone Zero has happily implemented the early stages of co-op play in the latest beta, which allows up to three players to team up to defeat bosses in limited game modes. Some key combat gameplay, such as Combos and Perfect Assists, rely on character switching, so the inability to do this opened doors for a different set of multiplayer combat mechanics.
Farming
Of the three HoYoverse games, Genshin Impact has the least favorable farming system, requiring you to repeat hand-to-hand combat within Domains too many times. Honkai: Star Rail’s auto-battle system is the loosest, as it allows the game to run in the background with little administration required.
ZZZ falls between the two. You have to manually defeat bosses to farm for resources, but battles are fully customizable. You can edit the farming lineup to include multiple waves of enemies that drop different items under the same material category. Additionally, Disk Drive (Artifact) farming is RNG dependent in ZZZ, as you only farm for generic currency and have to “Set” to draw for Disk Drive randomly.
For more on ZZZ, check out our guide on How to get Polychromes in Zenless Zone Zero here on Pro Game Guides.
