It’s finest to not put an excessive amount of inventory in Gundam Breaker 4’s title. Regardless of its title, it’s not the fourth recreation within the collection. That honor goes to New Gundam Breaker, which Bandai Namco prefers to miss resulting from its middling opinions and general poor repute with the fanbase. As a substitute, Gundam Breaker 4 would be the fifth console launch within the now decade-old collection, and what Bandai Namco hopes can be a recent begin for the franchise general.
In an unique interview with IGN, Masanori Tanaka says that the workforce collected “lots” of suggestions from New Gundam Breaker earlier than heading into Gundam Breaker 4. The primary takeaway? Followers have been confused in regards to the quantity. However extra importantly, they needed the collection to get again to what it did finest: letting gamers smash up AI-controlled cellular fits to construct up new and weird designs of their very own.
“New Gundam Breaker was [player-versus-player] targeted,” Tanaka explains. “Now we’re truly focusing on PvE for Gundam Breaker 4. In order that’s a change that was constituted of the suggestions…now we are able to focus on supporting the standard and letting the sport evolve. So for instance, the diorama mode [a new mode that lets you pose your models in various scenes] is a kind of issues. And simply refining the motion in comparison with the earlier recreation.”
Gundam Breaker will get again to fundamentals
First launched on Ps 3 and Vita again in 2013, Gundam Breaker earned a following by leaning into the franchise’s pervasive mannequin tradition, colloquially referred to as “Gunpla.” The collection takes a standard hack-and-slash method to its gameplay, however what makes it stand out is the flexibility to mix-and-match elements from real-life mannequin kits to create your personal ridiculous designs. The unintentional hilarity of those digital kitbash creations faucets into an everlasting a part of the Gundam subculture.
The collection continued by means of three entries earlier than getting a reboot of types with New Gundam Breaker. New Gundam Breaker was criticized for being unpolished and for stripping down the customization and story, therefore the return to numbered entries. With Gundam Breaker 4, Bandai Namco is raring to emphasise that it has heard fan suggestions and that it’s returning to what labored by pivoting again to a extra single-player targeted expertise and non-compulsory co-op.
Amongst different issues, the customization has been beefed up, together with including the flexibility to twin wield one-handed weapons and equip completely different arms. To emphasise the enhancements to the customization, Kentaro Matano reveals off his personal creation – a monstrous pink Ball with a bear head, Neo-Zeong legs, and claws.
“In order you noticed, you possibly can change the background, extremely customizable, completely different colours. You can too add weathering which we weren’t even capable of present you,” Matano says, referencing a well-liked approach utilized by model-builders so as to add realism to their designs. “So there’s simply actually huge quantities of mixtures that customers can simply let their creativity simply run wild. So these are actually the main target.”
Gamers may have loads of elements to select from. With Witch From Mercury proving common with followers on either side of the Pacific, Gundam Breaker 4 will characteristic the Gundam Aerial and Daribalde in what would be the largest roster of fashions so far, in addition to a full English dub.
Technical trade-offs on Switch
Notably, Gundam Breaker 4 will mark the franchise’s debut on the Nintendo Switch after largely sticking with PlayStation (it’s additionally releasing on PS4, PS5, and Steam). Requested if there are any technical compromises followers can count on, Tanaka says it’ll largely characteristic a decrease framerate, subsequently clarifying that will probably be 60fps on PS5 and 30fps on Nintendo Switch..
“I imagine the one main technical factor you may see on the Switch is only a completely different framerate in comparison with the opposite platforms,” Tanaka explains. “It is perhaps a barely completely different expertise in comparison with a special platform in order that our followers can be capable of play with the understanding of what they are going to get on the completely different platforms. However general, simply the precise gameplay itself, it received’t be an enormous distinction.”
A method or one other, will probably be a recent begin for Gundam Breaker 4 because it seeks to reestablish itself with outdated followers and new followers alike. “We would like our followers to actually soak up Gundam Breaker 4,” says Matano, “as a result of we learn every thing, we learn all of the suggestions…to create the following technology, the following recreation with everybody’s suggestions.”
Gundam Breaker 4 will launch August 29 on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC. Try all the remainder of the largest video games of 2024 proper right here.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s Information Director in addition to co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Ship her a DM at @the_katbot.