Gundam Breaker 4 Review – Steam Deck, Switch, and PS5 Tested – TouchArcade Leave a comment

Again in early 2016 once I was in search of import-friendly video games on PS Vita, I used to typically see Gundam Breaker talked about. For those who’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 likewise gotten mainly each Gundam sport launched in English throughout platforms. To see Gundam Breaker 4 introduced earlier this 12 months and confirmed for a world multi-platform simultaneous launch stays certainly one of 2024’s largest surprises. Quick ahead to in the present day and Gundam Breaker 4 is lastly right here on Steam, Change, PS4, and PS5. Having put in about 60 hours throughout platforms, I like Gundam Breaker 4, nevertheless it has a couple of points proper now.

Gundam Breaker 4 is a vital 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 in regards to the sport itself and the totally different platform variations? I’m going to cowl all of that on this prolonged evaluation that may even take you on a journey of me beginning my first Grasp Grade Gunpla (Gundam Plastic Package 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 once I felt like sure pre-mission dialog was occurring a bit too lengthy, and the highs had been within the latter half of the sport when there are fascinating character reveals and likewise extra fascinating dialog. For those who’ve not performed a single sport within the sequence earlier than, Gundam Breaker 4 nonetheless does a very good job of bringing you on top of things, however you may marvel why the looks of sure characters is a giant deal in a while. The embargo solely permits me to speak in regards to the first two chapters of the story, and it looks like an easy affair throughout these two. I ended up liking the primary characters fairly a bit by the tip, however my two favourite characters seem a lot later within the story.

The actual draw of Gundam Breaker 4 isn’t the story although. It’s constructing your individual excellent Gunpla, enhancing it over time, getting higher gear, and turning into stronger to sort out increased difficulties and extra quests. While you start, you get the fundamentals, however what the group actually underold within the promotion is the customization side. It’s unbelievable. Not solely are you able to modify particular person components like left and proper arms, however you may as well modify ranged weapons for every arm, melee with twin wielding, and modify the person half dimension and scale. This implies you may even use SD (tremendous deformed) components in your regular Gunpla and both have it appear to be this bizarre frankenstein swimsuit or scale issues to your liking.

Past the precise components for every foremost class in meeting, the customization in Gundam Breaker 4 takes issues additional with builder components that allow you to add much more issues to your Gunpla. A few of these even have their very own expertise. Talking of expertise, you may have EX and OP expertise to make use of in fight. These rely in your components and weapons. In a while, you additionally unlock potential cartridges which have their very own specs that provide you with buffs or debuffs.

As you undergo the missions breaking components and incomes S-rank reward components, you additionally get supplies. These can be utilized to stage up your components. Every mission in Gundam Breaker 4 often has a beneficial components stage indicating how appropriate it’s on your present gear. Along with supplies you earn to improve components, you begin incomes supplies to extend half rarity in a while. This allows you to improve for extra expertise as nicely, and you should use older or lesser half expertise while you improve and cannibalize these older components.

Throughout the primary story, I spent a little bit of time on the optionally available quests to earn cash or components, however really feel like the sport is balanced sufficient the place you received’t really want to grind throughout the primary story on the usual issue not less than. Talking of the problem, you unlock three increased difficulties as the primary story progresses, and these up the problem and half stage suggestion fairly a bit. For those who do plan on skipping a lot of the optionally available quests throughout the primary story, be certain to control the brand new unlocks as a result of among the optionally available quest varieties are numerous enjoyable, particularly the survival mode.

Exterior of all of this, you may as well modify the paint of your swimsuit which helps you to colour schemes you’ve unlocked via development or from DLC. For those who 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 nicely. Gundam Breaker 4 is the actual deal for Gunpla fanatics, however does it play nicely?

Having loved all the pieces Gundam Breaker 4 has to supply in its gameplay via story missions, facet content material, and boss fights apart from one particular mission kind, I believe the group nailed it. I by no means obtained bored of fight although the traditional issue is on the better facet. I saved swapping out weapons and attempting the varied varieties earlier than deciding on a greatsword model weapon for the remainder of my playthrough. The whole lot feels diversified sufficient, and the person expertise and stats make for a recent expertise all through.

In terms of the bosses and minibosses, I really like having them seem on the stage within the Gunpla bins after which breaking out earlier than preventing you. This by no means will get previous, and seeing one of many Gunpla kits I constructed seem as a boss in a while was superior. Most boss fights contain concentrating on weak factors, damaging the numerous well being bars, destroying shields, and the standard. I did have bother with one specific 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 selected boss directly. I received’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 wonderful. 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 the most effective, and it reveals. The builders clearly weren’t attempting to go for a practical artwork model right here, so don’t count on one thing like Gundam Evolution and even how some bits of Gundam Breaker 3 seemed. The aesthetic in Gundam Breaker 4 works nicely and it scales because it ought to on decrease finish {hardware}. The consequences look nice, and the size of many boss fights is superior.

The music in Gundam Breaker 4 ranges from forgettable tunes you received’t consider outdoors the sport to a couple actually nice songs in particular story missions. I’m dissatisfied by no means to set music from the varied anime and films 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 strategy to load customized music like in Cell Go well with Gundam Excessive Vs Maxiboost ON on PS4.

The voice performing has been a pleasing shock. I performed via the sport utterly with English on one save, and likewise spent a couple of 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 once I’m specializing in preventing enemies.

Thus far, apart from one mission kind actually annoying me (fortunately not too prevalent) and some bugs, I’ve had no actual points with Gundam Breaker 4. In case you are new to this sequence and aren’t a fan of replaying missions to grind out higher gear and drops, you could discover issues repetitive. I’ve all the time considered Gundam Breaker like Earth Protection Drive and Monster Hunter the place after ending the story, I spend time constructing my excellent Gunpla.

As for bugs, I bumped into one the place sure names wouldn’t save or two I believe 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 taking part in on my monitor. I replayed it on the Deck itself and it was wonderful. 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 thus far is the net. Pre-release I managed to play a very good quantity of the community check on PS5 and Change, however I solely managed to check a little bit of the retail launch on PS5 with a pal who’s reviewing that model. The PC model’s servers haven’t been on-line pre-launch in any respect, so I can’t check if the net works wonderful on Steam Deck but. I will probably be updating this as soon as servers log on and I’ve managed testing the PC model on Steam Deck with mates on-line.

At this level, you’re most likely questioning in regards to the Gunpla I used to be constructing. I made some progress and obtained via 5 units of runners, however made a mistake with one small half. I panicked and nearly 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 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 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 Change 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 taking part in 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 accurately. It additionally auto switches between keyboard mouse and controller prompts based mostly in your enter. The one controller-related situation I bumped into is the sport not accurately detecting once 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 possibly can modify 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 digicam sensitivity and distance. You are able to do this in Participant Mode from the sport settings. I discovered the default too sluggish and shut.

Gundam Breaker 4 PC graphics settings and show choices

Gundam Breaker 4 helps a number of resolutions and body price caps. On the Steam Deck itself, it sadly doesn’t help a full 800p and runs at 720p and 16:9. On the body price facet, it will possibly go from 30fps to 360fps and limitless on PC. I set it to 120fps when taking part in on Steam Deck since I performed it nearly completely on my Steam Deck OLED. You may also toggle v-sync.

On the graphics facet, you may modify the standard of textures, anti-aliasing, post-processing, shadows, results, and likewise modify 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 taking part in 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 nearly throughout the board. Just a few 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 situation the place the meeting part instantly dropped to 1-3fps for a couple of seconds earlier than taking pictures again as much as 90fps. This didn’t occur greater than 3 times whole, however I couldn’t work out what triggered it. If this can be a Proton associated situation, I hope Valve can repair it.

The one visible situation I had when taking part in on the Deck itself is among the icon glyphs and menus had both smaller than anticipated fonts, or they weren’t as crisp as they need to’ve been. I seen this even on Change so it probably is a matter with the sport being designed for the next res and larger display. Not a dealbreaker, however price mentioning.

Gundam Breaker 4 Change vs PS5 – what to purchase?

On the console facet, I didn’t have time to check Gundam Breaker 4 on my PS4, so I targeted on the Change (Lite and OLED) and PS5 variations. Gundam Breaker 4 on PS5 seems to be superb and runs mainly 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 tip that had been extra visually demanding. I additionally didn’t attain right here on Change, however I put practically two dozen hours into the Change model to see sufficient of the way it runs there. Try a comparability of the opening tutorial mission on PS5 and Change within the screenshot comparability beneath:

The most important downgrades on Change apart from the efficiency are with decision, element, and reflections. This is applicable not solely to the phases, but additionally the Gunpla components. Through the community exams, a pal of mine identified how the Change model seemed like an HG Gunpla whereas the PS5 model seemed like an RG in some scenes. For those who constructed Gunpla you’ll perceive this, however for everybody else, it simply means Gunpla within the Change model finally ends up missing in lots of particulars like decals, lining, and even weathering results in particular conditions. They do seem, however I believe the decrease decision and draw distance makes it in order that they’re invisible generally. That is a kind of adjustments you received’t notice till you see the sport outdoors Change.

I truthfully anticipated this to run at 120fps on PS5 given the visuals. Enjoying Megaton Musashi at 120fps was good as a latest launch. Perhaps the builders capped this to 60fps for multiplayer causes with the PS4 model, however I’m undecided. Other than the 60fps cap, Gundam Breaker 4 has first rate rumble help and even has PS5 Exercise Card help to load into your save faster. Because the evaluation embargo prevents me from displaying something past chapter two within the story, the screenshot beneath is from once I simply started taking part in displaying the Exercise Card implementation for story mode. I hope this helps on-line play and lobbies sooner or later as nicely.

Talking of loading, the Change load instances are actually lengthy in comparison with PS5 and Steam Deck. Even operating the sport off the SD card on my previous Steam Deck LCD had a lot sooner load instances than Change.

For those who solely care about portability, you clearly received’t trouble with the PS5 model, however the Change port at the moment has one main situation that makes me hesitate to suggest 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 latest Change ports.

I might be pleased with this given the {hardware} if the meeting part ran higher contemplating you can be spending numerous time there after every mission. Diorama mode additionally wants extra optimization on Change with how sluggish it feels. For those who performed Gundam Breaker 3 on PS Vita, you can be greater than wonderful with the Change model, however I hoped for a greater port all issues thought-about. Since there are extra content material updates deliberate, I hope we see some optimization on this entrance.

For many who personal a number of platforms, I solely suggest the Change model if you happen to completely need to play portably and don’t personal a Steam Deck. Talking of transportable play, I loved Gundam Breaker 4 on my Change Lite apart from the textual content dimension 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 price it?

I had entry to among 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 accessible, however the early unlocks aren’t sport altering. You get stage 1 components for the fits listed on the shop web page, however I discovered the builders components to be higher as early DLC that can assist you get began.

Past that, the Diorama content material doesn’t appear to be absolutely accessible 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 nicely. Having tried the Diorama mode quite a bit throughout my playthroughs on all platforms, picture mode fanatics and people who get pleasure from these sorts of modes in video games will discover quite a bit to like right here. Having extra objects and equipment on this mode will probably be good, however you might get these individually I assume. I really like how Gunbarrel Strike Gundam – Gundam Breaker Ver seems to be, so having these components was good. I preferred the design sufficient to order the collector’s version the second pre-orders went up as nicely.

Is Gundam Breaker 4 price it for the story?

I’ve seen some people excited to play Gundam Breaker 4 for its story, and whereas it’s a wonderful story, you actually are right here for personalisation, battles, and constructing your very best 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 obtained my evaluation codes for Gundam Breaker 4, I had a enjoyable thought of beginning the MG 78-2 Model 3.0 package and constructing it alongside the sport to complete each on the identical time, however sadly there are too many different video games releasing for me to have the ability to try this.

Not solely was it nice to play a brand new Gundam Breaker alongside constructing my latest Gunpla package, however there’s a brand new discovered appreciation I’ve for the work that goes into designing these kits now after shifting to an MG and likewise an RG from HG kits. I’ve additionally been fortunate sufficient to have some mates who’re tremendous useful with Gunpla ideas for decals, panel lining, and likewise what to do when caught. I stay up for ending this package after which engaged on my RG subsequent.

The await 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 nearly each method. It’s my favourite Steam Deck sport this 12 months since Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, and one I stay up for taking part in on-line and offline over the approaching months with all of the DLC deliberate.

Gundam Breaker 4 Steam Deck evaluation: 4.5/5