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We recommend these games like Zenless Zone Zero:
- Aether Gazer
- Punishing: Gray Raven
- Honkai Impact 3rd
- Tower of Fantasy
- Scarlet Nexus
If HoYo’s latest gacha endeavour isn’t to your liking, there are some games like Zenless Zone Zero you can try out. Whether you love ZZZ and its vibe, or maybe you don’t wanna mess with it at all, there are a handful of alternatives that could be considered similar. Spoiler alert, most of these are free-to-play gacha games, but we won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting Genshin Impact or Star Rail.
Aether Gazer
- Release Date: 22 April 2022
- Platform(s): Android, iOS
- Genre(s): Action RPG
Would you recommend this game?
This relatively new gacha game is all about action-packed combat where you collect characters by pulling on gacha banners. Combat is fast and stylish, giving you plenty of fun things to do in fights. You make a party consisting of three characters, but you can only play as one at any time. The other two you bring with you are AI-controlled and you can only tell them to unleash their ultimate attacks when they’re ready.
Some party members work together and can use a joint ultimate attack, which is something we see in ZZZ with Ben Bigger and Koleda, so there are some combat similarities to enjoy in Aether Gazer. This game is made by the same developers behind Azur Lane and Arknights, which might help inform your decision. More than anything, Aether Gazer has similar character designs to Zenless, but you’ll find more action and less of the slower-paced life-sim gameplay in ZZZ.
Punishing: Gray Raven
- Release Date: 16 July 2021
- Platform(s): Android, iOS
- Genre(s): Action RPG
Would you recommend this game?
While lacking the polish and the clean look of ZZZ, Punishing Gray Raven boasts fast-paced action-focused combat. Enemy designs are a little similar and the setting is more drab urban than the bright colours of New Eridu and the Hollow Zones, but you’ll notice some similarities here you might enjoy in another light. The combat is fun and arguably more in-depth than what we currently have in Zenless Zone Zero. For what it’s worth, Punishing Gray Raven has a Nier Automata crossover event, adding 2B and 9S to the game, and it’s a world in which these two characters slot into rather naturally.
Honkai Impact 3rd
- Release Date: 14 October 2016
- Platform(s): Android, iOS, PC
- Genre(s): Action Adventure, Action RPG
Would you recommend this game?
HoYoverse’s flagship gacha game, Honkai 3rd, is arguably the most similar to ZZZ in terms of its style and setting. While much more dated than ZZZ, the combat is arguably the first iteration of what we see in Zenless. There is a bigger emphasis on switching out your characters to perform chain combos to keep your enemies locked down, which you’ll notice is also the case in Zenless.
As mentioned, getting into the game now is very bare bones, simply because the first part of the game is mission-focused, where you simply navigate a menu to go to the next battle stage, lacking a main hub to explore. As of Feb 2024, HoYo updated the game and added new characters, a new story arc, and a very limited open-world structure, which makes it much more like ZZZ. The problem is that you have to get far enough into the game to reach this new content.
Tower of Fantasy
- Release Date:
- Platform(s): Unknown
- Genre(s): Unknown
Would you recommend this game?
Tower of Fantasy is very different to ZZZ since it’s a fully open-world game, with huge areas to explore and a custom character creator. However, in the game’s aesthetics and style, you will catch a glimpse of ZZZ, especially in the world and character designs. The combat in Tower of Fantasy isn’t anything special, but the exploration is a treat if you want to enjoy that aesthetic in more detail than ZZZ currently offers.
Tower of Fantasy is simply Genshin by another name, but somehow inferior to Genshin in our opinion. The crucial difference here is that it offers a more urban sci-fi style over Genshin’s fantasy setting, which might be more appealing if Genshin isn’t your cup of tea.
As the only non-F2P game on this list, we think Scarlet Nexus is a solid game that is similar enough to Zenless Zone Zero. There are some glaring differences between the games, but there is a clearly distinct urban anime style that you get from ZZZ. Scarlet Nexus is more grim and dank than the bright and airy feeling from Zenless Zone Zero, but you’ll get a lot of the same combat in Scarlet Nexus, as well as large levels to explore and progress through. This latter part is, arguably, the main thing Zenless Zone Zero is lacking.
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