Using truths whispered by the dead to expose the lies of the living: that is the standard by which I enact judgement. But this time… I want to use the words of the dead to gift a truth to the living.
I love Zenless Zone Zero more than life itself. The 2.4 story was a bit of a hot mess, but I loved every second of it. The devs are charging up for 2.5!
I was terrible at playing Banyue all the way up until the final boss, where I accidentally learned how to do the combo that the game’s tool tips kept yelling at me to do for the entire zone. Yay! Unfortunately, I probably won’t pull him, since I got Lucia at the last possible second and want to save for Ye Shuanguang, who’s banner is right after his. Maybe next time!
Strong character introductions
You know what Zenless Zone Zero really excels at? Making you, the player, fall in love with a new character when they first appear on screen. There have been many patches where I wasn’t particularly interested in the character designs, but five minutes into the story, and I won’t stop talking about them to everyone I know.
Dialyn is great. She’s silly and very relatable, as someone who has experienced quite a bit of corporate bureaucratic nonsense in my lifetime. Also, her weapon being a portal that she can punch and kick into to strike enemies from afar is such a cool idea.
Her hair is also awesome; I’m a huge fan of black and white.
The Murderbot
Not me learning that Banyue’s name is spelled with 岳 and not 月 when Wise’s English fantastic voice actor pronounced it properly!
I liked Banyue’s story. He reminded me of Seed and SEED Sr, and I am very interested in learning more robot lore from this universe. Seeing the contrast of how SEED Sr was treated by his friends in comparison to Banyue is so heartbreaking.
Dialyn and Zhao were ruthless towards him. This conflict might be the most interesting part of the entire patch for me. Dialyn judging him fairly in the end could have been written better, I think. I’m not sure if I buy that much of a change of heart from her in the little time she spent with Banyue. Things would have been more interesting if Dialyn she remained hostile towards him for one more patch, I think.
Very fun parallel that I noticed: Banyue and Dialyn are both referred to as “shells”. Dialyn by the humans who drew lots and pushed her into the Hollow, and Banyue to his guilt-ridden self.
Uh oh! Something bad happened, here…
As a reclusive critter who rarely ventures onto big social media platforms, I’m genuinely curious if something went horribly wrong in the production pipeline, and if so, if the devs are going to say anything publicly about it.
This patch felt super rushed and very sloppy, mostly due to the random spans of no English voice acting. Zenless Zone Zero has a phenomenal English voice cast, so it was very disappointing. And quite jarring! Hopefully, the unvoiced lines will be voiced in the future.
I wonder if major parts of the story were added or re-written very close to the release deadline? It certainly felt like it!
Back to the topic of ZZZ’s character introductions, Ye Shuanguang’s introductory parts were… not great. They were very negatively impacted by the lack of voice acting, I think. I really love her design and am the world’s number one fox fan, so I was disappointed that her character introduction didn’t really hit in the way I had hoped, mostly due to the lack of voice acting.
A strong ending?
I actually liked the ending of this patch a lot more than the beginning. It felt rushed and plot hole-y, for sure, but I had a great time. The lore was cool. Ye Shuanguang grew on me, and I think she has the potential to be a really interesting character.
The reveal at the end that the cursed sword is actually affecting her heavily, but she’s trying to hide it to satisfy everyone else… ain’t that relatable?
I’ve been a Ye Shiyuan truther since I first saw him in 2.0 because I can sniff out a character archetype that’s going to be right up my alley from a mile away! What a baddie. My man’s mystique and tendency to care more about others than himself… He and Ye Shuanguang really are quite alike!
Sarah Floren actually being an HSO investigator that was erased from history and peoples’ memories was a really cool plot twist.