With the conclusion to the story of Exaltists and ZZZ Season 2 behind us, it’s time to leave Waifei Peninsula behind and return to your almost normal life on Sixth Street. However, what was expected to be a filler wholesome patch, the 2.x take on Astra Yao’s introduction, turned out to be a surprisingly engaging story despite my initial skepticism.
You see, if you take everything I like in the characters and produce its direct antithesis, you’d get the Angels of Delusion. I am not the target audience – and that’s more than alright, it gives me more time to get pulls either to vertically invest in my favorites, pick up some heroes on their reruns, or wait for Season 3.
Between my general ambivalence about the cast of V2.6 and the sour impression left by V2.5 and Ye Shunguang, I didn’t expect to like ‘Encore for an Old Dream’ as much as I did. So, let’s become Delulu together – this is our ZZZ Version 2.6 Impressions.
Since ‘Encore for an Old Dream’ follows in the footsteps of Version 1.5: Astra-Nomical Moment, it’s logical to assume that our music-related interlude will be a down-to-earth intermission that would let Proxies breathe a little before their new adventure in Season 3, correct?
And, quite honestly, it is – compared to the ensured survival of an entire peninsula and a Hollow going out of control, the new events are almost mundane. New Eridu celebrates the annual Gilded Carrot Day with the festivities that involve the newest playable faction, Angels of Delusion, and their teacher Cecilia.
But, even as the city prepares for the brightest day of the year, a dark undercurrent is happening right under everyone’s nose: Intelligent Construct citizens are losing control and a mysterious AI is on the run. The Proxies are put in charge of this commission by Severian Lowell, Seth’s elder brother, but its connection to both Fairy and the Angels of Delusion is much closer than might be seen at first glance. Prepare for the unexpected Fairy backstory!
Speaking of Severian, between him and Cecilia, this is the third time that I’m personally thrown in the Zenless Zone NPC Jail, with Isolde before them. I know, I know – NPCs are left generic, players complain. NPCs are made unique and given many details, players complain. Still. Playable when?
Other new agents include Cissia, the suspicious NEPS officer that doesn’t act or look like any officer that we know of, and Promeia. There are two characters from Krampus that we know of but haven’t met in their official capacity yet: the Executioner and the Boss. However, we have heard the Boss at the end of V2.5 while she was talking to Zhao, Dialyn and Banyue, and Promeia doesn’t sound like her. That leaves her the position of Krampus’ Executioner and explains Zhao’s rather nervous behavior around her.
Now that the Exaltists, Sarah and the Creator puppet are gone, the role of the antagonist is tried by Youkai, Fairy’s AI “brother”. Ever since he left Lockspring, he had been jumping from vessel to vessel, spreading chaos in his wake and even taunting Belle and Wise. His latest entertainment included hacking and corrupting Intelligent Construct citizens and making them go out of control. However, led by Severian Lowell, the NEPS got in his way and then promptly pulled the Proxies and Fairy into this mess as well.
Aria – or construct A-H0L0 – was one of his victims, driven to attack her own friends and Jane. Through the girl’s worries, we’ve learned of her and Fairy’s shared past. Fairy was not entirely dormant over the years, certain data modules had been active during the time of the old capital. One such module acted as a temporary commander to the group of A-H0L0 constructs, leading the squad through the operations and assassinations.
At some point, the initiative had been dropped and the squad had been abandoned, Aria included, leading to her “sleeping” inside the Hollow. It was Cecilia’s – Cersea’s – song that woke her up, and led to the current life in New Eridu. Fairy had taken on the role of Wishing Sprite, a chatbot assistant that encouraged Aria to pursue her dreams.
Aria’s deep connection to Cersea ultimately led to her being a part of the Angels of Delusion and the trio being taken under Cecilia’s wing. But her shared past with Fairy might also serve as the reason for being targeted by Youkai, beyond him seeking to sow chaos. In an unusual for ZZZ scene, we even got characters to disagree with one another, both raising good points about their stances.
If it sounds like the patch is very focused on Aria, that’s because it certainly is. While a certain amount of time is spent to introduce players to Cissia and Severian, Promeia, Velina and Norma (more about them later), and the rest of the characters got to wish the Proxies a happy Gilded Carrot Day, the main story ultimately focuses on Aria as an Intelligent Construct, as well as Fairy and Youkai as Intelligent Entities duking it out in the background.
There are plenty of Intelligent Constructs around, the playable roster includes Billy, Qingni, Banyue and soon Aria herself, so it was nice to learn more about them. Hopefully Vesper is not stuck in the literal jail for too long, either. I hate her boss form for putting me through hell in Deadly Assault, but as a character she was surprisingly nice. Even her short antagonistic streak was mostly fuelled by Youkai and TOPS.
Nangong and Sunna were much less fortunate in the character development department. Through the main story, they were often portrayed as simply “the cunning (and rich) one” and the “anxious one with self-esteem issues”. You get to learn more about Sunna through the version event ‘A Harmony of Delusions’, while Nangong Yu will likely get her own character quest or involvement in V2.7 alongside Cissia.
Still, coming back to 6th Street felt like returning home – which it largely is, considering Random Play. However, it’s not yet time to relax since the new adventure will begin soon, likely revolving around Lady Sunbringer and her flying island paradise, Roscaelifer.
In Version 2.5, we got some glimpses into the past of Lady Sunbringer and a surprising cameo of “Joyous” at the every end of The Divine Maze multiplayer event. Behind Lady Sunbringer, you can see some distinct silhouettes, the two of which are incredibly similar to Velina and Norma, two new characters that made their first appearance at the very end of V2.6.
Together, these two have descended into the Lemnian Hollow, making their way to the site of battle against the Creator. What they found is the Flint Porcelloy, the material that made up the vessel of the Creator, scattered around in a large area. The good news, the vessel is completely destroyed and cannot be used to make a comeback (RIP, Sarah).
The bad news: they didn’t have a way to figure out the total amount of Porcelloy or where it came from. The two planned to interrogate Ye Shunguang, but were turned away by Yixuan. Now their attention naturally moves to the other eyewitness present during the encounter: the Proxy.
It is likely that we will encounter them face-to-face in V2.7 or V2.8, much like it happened with Yixuan and Ju Fufu, before they actually become playable sometime in 3.x. After all, we already know that Nangong Yu and Cissia are arriving in Version 2.7, and Promeia is still unaccounted for.
Between coming back to Random Play and 6th Street, Haru’s buffs that put him back on the menu (I personally didn’t try Lycaon’s Potential yet), seeing familiar factions, NPCs and surroundings, V2.6 feels like Zenless Zone Zero finally getting back on track. It is also a great feeling to actually have things and characters to look forward to – Lady Sunbringer and Joyous, Youkai as another adversary that’s still out there, the continuation of the Creator plot, and Roscaelifer literally looming overhead.
Hopefully, ZZZ does not slow back down, and will continue with interesting quests, lore reveals and character developments all the way to Season 3. Maybe another lore trailer to go with “Where the Miracle Began”? It’s been over a year and half already.
We could also do less with boss control skills and invulnerability phases though, especially in timed content. There’s nothing worse than the boss deciding to fly around as the clock is ticking.
Edited to add: I totally forgot to mention that I hope more factions, including the older ones like Obol, Sons of Calydon and Section 6, get dynamic wallpapers and shared idle/combat/ultimate animations in the future. I had always found it a bit odd that Koleda and Ben had unique Ultimate animations if they are in the squad together, but then HoYo had abandoned the idea. It’s great to see them return to it in a way with Angels of Delusion. Hopefully it won’t be another 2 years before we see it again!
