Again in early 2016 when I used to be searching for import-friendly video games on PS Vita, I used to incessantly see Gundam Breaker discussed. When you’ve by no means heard of the collection prior to, call to mind them as hack and slash motion video games with RPG parts, deep customization, and a natural unadulterated love of Gunpla. Across the time I used to be taking a look into the collection, Bandai Namco introduced an Asia English launch for Gundam Breaker 3 on PS4 and PS Vita, and I made up our minds to shop for each variations. I stopped up loving it as my first Gundam recreation. Since then, I’ve imported and performed Gundam Breaker 1 and a pair of on PS Vita, and in addition gotten mainly each and every Gundam recreation launched in English throughout platforms. To peer Gundam Breaker 4 introduced previous this yr and showed for a world multi-platform simultaneous launch stays one in all 2024’s greatest surprises. Rapid ahead to nowadays and Gundam Breaker 4 is after all right here on Steam, Transfer, PS4, and PS5. Having installed about 60 hours throughout platforms, I like Gundam Breaker 4, however it has a couple of problems at the moment.
Gundam Breaker 4 is a vital launch no longer handiest on account of the sport itself, however on account of how some distance we’ve include the collection within the West. So what makes Gundam Breaker 4 a large deal? Long past are the times of looking ahead to an Asia English launch to import. Gundam Breaker 3 used to be an Asia English launch no longer launched within the West, and simply on PlayStation. I will’t recall the remaining Gundam recreation that had an English dub choice, however right here we’re with a twin audio choice and a couple of subtitle choices (EFIGS and plenty of extra). However what in regards to the recreation itself and the other platform variations? I’m going to hide all of that on this prolonged evaluation that will even take you on a adventure of me beginning my first Grasp Grade Gunpla (Gundam Plastic Equipment in case you’re new to this) after construction some Top Grade (more straightforward and smaller kits) prior to.
Gundam Breaker 4’s tale levels from getting the activity executed to a couple highs and lows. The lows are once I felt like positive pre-mission conversation used to be occurring a little too lengthy, and the highs had been within the latter part of the sport when there are attention-grabbing persona unearths and in addition extra attention-grabbing conversation. When you’ve no longer performed a unmarried recreation within the collection prior to, Gundam Breaker 4 nonetheless does a excellent activity of bringing you on top of things, however it’s possible you’ll surprise why the semblance of positive characters is a large deal in a while. The embargo handiest lets in me to speak about the primary two chapters of the tale, and it appears like an easy affair throughout the ones two. I stopped up liking the principle characters relatively a little by means of the tip, however my two favourite characters seem a lot later within the tale.
The true draw of Gundam Breaker 4 isn’t the tale regardless that. It’s construction your personal easiest Gunpla, bettering it over the years, getting higher tools, and turning into more potent to take on upper difficulties and extra quests. While you start, you get the fundamentals, however what the crew in reality underold within the promotion is the customization facet. It’s unbelievable. No longer handiest are you able to modify person portions like left and proper hands, however you’ll be able to additionally modify ranged guns for every arm, melee with twin wielding, and modify the person section dimension and scale. This implies you’ll be able to even use SD (tremendous deformed) portions for your standard Gunpla and both have it appear to be this bizarre frankenstein swimsuit or scale issues on your liking.
Past the true portions for every primary class in meeting, the customization in Gundam Breaker 4 takes issues additional with builder portions that can help you upload much more issues on your Gunpla. A few of these also have their very own talents. Talking of talents, you’ve EX and OP talents to make use of in fight. Those rely on your portions and guns. Afterward, you additionally release talent cartridges that experience their very own specifications that provide you with buffs or debuffs.
As you move during the missions breaking portions and incomes S-rank praise portions, you additionally get fabrics. Those can be utilized to degree up your portions. Every venture in Gundam Breaker 4 generally has a advisable portions degree indicating how appropriate it’s on your present tools. Along with fabrics you earn to improve portions, you get started incomes fabrics to extend section rarity in a while. This allows you to improve for extra talents as smartly, and you’ll be able to use older or lesser section talents while you improve and cannibalize the ones older portions.
Throughout the principle tale, I spent a little of time at the non-compulsory quests to make money or portions, however really feel like the sport is balanced sufficient the place you gained’t in reality want to grind throughout the principle tale on the usual issue no less than. Talking of the trouble, you release 3 upper difficulties as the principle tale progresses, and those up the problem and section degree advice relatively a little. When you do plan on skipping many of the non-compulsory quests throughout the principle tale, you should definitely control the brand new unlocks as a result of one of the crucial non-compulsory quest sorts are numerous amusing, particularly the survival mode.
Out of doors of all of this, you’ll be able to additionally modify the paint of your swimsuit which helps you to colour schemes you’ve unlocked via development or from DLC. When 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 means of how a lot has long gone into this. While you’re executed with paint, you’ll be able to paintings with decals and weathering results as smartly. Gundam Breaker 4 is the actual deal for Gunpla fanatics, however does it play smartly?
Having loved the whole lot Gundam Breaker 4 has to supply in its gameplay via tale missions, aspect content material, and boss fights excluding one particular venture sort, I believe the crew nailed it. I by no means were given bored of fight even supposing the standard issue is at the more straightforward aspect. I saved swapping out guns and making an attempt the more than a few sorts prior to selecting a greatsword taste weapon for the remainder of my playthrough. The whole thing feels numerous sufficient, and the person talents and stats make for a recent enjoy all the way through.
On the subject of the bosses and minibosses, I really like having them seem at the degree within the Gunpla containers after which breaking out prior to combating you. This by no means will get outdated, and seeing one of the crucial Gunpla kits I constructed seem as a md in a while used to be superior. Maximum boss fights contain concentrated on susceptible issues, harmful the various well being bars, destroying shields, and the standard. I did have hassle with one explicit boss’ susceptible issues the usage of particular guns, however I modified to a whip and taken care of it in an instant. The one actual arduous boss combat within the tale used to be coping with two of a particular boss immediately. I gained’t get into main points for spoiler causes, however I did battle with the AI in a single particular combat.
Visually, Gundam Breaker 4 levels from nice to high-quality. The environments glance missing early on, however I discovered the variability excellent total. Many of the paintings went into ensuring the Gunpla kits and animations glance the most efficient, and it presentations. The builders obviously weren’t seeking to opt for a sensible artwork taste right here, so don’t be expecting one thing like Gundam Evolution and even how some bits of Gundam Breaker 3 regarded. The classy in Gundam Breaker 4 works smartly and it scales because it must on decrease finish {hardware}. The results glance nice, and the size of many boss fights is superior.
The song in Gundam Breaker 4 levels from forgettable tunes you gained’t assume of outdoor the sport to a couple of in reality nice songs in particular tale missions. I’m dissatisfied on no account to set song from the more than a few anime and films right here. Typically we’d see some anime song pack DLC or a top rate package for Asia and Japan, however I’ve no longer observed any of that but within the recreation or introduced. I additionally don’t see a strategy to load customized song like in Cell Go well with Gundam Excessive Vs Maxiboost ON on PS4.
The voice performing has been a nice marvel. I performed during the recreation utterly with English on one save, and in addition spent a few dozen hours with the Jap voice choice on every other platform save. Each had been excellent and I discovered myself liking the English extra throughout missions as a result of I hate studying small subtitles throughout motion battles once I’m that specialize in combating enemies.
To this point, excluding one venture sort in reality traumatic me (fortunately no longer too prevalent) and a couple of insects, I’ve had no actual problems with Gundam Breaker 4. If you’re new to this collection and aren’t partial to replaying missions to grind out higher tools and drops, you could to find issues repetitive. I’ve all the time considered Gundam Breaker like Earth Protection Power and Monster Hunter the place after completing the tale, I spend time construction my easiest Gunpla.
As for insects, I bumped into one the place positive names wouldn’t save or two I believe are Steam Deck-specific. The primary is that returning to the name display screen from in-game takes means too lengthy. The second one is one particular venture that crashed for me handiest when taking part in on my observe. I replayed it at the Deck itself and it used to be high-quality. It would simply had been when it comes to the efficiency penalty I see in some video games docked, however I will’t say evidently.
The only facet I’ve no longer touched on up to now is the web. Pre-release I controlled to play a excellent quantity of the community take a look at on PS5 and Transfer, however I handiest controlled to check a little of the retail launch on PS5 with a pal who’s reviewing that model. The PC model’s servers have no longer been on-line pre-launch in any respect, so I will not take a look at if the web works high-quality on Steam Deck but. I can be updating this as soon as servers log on and I’ve controlled trying out the PC model on Steam Deck with pals on-line.
At this level, you’re most certainly questioning in regards to the Gunpla I used to be construction. I made some development and were given via 5 units of runners, however made a mistake with one small section. I panicked and virtually broke it whilst seeking to separate issues. That is the place my guitar pick out got here into the image and stored me. I stopped up preventing with my RG 78-2 MG 3.0 about midway executed. As soon as the evaluation embargoes of this week are over, I’ll get again to it and end it.
Now let’s get to the platform variations and lines.
Gundam Breaker 4 PC port controls – keyboard, mouse, and controller give a boost to
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 Transfer model hovers across the 30fps mark. The Gundam Breaker 4 PC launch additionally has mouse and keyboard give a boost to along with controller give a boost to with a couple of button instructed choices.
When taking part in at the Deck itself, it displayed Xbox button activates. When the usage of my DualSense controller over the Dock on my observe, Gundam Breaker 4 confirmed PlayStation activates accurately. It additionally auto switches between keyboard mouse and controller activates in keeping with your enter. The one controller-related factor I bumped into is the sport no longer accurately detecting once I’ve reconnected a controller. I examined this on my DualSense and 8BitDo Final controllers wirelessly.
Gundam Breaker 4 ships with 3 controller presets and a customized choice. You’ll be able to modify the keyboard mouse and controller settings independently.
One surroundings I like to recommend converting in an instant or after you check out the primary few missions is digicam sensitivity and distance. You’ll be able to do that 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 couple of resolutions and body price caps. At the Steam Deck itself, it unfortunately doesn’t give a boost to a complete 800p and runs at 720p and 16:9. At the body price aspect, it could actually move from 30fps to 360fps and limitless on PC. I set it to 120fps when taking part in on Steam Deck since I performed it virtually completely on my Steam Deck OLED. You’ll be able to additionally toggle v-sync.
At the graphics aspect, you’ll be able to modify the standard of textures, anti-aliasing, post-processing, shadows, results, and in addition modify brightness and toggle movement blur.
Gundam Breaker 4 Steam Deck efficiency – does it determine of the field?
I performed Gundam Breaker 4 with Proton Experimental (bleeding edge) as I in most cases do for untested video games, however I additionally examined it at the default Proton. It really works completely out of the field or even invokes the on-screen keyboard for textual content enter. I’ve self assurance on this being Steam Deck Verified pre-launch or quickly after. The 35 hours I put into it on simply my Steam Deck OLED turn out that.
When taking part in with all settings at Top excluding shadows, Gundam Breaker 4 simply hit 60fps, however I sought after extra. For this, I became issues to medium and performed at 80-90fps virtually around the board. A couple of late-game missions noticed drops to the prime 60s throughout gameplay, however another way I had no problems in precise gameplay. In-engine cut-scenes do take a success to efficiency and run within the 50-70fps vary for me on Steam Deck. I did run into one factor the place the meeting phase all of sudden dropped to 1-3fps for a couple of seconds prior to capturing again as much as 90fps. This didn’t occur greater than 3 times overall, however I couldn’t determine what led to it. If this can be a Proton connected factor, I’m hoping Valve can repair it.
The one visible factor I had when taking part in at the Deck itself is one of the crucial icon glyphs and menus had both smaller than anticipated fonts, or they weren’t as crisp as they must’ve been. I realized this even on Transfer so it most likely is a matter with the sport being designed for a better res and larger display screen. No longer a dealbreaker, however price mentioning.
Gundam Breaker 4 Transfer vs PS5 – what to shop for?
At the console aspect, I didn’t have time to check Gundam Breaker 4 on my PS4, so I targeted at the Transfer (Lite and OLED) and PS5 variations. Gundam Breaker 4 on PS5 seems superb and runs mainly completely at 60fps within the time I put into it, however I didn’t achieve the few missions within the tale against the tip that had been extra visually difficult. I additionally didn’t achieve right here on Transfer, however I put just about two dozen hours into the Transfer model to look sufficient of the way it runs there. Take a look at a comparability of the outlet instructional venture on PS5 and Transfer within the screenshot comparability under:
The most important downgrades on Transfer excluding the efficiency are with solution, element, and reflections. This is applicable no longer handiest to the levels, but in addition the Gunpla portions. Throughout the community checks, a pal of mine identified how the Transfer model gave the impression of an HG Gunpla whilst the PS5 model gave the impression of an RG in some scenes. When you constructed Gunpla you’ll perceive this, however for everybody else, it simply method Gunpla within the Transfer model finally ends up missing in lots of main points like decals, lining, or even weathering results in particular scenarios. They do seem, however I believe the decrease solution and draw distance makes it in order that they’re invisible once in a while. That is a kind of adjustments you gained’t understand till you spot the sport out of doors Transfer.
I in truth anticipated this to run at 120fps on PS5 given the visuals. Enjoying Megaton Musashi at 120fps used to be excellent as a contemporary launch. Possibly the builders capped this to 60fps for multiplayer causes with the PS4 model, however I’m no longer certain. Except the 60fps cap, Gundam Breaker 4 has first rate rumble give a boost to or even has PS5 Job Card give a boost to to load into your save faster. For the reason that evaluation embargo prevents me from appearing anything else past bankruptcy two within the tale, the screenshot under is from once I simply started taking part in appearing the Job Card implementation for tale mode. I’m hoping this helps on-line play and lobbies sooner or later as smartly.
Talking of loading, the Transfer load instances are in reality lengthy in comparison to 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 Transfer.
When you handiest care about portability, you clearly gained’t trouble with the PS5 model, however the Transfer port these days has one primary factor that makes me hesitate to counsel it. The meeting phase and diorama mode really feel very slow. Whilst the principle foyer or hub may be slow, the efficiency in missions is best albeit nonetheless no longer 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 fresh Transfer ports.
I might feel good about this given the {hardware} if the meeting phase ran higher bearing in mind you’ll be spending numerous time there after every venture. Diorama mode additionally wishes extra optimization on Transfer with how slow it feels. When you performed Gundam Breaker 3 on PS Vita, you’ll be greater than high-quality with the Transfer model, however I used to be hoping for a greater port all issues regarded as. Since there are extra content material updates deliberate, I’m hoping we see some optimization in this entrance.
For individuals who personal a couple of platforms, I handiest counsel the Transfer model in case you completely need to play portably and don’t personal a Steam Deck. Talking of transportable play, I loved Gundam Breaker 4 on my Transfer Lite excluding the textual content dimension in some menus. Gundam Breaker 4 may be unfortunately the general recreation I reviewed on it prior to the display screen evolved some LCD-related problems.
Is the Gundam Breaker 4 Final Version price it?
I had get right of entry to to one of the crucial DLC incorporated within the Gundam Breaker 4 Deluxe Version and Gundam Breaker 4 Final Version. I will’t remark at the tale DLC but because it isn’t to be had, however the early unlocks aren’t recreation converting. You get degree 1 portions for the fits indexed at the retailer web page, however I discovered the developers portions to be higher as early DLC that will help you get began.
Past that, the Diorama content material doesn’t appear to be totally to be had at the moment, however there’s some content material from the DLC I had get right of entry to to, and it used to be in reality excellent for posing Gunpla and the usage of the cel-shaded filter out as smartly. Having attempted the Diorama mode so much throughout my playthroughs on all platforms, picture mode fanatics and people who revel in the ones types of modes in video games will to find so much to like right here. Having extra pieces and equipment on this mode will probably be excellent, however it is advisable to get the ones one at a time I guess. I really like how Gunbarrel Strike Gundam – Gundam Breaker Ver seems, so having the ones portions used to be great. I favored the design sufficient to reserve the collector’s version the instant pre-orders went up as smartly.
Is Gundam Breaker 4 price it for the tale?
I’ve observed some other people excited to play Gundam Breaker 4 for its tale, and whilst this can be a high-quality tale, you in reality are right here for personalization, battles, and construction your preferrred Gunpla. If you need a story-focused recreation as an alternative, have a look at Megaton Musashi. Each video games have their strengths and weaknesses, however I stopped up clicking with the gameplay in Gundam Breaker 4 extra as partial to the older video games.
After I were given my evaluation codes for Gundam Breaker 4, I had a amusing concept of beginning the MG 78-2 Model 3.0 equipment and construction it along the sport to complete each on the identical time, however unfortunately there are too many different video games freeing for me so that you could do this.
No longer handiest used to be it nice to play a brand new Gundam Breaker along construction my latest Gunpla equipment, however there’s a brand new discovered appreciation I’ve for the paintings that is going into designing those kits now after transferring to an MG and in addition an RG from HG kits. I’ve additionally been fortunate sufficient to have some pals who’re tremendous useful with Gunpla pointers for decals, panel lining, and in addition what to do when caught. I stay up for completing this equipment after which running on my RG subsequent.
The look ahead to Gundam Breaker 4 has been tremendous lengthy, and I didn’t even assume we’d see a brand new recreation within the collection after New Gundam Breaker, however right here we’re. Gundam Breaker 4 is actual and it’s impressive in virtually each and every means. It’s my favourite Steam Deck recreation this yr since Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, and one I stay up for taking part in on-line and offline over the approaching months with the entire DLC deliberate.
Gundam Breaker 4 Steam Deck evaluation: 4.5/5
