In the vast Wuthering Waves-shaped shadow that has descended across gaming comes an announcement from HoYoverse, publishers of quite large gacha gubbins ’em up, Genshin Impact. The studio’s follow-up Zenless Zone Zero is now set to release on July 4th. For anyone who hasn’t yet heard of the bright cyberpunk character action game, I guess now’s your chance to look at the slick anime visuals in the new trailer below and go “hmmm”, with either a songful note of eye-widening interest or the suspicious rumble of a free-to-play skeptic. Your choice.
That housekeeping wolf has got legs. Zenless Zone Zero is set in the futuristic city of New Eridu, an urban cybertopia under threat from the interdimensional beasts that erupt from invasive gateways called Hollows. As the hero conscripted in the city’s hour of need, you have to navigate the Hollows and wreck the baddies. What this looks like from trailers, betas and marketing material is a sorta-roguelike jaunt through a grid of CRT television screens, with a lot of flashy combat and big boss battles along the way. Jeremy has a more thorough summary of what you do in Zenless Zone Zero, for anyone interested.
The release date announcement comes quite soon after the release of Wuthering Waves, a Genshin-esque adventure about (as far as I can tell) a gaggle of anime stereotypes all tattooed with their favourite .wav file. Considering how widely played Genshin Impact appears to have been, the release of similar games chasing its sparkly coattails feels inevitable. Whether these new contenders appeal with the same forcefulness remains to be seen. I’ve been playing Wuthering Waves a bit and it’s not capturing me a whole lot. Zenless Zone Zero looks more my style of hack-the-planet nonsense but we’ll have to wait until July to see if its jet-legged lycanthropes are enough to keep things lively. Meanwhile, total keeners can pre-register with HoYoverse, we’re told.