Zenless Zone Zero: a MASTER in Environmental Storytelling

[@FeyHunt]

Which details did you miss? Did you choose to spend time admiring these details? Or did you rush through the story? Music used in this video: - Ross Bugden - Parallel - Yasumu - Left Behind - Media Right Productions - Jazz in Paris - Kubbi - Formed by Glaciers - RAGE - Book the Rental Wit It

[@Law-of-EnTropy]

These are the type of things i love when i play games. Getting glimpses from what is shown in an environment, big or small, feels immersive. It's satisfying to be able to create images in your head based on inferences and implications alone. An aspect of this in ZZZ that i enjoy seeing is whenever we encounter the NPCs we've met missions or events in the overworld. Then hearing them talk about what they're up to and kinda like acting as an aftermath of their lives after their encounter with Phaeton. It's very human and it grounds you to the world of ZZZ

[@FeyHunt]

Oh yes! Most of the major side quests usually have this epilogue the next day you visit them. ZZZ has a way with making your small choices feel impactful!

[@maheee]

i'm glad someone pointed this out. ZZZ excels in these subtle things.

[@FeyHunt]

Yeah! That's why I'm here! There are so many good things about ZZZ, primarily in its story and writing. Some that are mindblowing!

[@DrEnzyme]

ZZZ also actively rewards you for paying attention to these sorts of details. There was a whole ending to the laptop event that wasn't signposted, didn't appear on your quest board or have a marker to inform you of its existence. But if you paid attention to the "mysterious numbers" you were shown and correctly interpreted that they were a phone number, you could call Spacebar's mother and get a resolution to the whole questline. There are also hidden quests. Have you noticed the girl holding the sign in Lumina Square? Doesn't it seem a little suspicious that she's being paid a lot of money just to shout some weird slogans? I love this sort of stuff. It feels like the devs are saying "Everyone else is going to skip by this without a second thought, but not you. You listened."

[@FeyHunt]

Yeah! And that makes this game very immersive. That ending with calling Spacebar's mother is a perfect conclusion to his story. Very wholesome. But that girl who was holding signs in front of NEPD HQ... I honestly thought it was a cruel joke from someone who wants her to promote some drugs... in front of a police station. How else did she get paid a ton from it? 😄😄 But it turned out to be a more lame gang crimes 😄😄

[@KauanEsmaniotto]

thats what i most love about the games, this care and effort that the devs put into the game, adding minimal details for the people who are really there apreciating every piece of the game

[@FeyHunt]

​@@KauanEsmaniotto Yep! Sadly, this is usually not applicable to live service games (not just gacha), since their goal has always been to make products "good enough" and move on to the next thing. Anything that doesn't directly contribute to making money is low priority to them.

[@cawashka]

ZZZ is the first gacha game where I take my time to actually inspect the map. Posters, architecture and assets tell us a lot about the world of ZZZ. Talking to the NPCs gives small glimpses into their day-to-day life in New Eridu, their ambitions and their struggles. There's a hair salon, a clothing shop, restaurants, pharmacies, a police station etc etc. With the shopkeepers actually looking their part & other people going on about their daily lives. Oh and not to forget the cats, which all have a unique name :) Great video as usual!

[@FeyHunt]

Thank you! I find the small events in ZZZ to be an absolute delight! They always manage to sneak little worldbuilding materials here and there. Like that photograph event, which give us more info on the shops in Lumina Square and the bike culture in New Eridu. It's such a delight to read through!

[@Softlol]

Game might be limited to small levels. But it feels more alive than 99% of open world games for sure.

[@FeyHunt]

@@Softlol That is unfortunately the general side effect of game production resources. Having a small open world means that you can focus all your effort on a small area. You can't do that with an open-world game. They have to pick and choose which area to give more attention to. I wouldn't be surprised if ZZZ has just about Genshin's budget.

[@Softlol]

@ Yeah, I know. And I realized I enjoy it so much more (I used to be addicted to open world games, but it can get saturated real quick). The only open world game that actually have details every single frame of the game is RDR2. I don’t understand how they manage to cram so much detail everywhere

[@FeyHunt]

@@Softlol The answer is simple: 8 years of development and 500 million dollars of budget. Genshin spent 200 million over 2 years before the 1.0 release, and half of that goes into marketing. No gacha games can ever match single player games level of detail since they can't risk 8 years of development.

[@c.c.anubis]

In Yanagi's trailer, it's shown that the team doesn't let her do all the paperwork and they do pick up the slack when needed, even showing the laziest of them all, Asaba, finishing Yanagi's paperwork as she was unavailable due to her searching for Miyabi, who in turn bought Red Bean Buns foreseeing that Yanagi won't get the chance to buy some herself (which turned out to be the reason why Yanagi didn't manage to get any herself). So my take on that part, is that Yanagi does most of the paperwork herself not because the others outright refuse to, but because she wants to make sure everything is done proper and that she herself has all the information needed just in case something happens, big reason for why I think it's like that is because during the HIA simulation "issue", her reading that whole manual was what gave them the upper hand, if she didn't have all the information, the whole team would've been dead.

[@FeyHunt]

I see! I would have to watch that myself then. I don't usually watch ZZZ promotional contents since they're rather spoiler-y. Though I would have to point out that another interpretation is that they ONLY picked up the slack when she's not available... as in this is NOT normally what they do. It's like one of those situations where the kids help do chores when one of the parents are sick.

[@c.c.anubis]

@FeyHunt that can be a solid interpretation, but based on the trailer (there's nothing spoilery in her trailer), I think it's a recently common situation, as when Yanagi searched for Miyabi, she searched in quite a lot of places, from hollows to even a box on 6th Street (meaning at point or another, she did find Miyabi hiding in a box), so if Miyabi goes running away like that often enough, someone has to get the paperwork done, and we all know it ain't Soukaku.

[@alexsanderivan6511]

Hey Fey, just wanna thank you here. I absolutely love your videos. I was ready to brush off ZZZ's story at the beggining, but your video on why the story of ZZZ is so well-written, and decided to give it another chance, and it's now my favorite gacha game by far, and overall a very good videogame in general. Also, gotta love Miyabi. The badass swordmaster archetype is always one that I enjoy, but also she hates work meetings just as much as I do 😅

[@FeyHunt]

Hi there! Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad to hear you give this game a chance and thank you for listening to my ramblings 😄😄 Oh, I also relate with Miyabi! I hate meetings and paperwork like her. I just want to code, man! Just end the Zoom call already! 😄😄

[@alexsanderivan6511]

​@@FeyHuntI act as a translator in meetings, so not only do I have to stand the yapping, I have to repeat it all in the other language lol

[@FeyHunt]

@@alexsanderivan6511 Oof... I hope they pay you well for that. That sounds very exhausting.

[@Slothz123]

Somehow even if zzz is super combat focused they are the best in creating a story, from animations to creating their environment and even their npc's you can just tell how much passion the team behind zzz has in them, even characters clothing can tell you a lot.

[@FeyHunt]

Yeah, they really do! They don't need to make Yanagi's naginata display real time clock. But they do it anyway because they can. That's the charm in this game! Though, I find the combat is a bit too much for me. I don't know why, but I get tired very easily after 30 minutes of combat in this game. I didn't have that same problem with Wuthering Waves for some reason.

[@RedHornSSS]

ZZZ probably has one of the best environmental art of all games I've played

[@FeyHunt]

In gacha games, yes definitely! We can't compare it to single player or standalone games. But boy, that's not a fair comparison!

[@Ssilhouette73]

and U know this is the beauty of NOT HAVING Open world settings. Devs can just focus with the same limited space and pour in their hearts to make it come to life. Whether it's bustling city life at noon, cozy city life in the evening, or just a peaceful, quite night sky of the outer ring it just looks packed with small intriguing details that you can't ignore. Even the NPCs and non-interactable objects, buildings, THE MOON (especially), etc. just paint another picture of ZZZ's world. You will complain that I start with an immediate comparison with its biggest competitor, but this is the reality. You don't need ethereal, magnificent world elements or spaces to be better. Making that kind of eye candy stuff only holds value for a limited time. What more assets can they put in that world without making the game size bloated to 100GB or more and the time constraints and cost of making it bring with it? Remember the release trailer for the G game 2.0, where it actually showed a dystopian, destroyed world? Well, nowhere to be found the actual game. It follows a simple strategy: have several regions with one or two remarkable landmarks, and that's it. while the rest of the world is bland or straight up boring. Sure, they might look engaging in the first impressions, but are they really detailed? For example, the premise of the game is a post-apocolyptic world, but where do we see that apart from like 1 or 2 places, and that's it. Does it really look like a world destroyed due to a tragedy? Seriously, even Hollow Zero makes that entire thing look like fairy tale settings in comparison; its just that good. Those magnificent ethereal landscapes-what do they even think about too? That's the problem with it. Just A mega bland world

[@FeyHunt]

Yeah, I think I did cover this in ZZZ world masterpiece video. Everything can be so detailed because the explorable area is small. But then again, comparing ZZZ level of detail with WuWa or Genshin is a bit unfair. You just can't match it, nor will they have any incentive to do so.

[@hewhosayszonk]

I really appreciate this sort of content. I find that gacha and MMO games are not very well covered as pieces of art - most of the time, they get a launch review from gaming sites, and then the majority of commentary is content creators explaining or speculating about the lore, discussing optimal builds, sites publishing walkthroughs, and players discussing which items are worth spending real money on. There's not a lot of analysis of the techniques and effectiveness - at least with ZZZ I have seen animators talking about the cutscenes and animation, but very little commentary on storytelling and themes the way that you get when a TV series puts out new episodes.

[@FeyHunt]

Thanks for the kind words! Yes, I guess I find a niche I enjoyed talking about. Though, I do understand why they didn't do it. As you may have noticed, these types of contents don't do well with youtube algorithm. Only certain people like you and me enjoyed this kind of deeper analysis on the storylines. And hey, if you want to see more, be sure to stick around!

[@blind0wl123]

Zzz is full of so many details and it's a blast to learn about

[@FeyHunt]

It sure does! And I would keep praising them for this part because they earned it!

[@judgeude]

love it. miyabi doesn’t seem like “i want to train” vibe, so much as she’s a fox thiren and hates being put into corners, being told what to do, and constraints in general. she strikes me as “wait… i’m supposed to be the void hunter here, leave me alone. stop asking for things.”

[@FeyHunt]

She could be! I don't think we have concrete evidence either way. What we do know is that she does care about her teammates and doesn't pull ranks when Yanagi force her to do better. She _exclusively_ only hate her superiors.

[@tatteduprising2327]

I like that they give you the deep pore if you pay attention to detail & to NPCS even the ones that give you side missions you can learn a lot

[@FeyHunt]

Yeah! The attention to details in ZZZ is extraordinary! They really take advantage of that small-world environment. Some of the side missions are incredible too, like the one with Kami North.

[@chasedownall6492]

I’m glad that I’m not the only one annoyed that Section 6 are being babies and putting everything on Yanagi.

[@FeyHunt]

@@chasedownall6492 Yeah, that's something that always irked me. That also means Yanagi would have a serious death flag on her to enable character growth for the rest of her team.

[@silverhawkscape2677]

​@@FeyHunt Theu won't. Hoyo won't. She's a 5 star. Do you seriously want to kill off a character that Whales spent on?

[@FeyHunt]

@@silverhawkscape2677 Well, it's not unprecedented.The Honkai series has dead playable characters from HI3 and HSR.

[@silverhawkscape2677]

@@FeyHunt Only once for Himeko. Which was a Big financial Lost because they can't Capitalize on her newfound Popularity. Himeko doesn't have a New Battlesuit since then. It's why the Flamechasers were already dead when we get to them and only interact with their Simulations. HSR only killed 4 Stars which also weren't "real" as they were memory zone memes. I feel more for the people Gallagher left behind than Gallagher himself.

[@FeyHunt]

@@silverhawkscape2677 Yep, and those are still some sort of precedents. Again, this is a wild speculation. We know that gacha games just don't kill their characters. But who knows what ZZZ would do when the story starts to pick up heat. I do believe they have the mentality and talent to write those kind of stories.

[@HeroDarkStorn]

Thank you for pointing these out! I must admit I was so focused on the story (and combat) that I barely noticed even the things they do comment on XD

[@FeyHunt]

Haha, glad I could show you some of them! These things are what I lived for!

[@opelem6051]

Man , this is really great video. I enjoyted it quite a lot.

[@FeyHunt]

Hi, thank you for the kind words! There will be more coming soon!

[@tatteduprising2327]

I played other gachas but personally I fell inlove with Zenless it’s much more unique and original

[@FeyHunt]

Yeah! It has its own charm. The world, the vibe, and the characters are so refreshing.

[@MilkMyth]

I'm really hoping that Neverness to Everness does a lot of environmental story telling. Being an open world city gives them so much room to do stuff.

[@FeyHunt]

@@MilkMyth I do hope so too. But I doubt that'll be the case. Being an open world means that you can't make every inch as detailed as a small open world like ZZZ. You can pick and choose which area to detail, but it's still gonna be difficult. Because the resources and manhours needed will be so expensive if you detail everything. Speaking of which, I should probably start making video on that game. It looks interesting.

[@galonski64]

In yangi trailer, assaba did do paper work that she was supposed ro or naybe he was, but it put a smile on her face on top of maybi getting sweetbuns

[@FeyHunt]

Haha, did he grumble about it? I have to watch that myself then! 😄😄

[@galonski64]

@FeyHunt not sure, but I do feel it continues to support all of zzz faction theme of found family, in some way

[@RieBec-K]

I just play for Billy, and theres nothing about him yet, i love the game

[@rarelovell1093]

we learn a LOT about him in the 1.2 patch lol

[@FeyHunt]

Yeah, I'm afraid this might be one of those c*ck tease that would be answered 4 years down the line. Hoyo is just notorious for this, especially in Genshin "the sky is a lie" thing. We only did learn in 1.2 that - He was one of the champions in the arena and seemingly leave that life for his safety - He was first found among the rubble on an ancient facility But those doesn't seem enough to me. That's just lore teaser.

[@Voxet1]

I think asaba is hinted to have some dark past from a quote that was in his drip marketing in ZZZ's community post tab, him not wanting to work could be apathy

[@Voxet1]

I just checked the quote is "as a child he was enthusiastic for everything. If it weren't for his master..." and thats it, there's definitely something there

[@FeyHunt]

Good to know! Though it seems like he was forced to work on this job against his will. That would make an interesting character story in the next version, if they decided to dive into it.

[@chillax319]

@@Voxet1 Looks like his master managed to kill the drive and enthusiasm in him, thus why he appears lazy now.

[@ekapratama2894]

I was confused at the part where you mentioned Soukaku is a Glutton because I heard Glutenless Demon instead lol And yes it seems the HQ does use Eather powered AC since its getting more & more common in New Eridu. Seems like Eather powered stuff is on the rise in New Eridu hence the rise in demand for Eather Crystal. Even Lucius was trying to get his hands on tons of Eather Crystals in the outerim.

[@FeyHunt]

Haha, it _would_ be even funnier if Soukaku need Gluten-free food instead. What a headache that would be for Yanagi! 🤣🤣 I was curious about that Ether AC though... It seems like it's directly leaking Ether to the air. I was wondering if that would be dangerous to everyone outside...

[@ekapratama2894]

@FeyHunt that's possible. But if I have to guess it's just a visual effect telling us that it's Eather powered

[@muhammadrafif6160]

Nice video. But how is your project about Wuwa storytelling needs help ? IM still waiting for it

[@FeyHunt]

Haha, I'm working on it. I have other jobs, so it can be slow at times. I'm very happy with what WuWa is doing so far though! They're improving at a fast rate.

[@siloved5272]

yesterday I just talk to random npc who stand in fron of train station, some how I pay attention of what they said, try to follow what they told and I get explore quest. And today I just what around each map to sneaky listening what npc they talking about wish I got some new surprise quest.😅😅😅

[@FeyHunt]

Oh yes! There are A LOT of hidden quests that didn't even got listed in your schedule. You just happen to run into conversations, pick up the payphone, and then suddenly you got a 3 hour questline! 😄😄

[@Soyo_Nagasaki07]

To me ZZZ has the most improved storytelling in all Hoyoverse Games, its straightforward with some deep lores sometimes, mixed with some comedy & action-packed scenes and dialogues. Coz even other Hoyo-games are already long & well-established in their newest stories...They all still have some flaws & major issues before like in GGZ where the Power Scaling is so outrageous, & in HI3 where there are so many unnecessary long & heavy explanations mixed with convoluted dialogues. While HSR & Genshin's stories from the 1st up to their 2nd regions are basic & simplistic, they still have many issues with the very slow & boring pacing with some unnecessary yapping & failed showing & storytelling. Even Inazuma & Penacony have many major issues in their storytelling. But they managed to improved it overtime, especially in Sumeru, Fontaine, & Natlan...so my expectations for Amphoreus is really high especially that their Lore Teaser is really amazing.

[@FeyHunt]

Yeah, and that grounded story focusing on characters in ZZZ is very refreshing. For once, we're not dealing with 30-minute yapping about worldbuilding concepts. Genshin and HSR didn't really impress me for different reasons. I played Genshin for 2.5 years from launch and left it since the story didn't go anywhere in quality. I tried HSR and stopped until Belobog because the gameplay is just too boring for me. But it's good to hear that they're appealing to someone else and are actively improving. That's what I always wanted for gacha game storytelling.

[@KillerBlaze]

Honestly, Miyabi might just be genuinely unable to beat Soukaku at Tic Tac Toe lol

[@FeyHunt]

That would be so funny if true! 😆

[@dalhaval283]

i would have thought looking thru the environment for info on the story is common

[@FeyHunt]

It is in single player games. But it's very rare in gacha games, since they're always making "just good enough" environment quality. It's usually just pretty.

[@Kamiyartz]

Asaba constantly reporting sick is only realistic if you live in countries where serving National Service is compulsory like Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and etc. Those who don't want to be part of it will always report sick and make excuses.

[@FeyHunt]

I heard about this! Or some rich people who want to have exception made for their kids. But it's clear that New Eridu doesn't have conscriptions, since young adults like Belle, Wise, and Koleda never seem to take any military experience.

[@progaming-ok8tq]

miyabi

[@FeyHunt]

indeed

[@thaqifkhirudin6610]

Asaba portion, bgm music too distracting.

[@FeyHunt]

Got it! I will have to tone down or replace the music on future video.

[@demonic_myst4503]

Acept your wise bell one is wrong belle is canonicly more into sports than wise wise barely cycles and bell does exstreme sports

[@FeyHunt]

I wonder if it depends on which protagonist you choose at the start of the game. But based on my observation and various dialogues, Belle is notably NOT athletic. One of the direct quotes I can give you is in the first CG animation, when Belle and Billy were running from the Ethereal before they were rescued by Caesar and Lighter: "Huff... I'm really not built for this level of activity!". There are also numerous quotes, such as Belle saying that she considered using Eous in the Hollows as a form of exercise, showing her laziness in doing any sport.

[@silverhawkscape2677]

Belle: Does Extreme Sports Also Belle: I'm not built for this level of Activity. 😊

[@FeyHunt]

@@silverhawkscape2677 Especially since she only need to run like 50 meters or so 🤣🤣