Gundam Breaker 4 – When mentioning the name GUNDAMsurely no one feels unfamiliar anymore, whether they are “addicts” to this “plastic drug” or just bystanders. It is not simply an anime brand, but GUNDAM has long had a profound influence both in terms of popular culture, as well as a historical figure in the entertainment industry – no wonder in the blockbuster Ready Player One Every year, the film, which pays tribute to countless outstanding movie/game characters, dedicates more than two minutes of extremely satisfying combat at the end of the film to honor the RX-78, the “great-grandfather” GUNDAM first in history

Understanding this point, there are sometimes some lines that appear. GUNDAM relatively milder, such as Build Fighter Talk about an “e-sports” type of battle, where young boys and girls “modify” Gunpla models and compete.

Based on this point, Bandai Namco has launched a very special game series called Gundam Breakerwhere the mobile suit machines 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.

Latest version 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-term “follow-up” game lines like this.

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

YOU WILL LIKE

Concise, engaging gameplay!

Still has the characteristics of the game series Gundam Breaker, Gundam Breaker 4 revolves around the familiar main gameplay flow: combat > collection > assembly > upgrade. Players will “start” with the legendary “grandfather” RX-78 model, and when participating in battles through a number of tutorial missions, with the parts collected from defeated enemies, players will assemble them to have a more powerful machine.

Single player 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” who participates 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.

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

The system of moves in Gundam Breaker 4 Divided into two skill branches: OP (has cooldown, doesn't depend on energy) and EX (depends on energy accumulated through combat and kills).

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 gives players a massive collection (1500+ Gunpla model samples including Gundam, 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 Bringing players a massive collection

In addition, with the nature of a world revolving around Gunpla models, Gundam Breaker 4 giving 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.

Great combat mechanics!

Whatever you say, a game with the theme of GUNDAM then the fighting part is indispensable – 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 other parts Gundam Breaker before, the fighting mechanism of Gundam Breaker 4 Very well done – optimized and far superior to its predecessors.

The fun of the line Breaker that is from the beginning gives the player the impression that these are toy models – so the fact that they have a “plastic” shape and are too flexible for a metal machine weighing tens of tons is… completely normal. This makes it difficult to create agile movements, good feedback… for Gundam Breaker 4 without trying to make it feel heavy and sluggish like a real machine, which greatly enhances the playing experience!

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

This is what the game series Gundam Musou tried to do it but failed – because it is essentially a “brain-shutdown” hack and slash game Dynasty Warriorsthe only difference is that slashing at hundreds of human enemies, even if you lack strength, it won't matter – but slashing at machines weighing tens of tons and still being “light as cotton” is… a disaster. Luckily, Gundam Breaker 4 has done this job well, because it can be said that 80% of the time players spend in the game is in combat.

The tasks in Gundam Breaker 4 Not too diverse, but still rich enough that even if repeated, it won't be too boring.

They can be roughly divided into the following categories: 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” fight, it can be said that this time Gundam Breaker 4 has been quite successful in conveying a very “Monster Hunter” comes 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.

combat mechanism of Gundam Breaker 4 Very well done – optimized and far superior to its predecessors

YOU WILL HATE

Lots of annoying little “bugs”!

That's great, but Gundam Breaker 4 still cannot avoid quite a few shortcomings – although not too serious to make players hate, 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 not understood whether it was intentional or not, but in Gundam Breaker 4 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 is the matter. Gundam Breaker 4 Although it is a packaged game, there is still a hidden form of “In-Game Purchase” in the game, which is the 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.

The last is the matter. Gundam Breaker 4 has a very long game loading time, more terrible than the long drag of Starfield just passed! Enter the main interface? Load the screen. Finished editing and want to exit the interface? Load the screen. Talk to NPC to receive the quest? Load the screen. Transition to the quest? 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 playing experience Gundam Breaker 4 is “crushed”, and greatly affects the “interest” of the player – especially when there is not much playing time.

Gundam Breaker 4 has a very long game loading time, more terrible than the long drag of Starfield just now!