Video Games

Zenless Zone Zero reveals Astra Yao in teaser for next story arc

An opera singer and a shady lady

Marco Wutz

HoYoverse

HoYoverse kept its appearance at The Game Awards 2024 on the lower end, but it presented a new trailer each for Zenless Zone Zero and Honkai: Star Rail. ZZZ’s footage contained moments from the upcoming ZZZ update 1.4, which is due to be released next week with Hoshimi Miyabi and Asaba Harumasa being featured on the banners – and Harumasa being given out for free.

However, the TGA trailer looked a bit further into the future than that – it teased some characters that will be involved in the next major story arc of the game, which we’ll play out in 2025. 

A woman named Astra Yao was under the figurative and literal spotlight: She appears to be an opera singer and one of New Eridu’s greatest stars. We see her reminiscing about the past as she walks the path down Sixth Street to a previously unknown location, Peacock Theater, where she took to the stage with a heartfelt performance. While she’s singing, a mysterious woman is observing her from an isolated balcony in the opera house, taking a melancholy glance at a photo of another musician.

Zenless Zone Zero Astra Yao.
Zenless Zone Zero's Astra Yao. / HoYoverse

On her way, Astra Yao seems to have been shadowed by an unnamed blonde woman, who looks like the character seen in a short combat scene included in the sequence. We’re certainly getting a feeling that both of them will be playable Agents in ZZZ down the line.

Zenless Zone Zero trailer screenshot showing a woman shadow Astra Yao.
Astra Yao seems to have gotten someone's attention. / HoYoverse

Find all The Game Awards 2024 announcements to get a full overview of the event.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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