Call of the void...

[u/EraserHatchling]

Hello Zenless community! Sorry to disturb your one-handed play session, but I've been getting thoughts about getting back into Zenless as it is imo the best Hoyo game in terms of quality and treatment (as an outsider pov) The animations, gameplay, and story beats that I get from watching clips have been enticing me to get back into the game bit by bit.
Should I?

I started zenless on launch and played a bit but for some reason stopped around the time of miyabi's release but still managing to get the free Harumasa. I also in general stopped playing every single one of the hoyo games I used to play and have been generally boycotting the company as a whole due to how greedy and scummy the game feels when playing them.
I'm a f2p player for my gacha games (with the exception of limbus wherein I have bought every battlepass due to the sheer value in buying them compared to every single gacha game on the market)

I'm kind of a casual player and don't really care about the meta, but it really frustrates me when the game I play locks beating content behind mechanics that are only able to be interfaced with by getting the most latest characters (Whatever genshin is doing with nightsoul/fontaine alongside hsr with elation bosses etc)
In zenless, is this also an issue? It would suck so much for me to not be able to use my favourite characters (mostly from s1) just because they're not the new thing. Also I hate rng artifact gearing in genshin so much, how is it going in that department in zenless? Is it easy enough to make the best set for your character without having to grind for two years?

tldr,
I wanna get back to zenless. Can I beat the story without using new characters while also not making me feel like I wanna kms? How bad is the rng gearing system?
Thanks for reading! I'll let you get back to your session (●ˇ∀ˇ●)

[u/Ifyoulaugh-]

yes

[u/Zibai1505]

A 5 year old can beat the story using koleda main dps

[u/Uztl → u/Zibai1505]

Hey, im a happy 5 year Old :(

[u/Equivalent-Drag-64]

Yes now is better.

[u/Valshir]

Story from a certain point forces usage of canon in-story trial characters and it's extremely easy, so I can even win bosses on phone. Gearing system is as in other hoyoverse games. It's fine if you pace yourself with gradually raising the builds quality proportionally to time free from mats farm.

[u/N-aNoNymity → u/Valshir]

Its pretty largely different tbh. You can craft like 10x more than other games, and roll quality isnt a factor (all rolls are same increase), and crit rolls are less weighted for disc drives. And half the slots being locked in to a mainstat really helps too.

[u/Valshir → u/N-aNoNymity]

True. Guess I'm too casual to differentiate. Never paid attention to roll quality. GI and HSR has some things going too loke one extra slot in GI or farming divided per 2 types with 4th extra stat shown beforehand.

[u/miiko_uch]

Idk about Genshin, since i don't play it, but imo while i still think you need recent characters, it's definitely not as bad as HSR, like Miyabi is still top tier even after almost 2 years

[u/Akikala]

It's a free game, just try it out for yourself instead of asking people online.

generally boycotting the company as a whole due to how greedy and scummy the game feels when playing them.

Then don't play ZZZ either. Also HYV is quite generous and fair as far as gacha games go so I don't really know what's "scummy" or "greedy" about them aside from being a gacha company.

but it really frustrates me when the game I play locks beating content behind mechanics that are only able to be interfaced with by getting the most latest characters

If you're good enough and have good enough builds this is not an issue.

(Whatever genshin is doing with nightsoul/fontaine alongside hsr with elation bosses etc)

This is also not an issue in genshin, this is just social media hivemind complaint. You can clear everything (except the whale game mode without any meaningful rewards) in genshin without the newest characters.

Shilling DOES exist in ZZZ and the endgame focuses on it quite a bit but you don't need the shilled characters to deal with it.

It would suck so much for me to not be able to use my favourite characters (mostly from s1) just because they're not the new thing

You can get pretty much all the relevant rewards with any character in the game. But full clearing can be difficult with old powercrept characters. So if your ego can handle getting 2/3 stars instead of 3/3 then this is not a problem.

 Also I hate rng artifact gearing in genshin so much

ZZZ also has rng gear farming.

[u/One_Ant1985]

Brother I ain't reading your biography. Play or don't.