Zenless Zone Zero CBT 3 early impressions: Great gameplay, greater animations, and a lot to unpack

Zenless Zone Zero CBT 3 is active for selected players, as HoYoverse has granted access to an updated version of its new action RPG title. With the potential release date being late 2024, everyone is excited to dive into a new title to see what the company has been cooking.

Being a gacha/character-building game, it should be noted that HoYoverse usually applies a similar kind of formula in most of its games, and Zenless Zone Zero is no different.

This article showcases our first impression of the game, including the animations, gacha, combat mechanics, satisfaction across all aspects, and other miscellaneous features.

An early impression of Zenless Zone Zero CBT 3

1) Gacha

Since gacha is the cornerstone of any HoYoverse game, we feel it is important to talk about how it works in Zenless Zone Zero. If you are familiar with the gacha system of Genshin Impact or Honkai Star Rail, then you're in luck. Zenless Zone Zero doesn't do anything different in terms of Pity count.

Additionally, fans of Honkai Star Rail will find a familiar feature, where a Standard banner character can be picked up after 300 pulls.

Beginner/standard banner (Image via HoYoverse)

For those unfamiliar, the following list should summarize all banners in the game, and their Pity count:

Limited banner: Guaranteed S-rank character at 90 pulls. Guaranteed A-rank with every 10 pulls.
Standard banner: Guaranteed S-rank character or W-Engine at 90 pulls. Guaranteed A-rank with every 10 pulls.
W-Engine banner: Guaranteed S-rank at 80 pulls. Guaranteed A-rank with every 10 pulls.
Bangboo banner: Guaranteed S-rank at 80 pulls. Guaranteed A-rank with every 10 pulls.

Gacha currencies work similarly to other HoYoverse games, so it won't take long for veterans of the developer's titles to understand everything. W-Engine and limited banners share the currency, the Encrypted Master Tape. Standard banner/beginner banner require standard Master Tape, and the Bangboo banner requires Coup-En.

Bangboo fills quite an important role in the combat side of Zenless Zone Zero, so putting a powerful one behind gacha makes a lot of sense.

Overall, there's not much to say about the game's gacha, as players have been accustomed to the same rates and Pity count for over three years. If anything, the community will be somewhat disappointed seeing the 50-50 system here.

2) Combat and character animations

Zenless Zone Zero is easily HoYoverse's most unique take on character animations. While most people will look at Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail and easily tell they're from the same company, Zenless Zone Zero is a cut above everything else. It plays differently, both in terms of storytelling and combat, where the former has comic-panel transitions, while the latter relies heavily on team QTEs (quick time events).

There will be instances where you will be forced to use one character in a party, so practicing perfect dodge is recommended.

Each character has the standard basic attack, skills, dodge, switch, and ultimate in their arsenal. However, fans of fast-paced combat will be pleased to hear that Zenless Zone Zero also provides a scope for perfect parry. You can look for prompts on the enemy, telling you to either parry the attack or dodge it.

Some of these features are enough to keep you engaged in endgame content for hours.

3) TVs

TVs in Zenless Zone Zero sit in a weird spot for many players. For some, it can be a boring mechanic that tends to break the flow of combat, while for others, it's a unique way of handling traversal through different domains. To give you an idea, most of your gameplay time will revolve around TVs or the Hollow Deep Dive System.

Here, the proxy, that is your main character, guides their Bangboo through the Hollow, showcased via different television screens.

Television screens (Image via HoYoverse)

While making your way through different screens, you will find rewards, prompts to heal your character, combat encounters, side objectives, puzzle prompts, and the main objective. This system can be found while running different commissions, endgame rogue-like modes, and story missions.

Hence, expect to spend most of your gameplay time guiding the Bangboo through television screens. This can sometimes be more than your time spent in actual combat.

4) Reroll potential

Email of Gacha currencies (Image via HoYoverse)

Rerolling should be easy enough in Zenless Zone Zero, as there are six different servers to create your characters in. Each server will hold a separate character, and the gacha unlocks fairly early in the game. You must complete Chapter 1 Interlude to accumulate enough currency for a guaranteed S-rank. This can be done in approximately an hour.

Therefore, if you are someone looking to reroll for a desired S-rank, Zenless Zone Zero is quite easy in that regard.

5) Story cutscenes and art styles

While we briefly touched upon the panel-structured cutscene of the main story, we think it's best to talk about that in a different section. You will see artworks of different characters involved in the story in manga-like panels, shown in different cutscenes.

Panel-like transitions in story cutscenes (Image via HoYoverse)

HoYoverse titles always followed a traditional VN-style approach, which is also present in this game. However, the panel transitions with voice acting will pull you in, even if you tend to skip story cutscenes in general.

6) Music

Music plays a vital role in the gameplay of Zenless Zone Zero. You will find core character builds based on the music-themed items, eventually giving everyone access to Disc Drives. These are equivalent to Artifacts from Genshin Impact, or Relics from Honkai Star Rail. Keeping music as one of the main plot points of the game, HoYoverse has done an amazing job as always.

Every location has a different soundtrack, from the safe house to the semi-open-world street, different stores, mission screens, and even vendor screens for that matter.

To summarize, Zenless Zone Zero is a treat for fans of gacha, with fast combat, difficult endgame mechanics, and character-building grind. The CBT 3 feels a lot more finished compared to the previous beta, so it is safe to assume the final release is near.