Gundam Break 4

PS5 Review

Gundam Breaker 4 is the 6^th game in the Gundam Breaker series that has spanned from the original on PS3 over 10 years ago to now on the PS5 but is also multiplatform for the first time.

The game is set 6 years after the events of Gundam Breaker 3 and an undisclosed amount after Gundam Breaker Mobile and follows the nameless protagonist as they take part in the beta test for the virtual reality game Gundam Breaker 4, with those stories following the player as they form a clan and try to climb the ladder to be the best clan in the beta test before the game goes live, but in traditional Gundam fashion there’s more twists and turns.

For my review I played the PlayStation 5 version, but the game is also available on the Nintendo Switch and Steam, I played the PS5 version due to the more stable frame rate as to the Nintendo Switch version.

Pro:

Gunpla customisation.

The biggest selling point of this game is the ability to mix and match parts from other 250 kinds of Gunpla, featuring Mobile Suits from every series from the original Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979 till 2022 with the last Gundam Anime entry with the Witch from Mercury.

New to Gundam Breaker 4 is the ability to use different left and right arms to create asymmetrical Gunpla with the new change, and also being able to scale different parts as well. So, players can now make different parts look more natural with other parts for example being able to scale down the Nightingale parts, so the Gunpla doesn’t look like a Frankenstein abomination when used with normal sized Gunpla parts.

This means that there will be a Gunpla for everyone with at least the main Mobile Suit of every Gundam Anime being available but also the villain Mobile Suit along with the occasional grunt Mobile Suit. Unfortunately, not every season is treated equally as Witch From Mercury only has 2 Suits and the film Hathaway has just 1 with Seed Freedom (The most recent Gundam film) doesn’t have any representation.

Voice acting.

For the first time the game’s story mode is fully voiced in English, with a few notable stars like the voice actress Jill Harris known for Suletta Mercury of Witch from Mercury and SungWon Cho who recently voiced Senshi in Delicious in Dungeon.

Overall, the English voice cast is very strong, and all performed well with no one turning in a bad performance and the same goes for the Japanese cast with the main villain even being voiced by Takehito Koyasu who Anime fans will instantly recognise as Dio from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Dual wield.

The new combat mechanic to this game is being able to dual wield weapons in both hands, instead of being limited to 1 melee and 1 ranged weapon at a time.

This has led to the combo system being overhauled as now instead of Square and Triangle being limited to light or heavy attacks, they now correspond to each hand and the weapon in them.

So now players can use a Beam Saber in their left hand and a Heat Hawk in their right hand and using different combinations of Square and Triangle will lead to new combo strings, this leads to a lot of gameplay fun as players mix and match between all the different weapon categories to find a combination they like.

A combo that helped carry me through some New type missions late in the game was using the Giant Mace weapon from the Barbados of Iron-Blooded Orphans, as players can do an aerial combo of two square inputs then triangle to do a big flurry attack that lasts for a very long time if the player keeps mashing the triangle button to carry on the combo.

Diorama mode.

This game has the most in-depth diorama mode I have ever seen with nearly as much customisation as there is in building the players Gunpla.

Players have the options of 15 different bases and 15 different sky options, and these allow players to add any stock Gunpla from the 250 available to even using the player’s custom one from saved blueprints.

Players can then fully manipulate their Gunpla into hundreds of poses with the ability to remove parts to simulate battle damage by applying bullet hole textures or burn marks to the Gunpla or environments.

Players can also see different dioramas that other players have made in the Event gallery (Not open yet at time of writing) or through the gallery in the main lobby. Players have created everything from iconic battle scenes from the over 45 years of Gundam Anime or replicating Gunpla model kit boxes that players can buy in the real world.

Giant Bosses Battles.

Usually, the final boss of each mission is either a giant version of a regular Gunpla like the Unicorn Gundam or one of the huge Mobile Armours from the various universes like the Big Zam or Neo Zeong.

This is a great change of pace as instead of fighting several smaller Gunpla and breezing through it the player has to change their strategy up, as each boss is fought differently with a big HP bar so if players rush into the fights then they will get obliterated by their massive beam attacks and area of effect attacks.

Survival mode.

One of the big modes that the player tackles in the post game when they have upgraded their Gunpla is the survival mode, where players have to take on up to 50 waves of enemies and giant bosses to see how long they can last.

This is really a great way to gain new parts and extra plastic to upgrade the new parts, as players will encounter nearly every Gunpla in the game over 50 waves and the giant bosses drop great loot.

Con:

Repetitive mission structure.

Across the 37 main chapters of the main story and the 30 Quests, the same mission structure is used, where the player usually has to deal with 3 waves of enemy Gunpla before ending in a boss fight with a Giant Boss or an enemy 3-person team.

So, if a person is not a fan of the combat system or experimenting with new weapons and parts then the game can quickly become repetitive and boring to the average gamer, facing wave after wave of enemies and the occasional unique boss or mission mechanic.

Story cutscenes.

While the story cutscenes are great with expressive emoting of the other Gunpla instead of their character models, these cutscenes, the majority of time take place in the lobby, instead of taking more time out in the different environments of the missions.

I would have preferred more variety in them instead of the usual static lobby cutscenes as the majority of the players time is spent in the lobby in between missions.

A.I teammates in combat.

During story missions or quests, the game normally sets you up with 2 A.I controlled teammates if the player is playing offline, but these A.I teammates don’t deal a lot of damage or engage the enemies often.

At best they act more as meatshields to draw enemy aggro, so the player can heal or re-engage at a different angle for a pincer movement to save from being overwhelmed.

The one saving grace is that the player can change what Gunpla the A.I sortie in, as instead they can use any Gunpla listed in the player’s saved blueprints. This helps out more on higher difficulties as I normally load them up to my GP02 Gundam Atomic Bazooka build so they can spam nukes at the enemies from a distance.

Occasionally English mistranslations.

As is the case with a lot of English translations for Japanese games there is a few incorrect translations or typos.

This is seen most easily with the ZGMF-1017 GINN from Gundam Seed being called the Jin in the game from the Assembly menu and the shop menu.

Then other times skills have been mistranslated or just not translated fully like Wild Dance not being explained what it does in an easily understandable way, as it to do with attacks that do multiple attacks per each button press.

Conclusion:

One of the best Gundam games in recent memory and a great time when played with friends or solo.

If players were a big fan of Gundam Breaker 3 on the PS4 then this game is an instant buy, and fully redeems the franchise after the disaster that was New Gundam Breaker, that fans refuse to acknowledge came out.

It’s also a dream game for fans of Gunpla who build their own custom kits in the real world, as no other game features the sheer amount of customisation and freedom to build their dream Gunpla.

Score: 8.5