The Gacha Game That Doesn't Feel Like One: ZZZ

What is a 'Gacha' game?

Gacha games are often defined by their paywalling of key progression elements, such as characters and weapons. These items are locked behind an in-game currency that can either be painstakingly grinded for over many hours of gameplay or purchased with real money.
With enough currency, you can buy 'pulls' for each 'banner'. These pulls are your ticket to running a gamified slot machine. If you're lucky, you'll get the featured item you want.

To encourage spending, these games run several subtle strategies. They may limit how much you can run a certain activity per day unless you spend to get more runs.
They release character quests that are often trials of new characters that you can't play after that quest unless you can get them from the featured banner via the gacha system. These banners are time-limited as well and may not rerun for several months causing immense FOMO.
Although one could get away with not spending money in certain gacha games, it makes the whole experience of actually playing the game rather stressful and less satisfying than if it didn't have gacha at all.

This system creates a deadlock that can not only limit a game's design, but also the player's enjoyment. ZZZ, however, has found a way to break it.

How ZZZ breaks the deadlock

1. A Plot That Keeps You Engaged

ZZZ is a 3rd person character action video game set in a near future world where a dangerous natural disaster known as the 'Hollows' has occurred. This has resulted in various different types of monsters now roaming these Hollows wreaking havoc in the cities they exercise their control over.

The setup is pretty simple in comparison to the world threatening plots of its contemporaries like Honkai Star Rail or Genshin Impact. There is no big world ending threat as of yet and the characters are all relatively grounded, well as grounded as you can be when you have talking animals and AI construction machines in love with buildings they're supposed to demolish.

Thanks to this simple setup, each chapter in the story is most often about how each group of ragtag characters deals with the Hollows, some look to loot it for the treasures it has while others have ulterior motives beyond simple exploration. This results in a story experience that is way more character-focused than its contemporaries. The interactions are more human and less robotic with the excellent voice acting carrying a huge portion of it.
The story is more emotional as a result and far more engaging than the sometimes monotonous exposition dumping of concepts far beyond the human understanding in games like Wuthering Waves or Honkai Star Rail.

This simplicity allows the excellent character writing to shine through.

2. A Cast Of Characters You Will Care About

Though the cast of characters is ever-changing with each chapter of the story featuring a different group whose story you follow, the somewhat brief time you spend with them is written excellently. The characters balance humor and emotion very well, you will very often laugh at the goofy interactions you have with them but tear up at the mention of their back-stories.

These characters aren't just machinations for the plot but are their own person, their character quirks and personalities directly influence their part in the story, their actions directly correlate to their personalities. This results in a story that is always engaging, the heart behind each character is ever-present. The presentation of the story is excellent as well, often you'd see static text boxes with emotionless expressions in other titles but in ZZZ, story cutscenes are dynamic and energetic.

This excellent combination of characters, plot and presentation is so engaging, you will very often find yourself forgetting about the gacha system entirely. The world makes you relish it, remember its rules and the characters make you cherish living in it.

Which makes getting to play as them all the more fun and satisfying.

3. A Gameplay Loop That Respects The Player

ZZZ is a character action game where your combat arsenal is entirely dependent on which character you're playing as. You can bring three characters into a mission which incentivizes strategic team building like in other gacha games. What separates ZZZ is its deeply skillful combat system.

The combat is incredibly fast-paced and fluid, allowing you to chain combos, special moves, and character switches into a single, fluid sequence. Despite its pace, the combat is still very readable. This allows a player to truly master the mechanics and skill their way through missions even with imperfect teams and builds. This satisfying feedback loop is amplified by the incredible audio-visual design. The combat moves themselves feel very punchy and explosive, and the sound design is unmatched. The clash of weapons, the perfectly timed deflections and the character dialogue during ultimate abilities culminates in a symphony of fast-paced action with critical feedback.

Tying this all together is a top-notch soundtrack. The fusion of acid jazz, funk, and breakbeat gives the game a stylishly urban vibe that elevates the combat .

Because the core experience is so intrinsically rewarding, the gacha system takes a backseat. Only the most hardcore players will feel the need to chase perfect team builds, while the average player can succeed and have immense fun with the characters they like. This dramatically relaxes the FOMO, allowing you to save your currency and pull only for the characters you really want.

Conclusion

In a genre that often fails to respect the player's time whether it be through punishing meta-shifts that make old characters obsolete or by locking Quality of Life improvements behind new banners, ZZZ stands tall as a more chill and stress-free escape.

Its chill and relatively low stakes plot, its engaging characters and the gameplay come together to break the deadlock that plagues gacha games. Which is why ZZZ is a rare example of a gacha game that doesn't feel like one.

The heart behind the game shines through, unaffected by the eternal corrupting pull of the gacha system.