WARNING: THIS BLOG CONTAINS STORY SPOILERS AND LEAKS

OFFICIAL DRIP MARKETING VIDEO:

THIS IS INSANE NEWS TO ME

So, there is kind of a story time to this, but be not afraid, it's not long. When Zenless Zone Zero released, I speed-ran to Lycaon's character story. I was overall satisfied with it, BUT THEN, OUT OF NO WHERE, I WAS STRUCK WHERE I AM MOST WEAK. Hoyoverse, being the GOATS they are, included yet ANOTHER peak vampire character AND HE WAS SO GORGEOUS. T'was truly love at first sight. I then spent the next 248 days anticipating his drip marketing. Over that time I became increasingly hyped, not just for Hugo, but for the WHOLE of Mocking Bird (Hugo's faction). I am now saving for Vivian, Hugo and hopefully Lighter's rerun banner in 1.7... by SKIPPING S rank Anby. I know, heart-breaking. Unfortunately my love for collecting husbandos in gacha games overpowers my love for Silver Soldier Anby, even if she is expected to be astronomically broken in META. 

DISCUSSIONS ABOUT HUGO'S MODEL ON X/TWITTER 

There has been a lot of "friendly discussion" about Hugo's in-game model, with the most common opinion being that it looks weird and that he is "the next Miyabi" (The eyes on Miyabi's in game model were too far apart originally, and so it was changed in her playable release due to player feedback). I can somewhat agree with this, and I was actually very surprised when I saw that the official account announced that they would be changing his in-game model due to player feedback. I saw a lot of people get the impression that this was a very quick last minute decision after the 2 minutes worth of comments on social media, but personally I think that Hoyoverse was thinking about this for a while, as the complaints from players is nothing new when it comes to Hugo's model. I believe they only announced it after his drip marketing to avoid accidentally revealing to players that he would be playable and spoil the hype before his drip-marketing, which is always seen as the big reveal for new characters.

HUGO'S LEAKS VIA  YOUTUBE AND R/ZENLESSZONEZEROLEAKS ON REDDIT

Please remember that these are leaks, and everything displayed can change at any point in time.

The most exciting leak for me is his gameplay, which I will start with. He is apparently available in the beta version of the game, but I've heard that what they have of him right now is very buggy and slightly unfinished. This is also the best look we get of his new model in action. Here is the best Youtube video of it I could find:     

The only other gameplay leaks I could find other than kit crumbs were his walking animations (with his new model) from this post on reddit:

"That's mostly it for in-game new model gameplay from what I know, but there is another interesting thing. we now have a very good visual of his W-Engine. Not just the still image, but the menu animation from the inventory." is what I WOULD HAVE PUT HERE if his gacha animation wasn't just posted to reddit as I was editing this. Here is the video, and here is the post:

NOW we can get to the W-Engine animations. This is BY FAR the most unique W-Engine I've seen in this game, the idea of a ring being a weapon for him is perfect and kind of makes me curious about how other characters would usually equip their W-Engines...? Original post is here, and this is the video:

CLOSING NOTES

I'm SUPER hyped for Hugo and I also plan to get his W-Engine in-case Lighter isn't one of the 1.7 rerun banners. I remember going to the Video Archive in the game to view the handful of panels we had of him EVERY DAY. To say I am a die-hard fan would be an absolute understatement. The art crumbs Hoyoverse has fed us are gorgeous, we even got his casual outfit before the 1.6 update even released. HIS CASUAL OUTFIT IS KIND OF VKEI YK???? I swear Hoyoverse might have made the PERFECT character for me. here is his casual fit AHFUIGRHFOKSJGJS: