Gundam Breaker 4 is the best playable love letter I’ve ever seen

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To say I played a lot of Gundam Breaker 3 is an understatement so big it would dwarf a real life mobile suit. In fact, when 2024 rolls around and Playstation does its yearly wrap up I promise you it’s just going to be GB3 stats. I love it. Take a bunch of Gundam kit parts, mash them together, hand it a weapon and smash your way through waves of enemies. It’s perfect.

As a die-hard fan, I couldn’t help but feel a mix of apprehension and anticipation when I learned that Gundam Breaker 4 was in the works. On one side, I was overjoyed to discover that Bandai hadn’t abandoned the Gundam Breaker series following the closure of their exceptional Gundam Breakers Mobile game. Yet, on the other hand, I found myself filled with trepidation. You see, I had tried New Gundam Breaker, the sequel to Gundam Breakers 3, and let me tell you, it was less than stellar.

Upon discovering that the following Gundam Breaker game is titled Gundam Breaker 4 instead of Gundam Breaker 5 or New Gundam Breaker 2, my enthusiasm was piqued, as it seemed they were repeating Coca-cola’s strategy with New Coke by abandoning the new formula.

After trying it out, I can confidently express my delight for this game. It exceeded most of my expectations, offering even more than I had hoped. However, before discussing the positives, I’d like to address any potential drawbacks first.

The Bad

To be honest, the music in this game isn’t my cup of tea, but fortunately, PlayStation allows you to customize the soundtrack, and I’ve found an intriguing collection of cursed mashups that perfectly complements the gameplay experience for me!

In contrast to Gundam Breaker 3, the fourth installment does not allow you to transfer items from saved files of earlier games. To my dismay, I had spent a considerable amount of effort last month to accumulate some unique items for the new game, but unfortunately, it appears that’s not an option here. However, considering this means more content to unlock and keeps my inventory manageable at the start, it’s not an entirely negative development.

The third one though is the closest to an actual big complaint. Some attacks just don’t hit as hard. Close up combat is still great and they actually did make missiles feel more powerful, but some of the things that used to be able to juggle opponents with multiple hits and just feel incredibly powerful are gone. The Atomic Bazooka still has a wonderfully powerful screen filling explosion but now it just hits once instead of sending all the enemies up in the air for a massive multi-hit combo. Likewise, the abilities that cause you to grow light wings and fly over the enemies have been changed from a slow floating swarm of nanites hitting the enemies into a quick, winged dash across the battlefield hopefully hitting SOMEONE. But, to be honest, the regular combat is so much better now it feels like a worthy trade.

The Good

Absolutely, let’s discuss the fantastic aspects of this game, as there are numerous reasons to adore it if you’re a Gunpla enthusiast.

The narrative is simply fantastic, veering away from complex political themes, and instead offering a more playful storyline. This game unfolds within the virtual world of a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) similar to Sword Art Online, where each character is modeled after their current Gunpla. As you progress, you forge friendships, form a team, and advance through ranks while simultaneously discovering more about your new companions and potential adversaries. All the while, something enigmatic transpires in the background. The tale possesses a delightful, uncomplicated quality that somewhat resembles the style of stories found in Pokemon. In fact, it references this with an “Elite Four”-style challenge at a later stage in the game.

While I greatly enjoyed Gundam Breaker 3, the narrative seemed to stretch beyond its limits in the second half. Initially, it was an engaging story about safeguarding a small business and arcade. However, as the plot unfolded, it veered into some fantastical territory: you ended up battling hackers by physically attacking data that had been metamorphosed into other Gunpla, all while thwarting a sinister plan to drop a colossal satellite onto a city from above. It appears they aimed higher than necessary.

Another great thing about the game are the customization options. I used to tell people that Gundam Breaker 3 let you really test what you could do with your kits. But it feels severely limited compared to what you can do in 4. You can actually put two different arms on your kit which I didn’t think was needed until I actually tried and found out that you can make some genuinely awesome looking things with the right combination. You can even do unrealistic things now like alter the size of some of the pieces so they work better together. That’s how I got Baund Doc’s giant left arm and turned it into the left arm in the kit below!

By the way, let me share something exciting for fellow Gunpla enthusiasts in the real world: You have the option to create your own custom boxes! It’s not only aesthetically pleasing, but it also allows me to print a box top for any kitbash I make, which really gets me pumped up.

In essence, this game offers nearly everything a Gunpla enthusiast could desire. It may not be tailored to fans of the Gundam anime in terms of plot, but for builders like myself who have been crafting these kits for what feels like an eternity, it’s about as close to paradise as we can get.

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2024-09-13 23:58