In some ways, Gundam Breaker 4 represents a contemporary begin for Bandai Namco’s mecha motion collection. Not solely is that this a return to the roots after the divisive New Gundam Breaker didn’t go over so properly with the fanbase, however this marks the primary time that the mainline collection has come to both the Nintendo Swap or Western audiences. Fortunately, Gundam Breaker 4 makes an awesome first impression—its fight is addictive, the customisation choices are second to none, and there’s sufficient content material right here to maintain you busy for fairly some time. When you’ve been on the lookout for a stable new hack ‘n’ slash motion recreation so as to add to your Swap library, this simply could also be for you.
Gundam Breaker 4 includes a easy story, inserting you within the position of a self-insert protagonist who’s enjoying an in-universe model of Gundam Breaker 4. You begin out by making a couple of pals in your ‘on-line’ periods who you quickly type a clan with, then slowly begin constructing your expertise and status in the neighborhood as you overcome rivals and work as much as take part within the large Battle Event on the finish of the season.
This plot is okay for what it’s, however the entire thing feels reasonably inconsequential and skinny when in comparison with style friends resembling Megaton Musashi W: Wired. Positive, most individuals do not play a mecha recreation like this for its deep lore and narrative, however there’s a way that extra may’ve been achieved right here to encourage extra participant funding within the universe. However, you would moderately argue that the builders didn’t focus an excessive amount of on this facet as a result of they know you’re displaying up primarily for the gameplay, which is sort of good right here.
This may very well be greatest described as a mission-based beat ‘em up, with fairly a little bit of in-depth RPG customisation thrown in for many who prefer to tinker. You begin out in a small hub space, the place you may store for brand new components, work together with different gamers (in case you’re on-line), and outfit your Gunpla with contemporary loot. When you’ve gotten arrange, you then bounce right into a mission the place you place your Gunpla by way of its paces in opposition to waves of foes, with a handful of various aims retaining the motion contemporary. Generally you’re enjoying defence to maintain enemies away from a given zone for a sure period of time, whereas different instances you’re tasked with taking down a giant enemy or two who’re continually swarmed by fodder enemies it’s a must to periodically filter out. Based mostly in your efficiency, you’re then given a complete lot of loot and rewards that you may take again with you to the hub to start out the cycle over once more with a more durable mission.
It’s a reasonably easy gameplay loop whenever you get proper all the way down to it, buoyed by the wonderful fight. Ripping by way of foes with a beam saber and boosting throughout the battlefield feels clean and satisfying, whereas there’s loads of technical depth right here to accommodate those that wish to push their Gunpla to the restrict in increased difficulties. The brand new additions of having the ability to twin wield and have as much as 4 distinctive weapons outfitted directly—one melee and one ranged on every arm—open up quite a lot of combo potentialities, whereas providing you with quite a lot of freedom in the way you wish to specific your self in fight with completely different sorts of builds.
Along with your melee and ranged assaults, you additionally normally have a small choice of OP abilities and EX abilities outfitted for a combat, which provide some highly effective limited-use actions that may flip the tide of battle by way of one thing like a robust beam assault or a fast heal for you and your occasion members. Their set off limitations be certain that you don’t use them as a crutch for not correctly studying methods to combat, however we appreciated the choices they provide to spherical out your loadout and supply some extra instruments to keep up a bonus.
To maintain you transferring and incentivise good, surgical play, you’re additionally at all times juggling two combo meters throughout every mission—one will increase with every strike or projectile you land, whereas the opposite goes up after each kill. After being pushed previous numerous thresholds, every combo meter progressively unlocks passive buffs, resembling shorter cooldowns or increased loot drop charges, to incentivise sustaining your streak. We actually appreciated what this technique added to the fight, particularly in the way it pushes you to deal with being quick with each your harm and kills—prioritising one on the expense of the opposite will result in a substandard grade on the finish of a mission.
In order for you some assist in a mission, you even have the choice of enjoying with as much as three gamers complete in cooperative squads on-line (solely on-line, no native or sofa multiplayer right here). Moreover, you may try Bounty Missions, the place you may face off in opposition to an AI-controlled model of a participant’s Gunpla to see how yours stacks up. We weren’t in a position to hook up with the servers through the evaluate interval, however it appears that evidently the web options right here do a pleasant job of rounding out the PvE focus with out creating an excessive amount of deal with competitors with others.
Again in the principle hub, there are components from over 250 distinctive kits that you may loot or buy to then equip in no matter combos you wish to your Gunpla, providing you with loads of causes to grind and chase uncommon drops. There’s a reasonably heavy pour of latest loot as you progress by way of the principle missions, however in case you’re on the lookout for a particular helmet or axe for certainly one of your builds to sort out a specialised mission, you usually should grind for it a bit in a mission the place it’s extra prone to drop. Equipping new mods to your Gunpla is straightforward sufficient, although the menu interface explaining all of the stats could be noticeably tough to parse in transportable mode—we’d recommend enjoying Gundam Breaker 4 in docked mode for these of you who can’t deal with extraordinarily tiny textual content on the Swap’s display screen.
Visually, Gundam Breaker 4 presents honest presentation, although it’s fairly clear this launch isn’t going for an excessive amount of visible aptitude. Environments are reasonably uninteresting and plain, textures are murky, and the Gunpla fashions all have a pretend plasticky look to them (which type of works right here, contemplating that is based mostly on a real-life toy line). It additionally bears mentioning that the Swap model runs at 30fps whereas the variations out there on different platforms run at 60; contemplating the simplicity of the fashions and environments right here, it’s a bit disappointing that the builders weren’t in a position to squeeze a bit extra efficiency out of the {hardware}.
One other (minor) grievance that we’ve got with Gundam Breaker 4 is that its gameplay tends to fall a bit too shortly into repetition. Different related titles, such because the Monster Hunter collection, handle to keep away from this resulting from novel mechanics and distinctive methods that every monster introduces to the bottom fight. And whereas Gundam Breaker 4 includes a respectable quantity of enemy selection, it appears like the main target right here is extra on the staggering variety of potential tools choices you’ve got at your fingertips than on gameplay selection. And positive, it’s cool to essentially get caught in and check out numerous builds to see what works in a given mission, however we might’ve preferred just a bit extra deal with extra various mission aims to assist the hack ‘n’ slash fight really feel contemporary for longer.
Conclusion
Gundam Breaker 4 presents return to type for the collection and demonstrates repeatedly that it is aware of the significance of specializing in its strengths. Although its middling graphics and considerably repetitive gameplay can maintain it again a bit, the extremely deep customisation choices, snappy fight, and near-endless replayability make this the form of recreation that’ll get its hooks in you deep as soon as it clicks. When you’re into Gundam, we’d recommend you decide this one up whenever you get the prospect, particularly in case you’re on the lookout for a content-rich and comparatively low-investment motion recreation so as to add to your Swap library.
