Zenless Zone Zero’s producer has over 2000 hours in Street Fighter, and he’s putting them to use in the game’s action system 

HoYoverse’s upcoming urban fantasy RPG Zenless Zone Zero is scheduled to launch on July 4 for PC, PS5 and mobile platforms. With the release right around the corner, the title’s producer Zhenyu Li has revealed some of the inspirations behind the brand-new IP. 

In a recent interview with Famitsu, Li says that the initial pitch for Zenless Zone Zero out of his passion for action games, his favorites being soulslike titles such as the Dark Souls trilogy, as well as the Devil May Cry series and Monster Hunter games. Aware of action games’ reputation of being challenging and hard to learn, Li has been especially conscious of designing Zenless Zone Zero to be approachable for a wider audience. However, it seems this was not executed by merely lowering the game’s difficulty. 

According to Li, Zenless Zone Zero is designed to get players accustomed to its action mechanics gradually – starting out with getting the player to learn attack controls and then easing into defense mechanics such as dodging and parrying. The philosophy of the game is not to present the player with anything too difficult until they have a firm grasp of the controls, which is why veteran players may find the game insufficiently challenging in its early stages. However, this sounds like it will make Zenless Zone Zero a more approachable game for novice players. 

Li says that he owes his understanding of the “process of improving at a game” to fighting games – particularly the Street Fighter series. The creator has apparently accumulated over 2000 hours playing Street Fighter games, which has helped him acquire a feeling for how long it takes to learn a game based on the complexity of its action mechanics. 

As an aside, Li also mentions being inspired by Vanillaware’s games, particularly Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Odin Sphere. 

Zenless Zone Zero is scheduled to launch on July 4 for PC, PS5, iOS and Android. Pre-registrations (with rewards) are currently open.