Bif you Gundamseveral things spring to mind, starting with giant robots fighting other giant robots. Longtime fans will know that it deconstructs the mecha genre and that some of the franchise’s best entries offer hard-hitting depictions of war, morality and the price of progress. It also offers incredible human drama, whether you’re caught up in the complexity and intergalactic conflict of the original Gundam series, fascinated by the manipulations of the heavenly being in Gundam-00 or to reveal the secrets of The Witch of Mercury.
However, there is another fanbase for the franchise that goes beyond the anime, and that is Gunpla – model kits for hobbyists to build a Gundam from scratch. They vary in complexity and scale depending on the class, not to mention the laborious processes of painting and modifying (including kitbashing, which involves using parts from multiple kits in a single model). Such is the craze for Gunpla that there is a Builders World Cup tournament where the best compete against each other. There is even its own anime, the Building Gundam Fighterss series in which the hobby is used for the plot.
“Overall, the characterization is as typical as it gets, with memorized dialogue that is serviceable at best and skippable at worst.”
Essentially, what Gundam Breaker 4 As the first real sequel to the main series since 2016 Gundam Breaker 3 (pretend New Gundam Breaker never happened), it offers all the customization a Gunpla enthusiast could want. The sheer number of parts is extensive, with over 250 base kits, and you can customize them to your heart’s content with stickers, weather, resizing, and more. As a hack-and-slash action-adventure game, however, it leaves something to be desired.
The story focuses on a new Gundam Online title (which sounds suspiciously like a metaverse game) is entering beta. It has attracted a lot of players, from casual players to ambitious competitive types. The protagonist is a relative newbie who starts with an RX-78, and it’s not long before another player, Tao, shows up to teach you the ropes. I was glad I had the chance to exclaim “How dare you” when Tao called me a novice, but I had to endure his company nonetheless.
You’ll meet other characters like Lin, a talented player who wants to be the best and can feel a little insecure around newbies; Mister, someone who runs around trying to help newbies like Tao, except he has an afro; and Sheena, an overly polite player.
Overall, the characterization is as typical as it gets, with rote dialogue that’s serviceable at best and skippable at worst. It doesn’t get any better, and some concepts – like the player using a talent called Spartan Rage – I mean Super Saiyan – I mean Awaken – feel cliched and lacking in real dignity.
“Although the giants can feel like a sponge, it’s exciting to take on a giant Unicorn Gundam and watch it activate the NT-D to give it its all.”
Perhaps the most intriguing concept is that players can use different avatars and that perhaps no one is who they say they are. This certainly won’t lead to a major plot twist later on. The general vibe is to meet up with your friends in the game, take on missions, and fight rival clans to climb the career ladder, at least initially. I wish my character had more opportunities to voice their opinions, even if it was to make cheekier remarks. It feels like a good portion of the story is being played out through other people and I’m just standing by (and doing all the work, too, mind you).
The basic gameplay of Gundam Breaker 4 is very straightforward. Head to the desk and pursue a story mission with three difficulty options and a partner selection. Higher difficulty levels require higher quality parts for your Gundam. The missions themselves are extremely simple, usually just consisting of taking out waves of enemies before moving on to the next area and ending with a boss. A few unique missions (like protecting a point) may pop up, but these involve eliminating every single attacking enemy rather than destroying a target Gundam (which causes the smaller fish to disappear).
The boss battles can range from battles with regular-sized Gundams to giants with extensive health bars, multiple break points, barriers you must damage before you can deplete their HP again, and big, dramatic attacks. Although the giants can feel damage-spongy, there is something appealing about taking on a massive Unicorn Gundam and watching it activate the NT-D to go all out. Sure, some giant bosses have several of the same attacks, but such is life in a Bandai Namco-produced Gundam game. At the very least, you will be encouraged to find and destroy specific pieces to add them to your repertoire.
When you progress far enough, you unlock quests and bounties. The former offer straightforward missions against enemy Gundam with little to no narrative scenes, while the latter involve directly confronting rivals and collecting money when defeating them. This is unique because you can select up to three opponents to fight, and the encounters can be interesting depending on your build. Speaking of which, I appreciated the menu that lists the various kit pieces used to create these opponents, allowing players to easily copy their setups.
“The problem is that there’s not much depth to the combat otherwise, which isn’t helped by the mission structure or the shoddy AI of most enemies (when they’re not pinning you down forever with dual-bladed weapons).”
While the mission types and objectives are a bit boring and repetitive, there’s hope that the combat will do a better job of this. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, but it’s not a lost cause either. Customizing your Gundam involves equipping it with unique weapons and parts that give it various OP abilities, ranging from performing a slash combo with your beam sword to grabbing an SD Gundam with your claw shield to smash it into the ground. Each weapon also has unique properties – the whip is good for attacking enemies in an area, but can also pull one close to you, to give just one example.
You also have EX skills like Repair and Trans-Am, the latter of which massively boosts your stats. I didn’t find the parts system all that exciting from a stats perspective at first and just went for the highest levels to meet the requirements, but the skills and weapon types can add variety. Launching an enemy into the air with a beam saber only to stab them repeatedly with a dagger and then pelting them with Gatling guns and missiles can be satisfying. The combo system also incentivizes creating higher combos, which activates various buffs and increases item drop rates.
The problem is that there’s not a whole lot of depth to the combat otherwise, which isn’t helped by the mission structure or the poor AI of most enemies (when they’re not pinning you down forever with dual-bladed weapons). They seem unable to dodge your long-range shots except by accident, and become vulnerable super quickly.
Yes, it’s tempting to gain superpowers and crush the competition with a powerful build, but I’d love to see them fight back in some way. Watching a legendary Gundam show up to challenge my crew becomes less exciting over time when its behavior is as predictable and superficial as the others.
“If nothing else, this is a much cheaper option than spending hundreds of dollars on model kits. Whether it’s worth putting up with all the annoying limitations is another question entirely.”
Your allies aren’t much better, sometimes getting stuck on objects in the environment and seemingly offering no help even when it comes to deflecting aggro. Movement can feel odd at times, as jumping and boosting are tied to the same button. To activate the latter, you need to hold the button while moving, but you need to hold it while standing to gain greater jump height. It’s not the worst, but it takes some getting used to, especially when jumping up and hitting the head of a giant Gundam.
As for the presentation, there’s not much to say about the visuals or music. The graphics won’t blow you away with their accuracy, but like many things, they’re serviceable and the performance isn’t too bad either. The voice acting is passable and, once again, does little to enhance the characters.
If you are looking for the best of the best in mech combat, Gundam Breaker 4 right, boss. While the combat isn’t terrible and there’s tons of content for those who can get into it, it’s plagued by repetitive objectives, disappointing AI, and mediocre depth. The story has some intriguing elements, but doesn’t do much to keep you hooked.
Still, thanks to the extensive customization options and the ability to personalize your own Gundam, it’s attractive to showcase it through in-game photography (which could use a better background) and creating dioramas. At the very least, it’s a much cheaper option than spending hundreds of dollars on model kits. Whether that’s worth putting up with all the annoying limitations is another question entirely.
This game was tested on PlayStation 5.
