Once upon a time, I would have recommended this game, with some caveats. Such as: don't play if you have a gambling addiction or are easily manipulated, expect to not be able to get some of the characters you want, and expect to be frustrated by the "Drive Disk" system.
Now? I can't recommend ZZZ at all. Not only are the above issues still there, but several new issues have cropped up over the course of "Season 2."
Ignore the playtime here, because I played first on the launcher from Epic Games store, and then on their own launcher for much longer. I started playing in early July of 2025, at the beginning of Season 2. Heard glowing reviews from people that this was a game-changing game for the gacha genre, with an excellent combat system (the combat being excellent still holds true, but is held back by the following issues). That it was less greedy, that you could get characters you wanted pretty easily, and that you could build a good team with any characters. None of that is true anymore.
Over the course of Season 2 (which covers around when I started playing until mid-June this year), they've been adding end-game mechanics that push players towards getting the newest, "better" characters, all the while pushing out characters that were previously able to clear endgame. Expected from a gacha game, right? Well, when they're releasing characters and then making them unable to clear endgame a couple patches later (a patch lasts on average 6-7 weeks, sometimes less, down to a month), there's a problem.
At first, this wasn't the case, but late into season 2, it became very clear what was happening. Rapid HP inflation, "Miasmic Shield" getting harder to break for anything but a specific class of character (called Rupture characters, which were introduced on 2.0's launch), buffs going from generalized for specific classes/elements to only being tailored for specific characters, etc, etc; The list goes on. This is something you may have heard of called "power creep," and it went from an expected level to unrealistic to keep up on unless you spend like a whale. Not only that, but if your main character(s) was/were Miyabi or an Anomaly class, you were going to struggle through most of season 2.
Until May, when I just couldn't warrant spending anymore on this game, I was a low-spend player. I only spend on the little $5 subscription every month for extra currency on top of the free currency, and spent occasionally on the battle pass for $10. Plus, any really cheap value packs. I felt like I was a reasonable spender, and that they provided a reasonable game experience at first, but now that value doesn't exist.
On top of it all, this game sold me on a 80's/90's retro-future aesthetic, including both environments and characters, and a unique MC that never directly took part in combat. Each character also had personality, and you could stort of tell from their designs what they were like, or what class/element they might be. They even provided really well-done character stories, which helped sell me on a lot of the S1 characters, along with a pretty good main storyline.
Then Season 2 came, and their characters' personalities started disappearing, and the general aesthetic changed to ancient Chinese retro-future. I tolerated it because then they still occasionally introduced characters with a more modern aesthetic. At the same time, though, they introduced 2 characters (Yidhari and Lucia) whose outfits were almost exact copies of a 2.0 launch character (Yixuan), but with slight tweaks, so you could tell their design ethos was faltering. This was also the season where they decided to start phasing out character stories and instead including those in events, some of which were limited time and not playable if you missed them. Plus, they made nearly zero progress on the main storyline.
Now, with the release of Season 3, their characters are starting to all look like their other games' characters, with zero personality and a Sherlock Holmes/Victorian era retro-future aesthetic, and the MC has pretty much a JoJo "Stand," so they do participate in combat. That last part in itself isn't a huge issue, but I'd call it false advertisement. What's awesome is that they finally started making huge progress on the main story, but at this point, I couldn't care less about the story because of how long we went without much progress and me starting to dislike the characters' designs and the aesthetics of the game.
All of this, coupled with the endgame becoming worse and worse for older characters whose designs I DID love, along with the other glaring issues such as Drive Disks still being terrible, and greedier and greedier game design choices, made me fed up. I quit at the end of June and the only reason I'm back now (temporarily) is because they're FINALLY offering a free character (Jane Doe) for their anniversary that I've been waiting to be able to get since I started playing, because she's been gone for well over a year. Getting her, playing around a lil, and probably uninstalling again until I see some significant changes for the better, if ever.
I gave it a chance, and they showed me why I can't ever recommend gacha games to anyone. If this is the best available, don't even bother. Save your time, and especially your money. Don't get manipulated and sucked in just for a heap of enshittification.
