I’ve been a fan of Mihoyo’s semi neglected action-rpg-gacha title Honkai Impact 3rd for a few years at this point. It’s been kind of frustrating watching Genshin blow up followed by that *other* Honkai game while HI3 still kind of existed off by itself. I kind of bounce off of open world games from the lack of direction and Star Rail was like 90 percent of the way to being a solid turn based RPG but the ten percent of it dedicated to daily grinding and obnoxious mob formations hit me about like a root beer float that’s ten percent sand. Knowing they have a pretty good handle on action, I had been looking forward to ZZZ since its announcement and the first character art being posted, but man, it sure felt like a long wait. (Not as long as Girls Frontline 2: Exilium, but we’ll cross that bridge when it comes out.)

Having finished the available main story and played… probably too much per day since launch, I think I can say that it’s pretty much My Shit from the bonkers animation, urban sci-fi/fantasy setting, and a combat system that’s definitely simpler than Honk3 but calls for tighter timing and seems like it has potential for interesting team building. I normally play about everything on gamepad that isn’t utterly hamstrung by needing mouse look precision, so I was put off for about 30 seconds that ZZZ defaults to mouse and keyboard, but damn, they actually have a pretty good layout. Good enough that after I configured my pad I kind of hesitated a minute then put it back to defaults. I’d compare it a bit to how Smash Bros. doesn’t really have a complicated set of controls but each character has a different enough move set that they don’t feel the same despite having the same inputs.

One of the things that makes me like it a lot though is it has such a laid back sort of vibe to it. It’s a little frustrating how slow the resource grind can be for leveling up your characters and gear, but on the other hand, doing your daily errands can be accomplished in a couple minutes if you just open the video store, get a scratch ticket, and drink some coffee. With a lot of mobile games I’ve played, I’ll hit a point where once I’ve checked off the entire laundry list, and I’m kind of just *done* for the day. Making them this breezy feels like it takes a bit of pressure off and makes logging in feel less like a chore. This is especially good for an active game that you can’t really idle or sweep your way through fights in, which is probably one of my bigger problems with The Honk. And if you have free time but don’t feel like fighting, you can just help out people around town or hang out with people (once the contact list *finally unlocks)

Combat is kind of a streamlined ‘character action’ setup with teams of three characters you can tag more or less freely between. Each has their own Energy meter for specials and the whole team shares a “Decibel” meter for setting off ultimates. Like a lot of these types of games, you can dodge an enemy’s attack with good timing to trigger a slow mo state with increased damage/daze output, but you can also tap the tag button on enemy moves that flash yellow to do a Perfect Assist that swaps characters out and usually makes a very satisfying CLANG noise from the move being parried. Enemies have a daze gauge and once that fills, they’re immobilized and take more damage for a while as well as usually triggering multiple Chain Attack prompts. For the most part you’re just going to be running from arena to arena in construction sites and ruined cityscapes, but every one in a while they mix it up with stages where you bash boxes or collect coins. The most variety comes from the ‘exploration’ sequences. You play a character called a Proxy who essential guides parties through dimensional pockets called Hollows, and the Hollow is represented as a maze of monitors you move between. When I first saw the map screen I thought it was just the way they were going to be presenting a normal branching roguelike sort of route, but it’s actually more like a tile based mini adventure mode with encounters and puzzles to solve. A couple maps have been groaners (the Pokemon-ish fighting tourney gimmick dungeon was boring as hell and the stages that play similarly to turn based space invaders somehow managed to feel tense and dull at the same time) but most of the time when a stage gimmick came up I would light up like “ohhh.” The main story missions tend to be pretty easy to navigate and complete, the format comes into its own in the Hollow Zero which is again, not so much a roguelike as a themed challenge dungeon since the layouts seem to be fixed and each zone has a ‘theme’ to its puzzles.

I know comic book panel cutscenes are usually a cost cutting thing but man, I still love them when they’re well done.

I do have a few problems with the game so far, but they’re not really deal breakers. Not yet, anyway. I’ll start with what’s most important to a new player- this game takes its sweet time opening up. Shops, resource stages, side game modes, all of them kind of trickle out as you complete the main story and level up your Inter-Knot account. There are some points where you might get a piece of equipment and not know what to do with it or how to enhance it because the corresponding shop isn’t open yet.

There’s also the matter that the grind stages feel really similar but do different things and are physically spread between two or three locations. The majority of character materials will come from the VR sims at the HIA, but some of the premium stuff comes from the Outpost, but *other* premium stuff is back at the HIA again. Naming them things like Expert Challenge, Notorious Hunt, etc doesn’t really help my brain connect the dots what place does what either. On the up side, it does seem like it’s a bit less complicated than the whole Traces thing in Star Rail.

The pull rates feel really lousy because the majority of 10 pulls I’ve done have been 9 B’s and 1 A which is guaranteed per 10 (unless there was an S,) but I say feel because other games tend to try and obscure it a little more instead of showing you a row of TVs literally just showing the grade of the thing you won. They have a neat little touch where if you get an S rank pull, it adds a little rap vocal over the music, but it also sort of lets you know to be disappointed earlier if the music starts up and you don’t hear lyrics. You might consider it a feature! That said, I actually got some pretty decent luck in the first couple weeks here and pulled enough dupes of a couple characters to fully promote them as well as the banner girl and current Internet waifu of the month Ellen Joe. I actually went in mostly just wanting to play with Billy, the Deadpool adjacent sentai fan combat android, but he turned out to be one of the characters you start with so anyone else I’ve gotten was just gravy for the first leg of the game.

As mentioned before, it can be a bit slow getting upgrade materials, and it sounds like it’s an intentional move by the game director to make a game that ‘respects your time’ by discouraging you from playing all day. Of course, when I am in the mood to play a game all day, things like stamina systems are just bullshit and I refuse to let go of the fact the game thinks I can only handle one cup of coffee a day MOTHER FUCKER, I HAVE TWO MINIMUM even though I know it’s just a dressed-up “Claim Stamina!” button served to you by a lovable coffee robot. I’m kind of hoping it doesn’t become limiting to the point other games can feel, where dupes and top tier equipment become totally essential, especially with regards to character element typing and stuff like that- already there are stages that recommend Ether damage when there is only one Ether based character and she’s a support. Star Rail pulled a bit of that at launch with the Imaginary damage type that ONLY Welt Yang could use then they started feeding more of them into the roster as the updates went on. I think it’s a pretty valid concern as an endgame Honkai player who can’t get above Agony II in the Superstring Dimension because I don’t have ideal equips or SSS on all the recommended characters and the above Star Rail shenanigans because they’re all being made by the same company and all.

That said, I like what’s there, and I hope that it stays as engaging as it currently is.

POWER RATING: 3 OUT OF 2