Zenless Zone Zero 2.0 adds a change of scenery and moves that could be enough to recapture lapsed players

In the realm of live service games, the "version 2.0" update tends to hold some special significance, often coinciding with anniversaries and additions so significant they could, as the saying goes "change everything." Judging the brief time I spent with a preview build of Zenless Zone Zero's 2.0 update provided by HoYoVerse, I wouldn't so much call it a new game, but the expansion does feel significant enough that lapsed or lazy players might want to drop in to check out what they've missed in the interim. Version 2.0, formally titled "Where Clouds Embrace the Dawn," also happens to herald a wave of new players as well, as it coincides with the launch of ZZZ on Xbox Series X|S, bringing the game to a whole new platform.

For the record, I'm one of those lapsed/lazy players. Though I did say that it "feels bad" to play a character action game like Zenless lazily, force of circumstance turned me from an aspiring Zhu Yuan master into a hypercasual free-to-player who mostly logs in to do dailies, run events, and see if anyone on the banner is interesting enough to try to win the 50/50 for. As it turns out, that someone in this preview build was Yixuan, the banner character of version 2.0 and someone that protagonists Belle and Wise address as "Yixuan Shifu," indicating that she becomes their martial arts coach of sorts. 

Not that I would necessarily know what that's all about. As a lapsed/lazy player, I'm actually about two updates behind on the main story, and not having watched the recent promotional videos, am thus missing most of the context detailing Belle and Wise coming under Yixuan's wing. It also didn't help that the preview build we were given had basically replaced all of version 2.0's cutscenes and dialogue with placeholder text and silent voiceover, presumably to prevent pre-release spoilers from leaking. Though the update itself should be live by the time of this article's publication, I was left with little inkling as to what the characters were doing and why beyond the generalized sense that 2.0 represents a new story arc for the duo behind Phaeton. 

I could at least say where they were, though: the brand-new area of Waifei Peninsula, a somewhat tropical seaside region situated beside the massive Lemnian Hollow. Whereas New Eridu looks for all the world like an urban fantasy interpretation of miHoYo's home city of Shanghai, Waifei Peninsula and its new urban hub of Failume Heights reminds me of footage I've seen of the city of Chongqing, with its famed vertically-arranged urban areas, with elevated trains sometimes running through occupied condo structures. Failume Heights is similar, crisscrossed by cable cars and featuring multilayered buildings built right into the side of a sheer cliff. Unlike Lumina Square or Cheesetopia in the Outer Rim, Failume Heights is a true hub area, complete with living quarters for Phaeton at a quaintly traditional temple, its stereotypically Chinese aesthetic a perfect fit for the martial arts-inflected outfits one can earn for starting the event.

If Waifei Peninsula represents the site of a new story arc for Zenless, the Lemnian Hollow is also a new approach to the game's take on exploration, an aspect Zenless has historically struggled to make broadly appealing. Previous updates focused much of this exploration in the game's distinctive, abstract "TV mode," but over time miHoYo has steadily pared back its involvement in response to player complaints. From what I saw of 2.0, TV mode is barely present, with exploration of the Lemnian Hollow coming across like a refined version of the more traditional sequences and conventionally rendered spaces of previous updates. Rather than looking like retreads of battle stages, the exploration environments are larger and include checkpoints, bespoke challenges, and even switching between multiple parties, making them feel more natural (though still paling in comparison to the wide-open spaces of Genshin Impact).

Meanwhile, Yixuan also feels like a new step forward in increasing complexity for character combat in Zenless. Building on the character-specific mechanics introduced with Agents like Miyabi and Evelyn, Yixuan has her own unique elemental attribute, Auric Ink (which basically a twist on Ether), and emphasizes a new damage-influencing factor called "Sheer Force," a damage type that ignores enemy defense ratings. She also has a unique resource called Adrenaline, and even has two distinct Ultimate Attacks and EX Heavy attacks. To pull a comparison to Honkai Star Rail, her addition feels as significant as Acheron's was in terms of introducign what looks like the groundwork for a new way to think about party and combat dynamics in-game. While I didn't get much time with the other new S-Rank Agent, Ju Fufu, my occasional play with her in the story stages brought to mind a zippy character like Nekomata, except with a greater emphasis on combination Physical and Fire damage. 

While I don't think version 2.0 will quite bring back players who've fallen out of love with Zenless Zone Zero (especially not the ones unhappy with the paring back of TV mode), the new environments and characters do add a welcome change of scenery that might be enough to convince existing players to engage a bit more deeply and join Phaeton for a new stage in the urban fantasy adventure.

Zenless Zone Zero is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and mobile platforms. Version 2.0 is live.