"Offering you the freedom to choose how to play" is the producer of ZZZ's goal.

Unquestionably, Hoyoverse has created some very fantastic games in the last several years. After Genshin Impact's release in 2020, it has achieved enormous success. However, in 2023, Honkai Star Rail arrived and completely exceeded our expectations. Because of this, after our little experience with the closed beta, we're naturally quite excited to explore more of New Eridu.

We therefore couldn't pass up the chance to have another exciting pre-launch Zenless Zone Zero interview with the game's lead producer, Zhenyu Li, in the run-up to the Zenless Zone Zero release date. During the interview, we talk about the game's development, features, future, and his personal inspirations.

We tried our best to accurately translate Li's comments, but please be aware that this interview was done in both Chinese and English, with two translators relaying the replies. As a result, some terminology may be slightly inaccurate. Proxy, fasten your seatbelts; it's time to explore the Hollows.

We needed to discuss influences first. I'm not sure about you, but the PT crew adores Persona 5. When we initially started playing New Eridu, we couldn't help but feel that it had a lot of similarities to the Persona game, particularly in terms of the city exploring. Zhenyu Li also told us that he plays Digimon World a lot, so we naturally wanted to know whether ZZZ gets inspiration from this game or any other.

Li reveals that the team has been receiving a lot of feedback pointing out the similarities between ZZZ and P5. However, in his opinion, "the inspiration is not really drawn from there," speculating that instead, "it's more because we happened to choose the urban genre in general, and some players might just find games in the urban genre to be similar." But if you go further into the game, there are a lot of distinctions. He also emphasizes that when it comes to ZZZ, he and the team "hope to create an art style that is unique to us."

On Digimon World, there are undoubtedly some influences, however. We make allusions to Digimon as I used to play them a lot as a kid. This is evident in Zenless Zone Zero, where "you will meet different incidents in different times," alluding to the in-game planner that restricts certain interactions, quests, and events to specific times of day. "In that game, there's this time system, whereby I actually preferred to wait."

Beyond that, Li has drawn significant influence from the Street Fighter series. One of the biggest things he learned from the Street Fighter series is the importance of "the feedback of action - how to make the combat, how to make each punch really feel like it's on flesh." It's something that the ZZZ team is trying to learn and implement into the game. He describes himself as "a loyal player and huge fan of Street Fighter 6," telling us that he's "actually spent over thousands of hours in these games."

The idea that "the feelings can be measured in a frame" is another thing Li took away from the Street Fighter series. Therefore, in order to recreate the sensation of a punch to the body, the ZZZ team made every animation, notably the ult animations, unique in every frame.

Li further says that Street Fighter helped him understand the distinction between "hardcore action games vs a action game that is designed for a newcomer." He continues, saying, "later on I found out that, for some players who aren't really familiar with action games, it's more because they need some time and a slightly longer learning curve." I took up this lesson from the Street Fighter series: it's critical to provide the appropriate instruction at the appropriate point in the game. You can thus see that we placed several lessons and activities at various spots in Zenless Zone Zero. We do not want to start out with everything for you.

Many noted the resemblances between Genshin Impact and Breath of the Wild when it was initially released in 2020, with some even going so far as to say it was a live service clone of the legendary Zelda game. But since Genshin has developed into what it is now, and Honkai Star Rail to follow in 2023, things have really changed around. With a ton of games like Genshin Impact and HSR appearing over the last several years, Hoyoverse is now regarded as a trendsetter. Therefore, we wanted to know whether Li had a favorite feature in Zenless Zone Zero. We also wanted to know if he had thought about the prospect that ZZZ may become popular on its own after release and how he would react to it.

Regarding the feature that sets ZZZ apart, he emphasizes the multi-character system and the way characters stay on the field after you switch; he notes that this is something he hadn't seen much in other games. He tells us, "when I was designing this product, I wasn't hoping that it would become an inspiration to others—I was just trying my best to produce a product that has its own unique design." In Genshin, for instance, switching to a different character causes the new one to appear in the same location as the old one.

"For us, the roles work together; for instance, the next character will show up elsewhere to carry on the combat. He continues, "During the launch, I feel like this design has been seen by many, and they've actually drawn inspiration from that. For the combat system, we focused on this team collaboration." I'm glad to see that our work has established a type of standard for similar goods. He also mentions ZZZ's unique approach to UI design, saying that "it has a good effect, and hopefully it will affect subsequent product designs."

You probably know how boring grinding can be, whether you've played other live services, ARPG, or, well, pretty much any game. Maybe you've even been a longtime Hoyoverse gamer. Games with daily commission systems, such as Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, require you to check in and do certain activities in order to get prizes. Sometimes it starts to seem more like a duty than an enjoyable activity because, let's be honest, we're not doing things like hopping on mushrooms or searching through garbage cans just for enjoyment; instead, we're doing it to get that handful of gacha money.

Because of this, we were interested in learning how ZZZ handles daily commissions and grinding, and whether they have taken a different strategy. Surprisingly, it seems that they have, since they want to align the everyday chores with the genre and ambiance of ZZZ.

Unlike [Hoyoverse's previous games], we have a distinct genre, therefore the daily grinding has been specifically tailored to fit it. As you can see, the theme of our game is city life. Therefore, our game is more centered on urban life than, say, Honkai Star Rail, where players must engage in core battle. You may finish the daily grind by having a cup of coffee in the morning or engaging in other urban-related activities.

"For our style, I think we are, of course, presenting new features while also trying to provide sufficient content for the players," he continues, highlighting the genre distinction between ZZZ and Hoyo's previous games.

The Hollow Deep Dive gameplay feature, which allows you to control a bangboo and move between TV displays (which Li would later refer to as "boards"), was one aspect of the game that really divided the community during the beta testing. A DND-style mission that took place solely on the HDD boards was my favorite portion of the second closed beta. While some players agree with me, many find these sequences tedious and uninteresting and prefer the combat action. Personally, I love this aspect of the game. We so inquired as to Li's thoughts and those of the team on the input received, as well as if any modifications had been made to the system.

Li said, "We discovered during the beta testing that there is a portion of the player base that prefers battle over the boards. Some users, on the other hand, find the boards to be a lot of fun. The team gets into disagreement as a result, wondering, "Who do we satisfy?because it would be unfair to lose members of the other group if we try to please both of them. But because the board is one of our selling points, we do have a problem: we want to add material to these boards in the future that will improve gaming.

Li makes it apparent that ZZZ wants to “give players the freedom to choose how they want to play,” so the team made some changes in response to input from the first two beta testing. The third closed beta version of the hollow exploration has been divided into two types of tasks. The combat missions come first, followed by the exploratory missions. In the exploration missions, it's all exploration and board-based gameplay, whereas in the combat, you may simply jump right in and start fighting.

Not only that, but the staff is always open to hearing about how you feel about the game and working to improve it for all players. As an instance, "the team realized during CBT one and CBT two that we might have some issues with the pace and flow of the general missions in the Hollows, which was another huge problem." Therefore, our goal for the third beta test was to significantly improve the overall speed and flow of the Hollow exploring experience.

Because of this, during the second closed beta, the team discovered that there were some problems with the product, "particularly in support, as well as players finding that they felt more negative towards the boards and the TV wall." For this reason, "in the third closed beta test, we didn't add any new content." I would argue that it could have been because [those pieces were] over the top, rather than because the boards weren't enjoyable.

Therefore, it was enjoyable and significant for me to play for the first or second time. However, the next time I felt exhausted, so I knew that this was not the best experience. But then I would go to sleep, wake up, and it would be enjoyable once again. Thus, I came to the realization that the team's failure to appropriately incorporate the speed was more to blame than the fact that it wasn't enjoyable. Consequently, the primary goal in the run-up to the third closed beta was to "manage the pace better."

As Li notes, "as of the final closed beta, we're actually seeing comments from the players and the community saying that the HDD board gameplay has actually changed a lot," so seems that this is working. The intriguing part is that, while we altered the general hollow board experience's tempo and speed, we didn't significantly alter its quantity. Thus, the true issue was pace and quickness, which we've now resolved and are happy to see.

The difficulty is another factor that the team has been attempting to balance. Li is working to create an action game that is more approachable for beginners while yet offering a challenge for those who want it, as he said while talking about his influences. The game offers different levels and points to "retrain" players, boost their confidence, and make it "easy to learn and gain the skills." "There are definitely challenges [in ZZZ]," he affirms, "but before this core gameplay, the players have to learn to grasp the mechanics, and for different stages we provide different difficulty levels for them to gain confidence."

Beyond well-timed tutorials and changes to the early gameplay flow, the ZZZ team has mostly executed this via difficulty choices. "There are two modes available for this version: the hard mode and the easy mode. Each level offers a unique set of problems that must be overcome. Action game veterans have a harder selection. Newcomers may choose the easy option, but they can also attempt pushing themselves in the hard level, where there are no consequences for struggling or failing.

And what happens when your self-assurance increases? What if you're an experienced player of action games and you'd want a little bit more? Li says that even while "it's easier to play at different parts," there are also chances to "unleash your own ability to chase the challenges posed by the enemy," so "you will be able to find challenges and also excitement."

However, Li reiterates that "we will not unleash very difficult challenges to the players at the start" – so you don't have to worry about getting your but handed to you before you get the chance to build a decent team. Of course, fighting the same enemies over and over again eventually loses its luster, as you get too familiar with their attack patterns. But the ZZZ team has thought about that too, as we can expect "subsequent updates to what the enemies have to offer."

Weary feeling over time is one of the main problems that many of us have with live service gacha games like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, Wuthering Waves, and the forthcoming Zenless Zone Zero. Even while there is never a shortage of content, it may sometimes seem tedious to come in every day to do commissions and daily tasks, then to grind through time-limited events and gather gacha gold before a limited banner expires.

But taking a vacation from these games can also be quite alluring, because you run the danger of losing out on stuff that you won't see again and getting behind on missions and stories that build up very rapidly. Because of this, we were asking whether Li and the other members of the squad had thought about making accommodations for players who need a vacation so they won't feel overburdened when they return. Li was surprised to hear this line of inquiry.

As a gamer, I would much rather take a little break and then return to discover that, 'oh my god! I have a ton of fresh stuff to go over!He clarifies. It's similar to becoming behind on a TV show; you take a vacation, return, and discover there are hundreds of new episodes to catch up on. I am aware, however, that this could not apply to all gamers.

Li continues, "It's something that's pretty difficult for me right now, because there's totally different types of players, right? This is another example of looking for balances." However, I'm willing to hear what players have to say about this. Now that I am aware of this, my teammates and I will do all in our power to support athletes who take a little break before returning. We could investigate methods to enable people to access the most recent material without fulfilling certain prerequisites. This would function in a manner like to what we've seen in Genshin and HSR, where players can expedite events and bypass certain bosses without hastily completing plot missions.

Furthermore, Li says, "I don't want to give players the impression that they have a final objective that they must accomplish. I believe the main strategy we're attempting to implement is how to get this player to return after an extended period of absence. Once they return, I want to make something that will help them more—that is, something that will make them feel like they are playing this game again and not just concentrating on finishing the most recent quest or reaching some kind of final objective.

Even while the cast of Zenless Zone Zero characters is already rather large, Li emphasizes that the team is creating characters with "quality not quantity" in mind. There will be plenty of new agents for you to try out in the future, as Li assures us that "we are actually working on it, and the quantity will definitely match Genshin." He claims that they have "already covered the majority of the characters, however, we're working on refining and betterment" as they work to "make the movements more delicate" and adjust the combat and animations to make it "as original as possible."

Continuing from this, we've observed one obvious omission: healers haven't been included despite the fact that the characters we've seen so far provide a wide variety of combat styles and mechanics. Given the significance of healers in other Hoyoverse games (and many other kinds of games in general), we wondered whether there was a reason ZZZ didn't get its own copy of Luocha or Kokomi from Shin Shin Impact.

Li chuckles, "It's not intentional that we steer clear of healing characters." Simply put, we're more likely to take action. Regarding healing characters, it's only that this group of artists hasn't reached that point yet, and we lack a suitable representation of their look. Therefore, for the time being, we're attempting to determine what aesthetic would mesh better with the game for a more fitting, action-focused presentation. Does this mean that the team hasn't settled on a healer's appearance for ZZZ yet? Fascinating!

Li continues, "In addition, we are adamant on having the action inside the game. Consider other games that offer amazing graphics, such as Genshin. But our group made an effort to prevent this. For instance, you can see that the character in Genshin has a distinctive effect around it. We're currently figuring out how to include this section since, given the action genre, players need to be able to observe movement and battle more clearly, which means our animations need to be clean.

Since we're taking a more understated approach, I would say that the visual effects in ZZZ will be quite different from those in previous games. Therefore, healing characters could be included in the future, but we'll need to figure out how to integrate or combine their abilities with the existing battle to provide the players a more seamless and pleasant experience.

Regarding character design, we couldn't help but question whether the team prioritizes a character's looks above their duty, given that they haven't decided on an acceptable look for a healer character. Li responds, saying that "the aesthetic does come first in the early stages." Our current working style, nevertheless, is tight collaboration with the planning staff. In every other case, we have a broad guideline for character design.

He goes on to explain that they "get together to talk about things a lot of times throughout the process." The planning team will forward their vision for the project, and the design team will take it from there. But as we go along, we make changes, and after all of this debate, we attempt to reach an agreement. We don't only concentrate on the gaming aspect; we also want to refine this system.

We're also interested in the idea of crossovers. Even though Hoyoverse's games don't often work with other games or media, there are a few "expy" characters that appear in Genshin, HI3, and HSR and have names and features in common with them, as well as a few small pop-up events and crossover items like KFC wings in Genshin. Genshin Impact’s Aloy from the previous crossover with Horizon. Therefore, we had to inquire as to whether ZZZ crossovers were planned for the future as well as what particular games or anime Li and the ZZZ crew would want to work on.

He clarifies, "I enjoy many products - I play many games and watch a lot of anime - so, personally speaking, I have so many favorites that I'd have a hard time making a choice, so it's something that we really need time for." Regretfully, he says, "we have no plans yet, but I have given it some thought during the second closed beta."

Regarding character designs, it was a pretty crazy moment when the Zenless Zone Zero's censorship controversy first erupted. I'm not sure whether you were there. Even though community members still occasionally bring it up (particularly in Twitter replies on official posts), it felt like a digital war was about to start when people first noticed the toned-down gore and the abrupt absence of the jiggle physics that once made ZZZ Nicole's chest look more like a buoyancy device.

Some fans were very upset about this censorship because it's undeniable that ZZZ targets a more mature audience than Hoyoverse's other games, with a rating set to 12+ and some mature themes and vibes throughout (though I'd argue there's some very mature themes hidden in Genshin and HSR too!).

Li is limited in what he can say on this subject, but he does clarify that because the game is played worldwide, it is necessary for it to adhere to international regulations wherever it is played. He also tells us that "we're just trying our best."

Over the course of creating the game, the ZZZ team has expanded significantly; according to Li, "at the beginning it was around 12 people, then we grew to 60, and now the development team has more than 400 members."

We love this approach, as you can really tell when the team behind a game truly loves the project they're working on, and that's certainly the case in ZZZ as far as I'm concerned. He also tells us about his unique hiring procedure, which he uses to select new team members. "When interviewing new members, I would always find out whether they really like and are pushing to do ZZZ, rather than purely looking for a job," he says.

Similarly, AI is becoming a more and more common tool in almost every sector, including videogames, for better or worse. Li tells us that although they "have tried a part of it to touch on programming," "as for the art aspect, I think that the human touch is more meaningful right now, and this is what our team is pursuing," thus it doesn't really play a role in ZZZ.

On to the subject of world and environmental design. If you've played any of the previous Hoyo games, particularly Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, you've probably noticed the cultural influences present in the various countries and locales we visit. Every new area draws parallels with a real-world location, and many elements, such as food and festivals, are drawn from actual life. We wanted to know whether ZZZ shows these kinds of influences and if it was taken into serious account while creating the game.

But it seems that Zenless Zone Zero takes a more free-form approach to the places we visit, using a variety of aspects that are drawn from both fiction and real-world cultures to create the game's metropolitan environment.

Of course, there will be more locations in the future; as a live service game, Li notes, "our goal is to continually produce interesting new content, so there will definitely be some new interactions and gameplay elements that you will see in the future." As you can see, Li says, "we have a lot of interesting locations in the game, such as the coffee shop (Coff Cafe) and the noodle shop (Waterfall Soup), which already appear in Sixth Street."

You won't have to wait long, however, since Lumina Square, a brand-new neighborhood, is one of these prospective places. There are "a lot of strange and weird shops, including some that we haven't really explored through gameplay or interactions yet" in this brand-new, busy business center. Numerous eateries, one of which is a hotpot restaurant, will also be located in this region.

For my part, I like this kind of melting pot approach to environment design, where many components from many cultures and periods combine to produce a future scene. Li states, "We want to create something that players haven't seen before, even though we're doing something that people may have already seen." Thus, it's more like a "lived-in" city than a "real" city.

While we really enjoyed the little taste of additional Eridu we were able to experience during the earlier beta testing, the globe of ZZZ is undoubtedly somewhat tiny at the present, therefore we are also happy to hear about the addition of additional locations. Being a live service game, we can naturally anticipate a ton of new material in the future—not only new places, but plenty of other original stuff as well.

"Our team plans to reveal more as the narrative and storyline progress. He also emphasizes the team's desire to "reveal something that the players haven't seen before and will be pleasantly surprised by" as they "continue to enhance the urban atmosphere." He continues to confirm "we're looking forward to producing different cultures and urban areas – but unfortunately I can't share more than that for now." So what you see right now with Sixth Street and the other areas is not enough to adequately present the ambition of the story and the world that we hope to create, so we will introduce new content as the storyline goes forward.

Regarding his own hopes for ZZZ, Li says, "I hope more people join and experience the excitement of action games." Regarding the characters, sceneries, and gameplay, our goal is to make them approachable to a wider audience. We also hope that the action genre will surpass the need for a high bar for challenging games, making it accessible to players of all skill levels. With this game, I intend to accomplish my belief that we should be able to override such designations.

Regarding the game's future, ever since Honkai Star Rail launched, Hoyoverse has been working hard to add new quality of life updates, to the point where Genshin players felt a little envious. However, Genshin has now somewhat caught up with some of the new features and elements we've all been waiting for. We were thus interested to see whether ZZZ had learned anything about these features and optimizations from the path of HSR.

Li responded by stating that "as you know, ZZZ's in-game systems are quite different, and for those systems we're trying our best to do something new. There are in some parts, but not everything." Regarding certain overlaps, like the daily quests system, as you may have seen, we have made an effort to better integrate them into our own urban environment. similar to how we previously discussed drinking coffee in the morning rather than doing other tasks. In light of this, we shall make every effort to optimize anything where we must overlap.

It's obvious that music is important in ZZZ, whether you've actually played the game or just browsed the official website. And Li's statement, "I'm very interested in music!" explains why.Even the tools, such the W-engines and disc drives, are kind of central to the music-related motif as they serve as the protagonists' "protectors" when they venture into the Hollows.

The machinery and Elfy's record shop aren't the only things in the game that have a musical theme; once you get into the action, a throbbing OST packed of EDM and dubstep hits will really get your heart rate up. Li comments, calling the "dubstep and EDM-style electronic music" that characterizes ZZZ's sound "very special"; yet, he may not be the ideal person to question about this.

The person you should speak with regarding this is really Mr. Yang, our music director, not myself. Since we were little, he has really been one of my closest friends, and we often attend these EDM events together. He is the sort of guy that concentrates on the music, while I am more focused on the pictures. I encouraged him to work on the music with ZZZ because I felt like we had been working together for a long time and his style of music simply blended in so well with ZZZ. Now, I really depend on him to provide music that works better with ZZZ."

It's a very lucky thing that we have this music as a unique part of the game, Li continues, adding, "another thing I'm very happy to find out is that our music is actually very unique and independent, setting it apart from other games in this market." And to be honest, I agree—I feel extremely fortunate to have this amazing music on my work playlist!

We still had one crucial question to ask as the interview was coming to an end. We actually don't have too long to wait, since Zenless Zone Zero is scheduled to release on July 4, 2024, for PC, PlayStation 5, Android, and iOS. We did see, however, that Hoyoverse has created some merchandise relating to the Switch, including a cartridge container that looks like a cassette. Naturally, we had to find out whether ZZZ will ever be available on Switch or any other platform.

Li said, "Obviously, we want our game to be available on all platforms." On the other hand, we must guarantee a positive experience across every platform. In fact, that's what we're working on. And indeed, it does include the Xbox and Nintendo Switch. Sadly, we don't currently have any confirmation about a release date or anything, but we can only hope that a Zenless Zone Zero Switch port will happen in the near future.

And that was all we could cover in our most recent ZZZ interview. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Zhenyu Li, the translators, the ZZZ crew, and Hoyoverse for their time; it's always a pleasure to glean some insight from them.

We highly recommend listening to our prior Zenless Zone Zero interview with Zhenyu Li if you'd want to learn more. In addition, we have guides to all the forthcoming Zenless Zone Zero events, a helpful Zenless Zone Zero tier list, and a Zenless Zone Zero preview that details our experience with the second closed beta.