Games Happy

It’s been powerful being a Gundam Breaker fan. Practically a decade after the discharge of the outstanding Gundam Breaker 3, the sequence’ trajectory plummeted with the abysmal New Gundam Breaker quasi-reboot and the now-defunct Gundam Breaker Cellular gacha recreation. After the cell recreation shut down, I used to be satisfied that the Gundam Breaker sequence was lastly laid to relaxation completely – driving into the sundown with the wallets of playing addicts in hand.

Then, out of nowhere, Bandai Namco introduced Gundam Breaker 4 at a Nintendo Direct earlier this yr. I used to be genuinely shocked, particularly by their deliberate naming conference to title it Gundam Breaker 4 and never New Gundam Breaker 2. Each step of its advertising and marketing cycle emphasised that this was a correct follow-up to the primary sequence, and never attempting to awkwardly reinvent the wheel, so the builders did their finest to distance themselves from the New Gundam Breaker catastrophe by not mentioning it ever once more.

As somebody who first obtained into the sequence with Gundam Breaker 2 and sunk a big period of time into Gundam Breaker 3, I come away from Gundam Breaker 4 feeling glad in some methods and let down in others. The gameplay loop is actually a course correction again to what Gundam Breaker 2 and three established, however a number of extreme shortcomings stop it from attaining greatness.

Gamers are plunged into the in-universe beta section of GUNPLA Battle Blaze: Past Borders (which the sport refers to as GB4) proper at the beginning. It’s a Phantasy Star On-line-esque evolution of the continued know-how within the sequence’ world that permits gamers to scan their gunpla mannequin kits into digital house. Again in Gundam Breaker 3, this idea wanted giant arcades to function it, however as time went on and the know-how superior quickly, individuals within the Gundam Breaker universe may now do that from their very own gadgets at any time. Clearly, it parallels how our actuality’s online game know-how has progressed over the past 4 a long time.

Gundam Breaker 4 is ready a number of years after the occasions of Gundam Breaker 3, Gundam Breaker Cellular, and the Gundam Breaker Battlogue anime sequence on this regard. Though all of them share the identical world, the primary story of Gundam Breaker 4 is remoted sufficient that sequence newcomers will match proper in. There are a number of returning characters with cameo appearances and small moments that veterans will get pleasure from, although.

The story shortly introduces a number of beginning companions via Tao and Lin, who’re additionally each comparatively new to the GB4 open beta. Finally, the trio decides to type a clan and recruit a number of different characters alongside the best way to take part in a number of the occasions held within the GB4 beta. There are a number of deeper mysteries established early on that I gained’t get into, however the primary story of Gundam Breaker 4 oddly resembles the narrative discovered within the dot hack sequence at instances. Sport characters will even ship in-game emails to gamers on occasion, but sadly no in-game discussion board just like the pseudo-MMO franchise.

Whereas it isn’t something stellar, the primary story is serviceable and fulfilling sufficient. Every of the members that be a part of the protagonist’s clan receives a minor growth arc on the very least. Out of curiosity, I performed via all of it with English voices and the solid did a strong job bringing out the character of every character in a pure method. 

One of many greatest weaknesses in Gundam Breaker 4 is the extremely repetitive stage design taken from Gundam Breaker Cellular. Each single stage, whether or not it’s from the primary story or an non-compulsory quest, consists of preventing off enemy waves in a closed-off atmosphere and getting teleported to the following one doing the identical factor once more earlier than preventing the primary enemy workforce or gigantic boss within the ultimate space to finish the stage. The one slight variations from this construction come often when it’s a must to defend a shuttle or destroy a monolith to proceed.

Whereas prior entries additionally had individuals struggle off enemy waves, a way of spatial development was maintained by having gamers navigate via a map into the following zone. There was additionally constant environmental theming to the phases more often than not, whereas Gundam Breaker 4 typically feels prefer it’s throwing gamers right into a random zone – the primary space could be in a metropolis after which hastily you’re within a volcano. A number of of the later environments in the primary story do herald some new surroundings, however after some time, all of it simply blurred collectively for me. I believe this is likely one of the most extreme missteps that Gundam Breaker 4 commits.

In an ironic twist, the one collaboration stage Gundam Breaker 4 has with Pac-Man exhibits a glimpse of how the builders may have launched any kind of selection to the components. That stage cleverly emulates the enduring recreation’s ebb and circulate by having invincible enemies chase the gamers via a maze; individuals have to select up a sure power-up to make their pursuers susceptible to wreck for a restricted period of time as they traverse via the labyrinth amassing pellets to maneuver on.

Fortunately, Gundam Breaker 4 excels in one of many core basic pillars that has made the sequence particular – the gunpla-building expertise. As individuals progress via phases, they’ll encounter Cellular Fits from a plethora of various Gundam sequence. Gundam Breaker 4 roughly accommodates over 250 kits, which is the biggest beginning roster any of the console entries have had at launch earlier than any post-launch DLC entered the fray. Any foe encountered has the potential to drop a few of their components for gamers to make use of.

If a stage is being stingy and never dropping a desired Cellular Swimsuit’s half, gamers can all the time go to the store on the foyer to buy that gunpla’s equipment to obtain all of their components instantly. Nevertheless, whereas bought components begin at stage 1 on the lowest rarity, there are sources I’ll go into later that may shortly get them up to the mark.

Individuals can reconstruct their favourite Cellular Fits faithfully by matching all of their components collectively, or go completely buckwild kitbashing, mixing collectively components from a number of totally different gunpla. Gundam Breaker 4 provides an unprecedented quantity of freedom in constructing this time round, as gamers can customise a gunpla’s head, physique, left arm, proper arm, legs, backpack, totally different long-ranged weapons per arm, totally different close-ranged weapons per arm, defend, as much as eight totally different Builders Elements equipment, and tweaking all the talents it’s able to firing off in fight.

Essentially the most important change that returning sequence gamers will discover straight away is that each the left and proper arms can now every be distinctly totally different from each other, and that just about each weapon kind might be dual-wielded collectively. There are two assault buttons, however now they correspond to both attacking with the left or proper arm’s weapon. Solely sure two-handed weapon varieties, such because the greatsword and melee weapon varieties, retain the normal gentle and heavy management scheme from earlier installments.

This feeds into some new system mechanics in Gundam Breaker 4’s battle system. As individuals start their gunpla onslaught, they’ll discover two big meters on the proper facet of their display screen, the Hit and Break gauges. The previous is raised by regularly touchdown hits on foes, whereas the latter relies on persistently breaking enemy components off. When both of the 2 gauges are stuffed, they stage up and grant momentary bonuses to gamers; leveling up the Hit gauge provides buffs, and leveling up the Break gauge will increase the drop charge of components.

Weapon varieties, in return, complement these two gauges by specializing in elevating the Hit or Break gauge extra simply. Axes and maces, for example, have a greater tendency to interrupt off components, however lances and fencing sabers have multi-hit chain assaults to keep up the Hit gauge simply. 

On paper, this sounded restrictive at first, as a result of it appeared like I used to be being goaded into selecting two weapon varieties out of necessity to correctly preserve the 2 gauges quite than having full management over what I most well-liked. In actuality, it didn’t actually matter so long as I stored a gradual cadence of injury, since defeating an enemy or taking off a lifebar from bosses nonetheless counts as a Break, whereas connecting hits with ranged weapons can maintain the Hit gauge at bay.

Although I recognize the builders attempting some new concepts with Gundam Breaker 4 right here, I want additionally they had a “two-handed” variation for each weapon kind. By confining most classes of weapons to a one-handed stance, their moveset feels diluted consequently. They’ve an ordinary assault combo string, a “heavy” assault by holding down the assault button, and a transfer that prompts when an individual switches weapons in the midst of a combo. It’s not a foul concept conceptually, but it lacks selection and loses a little bit of the distinctive identification some weapon varieties had in Gundam Breaker 3.

Regardless of these points I’ve with this new installment of Gundam Breaker, it makes some sensible consumer expertise changes that remarkably enhance a number of the cumbersome components in earlier entries. When tweaking and perfecting a gunpla, individuals can instantly launch a coaching mode proper from the meeting menu to check out how a component, weapon, or ability is performing; they now not should boot up a stage for 5 seconds to verify one thing actual quick.

Every particular person a part of a gunpla, other than its weapons, can now be individually resized and rescaled. This rectifies a long-standing drawback of Excessive Grade (HG) and Grasp Grade (MG) sized components wanting mismatched as a result of they have been restricted to their totally different sizes innately. Plus, Gundam Breaker 4 now permits individuals to combine in SD Gundam components with any of the opposite measurement courses, so the sky is the restrict relating to what kinds of fashions individuals can create. Naturally, the extremely in-depth paint system stays intact and contains much more further choices now because it provides individuals extra management over every half’s panel strains.

There isn’t any longer a statistical penalty between HG and MG components, as nicely. Often, in prior Gundam Breaker entries, MG components would arbitrarily be higher as a result of they might be unlocked additional into the sport and I suppose their larger scale warranted higher stats. A physique half in Gundam Breaker 3 that each had its HG and MG counterpart within the recreation would share an identical stats however since MGs had the next stage cap, they might universally be higher when totally upgraded over their HG.

All components now, no matter their scale or kind, share the identical stage cap and standardized stats. A HG Zeta Gundam head’s stats at stage 50 will share the identical stats as a MG Zeta Gundam head and the MG can’t go previous stage 50. Thus, the one important distinction between the 2 an identical components is beauty; since a MG half is inherently larger, it may be scaled to a bigger max measurement visually than a HG.

After progressing via sure sections in the primary story, individuals will ultimately unlock extra methods to boost components. They’ll begin acquiring objects that enable them to extend the extent and rarity of any half; ranges enhance a component’s particular person stats, whereas rarity unlocks extra capacity slots. Gamers can ultimately merge different components into their outfitted half to manually switch over which talents they need from them.

Let’s say that I desire a gunpla to have Epyon’s legs, nevertheless it at present has a number of talents I don’t need on it, resembling thruster capability and restoration velocity. As an alternative, I need the elevated HP capability and motion velocity of a Wing Gundam’s legs; all I’d should do is merge that Wing Gundam into my Epyon and swap out these talents freely.

It’s a reasonably simple course of, although studying the language of how a number of the talents are phrased is a little bit of a studying course of. What does ‘Assault Energy: Throw OP Lv. 9’, ‘Max Length: Break Combo Lv. 17’, or ‘Prolonged Activation: Hyper Trance EX Lv. 9’ imply? With sufficient trial and error, it begins to make sense and the sport sadly doesn’t present tooltips to provide an in depth breakdown for a lot of of its awkward phrase salad talents. Nonetheless, it’s a smidge higher than how Gundam Breaker 3 dealt with it, as a result of that recreation had gamers fiddle round with merging higher-tier colour rarities to advance their chosen half to the following tier, whereas Gundam Breaker 4 streamlines all of it into plastic merchandise items designed to both advance the separate rarity or stage bars.

In fact, a whole lot of the enjoyable in designing a customized gunpla within the Gundam Breaker video games stems from what kinds of abilities it could possibly hearth off in the midst of fight. Lots of my half selections early on in Gundam Breaker 4 have been dictated by what sort of EX or Choice (OP) abilities they’d on them. If I needed funnels, I most likely leaned extra towards utilizing a Nu Gundam’s backpack or a Cherudim Gundam’s arm to entry its defend bits. Maybe I needed my mannequin equipment to spice up its capabilities briefly, so I bolted on a component from a Unicorn Gundam or Banshee Norn that possessed the NT-D EX ability.

Designing a gunpla solely primarily based on the capabilities of components doesn’t sound like that a lot enjoyable in the long term, although. In spite of everything, there are a myriad of components that don’t have a single EX or OP ability hooked up to them. That is the place Grasp Expertise come into play.

When a participant totally maxes the rarity of a component, all of its distinctive abilities might be transformed to Grasp Expertise. This now permits these abilities to be slotted into any gunpla construct universally, no matter whether or not the half is provided or not. As soon as I used to be drowning in rarity evolution plastic items from larger problem stage runs, I started to put money into increasing my pool of Grasp Expertise by maxing out the rarities of components left and proper.

Sadly, I believe Gundam Breaker 4’s abilities really feel extra akin to how New Gundam Breaker dealt with them. They’re extra visually reserved and subdued in comparison with how flashy and over-exaggerated the animations have been for them in previous mainline video games. As an alternative of an prolonged sequence of flashy katana strikes earlier than an air launcher right into a spinning helmbreaker end from a single EX ability, Gundam Breaker 4 opts for a faster 5-hit katana combo with extra easy motion choreography. That doesn’t imply there are not any cool or enjoyable abilities in any respect to fiddle with, although it’s exhausting to dismiss how much less over-the-top the ability animations are throughout the board.

Motion economic system, sources, and allocation for EX and OP abilities have seen some main revamps. The 4 EX abilities a participant equips now not go on a person cooldown per ability activation. Now, EX abilities share a common EX meter that works lots like a preventing recreation’s tremendous bar; individuals can construct as much as a max of 9 EX bars and EX abilities can devour 1, 2, or 3 EX bars. There isn’t any cooldown on when they are often activated once more, so individuals can consistently hearth off EX abilities in the event that they’re capable of replenish the EX meter shortly.

OP abilities, then again, are nicely… they’re solely activatable abilities now, not like having complete non-compulsory tools with their distinct possibility assault movesets. They function with conventional cooldowns upon individually utilizing them and as much as eight of them might be outfitted. The principle change with OP abilities is how sure weapon varieties, resembling funnels, are unique to EX abilities; there are now not any funnels out there as OP abilities. Well being restoration abilities are in an analogous state of affairs as nicely, although passive HP restoration and lifesteal are nonetheless talents that may be put in onto components. Ability cooldown discount for OP components generally is a very precious capacity modifier to stack, since gunpla movesets specializing in how briskly OP components might be fired off are achievable and viable nonetheless.

A enjoyable wrinkle that feeds into the motion RPG grind is the brand new Enlargement Capability Cartridge mechanic. After a sure level in the primary story, phases will start to drop Capability Cartridges which randomly roll as much as three talents on them that may be each useful or detrimental to a gunpla’s construct. For instance, a random Capability Cartridge drop could add an astounding 253% to HP capability at the price of additionally incurring a 6% penalty to the projectile velocity of ranged weapons. Cartridges might also unlock new features, resembling auto guarding which can have a gunpla routinely block at any time when potential always.

Earlier, I in contrast the brand new in-game GB4 program inside Gundam Breaker 4 to Phantasy Star On-line. That is most obvious in its essential menu lobbies that assist as much as 24 individuals on-line, whereas events of as much as 3 individuals can play via phases collectively. I solely obtained to check the web performance briefly throughout a limited-time open community check on the PS5, for the reason that on-line servers have been disabled in my PC evaluate copy on Steam. 

Whereas it’s a little bit of a bummer that the sport doesn’t assist cross-play throughout platforms, I hope there’s a wholesome group of gamers that embrace the extra shared social-facing nature of the foyer system although after all, individuals could make their lobbies non-public at any time. I’m positively sneaking into some public lobbies to see what kinds of monstrosities individuals are going to construct.

An much more fascinating characteristic that I didn’t get to check out as a result of I couldn’t connect with the web server through the evaluate interval is the clan system. In Gundam Breaker 4, it’s potential to type a web based clan, although I’m undecided what the participant cap is for a clan. I’m not precisely certain if Bandai Namco plans to have post-launch occasions that contain the clan system in any form of significant method. What I do know is that members in clans acquire entry to an Merchandise Field after finishing the primary marketing campaign, during which they can provide or commerce stuff with different members of the clan via depositing and retrieving objects from the clan’s Merchandise Field. As soon as once more, I couldn’t do this characteristic out for myself and solely discovered this via tutorial pop-up messages.

Talking of the PC model, I’m pleased to report that Gundam Breaker 4 ran superbly on my PC set-up. It helps excessive framerates and cranking up all of its settings to max made it look significantly higher than what I noticed of it on my PS5. The one small stutters I seen have been some map environments within the later phases of survival mode. Aside from that, it ran completely advantageous on my finish however then once more, I’ve a GeForce RTX 3080, so I might hope so. There are a whole lot of PC choices and settings that may be tweaked so I’m optimistic that it’ll be advantageous for most individuals and never simply me.

One other main part is the brand new Diorama mode, which is one other rabbit gap that creatives can spend dozens upon dozens of hours with. This supplies an especially in depth toolkit to construct mannequin units with fully-featured environmental prospers. It’s like digging into an enormous toy field to both recreate memorable scenes from a Gundam present, remixing iconic moments with enjoyable ‘what-if’ situations, or completely constructing one thing new from scratch. The quantity of management, proper right down to freeze-framing a particular animation body of a given movement, is unbelievable and I think about this mode alone will trigger sure individuals to sink lots of of hours into Gundam Breaker 4. Whether or not it’s via a diorama masterpiece or the extra customary pictures mode, individuals can freely add their screenshots into an in-game collective gallery the place individuals can browse and just like the creations of others.

Gundam Breaker 4 is like watching an previous pal rebound from powerful instances. It is probably not as nice as its mainline predecessors in some regards, however it’s a strong course correction from the previous few dire entries. The repetitive phases and diluted weapon choices are a noticeable step again, but so many quality-of-life enhancements to this new entry within the gunpla motion RPG sequence make it a lot a smoother expertise to play. Whereas finishing the primary story took me roughly round 17 hours, I am nearly to succeed in the 60 hour mark as a result of I maintain making complete new gunpla builds to tackle the very best problem phases on their very own. It takes digital mannequin equipment constructing to the following stage and the potential of crafting one thing really masterful, or horrific, is simply restricted by an individual’s creativeness.

7