Gundam Breaker 4 – Review

Since releasing its first title back in 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and Vita, Bandai Namco’s Gundam Breaker franchise has made a name for itself as a series of hack-and-slash games with a large emphasis on breaking off enemy Gundam parts to collect and customise unique player characters. It has settled nicely into the niche scene, remaining obscure to the gaming masses, and a mainstay for genre enthusiasts.

The latest entry to the series, Gundam Breaker 4, aims to not only refine the core gameplay the series is known for, but also touts the largest roster of Gunpla kits and customisation options to date. A playground brimming with variety, the title can easily resonate with fans of Gunpla collection, or the series in general – even if little is done to elevate the series’ simplistic gameplay loop and mission design. 

The premise remains largely unchanged from previous titles, with players assuming the role of a newcomer taking part in Gunpla Battle Blaze: Beyond Borders (or GB4 for short), a popular virtual Gunpla battle simulator in the game’s fiction. Early on, the player encounters fellow newcomers Tao and Lin, and together they form a clan with the hopes of climbing the leaderboards and surpassing Meister Jin, the current top-ranking player. As expected, what starts off as a simple goal gradually becomes more complicated when a series of mysterious glitches start to affect the simulator.

While the plot is nothing to write home about, the characters themselves are rather well written, with an interesting team dynamic between the timid and cautious Tao, juxtaposed with the confident, more gung-ho Lin. The team itself is often presented in a wholesome way, largely accepting of potential newcomers to the clan, mirroring the best of real world gaming communities formed to welcome newcomers and help ease their gaming experience.

Unfortunately, the simple approach to the game’s storytelling also carries over to its mission structure and core gameplay loop. Missions largely boil down to three small battle arenas called “waves”, with the first two having simple objectives like destroying all enemies or defending a certain object, culminating in a final wave with a boss fight. Both main and side missions suffer from this bare-bones design, quickly growing stale to the lack of variety.

To compensate, Gundam Breaker 4 introduces an array of enemy types with unique weapons and abilities, and spawns stronger enemy variants with customised parts of their own periodically during each encounter, allowing for ever-changing abilities. Some boss fights even feature “Perfect Grades”, massive versions of iconic Gundam that tower above the player, each requiring different strategies to take down.

The level of detail, too, is severely lacking. Each of these waves takes place in a different area, ranging from tight indoor factory environments to desert and urban landscape, all of which have sparse environmental details and unimpressive textures. Urban environments are the most disappointing, with blocky repeated buildings and a surprising lack of destructibility for a game about battling giant robots. Functioning purely as a small arena, levels are also rather restrictive with invisible walls that shatter the illusion of having a wide open area to maneuver in. 

In combat, the player can wield up to two melee weapons and two ranged weapons, both of which can be dual-wielded – a first for the series. The battle system is straightforward but functional, with melee weapons spanning different types such as beam sabers, axes, as well as two-handed long blades, and ranged weapons boasting infinite ammo but require a cooldown period after prolonged use. The game employs a fairly sticky lock-on system that restricts camera movement in favour of accurate target acquisition, although this can be turned off completely for a more freeform targeting system based on the direction the player character is facing. 

Option Equipment and EX actions make a return from previous titles, supplementing basic combat with unique attacks that differ depending on the parts equipped on the player’s Gundam. For example, the arm parts of the Buster Gundam allows access to its shoulder rocket pods, while the iconic backpack of the RX-78-2 unlocks the Beam Saber EX action, a flurry of quick strikes that deal massive damage at close range.

Capping off combat is the “parts break” system, a staple of the franchise. During combat, every hit made on an opponent gives the chance to break off a specific body part, leaving them unable to use the skills tied to it until it re-attaches after a brief period. As this system works both ways, players can also lose parts, leading to immediate disadvantages. Losing the aforementioned Buster Gundam arm part, for instance, temporarily disables its Option Equipment skill, alongside the ability to attack with the weapons equipped on said arm, while losing the Gundam’s head deactivates the lock-on system. This provides combat with an additional tactical layer, with players needing to adapt to every situation on the fly.

Where the game shines undoubtedly is in its customisation options. A core feature of Gundam Breaker 4 is collecting Gundam parts upon defeating enemies – split into six different body components – plus shields and weapons. Each part can then be used to customise the player’s own Gundam, mixing and matching different parts to form a unique build. As mentioned, the title boasts the largest collection of Gunpla kits in the series ever, totalling over 250 base kits spread across the many Gundam series, from classics such as Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, to the newer Mobile Suit Gundam The Witch From Mercury.

For the first time in the mainline game’s history, players can also build and play as Gundam from the Super Deformed (SD) series, as well as more unique types of Gundam such as Super Fumina. Coupled with a vast roster of parts available, an in-depth colouring system, and even a part-scaling feature to fine-tune the position and size of each individual component, Gundam fans are able to live out their dreams of creating and playing as their favourite Mobile Suits. 

The game’s focus on collection results in an inevitable grindy nature, however, as levels slowly ramp up in their difficulty, requiring the player to obtain higher level parts by replaying previous missions. As part drops are completely random, players might need to replay levels multiple times to obtain a specific piece of gear, or one with the required level and stats. 

The monotony of both the level design and core combat mechanics can ultimately cause the repetition to feel more like a chore than progression fulfillment. While features like the Synthesize and Evolve abilities, which increase the level and rarity of individual parts by sacrificing unused gear, do alleviate the experience, they aren’t available out of the gate, and are locked behind main story progression. 

To the credit of Gundam Breaker 4, optimisation is not an issue, with near-flawless performance on the PlayStation 5. It does lack some features supported on other current-gen titles, such as HDR support and haptic feedback and adaptive triggers on the DualSense controller, but is able to run at a smooth 60 frames per second, with only a frame drop or two during scenes with intense action or heavy particle effects. 

Keeping in line with the game’s heavy emphasis on customisation, the variety of options to showcase unique creations comes as no surprise. Apart from a photo mode that allows for the posing of Gunpla builds against different backgrounds, there’s also the diorama mode, where players can choose from various landscapes and create miniature action scenes involving multiple Gunpla in custom poses. Props and effects, including buildings, smoke and explosions, are available, so they will be able to create their own mini battlefields similar to actual physical dioramas created by avid Gunpla collectors. In fact, this feature is so comprehensive that the time spent on the craft may be more than engaging with the game’s actual missions. 

It certainly helps that most of the attention to detail has been poured into the design of the Gundam model, each painstakingly recreated to resemble their real world counterpart as closely as possible. Alongside elaborate texture work, building enthusiasts can expect minute details like the type of paint finish and the level of weathering on the character model. In particular, the animations sport special intricate elements, from different movement animations to iconic transformation abilities of characters such as the Unicorn Gundam or the Aegis Gundam.

With Gundam Breaker 4, it’s clear developer Crafts & Meister understands their target audience and has created an experience tailored to players with the passion for Gunpla collection. Despite its impressive array of different Gundam parts to collect and customise, as well as a slew of ways to showcase the player’s builds, the game is ultimately let down by mediocre fundamental gameplay, as well as simplistic, grindy combat and level design that’s unlikely to attract most gamers other than fans of series.