We’ve had our first glimpse of the Zenless Zone Zero characters from Hoyoverse’s new action-RPG game. It’s immediately clear that this is going to be a different style of anime game than Genshin Impact with guns, anthropomorphic animals, and a contemporary cityscape featuring prominently in the announcement trailer. We don’t know much about this new “urban fantasy” adventure, but its exuberant cast of characters were shown off in plenty of detail.
First off, a little context. In Zenless Zone Zero, players take the role of a ‘Proxy’, a person that is uniquely able to enter and explore ‘Hollows’, which are dimensional rifts that have caused the destruction of the wider world. Hollows are also inhabited by roaming monsters called Ethereals, and as a Proxy, you can form a squad drawn from a diverse cast of Zenless Zone Zero characters to embark on expeditions into these rifts.
Why? That part’s a mystery for now, but one thing we do know is that the last surviving city of humanity – New Eridu – has survived partly because it has managed to find a way to exploit the Hollows for valuable resources, and there are plenty of factions in New Eridu that want to maximise these opportunities. So basically, the answer is loot. For now, let’s take a look at everything we know about the characters of Zenless Zone Zero.
Belle and Wise
Our original theory was that these two were the player avatars, however the pair have since been named via the official Zenless Zone Zero Twitter account. Called Belle and Wise, they run the Random Play video store. We’re not sure what role this shop plays in the game, but it could be a central hub or a vendor or some kind.
Belle is described as a “cheerful and easy-going young girl. Perceptive and alert, she’s not afraid of adversity.” Wise is a “gentle and reserved young man” who is “thoughtful and reassuring”. It’s possible they are also Proxies.The first part of the introduction mini-video shows a sillouette of people who look like Belle and Wise, with the word ‘Proxy’ in big letters.
Below is a name – Phaethon – which appaers to be the codename for a “well known” Proxy in New Eridu who has an “extremely high commission success rate”. The official website states Proxies “live dual identities, two opposing persona” which would fit the idea of Proxy identities being secret.
Gentle House / Cunning Hares
The largest faction we see in the trailer, their logo shows what looks like a rabbit with a menacing grin. According to a series of tweets relating to one character, Anby, this faction is known as the “odd-job” faction Cunning Hares, also called Gentle House. In this group we have:
- Billy the Kid – A cyborg who wields dual pistols and has a carefree personality
- Nicole Demara – The founder of Gentle House, Nicole has a device that looks like a briefcase, which expands into a gun-type weapon
- Anby Demara – “accidentally” adopted by Nicole, Anby has no past. She wields a thick blade-like weapon
- Nekomiya Mana – The short girl with cat ears who wields another bladed weapon of some kind
Industrial faction
The next faction grouping we see in the trailer looks like they’ve stepped out of an anime factory and are ready to crack heads instead of rocks. The obscured name ends in ‘Industries’, which suggests a construction or mining theme, and the logo shows a roaring bear wearing a hardhat. In this group we have:
- A man with black and red spikey hair, who wears a coat over his shoulders and has arm-mounted drills for weapons
- A small, woman with long red hair, an eye patch, and a big hammer
- A large bear man with black fur wielding a massive slab of metal that could be a rocket launcher, or just a slab of metal
The Samurai and the Demon
This pair of characters is the most mysterious, as we don’t see any partial faction name and even the logo is obscured. In this group we have:
- ‘Unagi’ – A woman wearing a robe over a formal office uniform, she wields a large, sci-fi katana
- A blue-skinned woman with horns and a metal mask. She’s wearing a short jacket and wields a very, very large fan on a pole
Victoria House Keeping
The only group whose faction name we can see in full, this is another pair of characters, Corin Wickes a Von Lyacon. Corin is woman described as a “duty-bound maid” who is “unaware of her own strength.” Lyacon is a male fox-man who is dressed up as a butler. Corn wields some kind of polearm weapon that has a rotary blade at the end, while Lyacon appears to only use his hands and legs as weapons, martial arts-style.
Soldier 11 and Defence Force
Hoyoverse showed off a new Zenless Zone Zero trailer during Summer Game Fest in June, which gave us a look at a brand new character and faction. The new character is known only as Soldier 11, and her faction is currently unconfirmed although the logo you can see has ‘defence force’ written along the top.
Soldier 11 is a white-haired girl with an orange and black uniform, and she wields a short, blocky sword. 11 resembles Gentle Houses’ Anby Demara in a lot of ways – the two appear to wield similar-looking weapons, wear similar kit, and potentially even use the same fighting style.
Other Zenless Zone Zero characters
While the focus of the trailer is very much on the main character factions, there are fleeting glimpses of other characters. Mainly, there are several small creatures that look like rabbit teddy bears, except they have no face other than glowing round eyes. We also see a crab-style robot manning a shop, and a robot with green hair and glowing green eyes sitting on a chair.
And there you have it, everything we know about Zenless Zone Zero characters so far. We’ll keep this guide updated as we find out more. In the meantime, read up on everything you need to know about the Zenless Zone Zero system requirements. Beta sign-ups are also open.