Gundam Battle Gunpla Warfare "All Gunpla and No Gameplay"

I want to start off this review by stating I am not a Gundam fan. I've always enjoyed the Gundam designs, but never had the opportunity to watch the shows or play other Gundam games until this point. That being said this review is being made by a complete outsider to the series and is only based off my time playing the game and will be limited to the game itself.

Gundam Battle Gunpla Warfare is a free-to-play mobile game set around the model sets that you often see in hobby shops and toy stores (Toys R Us rest in peace.) In the game you collect Gunpla parts in order to build your own custom Gunpla that you send into battle against AI opponents. I've never owned one of the model kits so I was already intrigued by the idea of making one myself and decking it out in all of the gear.

First, the game itself is massive and by massive I mean in file size. The game warns you to make sure that you are on a secure Wifi connection and for me it took around 30 minutes to download. That being said once you are able to finally boot up the game the presentation is top notch. There are cutscenes, a complete story mode to play through, a really great animated intro cutscene (that you have to download seperately) and the room in which you build your Gunplas and the Gunplas themselves are all fully rendered in 3D which look really nice especially on a small cell phone screen. The music itself is pretty catchy and high energy which fits the tone of the game well.

The story, such as it is, has you play as an unnamed high school boy that gets drafted into the Gunpla Club. The club fights Gunplas in tournaments not unlike other high school sports teams. If you care about the story there are cut scenes between you and your other classmates, but the option to skip dialogue is only a press away. There are moments where you are given dialogue options to pick from, but don't really matter as there are no branching story paths to speak of.

After you're introduced to your team you go through a series of training missions to learn the controls. The controls work well enough and you can do a series of maneuvers such as dashing, melee and ranged attacks, as well as special EX moves that have their own prompts at the bottom of the screen. You can have up to 3 EX moves equipped and are based specifically on the parts that you have on your Gunpla and come in the form of Attacks, Buffs, and Debuffs. Battles themselves are short affairs usually lasting no more than a minute or two as Gunplas have relatively little health unless they are way above your current power level. Overall the gameplay is about what you would expect from a mobile Gundam game with all of the flashy mecha action in short bite sized chunks.

The customization is relatively deep as there are a ton different Gunpla parts to mix and match. Each part adds to different stats in health, defense, and so on. Gunpla parts are rewarded through completing missions, daily rewards, and a random part generator based off of special events, regular parts, and AI pilots. You get 10 free parts a day which is pretty generous as far as login bonuses go. AI pilots can also be collected and used to pilot your Gunplas for you.

Now you may be wondering after reading this far why the title says "All Gunpla and No Gunplay" and that's due to the fact that this game practically begs you to let it play for you. In the customization menu there is an option called "Strongest" where the computer picks all of the highest power level parts and makes your Gunpla for you. Your Gunplas are all scored on an overall power level which determines what missions you can go on and if whether you can win against high level opponents. This is where the cracks in the framework begin to show. When you go to battle there is an option to let the AI battle for you. Granted you can battle yourself, but the AI does a fairly good job of fighting and with the battles being so short it's to your benefit to let the AI do the work for you. Between the auto battle system and the auto build system you really don't have any reason to customize your Gunpla at all. Unless you just really enjoy customizing your Gunpla for looks there isn't a reason to engage with the customization options.

At the end of the day whether or not you enjoy Gundam Battle Gunpla Warfare will be up to your own ability to create fun for yourself. The gameplay systems cut the legs completely out from under you by automating the game at every turn. Sure there are lots of parts to collect, but at the end of the day it's nothing more than an auto battler with a Gundam set dressing laid on top. It's truly a shame to see what could potentially be a really good game that is undermined by underwhelming and poorly thought out systems. If you enjoy Gundam as a series or are just really into making the Gunpla model of your dreams then you may get some mileage out of this title, but if you're looking for engaging gameplay with meaningful customization options then I'm afraid this isn't the title for you.