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Zenless Zone Zero Censorship controversy explained

Zenless Zone Zero is the next gacha game from the ruler of the genre, HoYoverse. It’s the developer’s fifth biggest project, next to Genshin Impact, both Honkai Impact games and Tears of Themis. But a new controversy has arisen, and it has to do with a supposed “censorship” issue.

Zenless Zone Zero censorship controversy

HoYoverse is well known for crafting unique and elaborate characters. Between all three of their major PC gacha games (Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact, and now Zenless Zone Zero), I would describe all of the characters as well-designed, each character brimming with personality. This includes one of Zenless Zone Zero’s first characters, Nicole, who you meet early in the game’s main story quest.

Censorship in games is a controversial subject, and HoYoverse was met with some criticism online for changes regarding Nicole’s design. Personally, it took me a really long time to see what the issue even was. I’m not really beholden to describing it word for word, so I would just suggest you watch this Twitch clip and Reddit thread and see what people are complaining about. Spoiler alert: it’s pretty silly.

Of course, players are also upset that Nicole seemed to have received some reduced “jiggle physics” during the second closed beta. I was never a fan of this kind of silly sexual content in these kinds of games, so I think getting mad at this, in particular, is almost a little creepy. However, some players are concerned that this level of censorship can bleed into other areas of the game, which is a more valid concern. I guess.

For instance, a Reddit post found that some of the game’s violent content was toned down as well, toning down a major instance of body horror found early in the game’s story. The first instance of gore shows a character getting torn apart, showing his mouth getting ripped to shreds, but the closed beta toned down this violence without showing much detail of the transformation.

A major complaint point is how Zenless Zone Zero is marketed as more of a “mature game,” with Zenless Zone Zero’s 16+ rating as opposed to Genshin Impact’s 12+ rating. I do agree that things shouldn’t be toned down for the sake of making things more palatable, so it’ll be interesting to see how this trickles into the rest of the game.

Zenless Zone Zero is currently in its second closed beta phase. The game currently does not have an official release date, but we can expect to see the game released sometime in 2024. Check out our other Zenless Zone Zero articles here.