Developer miHoYo has smoothly transitioned from the fantasy worlds of Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3 to the mesmerizing dystopian city of Terminator 0, with nostalgic early 2000s visuals. In this universe, you control three street-clothed “agents” who fight in flashy real-time combat, while their guide, the “ropesmith,” solves simple puzzles between battles to help the agents navigate a maze full of battles, and you also experience a lot of social side quests.
Terminator 0 is clearly influenced by many great works, and these influences come together to create a game that is full of fashion, but occasionally a little abrupt and sometimes lacks depth. However, Terminator 0 still deeply attracted me, and its endless charm drove me to fight again and again, solve combat puzzles again and again, or enjoy bowls of delicious ramen.
The story of “Zero” is set in a world where human civilization has been destroyed by the Hollow disaster (a pocket dimension filled with monsters). Although most of humanity has perished, the cyberpunk-style fortress city “New Eridu” has established a worrying symbiotic relationship with the Hollow and the precious resources within it, thus avoiding the catastrophe.
Players will play as one of the hacker siblings “Ling” and “Zhe”, who are good at finding the right path in the dangerous Hollow. They usually accept commissions from a group of cute cave robbers and look forward to the next big business. It’s a unique and dark setting. Although it can be overly complicated at times, it has always firmly captured my attention and made me eager to complete the various challenges it brought, and constantly tested my tactical instincts in the rich and varied challenges.
Your combat mission begins in the retro-tech back room of the siblings’ video store, where you can select three agents from an impressive roster of characters to form a team and infiltrate the dangerous Hollow. Success can gain experience and reinforcement materials.
In the review version of the game provided by miHoYo, I was able to use all the agents in the current version, and I quickly became interested in a faction called “Victoria Housekeeping” because of their charming British accents and combat maid outfits. My favorite was Ellen Jo, who had a shark tail and slashed enemies with icy blades and applied attribute debuffs, and said some funny lines full of impatience along the way.
While the characters that make up your dream team ultimately depend on whether the “card god” favors you, it is convenient to experience all characters without drawing them during the story missions.
Although the combat of “Zero” looks very intense, it is actually very forgiving and easy to get started. You have a basic attack and a dodge ability to help you escape attacks with warning effects. You can also avoid damage, complete a parry, or connect with a follow-up combo by switching characters. After accumulating the enemy’s imbalance value to a certain level, you can launch a refreshing combo skill, and your teammates will rush into the battle through slow motion QTE and hit heavy attacks. Each character also has special moves and finishing moves, and like any good action game, pressing buttons at specific times can trigger new derivative moves, plus various passive effects, which provide rich variety in combat.
Challenging boss battles tested my reaction speed, but as long as I was able to implement my combat strategy and flexibly respond to the enemy’s attack patterns, I rarely felt overwhelmed. The detailed and complex build adjustment system, difficulty options, and end-game content can raise the operation ceiling for players who are eager for a challenge, but if you just want to use flashy moves to have fun, “Zero” doesn’t seem to intend to disappoint you.
Most attacks have delicate and elegant movements, such as Wolf Butler von Rekaan will gracefully lower his metal heel after a kick. Ultimately, the focus of this game is to enjoy the process of fighting with well-designed and passionately voiced characters, rather than competing with games like “Devil May Cry” to see whose combat system is more delicate – even if this means a reduction in the depth of the mechanism, I can fully accept this trade-off.
Unfortunately, the gorgeous battles are often interrupted by hacker puzzles, which are designed to show the connection between the agents and the protagonist: the agent team fights in the void, and the protagonist needs to guide them at home. In between the battles, you are taken into a maze made of CRT monitors, and you need to control a little person to move around and trigger the mechanism to reach the next checkpoint or enter the next battle.
The hazy beauty of this mode is indeed pleasing to the eye, but the maze itself is designed haphazardly, which affects the coherence of the experience. After passing through a few monitor mazes, in order to avoid being exhausted by them, I began to choose to go straight to the next hot battle, which is the real highlight of “Zero Zone”.
The gameplay loop of “accepting a commission, then entering the void to complete the commission” is attractive enough without being thin, but surprisingly, it only accounts for half of the game’s content. The other half is a life sim that has you wandering around a cozy suburb, running your video rental store, and connecting with your neighbors through dialogue-driven side stories, complete with an atmospheric day-night cycle.
While it’s not strictly an open-world game, the charming neighborhoods are filled with well-crafted environmental details that make them a pleasure to explore. From rusted rockers by the river to cluttered bedrooms and graffiti-covered backstreets, every corner is filled with details that make players more immersed in this trendy sci-fi world.
Once the excitement of exploring the void subsided, I was drawn to the various additional activities. Restocking the video store became the core of my daily activities, and every morning I would need to sort through my collection of videotapes that customers might want to watch. After that, I would go out to find better goods, and I could complete tasks for nearby residents to obtain videotapes, such as solving weird riddles or taking photos. This process of helping each other was a good distraction from various social activities, and the income from the video store also helped to complete the story missions.
The social aspect of ZetaZero is clearly inspired by the Persona series, but while it’s not as fast-paced as the latter and can sometimes feel boring, it still offers players a lot of interesting daily activities. All of these activities are linked together by a submenu called Rope Net, a handy menu and in-game program that allows me to quickly find what I need among the numerous options. This universal app quickly became my best friend, serving as a job search platform, social media platform, and most importantly, a scheduling tool to ensure that I don’t get stuck in the dilemma of not knowing what to do.
I also enjoyed temporarily escaping from urgent responsibilities and running to the Goldfinger Arcade to refresh my high score, where I spent a lot of time in the Snake and Dig Block mini-games. But it was the funny and sometimes profound side stories that made me feel the brilliance of humanity and human fragility in this world that left the deepest impression on me.
One side story involves a homeless robot whose ghostly presence scares a nearby resident, leading to a surprisingly touching misunderstanding. Despite its many lovable shopkeepers and dazzling in-game currency, Zone Zero never forgets the fragility of this post-apocalyptic world. Displacement and erosion are themes that run throughout, reflected in the trailer and the design of each district, whether it is a derelict or affluent area.
Due to the unusually generous review version provided by miHoYo, it is difficult to clearly judge the long-term experience of Zone Zero’s growth system, but from what I have seen so far, it should be similar to miHoYo’s other card-pulling games. However, I will open a new account after the game is officially launched to experience the actual experience of this service game (if I find anything unusual, we will also update this review).
But no matter the result, the main story, which can easily consume dozens of hours, has made me feel strongly attached to this colorful world and those easy-to-cosplay characters, and convinced me that this ambitious transformation has indeed reached the high standards established by Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd.
Conclusion
By blending early 2000s nostalgia with a stylish future, Zone Zero creates a unique world that’s easy to immerse in. Exploring New Eridu and getting to know the charming cast of characters both in and out of combat is an exciting journey that kept me playing for hours. While the gameplay isn’t as deep as the games that inspired it, and the hacking puzzles slightly disrupt the experience, I was always able to quickly switch my mood and get drawn back into Zone Zero’s charming cultural atmosphere thanks to the refreshing, accessible combat and a large number of fun daily activities.
Pros
Distinctive retro-chic art style
Fast-paced combat system
Unforgettable and excellent character design
Cons
Lack of deep gameplay
Some content is obviously borrowed
Reviews
By blending early 2000s nostalgia with a stylish future, Zone Zero creates a unique world that’s easy to immerse in. Exploring New Eridu and getting to know the charming cast of characters both in and out of combat is an exciting journey that kept me playing for hours. Although the gameplay is not as deep as those games that inspired it, and the hacking puzzle part slightly affects the coherence of the experience, but with the refreshing and easy-to-use combat, as well as a large number of interesting daily activities, I can always quickly change my mood and be attracted by the charming cultural atmosphere of “Zero” again.