Exclusive: Gundam Breaker 4’s Devs on Learning From Past Mistakes, Switch Performance, and More

It’s best not to put too much stock in Gundam Breaker 4’s name. Despite its title, it’s not the fourth game in the series. That honor goes to New Gundam Breaker, which Bandai Namco prefers to overlook due to its middling reviews and overall poor reputation with the fanbase. Instead, Gundam Breaker 4 will be the fifth console release in the now decade-old series, and what Bandai Namco hopes will be a fresh start for the franchise overall.

In an exclusive interview with IGN, Masanori Tanaka says that the team collected “a lot” of feedback from New Gundam Breaker before heading into Gundam Breaker 4. The main takeaway? Fans were confused about the number. But more importantly, they wanted the series to get back to what it did best: letting players smash up AI-controlled mobile suits to build up new and bizarre designs of their own.

“New Gundam Breaker was [player-versus-player] focused,” Tanaka explains. “Now we’re actually focusing on PvE for Gundam Breaker 4. So that’s a change that was made from the feedback…now we can focus on supporting the quality and letting the game evolve. So for example, the diorama mode [a new mode that lets you pose your models in various scenes] is one of those things. And just refining the action compared to the previous game.”

Gundam Breaker gets back to basics

First released on Playstation 3 and Vita back in 2013, Gundam Breaker earned a following by leaning into the franchise’s pervasive model culture, colloquially known as “Gunpla.” The series takes a traditional hack-and-slash approach to its gameplay, but what makes it stand out is the ability to mix-and-match parts from real-life model kits to create your own ridiculous designs. The unintentional hilarity of these digital kitbash creations taps into an enduring part of the Gundam subculture.

The series continued through three entries before getting a reboot of sorts with New Gundam Breaker. New Gundam Breaker was criticized for being unpolished and for stripping down the customization and story, hence the return to numbered entries. With Gundam Breaker 4, Bandai Namco is eager to emphasize that it has heard fan feedback and that it is returning to what worked by pivoting back to a more single-player focused experience and optional co-op.

Among other things, the customization has been beefed up, including adding the ability to dual wield one-handed weapons and equip different arms. To emphasize the enhancements to the customization, Kentaro Matano shows off his own creation – a monstrous pink Ball with a bear head, Neo-Zeong legs, and claws.

“So as you saw, you could change the background, highly customizable, different colors. You can also add weathering which we weren’t even able to show you,” Matano says, referencing a popular technique used by model-builders to add realism to their designs. “So there’s just really vast amounts of combinations that users can just let their creativity just run wild. So those are really the focus.”

Players will have plenty of parts to choose from. With Witch From Mercury proving popular with fans on both sides of the Pacific, Gundam Breaker 4 will feature the Gundam Aerial and Daribalde in what will be the largest roster of models to date, as well as a full English dub.

Technical trade-offs on Switch

Notably, Gundam Breaker 4 will mark the franchise’s debut on the Nintendo Switch after mostly sticking with PlayStation (it’s also releasing on PS4, PS5, and Steam). Asked if there are any technical compromises fans can expect, Tanaka says it will mostly feature a lower framerate, subsequently clarifying that it will be 60fps on PS5 and 30fps on Nintendo Switch..

“I believe the only major technical thing you might see on the Switch is just a different framerate compared to the other platforms,” Tanaka explains. “It might be a slightly different experience compared to a different platform so that our fans can be able to play with the understanding of what they will get on the different platforms. But overall, just the actual gameplay itself, it won’t be a huge difference.”

One way or another, it will be a fresh start for Gundam Breaker 4 as it seeks to reestablish itself with old fans and new fans alike. “We want our fans to really take in Gundam Breaker 4,” says Matano, “because we read everything, we read all the feedback…to create the next generation, the next game with everyone’s feedback.”

Gundam Breaker 4 will release August 29 on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC. Check out all the rest of the biggest games of 2024 right here.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.