New GUNDAM BREAKER – Review

Name: New GUNDAM BREAKER
Developer: Crafts Meister
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Released: 22.06.2018
Platforms: PlayStation 4 and PC
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4 Pro
Acquired: A copy of this game was provided from publisher for review purpose

As the Japan-fan in Ulvespill I got the task of playing Bandai Namco’s new game, New GUNDAM BREAKER. I’ve watched some of the anime, but never got properly into it. The concept sounded really cool though, so I was eager to give the game a go.

Story

Unfortunately, I found the story to be quite boring. By all means, if you enjoy the Gundam anime, you’re most likely not gonna be as bored as I was. But the story in New GUNDAM BREAKER seems like just a filler in between the battles (more on those further down.).

The story starts out okay-ish with you, the player, being a new student at a Gunpla High School. Alas, this is all of the good things I can say about the story. The rest is pretty forgettable, even though it’s extremely anime. You basically assemble a team of friends (in-game) and go through the story fighting other students usually without any good reason.

Now, I must admit I haven’t had the time to play the story all the way through. So in theory the story could change to become a masterpiece, but I highly doubt that, since I’m like 80% through.
4/10

Graphics

The entire story is told as a visual novel, with drawings of the person talking and text boxes for you to read. The drawing style is very clearly stylized as other anime games, and it does not in any way stand back to any other drawed games.

When it comes to the graphics in the actual gameplay however, the tables turn. The battlegrounds look uninspired and feel cluttered, yet very empty. All of the robots have the same moveset, and all have a very weird way of fighting. In addition, all of the loot chests (which you don’t need to pay for) look out of place and are way too big for the rest of the world.
4/10

Gameplay

I’m amazed by how boring the gameplay is in this game. The fighting is really weird and not fun at all. In addition I found the whole upgrade system a bit clunky to understand. Although partially automated, I never understood what to focus on collecting. Another thing that features in during the gameplay sessions is the ability to do quests in order to score points. It does all feel a bit unbalanced though, with the side quests being too easy, and scoring too many points in comparison to the main quests.

There’s on top of that a multiplayer mode in New GUNDAM BREAKER, but the few times I gave it a try, the lag was practically to much to survive. And when I found the gameplay to be boring already, a laggy experience almost was the final straw.
3/10

Controls

First of all let me say that it takes such a long time before input is registered. When you try and dodge an incoming attack, it’s very bad that the button you press isn’t registered until maybe a second or so later. I found the control system to be quite clunky as well, with little flow, and a rather difficult learning curve. All of the special attacks require two or more buttons to be combined, which rarely worked, because of the delay. I also don’t understand why two of the buttons are designated for melee attacks (although one is heavy and one is light), I would have found it much easier to use one of those buttons for something else.
4/10

Replay Value

It might just be my bad luck, but I kept getting the same loot from each fight. With that, in combination with the incredibly boring gameplay, the replay value suffers massively. I have no need to play the game to get other loot when it is as boring as it is, and since I very rarely got any useful loot, I never once felt the desire to play a level more than once. Neither did I feel like playing the game online.
3/10

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• Story 4
  4/10
• Graphics 4
  4/10
• Gameplay 3
  3/10
• Controls 4
  4/10
• Replay Value 3
  3/10

Verdict

All in all I must say I’m disappointed with New GUNDAM BREAKER. The concept behind it could allow for such an awesome game, but the finished product is simply a bore. It doesn’t help that the controls are bad, and that the gameplay is rubbish either. When the story too fails to amaze me, I’m left with nothing but sad feelings towards the game. And I honestly don’t think you will feel any different.

Overall

3.6/10

3.6/10

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User Review

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Pros

• The drawings are nice

Cons

• Boring gameplay
• Just an okay-ish story
• Bad controls
• Lots of lag in multiplayer mode