I am inherently biased towards this game, so for the sake of this review I'll try to just report on it from an objective basis.
Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ) is a gacha game that, unlike /other/ gacha games, gives the player a generally fulfilling experience in the game without the feeling of 'FOMO' that is as aggressive in other gacha games. Of course, this is not to say the balance between limited rewards/events and permanent rewards/events is ideal, but it is a game that you could drop for several periods of time and not feel like you missed out on anything actually important. Whether or not you're an active player or inactive, ZZZ is a fairly rewarding game for the time you put into it, with tons of quality of life aspects that can make the game very slick and optimized to the player's tastes.
The story in ZZZ is enriching and, with some exceptions, intriguing and well paced. The power-scaling of characters (lore or gameplay) feels fair, and the gameplay is both smooth as it is snappy. What's nice about the game as well is that it is usually far more 'rewarding' to people that are skilled with its mechanics, though may feel punishing to those that struggle with fast and reactive combat. For myself this is no issue, especially since I like a good challenge; to complete beginners to this type of gameplay, it will be a learning curve that you will need to overcome, or accept and ignore the difficult elements entirely.
The characters, the largest appeal to the game (much like every other gacha ig), have been given a great selection of voice actors to hear from regardless of your language choice, and the designs for said characters are /mostly/ unique and well crafted for the character and their faction + personality. It'll be pretty obvious which characters got the short end of the stick when it comes to their outfits, though it's up to you to determine if that's enough for you to like or dislike a character.
The meta in the game is actually pretty well-rounded, with older, under performing characters receiving buffs to boost their performance if necessary. Unfortunately the buffs aren't always gonna save them from being largely worse than the newer characters, but it's nice to know that the developers are paying close attention to every character in the game and further evaluating their skills and kits if they're considerably worse than what is already available in the game.
Last note is that there is very rarely nothing to do in the game. Between its permanent events, limited events, story, endgame, exploration, etc, you'll rarely find your time being exclusively held up by completing your quick daily missions (which I'd just like to say, you can complete in less than a minute!). Of course, if that sounds like maybe too much gameplay, as a reminder the game almost encourages you to play at your own pace, and to not feel overwhelmed by what is available. Its monetization model is easily the best across all mihoyo games, and being f2p is very easy to accomplish. So whether you're here for the story, gameplay, the characters, or for the absurd jiggles and stretches in the physics engine and animation design, it's a really fun game that I would encourage anyone to try.
...But like I said earlier, I am VERY biased. I saved for almost 2 years to pull for one character I was obsessed with for goodness sake. Even if I didn't like the game I could never get myself to say anything bad. Good thing I like it either way though!
