Gundam Breaker 4 PC Review – Beyond Breaker!

Gundam fans can finally rest easy, a new Gundam Breaker game has finally arrived! And it’s actually good again! The Gundam Breaker franchise took a rather hefty decline with their previous release of New Gundam Breaker. It failed to even secure a proper western audience. But thankfully, Gundam Breaker 4 is a return to form. Boasting the biggest roster of Gunpla kits ever seen in the franchise, new modes to show off those custom builds and an expanded multiplayer experience.

Gundam Breaker 4 aims to be bigger and better than all of its predecessors, did it achieve all it set out to be? Well, let’s build our first Gunpla and find out!

Gundam Breaker 4 returns to the formula of old, but has changed the way it has been presented. In games past, the story portrayed characters building kits and taking them to arcades where projection machines would bring them to life and battle. Purpose-built sports buildings were built to host the various fighters and builders competitions. But with the rise in VR technology, the universe of Gundam Breaker 4 is entirely online. Characters log in using avatars, build their Gunpla in game and complete missions and participate in clan battles complete with rankings.

As an avid Gundam and Gunpla fan, I sorta feel like this sucks the soul out of Gunpla battling. I understand that it’s mimicking the progression of the anime (The earlier Build Fighters series that gave rise to the Breaker series was much the same at the start, characters built and fought with real gunpla, later series Build Divers, follows the new format of online gaming). But as someone who didn’t enjoy the later anime series as much as the earlier ones, for this exact reason, the game’s premise doesn’t quite have the same charm and character that Gundam Breaker 3 had. Thus I found the story incredibly lacking at times, add in the fact it felt very slow paced and dialogue heavy, I often found myself skipping “cutscenes”. If they can really be called that at all in this game.

That’s not to say that it’s a bad game, not by a long shot. But it does feel lacking in some areas.

Gameplay

Gundam Breaker 4 is truly a Gunpla Builders paradise!

If you’re familiar with the Gundam Breaker franchise, then you’re already halfway to understanding what it’s all about. For the most part, the gameplay retains a similar style to games like Dynasty Warriors but on a smaller scale. It’s a hack and slash action game where you take on missions and fight against other Gunpla in waves. Culminating in a boss fight in the final wave of the mission. These boss fights tend to be either a team of enemy “players” or one of the various Master Grade model kits, which dwarf the player’s High Grade kits in size. The former offer a lot more fun in combat since you have options on who to take out first, while the latter Master Grade kits are just giant damage sponges that take far too long to take down no matter how strong your kit is.

The biggest change to the game probably has to be the new Breaker Combo feature. Think of it similar to a style ranking from Devil May Cry. The more opponent Gunpla you can “break” in a short time, the better your ranking will be for that wave. String together as many high ranked waves as you can to improve your overall rank and earn better rewards upon mission completion. The harder the foe, the harder it is to break them. The harder they are to break, the harder it becomes to string together the required number to achieve an S rank. So it really encourages players to build harder, better, faster and stronger (see what I did there?) and to change up their equipment to see if different weapon styles work better for different situations. There’s less of a “one size fits all” kinda vibe here and I’m all for it.

The game has expanded on its controls and options from previous games. One of the newest modes is dual weapon combat, allowing you to equip one melee and one ranged option in each hand. I am yet to see if there’s any detriment to choosing one or two of each weapon. To elaborate a little further, X and Y (Square and Triangle for Playstation players) control the left and right arm melee weapons respectively, however if you stick it out with just one option, I believe the control options change to light and heavy attacks the same way.

This, coupled with the multitude of melee weapons available, each with their own unique flair and attack style. Give the play so many options to find the right style that suits them. Do you want to be a quick hitter? Stick with the trusty old Beam Saber, or weapons in the same category. Maybe you want a slow but heavy and hard hitting weapon like the mace? Or a two handed heavy swing of a giant sword? Perhaps you just want to settle things the old fashioned way, with your fists of fury and amazing martial arts! All are incredibly viable options and allow the player to express themselves in more ways than simply “building the most overpowered Gunpla.”

Two ranged weapons, one for each hand allows for equal amounts of customisation on a different level. You can have a bazooka in one hand and a beam rifle in the other, perhaps a Gatling rifle and a sniper rifle? Or maybe you wanna go crazy and equip Wing Zero’s twin (splittable) buster rifle and go absolutely ham on your foes for complete, utter destruction? The choice really is yours!

The Assembly mode is where the real creativity comes to life. With over 200 Mobile Suits from all the various Gundam series, there is a nigh endless potential for build combinations. An expanded set of builders parts only add to the utterly insane levels of customisation in GB4. In games past, it was a challenge of mine I would undertake, where friends would task me with building a suit around a certain series or singular Gundam model kit. I’d spend hours coming up with ideas of custom Gunpla kits, finding pieces that looked close enough to the core suit that it could have easily been featured directly in the anime.

With GB4, it’s no different, in fact I already speculate more hours than ever before, with the ability to resize body parts to fit your build perfectly, dye it accordingly, it’s easier than ever to cross breed model kits!

Multiplayer has been expanded too, not by much, but definitely more than it has in previous games. Instead of simply a list of AI controlled, player builds to fight and collect parts from. You can now participate in co-op missions with other players! There’s even a rankings board for a game score. Builders competitions happen frequently too, here, other players can view and rate your kit builds as well as your Dioramas! I have yet to dabble in a diorama challenge, as one was already underway and I missed the cutoff date, but I plan to try my hand at it later!

Graphics

Graphics are your standard affair, though they have been substantially improved to meet the new hardware. But if you put GB3 and GB4 side by side, one could easily mistake GB4 for a HD Remaster or Remake of GB3. Because the game retains the same formula and style, with only a slightly modified HUD for the new “breaker” feature, and I think this is a good thing. Too often we see Triple A game titles change things up too much between games and later games can lose their core identity in the process. But not here, Gundam Breaker 4 is as easy to pick up and play as GB3.

Special effects too, have taken a big step in improvement, but are just that, an improvement. Overall the game simply looks to me like it’s gone through the remaster process, there’s not really much innovation, just quality improvements to what has existed for a long time.

Once again, that’s not actually a bad thing to me, I actually like the style choice of the game. My only issue with this stems from the choice they made to style the game around an online lobby, rather than a sort of real life launch bay, that I remember from GB3. There was a certain charm to running around as a little guy in my space suit of choice, being able to take an elevator up to be chest height with my true to life size Gunpla kit in the background. It is a nice touch that you can change the Gunpla model featured on display in GB4, however, in my opinion, why would you want to display anything other than your own cool and original custom build kits?

Diorama mode however, is where all this graphical flair really comes into its own. Here you can take little diorama models purchased from the in game shop with in game currency. And plop them all together on maps, bought the same way. Pose them in unique ways, with landscape items like walls and terminals, special effects like explosions, all bought through the in game store. I’m not the most creative person when it comes to this however, but I saw several other players and the level of creativity on display was a sight to behold. Some were intricately detailed recreations of scenes taken from within the Gundam franchise, others completely original and some chose to make memes out of theirs. I hope to get a little more into the Diorama mode at a later stage when I have the luxury of time to fully play around with it and see what I can come up with. But it’s a very cool feature that I fully believe will see a lot more players hanging around long after completing the game.

(One quick little sad note here: For anyone, like me, who is a massive fan of the Gundam 00 anime series, you cannot change the colour of the GN Particles in GB4, this was a feature back in GB3, the GN particles changed colours with your choice of panel light colours. This is a sorely missed feature that has already garnered some unsatisfied player rage on social media and forums)

Audio

Audio however is one of the areas where the game falls immensely flat. In Gundam Breaker 3, my favourite thing was that the game actually included audio tracks from the various anime series. For example, when using Trans Am (A feature for Gundam 00 Mobile Suits) with the Awaken ability, the in mission OST would change to one from the Gundam 00 anime, where Setsuna first activates Trans Am mode and annihilates his opponent.

I was unmeasurably sad when I realized this was the case for all music in the game. Instead replaced with, likely copyright free, generic rock and electronic music in the missions and menus. I also noticed the music glitch and repeat on the old occasion, but I don’t know if this was fixed with the recent patch update yet, but I experienced it during my time playing it so it’s in the review.

The voice acting too, is pretty mediocre. It screams B-Grade or indie grade quality. The only thing that makes up for this is the incredible Japanese voice cast, with voice actors from across a number of popular series, some from other Gundam series, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Psycho Pass and even some from Final Fantasy games. I highly recommend playing with the Japanese voice cast if you want any of the dialogue to feel like it has any emotion at all behind it. The English cast just feels very tropey and unfortunately just really underwhelming.

There is a silver lining of sorts however. Sound effects are still 1-1 for their in series counterparts and that makes me very happy. Many sounds are iconic, the various beam rifles from their respective series. The sound of boost thrusters, the swing of the sabers, all iconic effects that would cause an even greater uproar if they were not included. Better yet, they’ve improved the sound balancing so that these effects are much easier to distinguish and hear over the top of in-game dialogue which were previously too loud and sometimes obstructive and distracting to my experience in previous installments.

Final Thoughts?

I am glad the Gundam Breaker 4 exists. Is it for everyone? Absolutely not. It’s a game wholeheartedly focused on the crazy Gundam fans whose wives and partners are sick of trying to find space for yet another model kit on the shelf. It’s for those who want to spend hours building a kit to perfection, creating a cool diorama to show off online, all without being an expensive and messy hobby.

I am not happy, however, that it costs as much as a full game, when it feels like a graphical update and a DLC pack with more mobile suits and missions. The story is so cliche and lacking, that the game would almost be better off without it. The expanded kit roster, added mechanics of dual wielding and diorama modes just don’t justify a hefty price tag. Even as avid a Gundam/Gunpla fan as I am, I would not buy this game at full price.

I do, however, see myself sinking hours upon hours into this game to build many Gunpla kits. I would never have the space or the skill to do so in real life. So in a way, I guess it’s worth it to live that fantasy out in a game like this.

I would like to see a greater effort placed into the story and more incentive for the average player to come back once the game is completed. Repetitive missions to get or improve the parts you want, simply aren’t going to cut it for the average player whose attention span is smaller than my Gunpla collection. (Hint; it’s a lot smaller than what it was)

If my rating seems a little harsh compared to some others, I tried removing my rose tinted glasses, to give Gundam Breaker 4 a fair review. Pure nostalgic enjoyment would see me give this game a 4/5, but objectively, Gundam Breaker still has more work to do, to be as good as Gundam Breaker 3 was. But they’re on the right track, so here’s hoping that future updates, see them continue this upward trend.

Game Details

Game Genre – Fighting, Role-Playing, Shooter, Adventure
Developers – Crafts & Meister
Publishers – Bandai Namco
Rating – General
Year of Release – 2024
Engine–  Unreal Engine 4
Platforms – PS4, PS5, Switch, PC (Steam)
Mode(s) of Play – Single, Multiplayer

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