When HoYoverse drops a new game, players have come to expect sweeping, high-fantasy orchestral arrangements and space-opera symphonies. But Zenless Zone Zero completely shatters that playbook, swapping out concert halls for the gritty, high-energy pulse of underground club culture and vintage aesthetics. From the lo-fi chill of Sixth Street to the high-octane EDM pounding through the Hollows, New Eridu’s music rises above most video game soundtracks as the driving heartbeat of the entire experience.

Behind this pivot into funk, acid jazz, and electronic sub-genres is Yang Wutao and the tight-knit team of producers and composers known as Sān-Z Studio. Operating more like a collective of late-night crate-diggers than traditional gaming composers, Sān-Z Studio's philosophy is fiercely straightforward: prioritize raw emotion over industry trends. Whether collaborating with global electronic icons like Tiësto or capturing the quiet, solitary headspace of a single character, the team approaches every track as a standalone piece of art meant to exist outside the boundaries of the game.

With the game's highly anticipated physical soundtrack dropping on vinyl via Laced Records on April 29th, fans are getting a tactile, analog way to bring a piece of the game's world into their own living rooms. IGN sat down with Yang Wutao to discuss the creation of the music for Zenless Zone Zero.

IGN: One of the standout features of Zenless Zone Zero is how every Agent feels very unique. When you'ree developing the character EPs, what's the internal process for selecting a genre to match an Agent's DNA? For example, how did you land on EDM?

Yang Wutao: Music exists to express emotion — otherwise it's just sound. So we've never had a "genre selection" process when it comes to character EPs. There's only ever one question: who is this character, and what do they want to say?

The IP team gives us a foundation, but we'll continue to dig deeper from there. We'll figure out things that aren't written into the lore, but a real person would naturally have. For example, nobody told us what Yanagi thinks about on her commute home, but she's so busy, so used to taking care of everyone else, that I naturally found myself wondering: when she's walking home alone, what's going through her mind? That's the moment I wanted to capture. Caesar looks tough on the outside, but she's a Pisces, someone who's genuinely sensitive underneath. So we leaned into that side of her. Burnice is wild and full of energy, so EDM's explosive feel just made sense.

We don't really think along the lines of, "Oh, this genre is trending, let's use it." Emotion comes first, and the genre follows. Once we're clear on who the character really is, the sound will naturally find itself.

After hearing me say all this, maybe go back and give all the EPs another listen — you might even spot a few cases where we fell flat in terms of expression.

IGN: We've seen the game collaborate with massive names like Tiësto and partner with festivals like Creamfields. It's clear that club culture is baked into the game's soul. How does the energy of dance music influence the design aesthetic and music?

Yang Wutao: It's the other way around, actually. Electronic music didn't shape Zenless Zone Zero, but rather, it's more like a group of like-minded people came together, and what we made just naturally turned out this way. That's exactly why collaborating with DJs like Tiësto felt like a natural extension of what we were already doing.

EDM fits this game because it's inherently energetic. It has no lyrics, not a lot of melody, and is built on loops. But through verses, build-ups, drops, and other sorts of unconventional sound design, it affects us emotionally. You don't need to understand it, you just need to feel it. That's exactly the kind of experience Zenless Zone Zero wants to give players.

And honestly, a lot of games in the industry are going orchestral. We didn't want to go down that road — we wanted to be fundamentally different. The project team and our producers gave us the space to do that, and we ran with that direction.

The results proved it was the right call. Whether it was Creamfields in the UK, ZZZ FES here in China, or ZLive events in Japan, US, and other locations, we didn't have any flashy high-tech stage setups. We just played the music, and the crowd went wild. That's not us being impressive, it's just the energy that electronic music carries on its own. It has this thing where it puts you in the zone right then and there.

IGN:The character EPs often feel like they belong on a festival stage rather than a traditional game soundtrack. When you're in the studio, are you approaching these tracks as video game music or are you trying to write a standalone pop or rock song that could be a hit on the radio?

Yang Wutao: While in the studio, we've never once asked ourselves, "Is this game music or a pop single?" That framing just isn't part of our initial considerations at all.

We only ever start from one place: does this music have emotion, does it have energy, and is it well-made? When a piece of music really lands, it stops being purely functional — it becomes a song. The game has hundreds of tracks, and some of their respective scenes are short, so some tracks are more for utility. And that's fine. But character EPs are different — those are the ones where we hold ourselves to the highest standard.

Of course, we also recognize that the game and the music elevate and complement each other. The fact that ZZZ's music has reached so many people and resonated the way it has, that wouldn't have happened without the game as a platform, and we're genuinely grateful for that.

But we have a bigger goal in mind: if someday someone who doesn't play Zenless Zone Zero, or even someone who has no connection to this ACG world at all, hears the music and loves it purely on its own terms — that's the biggest sort of validation we can get. If we get there, great. If not, we keep working. Simple as that.

IGN:The Hyper Commission OSTs cover a massive amount of ground. How does the team divvy up the workload between composers and ensure the music feels cohesive? Specifically, how do you distinguish the vibe of daily life on Sixth Street from the high-stakes, chaotic energy of gameplay inside the Hollows?

Yang Wutao: The overall cohesion is honestly more of a natural byproduct than something we deliberately engineered.

ZZZ's art direction has a very strong sense of identity. From the moment I first saw it, the vibe hit me immediately, and I knew right away that electronic music had to be the foundation. But electronic music itself has a lot of branches. The chill daily life on Sixth Street and the pressure of combat inside the Hollows call for completely different sub-genres. Whatever feeling a scene gives you, that's the direction the music goes.

It was just me in the beginning, so I tried to cover as many styles as possible while staying within the category of electronic music — and that's probably how the "wide ranged but still cohesive" effect came about naturally. As the team grew, everyone who joined was a musician and understood the principles, and the foundation carried on. Even in later versions where we've explored some non-electronic directions, the core scenes and combat music have stayed true to what was set from the start — so it never drifts too far.

The workflow is pretty simple: when tasks come in, we split them up, everyone does their thing, and then we critique each other's work. We're direct with one another, and we trust one another. Sometimes the feedback is brutal, but that's exactly how you end up with music that actually has character.

IGN:New Eridu has such a distinct visual language, from the streetwear to the retro-tech. What kind of references is the development team handing the music department? Are you looking at fashion and street art just as much as you are looking at musical scores to find the right sound?

Yang Wutao: Honestly, there's no formal reference-sharing process. The art team just sends a few images our way, such as character designs or character/scenic drafts, and from those we pretty much get a feel of what to do.

But the deeper reason why that works is: that kind of understanding wasn't built overnight. It exists because we were already the same kind of people to begin with. The music team, the art team, the UI team — we're friends outside of work, gravitate toward the same things, and our tastes line up. Sometimes, even a look is all it takes.

We don't deliberately study or research street art or fashion trends. But we live pretty down-to-earth lives — and that life is part of street culture itself. We understand the atmosphere not because we consciously observe it from the outside, but because we're already inside it. So when New Eridu's visual language is sitting right in front of us, we don't need it explained — because that feeling is something carved into our bones.

You could almost think of it this way: we're New Eridu residents ourselves — just a group of close friends working different jobs.

IGN: Battle music in Zenless Zone Zero has a very specific sound to it. What was the core directive for the combat themes?

Yang Wutao: If I had to name one core principle, it's that the music has to be alive. The foundational style was established a long time ago, and as long as we're not straying wildly from it, we actually encourage everyone to make whatever they want to make. I'd much rather each musician bring their own personality, preferences, taste — even their life experiences — into the work. Because only then does the music actually come alive, instead of just being sound that sits underneath the action.

Take Hugo's combat track for example: it's very rock, very metal, totally different from the electronic feel of our main storyline. But it's alive and has a personality. The moment you hear it, you know who made it.

When each musician brings something that's genuinely theirs, the combat music will have a soul of its own. To us, that matters a whole lot more than stylistic consistency.

IGN:New Eridu is obsessed with "old tech" VHS tapes, CRT monitors, and of course, vinyl. Does this retro-future aesthetic influence your production techniques?

Yang Wutao: VHS tapes, CRTs, vinyl records — these are very specific visual symbols that are instantly recognizable. But music is abstract. You can't play a note that "draws out an image" of a CRT monitor. So rather than saying this aesthetic style influenced our production techniques, I'd say it triggered a kind of feeling in us — an impulse to go back and find the sounds we remember.

Our team spans different generations, so everyone's definition and relationship with "retro" is a little different. But that's actually a strength — it gives us a wider pool of memories to draw from. Someone might associate it with the grainy texture of lo-fi hip-hop; someone else might think of jazz or bossa nova; someone else could be hearing the musical quality of 90s anime. Put those things together and you get a kind of retro that feels layered and rich rather than flat.

So the aesthetic's influence on us is less about "technique" and more about "what feeling are we trying to express." Technique is in service of expression, and expression is our core. We hope to use the tools of today to bring back the sounds each of us heard growing up, and give them a home in New Eridu.

IGN: In-game, players spend a lot of time at Bardic Needle tuning Drive Discs. Music isn't just background noise in Zenless Zone Zero, it's a mechanic for character progression. Did the lore surrounding Elfy and her record store change how you viewed the soundtrack's role for the player?

Yang Wutao: I don't think it's the Bardic Needle's function that changed how we see music. If anything, it's the opposite — This design confirmed what we'd been doing all along.

The fact that the Bardic Needle works as a concept within the game's world says something: the citizens of New Eridu see music the same way we do. It's not just ambiance — it's tied to how a character grows.

That said, the worldbuilding doesn't really affect how we actually make the music on a technical level. We still approach things from the scene itself. The Bardic Needle as a space — all those plants, Elfy's whole aesthetic — naturally made me think of South American vibes. But she carries herself with such elegance, a little different from the passionate, high-energy feel of samba, so bossa nova was our choice. That's how the track "Tipsy Muse" came about.

The scene convinces us, not the lore or worldbuilding. They, however, did make us feel like the music matters to New Eridu, and that counts for something.

IGN: The genre transitions in Zenless Zone Zero are incredibly seamless. How did you compose the music in such a way that it could transition between very different atmospheres?

Yang Wutao: Honestly, we don't actually think the transitions are that seamless ourselves.

Zenless Zone Zero is a live-service game, and it can't have the kind of cohesion a standalone single-player game can. A standalone game has a whole experience based on a complete world from start to finish, so the style can stay consistent throughout. But we go lo-fi one moment, electronic the next, then rock after that — there's actually quite a bit of jumping between versions and modules. We're very aware of that.

But the reason players might still feel okay about it is probably this: every piece of music we write for a module is matched to that specific scene and those specific characters. It's not just sound we're creating to fill in a gap — it's the sound that belongs in that moment. As long as every piece lands where it should, even a big stylistic jump doesn't feel jarring, because every transition has a reason behind it.

So rather than saying we designed some kind of "seamless transition system," it's more that we just tried, in each individual moment, to get that scene's music right.

IGN: miHoYo is known for the orchestral sweeps of Genshin Impact and the space-opera feel of Honkai: Star Rail. Zenless feels like a sharp pivot toward Funk, Hip-Hop, and Acid Jazz. Were there specific artists or eras that helped define the game's musical identity?

Yang Wutao: Most games build their soundtracks around mainstream scoring, with standout moments in select individual tracks. ZZZ instead took a different approach: the overall tone is deliberately non-mainstream, and we've actually done some more "conventional" music in certain EPs as a kind of contrast — so people get to hear something that sounds a bit more "normal" too. So when people call it a bold pivot, we never really thought of it that way. We're just this group of people, and what we make naturally ends up sounding like this.

That's also why ZZZ's musical range is so broad. It wasn't a deliberate choice — it's just that each of us has completely different influences. Fortunately, our producer Zhenyu Li trusted us enough to give us the freedom to express ourselves, which is why all of this could be implemented. Even now, we're still exploring new directions — there's a lot we haven't gotten around to trying yet.

IGN: With the vinyl soundtrack dropping on April 29th, fans are getting a tactile way to experience the music. Are there any tracks on this record that you feel specifically benefit from the vinyl format?

Yang Wutao: With vinyl, it's really more about the collectibility and ritualization. The moment you hold it in your hands and put it on a turntable is a completely different experience from listening through earbuds while scrolling on your phone — it's not about audio quality, it's that the act itself carries a kind of weight. We're really stoked to be working with Laced Records to bring this to players.

As a vinyl record can only hold so much, our logic for the track selection was simple: this record is for the players, so we pick the songs that mean the most to them. Whatever tracks people have had on repeat, those are the ones we selected.

At the end of the day, it's something meant to be kept and collected. Music is abstract, it floats in the air — but this record makes it into something you can put on a shelf, give to a friend, pull out ten years from now and still remember exactly how you felt the first time. That in itself, we think, is worth something.

Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke has discussed having no control over her character Daenerys Targaryen's storyline, dialogue or eventual fate — including in the series' polarizing finale.

Speaking to Variety, Clarke said she "didn't have any creative input" on her role, though hadn't sought out any either, believing she was "not qualified." Still, she noted that the series' showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had been "fastidious" that actors stuck to their scripts, with retakes necessary for even small differences — such as if she said "it's" instead of "it is."

"Aside from what I brought as an actor, I didn't have any creative input, nor did I want any," Clarke said, answering again with a flat "no" when asked if she could have altered Daenerys' ultimate fate — an ending that many fans disliked.

Game of Thrones' final episodes see her character suddenly turn from a hero — who has just defeated an undead army and looks set to save the Seven Kingdoms from Lannister rule — to a city-burning conqueror. In a tragic twist, she is ultimately stopped by her lover Jon Snow. Her lifeless body is then carried away by her dragon — and that's that.

[Benioff and Weiss] were "fastidious about us saying the lines exactly as they’ve written them," Clarke continued. "I was given the seasons, and I, to the best of my ability, empathized and understood and tracked every choice she made so it felt like mine. I felt like that was what my job was."

Clarke's former Game of Thrones co-star Kit Harington previously said that mistakes were made in the show's controversial ending, but he was "not sure there was any alternative" as the series' cast and crew were exhausted following almost a decade of production. "I think if there was any fault with the end of Thrones, is that we were all so f***ing tired, we couldn't have gone on longer."

Ultimately, Clarke said that she was now "grateful" for the experience of playing Daenerys, which catapulted her to stardom and has since landed her roles in numerous other TV series and movies.

"I have gone through every circuitous route to get to the place that I am now, which is finally being able to be very grateful for everything that Game of Thrones did and has given me," Clarke concluded. "I no longer feel trapped in it, or trapped in the result of being in it. I feel just really lucky that it happened to me — even luckier that I've had time to understand what that was, and now I feel firmly on the other side."

In January, Clarke admitted feeling "really pissed" at the expert who developed Game of Thrones' fictional languages, after reading that he thought her Dothraki pronounciation "sucked." David J. Peterson, who HBO hired as a full-time linguist on its hit fantasy show, subsequently responded to Clarke's comments, saying that the actress had misunderstood what he meant, and that she "never had to be good at it," as his intention had never been that Daenerys Targaryen would speak Dothraki flawlessly.

The same month, Clarke said she was likely finished working on fantasy projects after spending nine years as Daenerys, telling the New York Times it was "highly unlikely" viewers would see her "get on a dragon, or even in the same frame as a dragon, ever again."

Image credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social