You hear that, Danganronpa fans?
It’s not too often that a simple developer-provided summary can fire up my imagination and immediately invest me in a video game, butZanki Zero: Last Beginningpulls off that feat. The new survival RPG fromDanganronpa‘s Yoshinori Terasawa and Takayuki Sugawara sounds promising.
God created the world in seven days. It only took one day for humans to destroy the world. Life as we knew it sank to the depths of the sea…until yesterday.
We do not yet know the broken world and the reasons left behind there. An earth where ruins drift about. Buildings, houses, light posts. Cars, traffic lights, asphalt… Modern civilization was destroyed, becoming nothing more than debris wading in the sea. New ruins drift one after the other before the protagonist, who lives on one of those decaying islands.
What can I say? I’m a sucker for loops. And this game has the added bonus of basing its cast of characters around the seven deadly sins. If you’re similarly intrigued, the wait won’t be long. Spike Chunsoft is bringingZanki Zero: Last Beginningto PlayStation 4 and PC on June 08, 2025 in the West.
Day 1 Edition copies on PS4 and early purchases on Steam will come with a soundtrack bonus.
So that’s the setup. Aside from hunting and gathering and monster battling,Zanki Zerohas the usual survival considerations to keep in the back of your mind. Eating. Sleeping. Going to the bathroom. I mean, hey, everyone poops! If they don’t get relief, it can actually be “fatal for your party.”
There are 13 days in a life cycle, and “each clone’s stats, abilities, and capabilities differ from youth to old age. Depending on how you die, you can even earn bonus upgrades for your next life cycle.”The game’s official siteshows what everyone looks like as a child, adult, and elderly person.
By the end of the chapter-based adventure, we’ll find meaning in the characters’ “never-ending cycles of life and death.” I’m curious to unravel that mystery, but I might not like the answers I find.
