Zenless Zone Zero teased for 2024 release at The Game Awards 2023

HoYoverse’s urban fantasy RPG arrives in 2024

HoYoverse announced that Zenless Zone Zero will be released "soon" in 2024, during its appearance at The Game Awards 2023. That would appear to confirm our estimations from a few days ago.

Currently undergoing closed beta testing, the urban fantasy RPG will be available on PC, iOS, Android, and consoles. Taking elements from Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Honkai Impact: 3rd, Zenless Zone Zero combines some immersive slice of life elements, exploration, and puzzles with spectacular and very mechanical real-time combat – some of those combos rival the movesets of fighting games. It’s got some pretty banging music tracks as well.

Zenless Zone Zero has some pretty out-there characters. Human-Shark-hybrid, anyone? / HoYoverse

Aside from an engaging story and lots of side missions, Zenless Zone Zero features a roguelike game mode called Hollow Zero, which provides plenty of endgame content, as well as an arcade filled with mini-games to compete in.

As is typical for any HoYoverse game, the character designs are absolutely brilliant. The writers definitely had fun on the job as well, as the dialog and story are absolutely unhinged at points – in the best of ways.

In the world of Zenless Zone Zero, humanity has survived a catastrophic event that created Hollows, essentially pocket dimensions of various sizes, all over the world. A substance called Ether, which is dangerous to humans, corrupts everything inside and turns living beings into monsters. However, people with high Ether tolerance called Agents can withstand the effects for a while and enter the Hollows to fight monsters and accomplish other tasks. Navigation is still a problem, though, as the dimensions shift around all the time, making so-called Proxies – navigators remote-controlling adorable bunny-robots called Bangboos that can scout out stable paths – a hot commodity.

Players take on the role of Wise or Belle, the two sibling protagonists of the title. They manage their own video store in a friendly neighborhood of New Eridu, but lead a double life: Together, the duo is known as the best Proxy in the business – and since entering the Hollows without proper authorization is highly illegal, their second identity is somewhat at odds with the law.

Both Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail have been nominated for awards at this year’s The Game Awards. HoYoverse brought a Honkai: Star Rail trailer to the show as well to celebrate the game’s fantastic launch year. With Zenless Zone Zero following early next year, the studio based in Shanghai looks set to dominate the gacha game market worldwide even harder than it already is.

Zenless Zone Zero Hollow Exploration: core gameplay concept explained