Again in early 2016 after I was on the lookout for import-friendly video games on PS Vita, I used to typically see Gundam Breaker talked about. In the event you’ve by no means heard of the sequence earlier than, consider them as hack and slash motion video games with RPG parts, deep customization, and a pure unadulterated love of Gunpla. Across the time I used to be wanting into the sequence, Bandai Namco introduced an Asia English launch for Gundam Breaker 3 on PS4 and PS Vita, and I made a decision to purchase each variations. I ended up loving it as my first Gundam sport. Since then, I’ve imported and performed Gundam Breaker 1 and a couple of on PS Vita, and in addition gotten principally each Gundam sport launched in English throughout platforms. To see Gundam Breaker 4 introduced earlier this yr and confirmed for a worldwide multi-platform simultaneous launch stays one in all 2024’s greatest surprises. Quick ahead to in the present day and Gundam Breaker 4 is lastly right here on Steam, Swap, PS4, and PS5. Having put in about 60 hours throughout platforms, I am keen on Gundam Breaker 4, nevertheless it has a number of points proper now.
Gundam Breaker 4 is an important launch not solely due to the sport itself, however due to how far we’ve include the sequence within the West. So what makes Gundam Breaker 4 a giant deal? Gone are the times of ready for an Asia English launch to import. Gundam Breaker 3 was an Asia English launch not launched within the West, and simply on PlayStation. I can’t recall the final Gundam sport that had an English dub possibility, however right here we’re with a twin audio possibility and a number of subtitle choices (EFIGS and plenty of extra). However what concerning the sport itself and the totally different platform variations? I’m going to cowl all of that on this prolonged assessment that may also take you on a journey of me beginning my first Grasp Grade Gunpla (Gundam Plastic Equipment if you happen to’re new to this) after constructing some Excessive Grade (simpler and smaller kits) earlier than.
Gundam Breaker 4’s story ranges from getting the job achieved to some highs and lows. The lows are after I felt like sure pre-mission dialog was happening a bit too lengthy, and the highs had been within the latter half of the sport when there are attention-grabbing character reveals and in addition extra attention-grabbing dialog. In the event you’ve not performed a single sport within the sequence earlier than, Gundam Breaker 4 nonetheless does a superb job of bringing you up to the mark, however you may marvel why the looks of sure characters is a giant deal in a while. The embargo solely permits me to speak concerning the first two chapters of the story, and it appears like an easy affair throughout these two. I ended up liking the primary characters fairly a bit by the top, however my two favourite characters seem a lot later within the story.
The actual draw of Gundam Breaker 4 is just not the story although. It’s constructing your personal good Gunpla, bettering it over time, getting higher gear, and turning into stronger to deal with greater difficulties and extra quests. While you start, you get the fundamentals, however what the staff actually underold within the promotion is the customization side. It’s unimaginable. Not solely are you able to alter particular person elements like left and proper arms, however you can even alter ranged weapons for every arm, melee with twin wielding, and alter the person half measurement and scale. This implies you may even use SD (tremendous deformed) elements in your regular Gunpla and both have it appear like this bizarre frankenstein swimsuit or scale issues to your liking.
Past the precise elements for every primary class in meeting, the customization in Gundam Breaker 4 takes issues additional with builder elements that allow you to add much more issues to your Gunpla. A few of these even have their very own abilities. Talking of abilities, you will have EX and OP abilities to make use of in fight. These rely in your elements and weapons. In a while, you additionally unlock capability cartridges which have their very own specs that provide you with buffs or debuffs.
As you undergo the missions breaking elements and incomes S-rank reward elements, you additionally get supplies. These can be utilized to degree up your elements. Every mission in Gundam Breaker 4 often has a really helpful elements degree indicating how appropriate it’s to your present gear. Along with supplies you earn to improve elements, you begin incomes supplies to extend half rarity in a while. This allows you to improve for extra abilities as properly, and you need to use older or lesser half abilities once you improve and cannibalize these older elements.
Throughout the primary story, I spent a little bit of time on the elective quests to earn cash or elements, however really feel like the sport is balanced sufficient the place you gained’t really want to grind throughout the primary story on the usual issue a minimum of. Talking of the problem, you unlock three greater difficulties as the primary story progresses, and these up the problem and half degree suggestion fairly a bit. In the event you do plan on skipping many of the elective quests throughout the primary story, be certain that to control the brand new unlocks as a result of a number of the elective quest sorts are a variety of enjoyable, particularly the survival mode.
Outdoors of all of this, you can even alter the paint of your swimsuit which helps you to colour schemes you’ve unlocked by way of development or from DLC. In the event you put time into Gundam Breaker 4, there’s a ton of stuff so that you can get out of it, and I’m floored by how a lot has gone into this. While you’re achieved with paint, you may work with decals and weathering results as properly. Gundam Breaker 4 is the true deal for Gunpla lovers, however does it play properly?
Having loved all the things Gundam Breaker 4 has to supply in its gameplay by way of story missions, aspect content material, and boss fights apart from one particular mission sort, I feel the staff nailed it. I by no means acquired bored of fight regardless that the traditional issue is on the better aspect. I saved swapping out weapons and attempting the varied sorts earlier than selecting a greatsword model weapon for the remainder of my playthrough. All the things feels diverse sufficient, and the person abilities and stats make for a contemporary expertise all through.
In terms of the bosses and minibosses, I really like having them seem on the stage within the Gunpla containers after which breaking out earlier than preventing you. This by no means will get outdated, and seeing one of many Gunpla kits I constructed seem as a boss in a while was superior. Most boss fights contain focusing on weak factors, damaging the various well being bars, destroying shields, and the same old. I did have hassle with one explicit boss’ weak factors utilizing particular weapons, however I modified to a whip and sorted it instantly. The one actual laborious boss struggle within the story was coping with two of a particular boss directly. I gained’t get into particulars for spoiler causes, however I did battle with the AI in a single particular struggle.
Visually, Gundam Breaker 4 ranges from nice to high-quality. The environments look missing early on, however I discovered the variability good general. A lot of the work went into ensuring the Gunpla kits and animations look one of the best, and it exhibits. The builders clearly weren’t attempting to go for a sensible artwork model right here, so don’t count on one thing like Gundam Evolution and even how some bits of Gundam Breaker 3 appeared. The aesthetic in Gundam Breaker 4 works properly and it scales because it ought to on decrease finish {hardware}. The consequences look nice, and the dimensions of many boss fights is superior.
The music in Gundam Breaker 4 ranges from forgettable tunes you gained’t consider exterior the sport to some actually nice songs in particular story missions. I’m disillusioned on no account to set music from the varied anime and flicks right here. Normally we’d see some anime music pack DLC or a premium bundle for Asia and Japan, however I’ve not seen any of that but within the sport or introduced. I additionally don’t see a option to load customized music like in Cell Go well with Gundam Excessive Vs Maxiboost ON on PS4.
The voice performing has been a nice shock. I performed by way of the sport fully with English on one save, and in addition spent a few dozen hours with the Japanese voice possibility on one other platform save. Each had been superb and I discovered myself liking the English extra throughout missions as a result of I hate studying small subtitles throughout motion battles after I’m specializing in preventing enemies.
To this point, apart from one mission sort actually annoying me (fortunately not too prevalent) and some bugs, I’ve had no actual points with Gundam Breaker 4. If you’re new to this sequence and aren’t a fan of replaying missions to grind out higher gear and drops, it’s possible you’ll discover issues repetitive. I’ve all the time seen Gundam Breaker like Earth Protection Drive and Monster Hunter the place after ending the story, I spend time constructing my good Gunpla.
As for bugs, I bumped into one the place sure names wouldn’t save or two I feel are Steam Deck-specific. The primary is that returning to the title display from in-game takes method too lengthy. The second is one particular mission that crashed for me solely when enjoying on my monitor. I replayed it on the Deck itself and it was high-quality. It would simply have been referring to the efficiency penalty I see in some video games docked, however I can’t say for certain.
The one side I’ve not touched on to this point is the web. Pre-release I managed to play a superb quantity of the community check on PS5 and Swap, however I solely managed to check a little bit of the retail launch on PS5 with a buddy who’s reviewing that model. The PC model’s servers haven’t been on-line pre-launch in any respect, so I can not check if the web works high-quality on Steam Deck but. I can be updating this as soon as servers go surfing and I’ve managed testing the PC model on Steam Deck with associates on-line.
At this level, you’re in all probability questioning concerning the Gunpla I used to be constructing. I made some progress and acquired by way of 5 units of runners, however made a mistake with one small half. I panicked and virtually broke it whereas attempting to separate issues. That is the place my guitar choose got here into the image and saved me. I ended up stopping with my RG 78-2 MG 3.0 about midway achieved. As soon as the assessment embargoes of this week are over, I’ll get again to it and end it.
Now let’s get to the platform variations and options.
Gundam Breaker 4 PC port controls – keyboard, mouse, and controller help
Gundam Breaker 4’s on PC is the one model of the sport that helps above 60fps. The PS5 model is capped at 60fps and the Swap model hovers across the 30fps mark. The Gundam Breaker 4 PC launch additionally has mouse and keyboard help along with controller help with a number of button immediate choices.
When enjoying on the Deck itself, it displayed Xbox button prompts. When utilizing my DualSense controller over the Dock on my monitor, Gundam Breaker 4 confirmed PlayStation prompts appropriately. It additionally auto switches between keyboard mouse and controller prompts primarily based in your enter. The one controller-related subject I bumped into is the sport not appropriately detecting after I’ve reconnected a controller. I examined this on my DualSense and 8BitDo Final controllers wirelessly.
Gundam Breaker 4 ships with three controller presets and a customized possibility. You may alter the keyboard mouse and controller settings independently.
One setting I like to recommend altering instantly or after you check out the primary few missions is digital camera sensitivity and distance. You are able to do this in Participant Mode from the sport settings. I discovered the default too gradual and shut.
Gundam Breaker 4 PC graphics settings and show choices
Gundam Breaker 4 helps a number of resolutions and body charge caps. On the Steam Deck itself, it sadly doesn’t help a full 800p and runs at 720p and 16:9. On the body charge aspect, it could actually go from 30fps to 360fps and limitless on PC. I set it to 120fps when enjoying on Steam Deck since I performed it virtually solely on my Steam Deck OLED. You may as well toggle v-sync.
On the graphics aspect, you may alter the standard of textures, anti-aliasing, post-processing, shadows, results, and in addition alter brightness and toggle movement blur.
Gundam Breaker 4 Steam Deck efficiency – does it work out of the field?
I performed Gundam Breaker 4 with Proton Experimental (bleeding edge) as I usually do for untested video games, however I additionally examined it on the default Proton. It really works completely out of the field and even invokes the on-screen keyboard for textual content enter. I’ve confidence on this being Steam Deck Verified pre-launch or quickly after. The 35 hours I put into it on simply my Steam Deck OLED show that.
When enjoying with all settings at Excessive apart from shadows, Gundam Breaker 4 simply hit 60fps, however I needed extra. For this, I turned issues to medium and performed at 80-90fps virtually throughout the board. A couple of late-game missions noticed drops to the excessive 60s throughout gameplay, however in any other case I had no points in precise gameplay. In-engine cut-scenes do take successful to efficiency and run within the 50-70fps vary for me on Steam Deck. I did run into one subject the place the meeting part all of the sudden dropped to 1-3fps for a number of seconds earlier than capturing again as much as 90fps. This didn’t occur greater than thrice whole, however I couldn’t determine what brought about it. If this can be a Proton associated subject, I hope Valve can repair it.
The one visible subject I had when enjoying on the Deck itself is a number of the icon glyphs and menus had both smaller than anticipated fonts, or they weren’t as crisp as they need to’ve been. I observed this even on Swap so it doubtless is a matter with the sport being designed for the next res and greater display. Not a dealbreaker, however value stating.
Gundam Breaker 4 Swap vs PS5 – what to purchase?
On the console aspect, I didn’t have time to check Gundam Breaker 4 on my PS4, so I centered on the Swap (Lite and OLED) and PS5 variations. Gundam Breaker 4 on PS5 appears to be like wonderful and runs principally completely at 60fps within the time I put into it, however I didn’t attain the few missions within the story in the direction of the top that had been extra visually demanding. I additionally didn’t attain right here on Swap, however I put practically two dozen hours into the Swap model to see sufficient of the way it runs there. Take a look at a comparability of the opening tutorial mission on PS5 and Swap within the screenshot comparability beneath:
The largest downgrades on Swap apart from the efficiency are with decision, element, and reflections. This is applicable not solely to the phases, but additionally the Gunpla elements. In the course of the community assessments, a buddy of mine identified how the Swap model appeared like an HG Gunpla whereas the PS5 model appeared like an RG in some scenes. In the event you constructed Gunpla you’ll perceive this, however for everybody else, it simply means Gunpla within the Swap model finally ends up missing in lots of particulars like decals, lining, and even weathering results in particular conditions. They do seem, however I feel the decrease decision and draw distance makes it in order that they’re invisible typically. That is a kind of adjustments you gained’t notice till you see the sport exterior Swap.
I truthfully anticipated this to run at 120fps on PS5 given the visuals. Enjoying Megaton Musashi at 120fps was good as a current launch. Possibly the builders capped this to 60fps for multiplayer causes with the PS4 model, however I’m undecided. Except for the 60fps cap, Gundam Breaker 4 has first rate rumble help and even has PS5 Exercise Card help to load into your save faster. For the reason that assessment embargo prevents me from exhibiting something past chapter two within the story, the screenshot beneath is from after I simply started enjoying exhibiting the Exercise Card implementation for story mode. I hope this helps on-line play and lobbies sooner or later as properly.
Talking of loading, the Swap load instances are actually lengthy in comparison with PS5 and Steam Deck. Even working the sport off the SD card on my outdated Steam Deck LCD had a lot quicker load instances than Swap.
In the event you solely care about portability, you clearly gained’t hassle with the PS5 model, however the Swap port presently has one main subject that makes me hesitate to advocate it. The meeting part and diorama mode really feel very sluggish. Whereas the primary foyer or hub can be sluggish, the efficiency in missions is healthier albeit nonetheless not an ideal 30fps. I noticed drops even in early missions from 30fps, however once more, this can be a lot higher than I anticipated given some current Swap ports.
I might be happy with this given the {hardware} if the meeting part ran higher contemplating you can be spending a variety of time there after every mission. Diorama mode additionally wants extra optimization on Swap with how sluggish it feels. In the event you performed Gundam Breaker 3 on PS Vita, you can be greater than high-quality with the Swap model, however I hoped for a greater port all issues thought of. Since there are extra content material updates deliberate, I hope we see some optimization on this entrance.
For individuals who personal a number of platforms, I solely advocate the Swap model if you happen to solely wish to play portably and don’t personal a Steam Deck. Talking of moveable play, I loved Gundam Breaker 4 on my Swap Lite apart from the textual content measurement in some menus. Gundam Breaker 4 can be sadly the ultimate sport I reviewed on it earlier than the display developed some LCD-related points.
Is the Gundam Breaker 4 Final Version value it?
I had entry to a number of the DLC included within the Gundam Breaker 4 Deluxe Version and Gundam Breaker 4 Final Version. I can’t touch upon the story DLC but because it isn’t out there, however the early unlocks aren’t sport altering. You get degree 1 elements for the fits listed on the shop web page, however I discovered the builders elements to be higher as early DLC that can assist you get began.
Past that, the Diorama content material doesn’t appear to be absolutely out there proper now, however there may be some content material from the DLC I had entry to, and it was actually good for posing Gunpla and utilizing the cel-shaded filter as properly. Having tried the Diorama mode so much throughout my playthroughs on all platforms, photograph mode lovers and people who get pleasure from these sorts of modes in video games will discover so much to like right here. Having extra gadgets and equipment on this mode can be good, however you possibly can get these individually I assume. I really like how Gunbarrel Strike Gundam – Gundam Breaker Ver appears to be like, so having these elements was good. I appreciated the design sufficient to order the collector’s version the second pre-orders went up as properly.
Is Gundam Breaker 4 value it for the story?
I’ve seen some of us excited to play Gundam Breaker 4 for its story, and whereas it’s a high-quality story, you actually are right here for personalization, battles, and constructing your supreme Gunpla. If you need a story-focused sport as an alternative, take a look at Megaton Musashi. Each video games have their strengths and weaknesses, however I ended up clicking with the gameplay in Gundam Breaker 4 extra as a fan of the older video games.
After I acquired my assessment codes for Gundam Breaker 4, I had a enjoyable thought of beginning the MG 78-2 Model 3.0 equipment and constructing it alongside the sport to complete each on the similar time, however sadly there are too many different video games releasing for me to have the ability to do this.
Not solely was it nice to play a brand new Gundam Breaker alongside constructing my latest Gunpla equipment, however there’s a brand new discovered appreciation I’ve for the work that goes into designing these kits now after transferring to an MG and in addition an RG from HG kits. I’ve additionally been fortunate sufficient to have some associates who’re tremendous useful with Gunpla ideas for decals, panel lining, and in addition what to do when caught. I stay up for ending this equipment after which engaged on my RG subsequent.
The anticipate Gundam Breaker 4 has been tremendous lengthy, and I didn’t even suppose we’d see a brand new sport within the sequence after New Gundam Breaker, however right here we’re. Gundam Breaker 4 is actual and it’s spectacular in virtually each method. It’s my favourite Steam Deck sport this yr since Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, and one I stay up for enjoying on-line and offline over the approaching months with all of the DLC deliberate.
Gundam Breaker 4 Steam Deck assessment: 4.5/5
