Review: Gundam Breaker(Japanese import)

Gundam Breaker
Hack 'n' Slash
PS Vita, PS3

Oh boy... this ones going to be tough to review. Despite the fact I love of Japanese made games... I don't understand the language and Gundam Breaker is 90% in Japanese. This game has been a trial to get through the language barrier, but I managed. So... was importing this Gundam game worth the language barrier?


First off, I have absolutely no idea what the story in this game is. I get the whole Virtual Reality Gunpla(Gundam plastic models) battle thing, but everything else... nope! All I could grab were words like Gunpla, GGF, Gundam... and that's it. Wikipedia says... absolutely nothing either since it has no article for the game! So yeah, you want story? Learn Japanese... sorry.

The gameplay is your classic hack 'n' slash style with close range melee attacks and long range shooting. It's very easy to pick up and play, which is a bonus for non Japanese speaking people like myself. The game's basic 2 button attack scheme works fine but there's more then just that. Your jump button also acts as your boost button while holding it. There's a kinda limit break system called G.A.I.O.S(no idea what it stands for) which puts you into a hyper state that increases your speed and attack strength while also giving you health regeneration during it's duration. Special attacks known as EX Attacks that range from healing, long range and close range attacks and these recharge over time during each mission and can be changed in the customization menu to see what suits your play style and weapons.

The game is mission structured and the main reason for it seems to revolve around it's multiplayer focus in Japan. There are 100 missions to complete with simple goals to achieve ranging from survival, team attack, defend, area raid(capture territory) and the normal clear which is just destroy the main Gunpla at the end of the course. If playing solo, you sometimes get A.I partners... and they are rubbish! The A.I. partners are suicidal and keep dragging you down and will fail missions for you... probably to encourage online play.

Speaking of the online multiplayer, the multiplayer is Co Op only for up to 4 players and unfortunately... the menus are only in Japanese... so the language barrier really punches you in the gonadular region here. Unfortunately I never found a translation guide for this and had to figure it out myself. There are 2 options, search and create room. Search is easiest to use since you just go to the big button at the bottom of the screen and let it search for all rooms and find a room that isn't locked or says Japanese only. Create room on the other hand is trickier to grasp and the biggest problem here is prejudice... and I mean that! For some reason a lot of Japanese gamers avoid your room if you have the audacity to type in English and since more of them play the game... it can be very lonely. Seriously Japan, Japanese Only rooms and avoiding English written rooms? What's wrong with you?

Now onto the complicated part... customization! Yes, this is more complicated then the online menus! This can be very difficult to understand without a translation guide and thank God one exists for the various stats involved. While building Gunpla can be so much fun, it can be a constant struggle of looks Vs practicality. There are a whole bunch of stats to consider when building Gunpla and taking your play style into consideration can help if you're not too fussed about looks. I highly recommend you find a translation guide, write down each stat and use it to help influence your builds. The only slightly simple part is the modules you use that influence a variety of things and can range from stat boosting to buffing effects... just remember to bookmark translation guides to help.

Think customisation sounds daunting? It's about to get worse! To get parts, you need to buy them from the shop with the money(GP) earned in missions and find them in stages... and you only unlock certain models in the shop after earning a certain amount of parts for the model in missions... and that's for starters! During missions the parts( which are called runners) have different colours to indicate rarity and they come in 2 different sizes, 1/144 scale(HG) and 1/100 scale(MG). It's kinda obvious that bigger is better, but rarity is key. The colours are simple to understand but will force a lot of grinding once you've found the parts that look good or you want the most powerful Gunpla parts. You may spend hours just grinding for a specific part so I hope you enjoy repeating the same mission over... and over... and over again!


I personally love Gunpla and Gundam Breaker is a dream come true for Gunpla builders like myself. Being able to customise a Gunpla that looks awesome is great and the experimenting to see what parts go well together is so much fun and you can even just rebuild you favourite Gundam from the anime too if you're imagination is lacking. The gameplay and mission can and will feel very repetitive but playing with that perfect Gunpla makes it feel like its worth it. Yes it's grindy and yes, playing online can be hard to comprehend but if you're into this stuff in say... World of Warcraft, you'll feel right at home... you just need to be a Gundam fan. Pretty much if you love the Gundam anime's and especially love Gunpla, this game is well worth importing... or you can just badger Namco Bandai Europe and America for an English physical release.

Score 4/5

Review: Dragon's Crown

Dragon's Crown
Beat 'em up RPG
PS Vita, PS3
ACB: M
PS Vita: AU$44.95 PS3: AU$59.95

This game's been on the review block for a while but I have had other, better games get in he way... you heard me! So... how good is Dragon's Crown? Well...


For those who haven't read the reviews... why are you here? Dragon's Crown is a hybrid game of old school beat 'em ups & dungeon crawling RPGs. Yeah, think Final Fight crossed with Diablo.

The story is a little simple for an RPG. You play as one of 6 classes as a mercenary/adventurer in the land of Hydeland. You are on a quest to hunt down the Dragon's Crown & prevent the destruction of the land. Simple premise, but enough I suppose.

The 6 classes all have unique moves & difficulty to them. There's the Elf who fights with a bow, a dwarf who's a heavy hitter and can throw enemies, a knight who's a balanced character that can actually guard, a wizard that casts the spells that makes the peoples fall down, a sorceress who can buff the party and the Amazon that just looks disturbing. They all play similarly to each other, but it's the special moves that separate them.

The structure of the game is basically get quest, go to dungeon, beat dungeon, lather, rinse, repeat... always repeat! There are sidequests too but they can be cryptic & difficult. In the dungeons you'll find items & gold in chests that require the thief npc to open & it's the only way to earn equipment too! There's also runes on the wall that can be combined with ones you have to summon all sorts of buffs & other weird things & while it can be fun to see what they can be, most are locked to a specific outcome.

As for the equipment you find in dungeons(since tedium is the spice of bland) you'll need to appraise it to use it & that costs money & top of it off, it needs to be repaired! This is where 90% of your gold will go to & it's really annoying when you're broke. Even if the loot bug bites you, it'll wear thin pretty quickly.

Throughout the dungeons you'll also find piles of bones that can be revived for npc teammates. They are randomly generated characters with preset equipment & stats. What's bad about this is they don't level up & their equipment can't be changed & breaks, forcing you to keep wasting more money reviving new ones constantly.

The game does support a multiplayer option too. PS Vita has ad hoc multiplayer while PS3 supports the superior local multiplayer to get friends on the couch. Online multiplayer has the advantage of a fair few people to play with, but it goes from a co op multiplayer experience... to a competitive loot grab! You're better off playing with friends or with the npc's in my opinion.

The art & music are fantastic though. Sure the art is riskay & controversial, but damn it's beautiful to look at! The music is well composed & helps frame the world with classic medieval flare. These are probably the best things about this game sadly.


If you love the idea of the game, it's not bad... just mediocre. It starts off fun but it just devolves into a grindy bore if loot drops don't excite you. If the equipment could be bought & the story was on par with other Vanilliaware titles, I'd shout from the rooftops to buy this game. It's not a bad game at all... just not what I'd have hoped for. It's more fun with friends in local multiplayer then it is in single player though. Best description of this game is that it's extremely niche. Also the better version is the PS3 version overall so consider that one over PS Vita.


Score 3/5

Review: Ragnarok Odyssey(Import)

Ragnarok Odyssey
PS Vita
RRP: US$39.99
ESRB: T

 Once again, I've had to import another bloody game because the PAL region always gets a middle finger when it comes to Japanese and Asian games in general with a few exceptions(usually crap like the PS3 Atelier games!) Well the big question is whether or not this is worth the import or not... or in the America's case whether they should buy it. Well, here's the review.


The vague story of Ragnarok Odyssey is that you are suppose to be a new recruit for the Sundered Land fortress and you'll need to explore areas to prove yourself before fighting the bigger threats to Rune Midgard... or something like that.

The games has been compared to Monster Hunter a lot in those big boy reviews everyone reads instead of mine, and it is a hell of a lot like Monster Hunter. You play a variety of missions with the same goals you see in every MMO and action RPG these days where you kill X number of monsters or gather Y amount of a certain item. As for how you play, it's a 2 button combo based system and all the special skills are tied to the combos. You can jump, dash step and sprint to dodge or attack from a different angle or height.

 The game has 9 "story" chapters and an extra chapter and as you clear each story chapter you are rewarded with a permanent stat boost. You can play all the missions in both single player and in multiplayer via Ad Hoc(if you can even FIND another person with a copy of the game, let alone a PS Vita) or online with up to 3 other players. Word of warning though, it's extremely laggy online since it never got a PAL region release and almost no one in the PAL region has a copy.

Welcome to the team... your doing all the work!

Game sounds simple and boring right? Well this is a Monster Hunter clone after all. Like Monster Hunter you'll spend a lot of time crafting and upgrading weapons and making outfits. On top of that there's hunting for weapons with better skills and stats and hunting cards for skills to make combat easier.

Cards you say? WTF? What madness is this?! Well instead of getting armor in the game you equip cards to your outfits to boost stats and/or gain abilities to make combat easier. Your outfits can only carry 8 cards or a set value of cards, yes each card has a value cost set by the level and number of skills on the card. Finding the right cards to suit your job class is tough though.

Speaking of job classes, there are 6 job classes in all. The Sword Warrior is your balance class, Hammersmith which is all power and nothing else, Hunter for ranged but weak combat, Assassin's are fast attackers with low strength, Clerics are the self healing noob class and the Mage for suicidal masochist but has high mage power with low... everything! I suggest find a class that suits you and stick with it I went mage so I'm crazy.

Fighting is what you do best.

 During the game you will get to fight against giant monsters, though you fight giant monsters normally but these are colossus sized ones. These fights can be epic and happen every once in a while... and are tough as HELL! This is were 4 player is AWESOME! Seeing 4 people attack a skyscraper sized monster is so cool and taking it down in a pack is just so epic! This is where the game shines in my opinion.

As mentioned before there is no armor. You instead get outfits to choose from so you can look the way you want. This is complemented with a series of hats and both can be dyed 4 different colours(depending on the item in question). Along with these your appearance is customisable from the start and can be changed any time in the game after a certain point. I like being able to build an identity but once you see an exact look-a-like you become disappointed by the limited options.

Playing with others is better... even with lag.

The game does feature some mandatory touch controls but thankfully they aren't intrusive... unlike Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation. You can open you map, express emotions, use items and type with the touchscreen but it never feels stupid. This minimalist approach to touch controls is exactly what developers should do instead of going gimmick crazy... like Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation or Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

Setting up multiplayer games works on a simplicity first basis. You can search out rooms that suit what quest you want or create a room with the purpose of clearing missions that you want to do and you can restrict who enters. Communicating with each other through text is a pain but thankfully you can emote with physical actions and emote bubbles for all the basics and leave text for detailed communication. Luckily communication isn't really needed. As for headsets... not sure if it works.

So was it worth the import? Well if your into repetition and Monster Hunter then yes, if not then run for the hills! I never really liked Monster Hunter myself but Ragnarok Odyssey at least has a sense of purpose and permanent stat boosting. It's also a very addictive game that is hard to put down. I can't really recommend it like I can say... Final Fantasy IX or The Last Story, but I'm sure if you like this type of game then you'll enjoy this. One thing's for sure, it's better then Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation and the DS Ragnarok game.

Score 4/5