New Gundam Breaker was… not great. It was universally panned, and the fans of previous games had no love for it either. We feared this may be the end of a little franchise we loved as intersected fans of Gundams, Gunpla (short for Gundam plastic model kits), and video games, but with the announcement of Gundam Breaker 4, we saw a glimmer of hope. The word “New” was nowhere to be found, and it looked like it had a base of Gundam Breaker 3 which is the fan favorite entry. I am VERY happy to say that we are EATING GOOD once again with this one, and it has the legs to become the new definitive entry in the franchise.
Gundam Breaker 4
Developer: CRAFTS ＆ MEISTER
Price: $49.99
Platform: Steam, PS5 (reviewed), PS4 & Switch
MonsterVine was supplied with PS5 code for review
Building and Battling: The Core of Gundam Breaker 4
Gundam Breaker is a series about playing an online game where you get to build your robot to control from Gunpla and play them in matches against each other and against the CPU. It has INSANE customization, featuring just about every model kit you could want to see in a game like this, and lets you smash together kits in fun ways, add extra parts to it, color everything in big detail, add decals and now Gundam Breaker 4 even adds a Diorama Mode allowing you to assemble epic scenes with your customized Gunpla and all kinds of other options to make some seriously cool stuff.
Story and Gameplay: An Engaging Experience
The story mode is pretty similar in its bones to previous ones. You play as an up and coming silent protagonist who happens upon a ragtag group of people and slowly builds it into an in-game “Clan” and rises through the ranks of the game encountering all kinds of intrigue and conflict along the way because it can never be easy can it? Along the way, you will undertake a variety of different missions from fighting back waves of enemies, defending objectives, fighting enemy teams of 3 with your teammates and even big giant boss fights against Perfect Grade model kits which are on a much larger scale than what you start building with and features additional mechanics in the fight.
Combat is improved even further on the framework provided by Gundam Breaker 3 by giving us the option to dual wield weapons further diversifying the usual light and heavy combo strings that we had in previous games. You will be able to mix and match them to create even crazier strings to use than ever. A highlight for me is the whip weapon type, a long range melee weapon that can pull enemies in, or out depending on which direction you hold, mix that up with something heavy like the ax and you have a winning combo. It doesn’t end with close ranged weapons, there are also a variety of ranged weapons that you can equip in each arm to mix in with your assault.
This game has over 250 kits worth of parts, with tons of real life kits given representation with their high quality box art as well. On these parts, you can unlock EX Skills that use a meter you build up for BIG DAMAGE attacks, as well as OP skills that are smaller attacks using built in weaponry on the parts that are on a time based cool down. Put together an awesome robot back lacking some damage? Slap some builder parts on it to unlock EX and OP skills to use, or even just make them as small as possible and hide them in your kit if you don’t want your aesthetic perfection messed with. There is so much customizability here that you will find yourself spending a TON of time in menus working on creating awesome mecha to control, pose, and even hop online with.
Online Play: A Step Forward
Speaking of online, this entry features a much more interesting online system than before. You can join lobbies, meet people while running around as an avatar of your chosen Gunpla, join Clans, do missions together, compete in tournaments, and more. It’s cool to see a bigger focus on trying to recreate the environment presented in the story as well as some of the Gundam anime in this universe. I could see this game becoming really big for me if I found this after discovering Gundam at a young age, and it’s pretty sweet to see the effort made to create something like that.
The Final Word
Gundam Breaker 4 is exactly what I wanted from this franchise after Gundam Breaker 3, and I’m happy to say we can all forget the “New” moniker because we are BACK BABY. Fans of giant robots, fans of customization, and fans of games absolutely bursting at the seams with content can all find something to love here, and I can’t wait to see what this team brings us next.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
