Are Free Games Worth Playing Anymore? | Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) Review
You’re Better Off Purchasing a Completed Character Action Game.
You’re Better Off Purchasing a Completed Character Action Game.
While a great game that I have enjoyed, I’m finding it difficult to recommend when its monetization as a ‘free-to-play’ is more egregious than just purchasing another game outright. YMMV. Off-Brand.
Zenless Zone Zero, or ZZZ, is a character action game, developed by MiHoYo, the studio known for Genshin Impact. ZZZ is an excellent game, with one critical flaw — it’s a gacha game. This isn’t just a surface level complaint about how ZZZ is monetized, but rather my declaration that ZZZ’s gameplay systems are fundamentally flawed because of this monetization choice. I believe all who play ZZZ will eventually reach a point where, unless you pay hundreds of dollars, you will hardly progress, and because of this, I cannot in good faith completely recommend this game. As harsh as that sounds, the fact is inescapable that there are other COMPLETE games in this genre waiting for you in the second-hand or on-sale markets, on every platform. These games cost you a fraction of what ZZZ will eventually require, and are dense, well-crafted experiences that will ultimately be far more worth your time.
For a game I have enjoyed playing, that’s quite the negative sentiment to start with. But I feel it’s critical to understand that the experience ZZZ offers, is a watered down version of any other character action game you could pick up today and play. In the event that you reach the end game of ZZZ, you’ll find that it will demand more of your time and your money, and because of that, I absolutely believe interested players are better off picking up a game that has a definitive price, and an eventual end. That is, if your goal is to play a character action game.
As odd as it may sound, I wish this was not the case! I’m not being negative just for negatives sakes. I love ZZZ’s fast and frenetic gameplay, and it’s little quests and the cutesy world. Likewise, I also love the small mini-games littered about the world and its succinct quest lines. The style that oozes from character design and their animations, combined with the fluidity of the combat mixed with a perfectly rhythmic electronic game score, makes for a flashy spectacle that feels SO good to play. If you’ve played other character action games, you know at a certain point you reach this feeling of “ZEN”, we’ll call it (no pun intended), that comes when you’re totally focused on the combat, your move set, and telegraphed enemy attacks… and you can get that here. ZZZ does so many things right, it’s no wonder that I was able to log upwards of 30 hours — I enjoy it.
But I came to a point of realization, several times over, about the one thing this game is built off of. Random chance. Would you believe that a portion of your power in this game is dependent on random chance? The luck of the draw. Of course, you can earn materials and power up your character to a point without spending a dime or opening a loot box. But if you want your character to reach their full potential power? You need to beat the odds of, we’ll say a generous 5% or less, and you must do this, many multiple times. Per character. Then you must do the same for the equipment you have on these characters. That is on top of the existing tedious grind for the materials to be able to even attempt a draw at any of it.
There is no escaping it, you must do this to power up existing characters a meaningful degree. Now, imagine wanting a specific character. Event characters are in the game’s shop for a limited time, and have increased chances of you obtaining them. But how good are those chances really? For a solid few weeks I worked hard to grind for the resources to pull as many times as I could, and I went through about 30 pulls… and did not get the event character. The event ended, and with it, the increased odds. Even if I did get the character, to fully unlock their move set and abilities, I would have to get that character AGAIN at least 6 more times. I struggle to think if it’s even possible for someone with as shallow a wallet as me.
The frustrating conclusion to my desire for a character is that I considered everything I enjoyed about the game, all the time I played grinding for resources to get the event character and had a moment where I crossed my mental blockade and decided “fine, you broke me MiHoYo! It’s a fun game anyway, so I’ll just draw another set of 10 pulls for a couple bucks of real money, hope I get who I want, and then be on my merry way.” But it’s not as cheap as you’d think! You’re looking at spending three to five bucks, for ONE CHANCE. Let alone an estimated $30-$50 bucks for the “10 pulls” that they make so standard. I could not believe my eyes. This soured it for me. I was ready to spend money, but not THAT much.
Revisiting a previous thought: You can power up existing characters with materials found in game, and they grow relatively strong that way, true. But I wonder, what happens when I reach the eventual wall of the end-game? Where the character power required needs me to have many multiples of the same characters, for each of the 3 characters on my team? What if, hypothetically to meet that challenge, I have pulled characters many times, and I do have many duplicates of characters. But due to random chance, the powerful characters I own are not even characters I like, but am forced to use, because those with duplicates are the most powerful. This scenario because of random chance is not only feasible, but even at my measly 30-hour mark could see this already happening to me, with several characters I did not play, whom I kept getting duplicates for. It is a huge let-down.
I’ve enjoyed myself and had fun in ZZZ, but I’ve slowly started playing more of other games. It’s too big to ignore that I can purchase, for less than the price of a few pulls in ZZZ, the ENTIRETY of Devil May Cry 5 on Steam, which is 50+ hours, and an exceptionally enjoyable character action game. On Switch, you can similarly purchase secondhand copies of Bayonetta 1–3 on the cheap. I know Platinum Games has some stuff on Xbox and PlayStation, and for PlayStation specifically there’s Stellar Blade, that recently released. The only thing you’re getting in ZZZ is an anime character action game on mobile devices, that never ends. It’s a good game and at times I’d even call it a great game… but I can’t stress enough that it is a poor substitute it is to the “real” games found in the character action genre.
I’d wager that many plays of Zenless Zone Zero will find something about it to enjoy, and maybe even love, be it the music, the characters, or the frenetic combat. But overall, I can’t completely recommend it on the principle that its foundation is flawed by the egregious and expensive monetization, which creates a hollow experience. After my experiences, I say you’re better off buying a complete game, even on sale or second-hand that will respect your time and your money, where this “free” one won’t. Be wary of this fact if you decide to play and dedicate some time to it.
Originally published at https://backloggd.com on 17 Sept 2024.