We’re all clones now.

When I first heard of Zanki Zero described as a survival dungeon crawler, I wasn’t particularly interested. Although I’m partial to dungeon crawlers like Etrian Odyssey, there’s always been something about the constant maintenance nature of survival games that I never enjoyed.

However, when I learned that this title was developed by some of the creative minds behind one of my favorite series, Danganronpa, I knew I had to check it out.

Before I can start this review in earnest, I must mention that there are some details about the plot of the game that are revealed early on that need to be addressed in order to make sense of the game’s various mechanics,so even though I like to keep my reviews relatively spoiler-free, I will need to go into some details revealed in the first chapter.

It’s right behind me, isn’t it?

MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: PS4, PC
Played on: PS4 Pro
Length: 30~ hours

To put an end to his life full of regrets, Haruto Higurashi threw himself off a building. He closes his eyes waiting for the sound of his bones being crushed by the impact, he is instead jarred awake by the sound of seagulls.

Waking up at the beach of an idyllic tropical island, he meets an energetic girl with a prosthetic arm and leg and is quickly introduced to the seven other individuals who also found themselves in the same situation.

In a series of shocking revelations, they notice the metal contraption known as an X-Key attached to their belly button and learn that they are all clones with a lifespan of only 13 days, but that their lives can be extended indefinitely as they can be brought back to life as long as the X-Key was used on the extend machine.

In order to solve the many mysteries surrounding their insane situation, the eight survivors band together in a desperate struggle for the truth.

Live hard, live strong.

Each of the eight chapters in the story focuses on one member of the survivors, delving into their backstory, which is often times tragic and touches on some subjects which many would consider taboo.

Personally, I think pushing the envelope and introducing dark elements to a story can be a positive element as long as it’s done with a purpose, and in Zanki Zero it certainly felt like a cohesive story from beginning to end.

While none of the characters particularly stood out in terms of their personality, learning about their past and seeing their resolve to get past their mistakes made me want to cheer them on, and in the end, I felt a surge of emotions during the final moments as the credits rolled.

Even though the story is interesting, much of it is delivered by a TV show called “Extend TV”. Every now and then, a TV would start playing in the dungeon and a show hosted by two obnoxious characters would show a dramatized skit of events that happened to one of the characters in the past. The silly antics of the hosts were amusing enough at first but it didn’t take long for their jokes to get old,and given the frequency of the broadcasts, it become a bit more grating than it needed to be.

As for the game’s various mechanics, the crazy setup of the story transitions to every aspect of the gameplay.

What does kill you makes you stronger.

Given that each of the survivors are clones, they only have 13 days to live initially, and once they die, whether of old age by the hands of some monster, they can be cloned once again as long their X-Key is safe.

Using the extend machine and points acquired from defeating monsters, they are brought back to life as a child and as the days pass, they would transition to adult, middle aged and senior, each with its own benefits and downsides.

The act of dying itself could be beneficial, as they could be brought back with special “Shigabane” passive abilities. For example, if one of my characters were to die by being slashed to death, they would gain greater resistance to slashing attacks, and given there are dozens of different Shigabane bonuses, I sometimes found myself intentionally killing off my own characters in different ways near the end of their natural life cycle to get more of these bonuses. Which sounds kind of psychotic now that I’ve written it down but hey, I’m a sucker for min/maxing.

Each of the characters retained their levels as well as their various skills through each extension, so even though it could put a crashing halt to exploration when one or two of the members died, there was usually some benefit to it as well, which took the sting out of having to go back to the island to bring them back to life.

The combat is overly simple for what it is and doesn’t get much more interesting.

While the various mechanics of being a clone are quite fascinating the actual combat engine was overly simple, as I was able to move around a map and execute regular attacks or charge attacks. Regular attacks came out quickly and did decent damage but charged attacks took time to prepare, did more damage and could be aimed at certain parts of the enemy at an attempt to knock off limbs or disable certain attacks that they might have.

There were also the “Clione” which could be implanted later on in the story which allowed the use of special moves, and while they came in handy from time to time, their limited use had me not really counting on them too much during my playthrough.

Also, the various different difficulty levels that could be changed during the course of the game were nice to have, but I could never quite find the perfect balance as it felt either too easy or too frustrating. I wanted to play on the harder difficulties so I would get more drops from enemies to improve my base and build new equipment, but getting one shotted constantly was wasting a lot of time. Then, when I toned down the difficulty, I was killing everything in one or two barrage attacks and they would barely drop anything worthwhile, which stopped the progress of my base building and equipment crafting. The level designs felt uninspired as well, and the long, same looking corridors and uninteresting puzzles weren’t exactly making me feel excited to enter a new dungeon.

There were also some minor dating sim elements, where having two characters sleep in the same room would increase their bond and a few events would play out, but it felt like an afterthought more than anything else as I didn’t see a single bonding event until I actively started to trigger them at the final stages of the game.

I mean, you’re not wrong.

Zanki Zero’s unique premise and the way it connects to the various mechanics surrounding the game is noteworthy for its ambition and creativity. However, the shaky foundation of its overly simple combat engine and level designs holds it back from greatness.

Fun Tidbit – During certain points of the game, Monokuma shows up in the island and if you can defeat him, he drops some excellent weapons that are much better than what you can craft at that point in the game so make sure you take him down!

Review copy of game provided by publisher.