Zenless Zone Zero's Protagonist is Different Than Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail
Zenless Zone Zero starts its story off differently than Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, and the new direction makes a lot of sense. While the game has familiar elements from other HoYoverse games, it's making significant changes to the formula. At first glance, Zenless Zone Zero is the most action-oriented of the bunch, eschewing both the open-world exploration of Genshin Impact and the turn-based combat of Honkai: Star Rail.
The shift isn't just about the gameplay, however, and some core overhauls to the story setup might actually be just what the game needs to stand out. Zenless Zone Zero opts for an urban sci-fi setting called New Eridu, the only metropolis left after the fall of civilization to threats known as Hollows. Over time, New Eridu has managed to find prosperity in extracting resources from Hollows, but not without consequences. The city has plenty of divisive factions within it, from powerful monopolies to underground gang operations that all add up to create a concentrated world of conflict.
Zenless Zone Zero's Protagonist Isn't An Outsider
Understanding the depths of Zenless Zone Zero's lore can take a bit of playtime, but one thing that's obvious from the get-go is how the protagonist differs from Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. In both of those games, the player character is someone thrust into an unfamiliar world, in both cases awakening from sleep before or during the events that start the game. Genshin Impact's Traveler ends up literally falling into the world of the game, while Honkai: Star Rail's Trailblazer is awakened by Kafka, a character with initially mysterious intentions who alludes to the Trailblazer's inherent power.
In Zenless Zone Zero, however, the protagonist is a character that's already used to the setting of New Eridu. The typical choice between genders that opens the game offers the option to play as either of two siblings named Belle and Wise, who share ownership of a video store called Random Play and have their own distinct personalities and interactions with each other in the game. The two work together in the role of a "Proxy," guiding those who take on the risk of challenging the Hollows.
Although there's merit in the approach that Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail take, Zenless Zone Zero shaking up the formula with the protagonist feels like a genuine breath of fresh air. In a game less oriented around exploration, being immediately immersed in the world of New Eridu eliminates much of the disconnect between the protagonist and the setting in previous Hoyoverse titles. Rather than meeting key characters and learning about lore as an outsider, Belle and Wise play an intimate role in New Eridu's culture, and they have pre-established relationships that open up familiar dialogue from the get-go.
The immediate immersion approach of Zenless Zone Zero might not be for everyone, and it doesn't allow as much opportunity for the exposition to be laid out transparently at the start. The Traveler and Trailblazer work more directly as avatars for the player, establishing an outsider status that's easy to immediately connect to. That kind of exposition can also be a bit hamfisted, however, and letting the story unfold in a less tutorialized way in ZZZ feels more naturalistic on the whole.
Not Every Protagonist Needs To Be A Chosen One
As a standard part of its world, Zenless Zone Zero's protagonist also doesn't seem to be leaning as much into the typical trope of a chosen one. There's certainly a place for stories about that kind of hero, but although something like The Matrix can be genuinely invigorating, most tend to feel more tired. In many cases, chosen one stories end up feeling more like cheap wish fulfillment than anything else, and the fantasy of being an innately special figure doesn't always lead to the most interesting storytelling opportunities.
There's certainly a possibility that Zenless Zone Zero will end up going in that direction, but at least when it comes to the story's opening beats, it's not as focused on the concept as Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail are. Belle and Wise are important because of their role as a Proxy, but they're mostly portrayed as normal people within that particular field. Some rare skills set the two apart, but nothing is established to be a power that no one else could possibly wield, and their innate nature appears to be essentially no different from anyone else in the game.
Belle and Wise also serve a supporting role when it comes to combat, further emphasizing the shift from the approach in other recent Hoyoverse games. Even if things do change later on, it's nice to have the experience of playing as someone a little more normal at the start of the story. Beginning with lower stakes keeps everything closer to the ground in New Eridu, emphasizing the sense of a slightly grittier urban setting as opposed to high fantasy or space-faring sci-fi.
HoYoverse Setting Zenless Zone Zero Apart Is Smart
A significant change-up to the character formula of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail wasn't strictly necessary, but in a market that's becoming increasingly saturated, anything to set a game apart starts to look smart. Gacha Games demand a lot of dedication and time from invested players, and HoYoverse's releases alone are a lot to juggle. When throwing recent competitors like Wuthering Wave into the mix, even the most hardcore fans of games in Genshin Impact's style will generally have to make choices about what to commit to, presenting Zenless Zone Zero with an uphill battle right out the gate.
Zenless Zone Zero combats this problem by feeling like a legitimately new venture, and even if the combat and world are the most obvious strengths in this regard, the approach to the protagonist also goes a long way to differentiate it. If the game can keep building on this change to progress the story in a different direction, it could be a good way to refresh a genre that's in danger of getting stale. A lot about Zenless Zone Zero remains to be seen as of the game's launch, but the protagonist change showcases its potential to do something new.
