Zenless Zone Zero

Zenless Zone Zero is a free-to-play action role-playing game developed by HoYoverse and released on July 4, 2024, for PlayStation 5, Windows, iOS, and Android. Its setting is New Eridu, a city surviving a catastrophe involving Hollows: expanding spatial anomalies filled with dangerous creatures called Ethereals. Entering a Hollow is risky because its environment can corrupt people and equipment. The city nevertheless depends on resources recovered from these zones. This tension between survival and exploitation shapes both the main story and the smaller stories told through its neighborhoods.

Players choose between siblings Belle and Wise, who run the Random Play video store on Sixth Street. Behind that storefront, they work together as the Proxy known as Phaethon. Proxies guide other people through Hollows remotely, using navigation rather than simply fighting on the front line. Their work involves the Hollow Deep Dive system and a small robotic Bangboo named Eous. The siblings meet agents from groups with sharply different jobs, including Nicole Demara's Cunning Hares, Koleda Belobog's construction company, and Victoria Housekeeping. Sixth Street also houses familiar locations such as the noodle shop and the arcade God Finger.

Combat takes place in real time with teams of three agents. Players switch characters during fights, dodge attacks, trigger assists, and build an enemy's Daze gauge until it becomes stunned. Stunning an opponent opens the way for Chain Attacks. Each agent has an attribute, such as Physical, Fire, Ice, Electric, or Ether, and a combat specialty such as Attack, Stun, Support, Defense, or Anomaly. W-Engines and Drive Discs provide additional character customization. Bangboo can accompany teams in battle, contributing their own attacks or utility. These systems make timing and team composition important even when tackling ordinary encounters in Hollows.

The game's chapters connect local disputes with a larger mystery surrounding the Hollows and New Eridu's past. Early missions bring Phaethon into contact with the Cunning Hares and Belobog Heavy Industries; later stories feature the New Eridu Public Security force and the Sons of Calydon, a biker faction active beyond the city. Rather than using only combat stages, the game lets players explore urban hubs, take commissions, and spend time with agents. Its presentation draws on video rental culture, comic-style cutscenes, and electronic music. The title is also a live service game: HoYoverse has expanded its playable roster and story through version updates, while its original launch established the central pairing of Belle and Wise.