Gundam Breaker 4 – Review

Gundam Breaker 4 – When mentioning the name GUNDAM , surely no one feels unfamiliar anymore, whether they are “addicts” to this “plastic drug” or just indifferent people. Not just an anime brand, GUNDAM has long had a profound influence on both popular culture and a historical image in the entertainment industry – that’s why in the blockbuster
Ready Player One , which pays tribute to countless outstanding movie/game characters, more than two minutes of extremely satisfying fighting at the end of the movie were dedicated to honoring RX-78, the “great-grandfather” of the first GUNDAM in history.

Understanding this point, there are also occasionally some relatively lighter GUNDAM series, such as Build Fighter, which talks about an “e-sports” type of battle, when young boys and girls “modify” Gunpla models and compete.

Based on this point, Bandai Namco has launched a very special game series called Gundam Breaker , where the mobile suits are just assembled models, and players can freely “punch” each other to collect parts and “customize” the most satisfactory machine, both in terms of function and appearance.

The latest version of Gundam Breaker 4 has just been released on multiple platforms (Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4/PS5) and has received many very good reviews from the majority of players – this can be considered a good sign when the previous version was good, and now it is even better – something extremely rare in long-running “copycat” game series like this. 

So, what factors make Gundam Breaker 4 so attractive? Please read with Vietgame.asia to find out through the following review.

YOU WILL LIKE

Concise, engaging gameplay!

Still carrying the characteristics of the Gundam Breaker series, Gundam Breaker 4 revolves around the main gameplay flow: fighting > collecting > assembling > upgrading. Players will “start” with the legendary “grandfather” RX-78 model, and when participating in battles through some tutorial missions, with the parts collected from defeated enemies, players will assemble them to have a stronger machine.

The single-player part of Gundam Breaker 4 appears to be more deeply invested than previous versions , as the game world revolves around Gunpla Battle Blaze: Beyond Borders – an online game simulating a virtual world, in which the player is a “tester” participating from the Closed Beta testing phase.

Here, each player will have an avatar (representative image) which is a Gunpla model that they “crafted” themselves – and the main Story missions will lead players through battles with their Clan (guild) and enthusiastic friends who are passionate about fighting with Gunpla models.

The combat in Gundam Breaker 4 is relatively simple, with two melee attack buttons assigned to two different weapons equipped on the left/right hand (with the fist and two-handed sword, both hands are assigned to a single weapon), two types of long-range guns are assigned to two other buttons. The remaining actions such as gliding quickly, jumping high will be assigned to another button. In addition, players can also perform a few actions such as blocking with a shield, moving quickly to avoid…

The skill system in Gundam Breaker 4 is divided into two branches of skills: OP (has a cooldown time, does not depend on energy) and EX (depends on energy accumulated through combat and defeat).

They can be direct attacks (laser slash, missile shot, funnel drop…) or support (super acceleration, shield creation…) depending on the equipment that the player attaches to his Gunpla. When accumulating enough energy, the player can also activate Awaken mode – putting his Gunpla into a super-powered state (increasing damage/defense/speed or weakening all enemies depending on the Awaken form he chooses) for a short time.

With collecting parts from destroyed enemies being the focus of gameplay, Gundam Breaker 4 offers players a massive collection (1500+ Gunpla model models including Gundams, enemies, bosses…) to freely hunt and assemble.

The parts are also divided into many types, from head/body/left arm/right arm/leg/back/melee weapon 1, 2/ranged weapon 1, 2/support accessories. The parts are also classified based on two factors: Level determines basic stats such as health, attack power… and Rarity determines the number of support lines (1 > 8 depending on Rarity) on an equipment.

With collecting parts from destroyed enemies being the focus of gameplay, Gundam Breaker 4 offers players a massive collection

In addition, with the nature of a world revolving around Gunpla models, Gundam Breaker 4 gives players the freedom to be creative with their Gunpla with features such as painting (extremely detailed and rich), building dioramas, posing models, taking photos from multiple angles… has created extremely high play value when, in addition to the moments of being absorbed in punching and smashing, players can also be extremely “chill” with models that if played in real life would cost a lot of money and time.

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Great combat mechanics!

No matter what, a game with the theme of GUNDAM cannot lack the fighting part – because after all, whether it is a real mobile suit or a toy, the purpose of these machines is always to prove: “whoever has the harder fist is the one who is right”. And like the previous Gundam Breaker parts , the fighting mechanism of Gundam Breaker 4 is done very well – optimized and much better than the previous versions.

The interesting thing about the Breaker series is that from the beginning, it gives players the impression that these are toy models – so it is normal for them to have a “plastic” shape and be too flexible for a metal machine weighing tens of tons. This makes it possible to create agile movements, good feedback… for Gundam Breaker 4 without having to try to make it heavy and sluggish like a real machine, thereby significantly enhancing the playing experience!

However, despite being flexible and agile, the punching, kicking, and shooting in Gundam Breaker 4 still show a lot of “power”, especially with many different types of weapons from beam swords, metal swords, daggers, battle axes, electromagnetic whips… each with different range, speed, and force feedback.

This is something that the Gundam Musou series has tried to do and failed to do – because it is essentially a Dynasty Warriors -style “mindless” hack and slash game, except that slashing hundreds of human enemies doesn’t matter if you lack power – but slashing tens of tons of machines and still being “light as cotton” is… a bust. Fortunately, Gundam Breaker 4 has done a good job of this, because it can be said that 80% of the time players spend in the game is in combat.

The missions in Gundam Breaker 4 are not too diverse, but still rich enough that even if they are repetitive, they won’t get too boring.

They can be roughly divided into the following types: Suppression (destroy all enemies in the level), Target (destroy the main target to pass the level), Coach (protect the rescue ship until the end of time), Monolith (destroy the towers protected by enemies) and Boss (fight the “super giant” bosses).

Speaking specifically about the “boss” fighting part, it can be said that this time Gundam Breaker 4 has been quite successful in conveying a very ” Monster Hunter “ feeling to the player, when the bosses are very large in size (mostly PG 1/60 or even 1/48) while the player’s Gunpla is HG 1/144 or even smaller if the player chooses SD.

With many body parts that can be locked and destroyed, players need to demonstrate good movement and dodging skills, and judge which parts to destroy to weaken the boss (make him fall) or limit the boss from launching large-scale fatal attacks.

Gundam Breaker 4 ‘s combat mechanics
are very well done – optimized and far superior to its predecessors

YOU WILL HATE

Lots of annoying little “bugs”!

As great as it is, Gundam Breaker 4 still can’t avoid quite a few shortcomings – not too serious to make players hate it, but not small enough to be “happily” ignored.

First, the game interface is quite confusing and “eye-catching” during combat.

For some reason, the main screen, which should be very spacious for a hack and slash action game with lots of effects, is blocked by two bullet indicator bars (left/right) for each gun type. This makes the view always confusing and annoying, especially when in narrow lanes with too many enemies. What’s even more annoying is that there is no option to turn these bars on/off or adjust their size.

Next, it is unclear whether it was intentional or not, but in Gundam Breaker 4 the jump and speed up actions are assigned to the same button.

This makes the movement “jerky” and not smooth when if you hold down the move button (WASD) and press the jump button (Spacebar), Gunpla will accelerate in the selected direction. To jump, the player must release the move buttons and press the Spacebar alone. This makes it extremely difficult to perform dodges and counterattacks, leading to a less “smooth” playing experience!

Next, although Gundam Breaker 4 is a package game, there is still a hidden form of “In-Game Purchase” in the game, which is Breaker tickets.

Before starting a mission, players have the option to activate a Breaker ticket or not – however, the difference between having a Breaker ticket and not is huge, as with Breakers both the drop rate and item quality are significantly increased!

Breaker Tickets can be earned in-game, but they are extremely limited in number and are assigned to the main Story quest branch. Therefore, for those who want quick and large results, spending a few more “Biden” (USD) to buy 100 or even 500 Breaker Tickets is obvious.

Finally, Gundam Breaker 4 has a very long loading time, even more terrible than the long-winded Starfield ! Enter the main interface? Load the screen. Finish editing and want to exit the interface? Load the screen. Talk to NPC to receive the mission? Load the screen. Switch to the mission scene? Load the screen.

Is it over? Not yet.

Switching “waves” in a mission? Loading screen. From the reward screen back to the Lobby? Loading screen. The loading time can be random from 10 – 30 seconds, depending on the player’s computer configuration, but it is really annoying, especially for a game with not-so-great graphics in this 2024 era.

It makes the experience of playing Gundam Breaker 4 “crushed”, and greatly affects the player’s “interest” – especially when there is not much playing time.

Gundam Breaker 4 has a very long game loading time, even more terrible than the long-winded Starfield!