Zenless Zone Zero Players Think The Early-Game Is Too Forgiving

Summary

In case you missed it,Zenless Zone Zero,HoYoverse’slatest offering, is out now. It’s available on PlayStation 5, iOS, Android and PC,and has already crossed over 50 million downloads globally, which is no small feat. With tens of millions of players jumping in, there’s a lot to learn and go over with in this gacha title.

That said, for as well received as Zenless Zone Zero has initially been, some fans have taken issue with a “flaw” in the early game. As an action role-playing-game, Zenless Zone Zero makes great use of its quasi-hack-and-slash gameplay. However, fans of the game have taken issue with how “easy” things are at the onset, and believe that the game doesn’t explain when a player isn’t doing things correctly.

In other words, they’re hoping to be told to “Git Gud” in the same way that other games, largely FromSoftware titles, often do.

Zenless Zone Zero Fans Hope The Game Can Help Players Learn Early

Taking to ZZZ’s subreddit, a user opined about how the game doesn’t do a good job “telling you that you suck.” They noted how they sped through much of the early game by button-mashing, though that strategy becomes less and less viable as time goes on. Eventually, enemies become damage sponges and those strategies won’t work as well as they previously did. As a result, they wished the game would tell players they’re playing it “wrong.”

ZZZ players were split on that opinion.On the one hand, they noted how the developers wanted to slowly ease players in rather than make things punishing from the start. That’s a fair assessment and has no doubt helped the game experience success early. Eventually, players will come to figure out what needs to be done, but they won’t be routed out early because of difficulty.

On the other end, there are some who argue that even as a causal title, the game should be more particular with what it wants the player to know. That way, there’s less frustration down the line. “It doesn’t have to be extreme to risk deterring players, but maybe reinforcing the intended gameplay sooner would be more beneficial in the long run,“one user wrote in response. Anotheruser chimed in, adding, “There’s really no incentive for players to learn how to get better at the game when the first 15+ hours of the game do very little to push the players to get better.”

Then, there’s a group of players who recognize the game for what it is – a casual game. And so, expecting “Git Gud” level barriers at the beginning simply won’t work in a casual setting. It also largely goes against the type of offerings that exist in the HoyoVerse. That accessibility and casualness is what’s made these games such a great success in the first place.

Either way, it’ll be interesting to see how the game evolves. Perhaps some changes will be made to help onboard players more efficiently. And perhaps those changes won’t come. But discussion in all its facets is particularly interesting.