Zenless Zone Zero is on track to be the game that finally pulls me into the Hoyoverse

polygon.com:

With its gacha behemoths ticking away in the background, Hoyoverse is throwing focus on a bold new experiment. Zenless Zone Zero is an action-RPG with life simulator elements and an urban fantasy setting. Instead of gliding through lush biomes or riding intergalactic space trains, its characters eat konbini food in front of billboards and pose on top of street racing cars.

Set in a post-apocalyptic metropolis drenched in concrete and graffiti, genres collide in a similar manner to the Persona series. You play as a video store proprietor who lives in a city surrounded by randomly occurring disasters called Hollows, which generate pocket dimensions full of mutant creatures called Ethereals. Through a terminal in the video store (which looks like an anime Blockbuster), you act as a proxy for teams of character-action heroes that embark on graded roguelike combat challenges, called “commissions,” inside the aforementioned Hollows.

During commissions, Zenless Zone Zero is a snappy spectacle fighter with slo-mo dodges and stagger mechanics. The combat is not nearly as deep as something like Devil May Cry 5, but it felt super satisfying when I eventually got into a rhythm. Flipping between the basic attack and a generous dodge, I danced with enemies, accumulating decibels toward a noise meter that allowed me to unleash more powerful maneuvers. The most compelling part of this combat system is ZZZ’s Switch Attack: Upon staggering an enemy, you’re prompted to tag in another fighter from your team to extend the combo, refreshing the animations and available abilities in the process. The handover is unintrusive, and pulling it off consistently made me feel like a badass.

The battle environments are colorful and detailed, too. The