Reignbreaker Lets You Fistfight The Queen In A Medieval Punk Dystopia
Smash the state.
After launching in Early Access last year, Hades 2 got a recent late-game update that sure makes its full release seem imminent. But well before that arrives, a new indie action game offers a satisfying twist on Hades hectic combat, even if it doesn’t match all of Supergiant’s roguelike narrative charms.
The pitch for Reignbreaker is basically, what if Hades was punk as f*ck? Playing as former knight Clef, your goal is to dethrone the queen she once served as violently as possible. That’s where the Hades comparisons come in, as Clef battles her way through the queen’s stronghold of Bastion in a series of fights that will look extremely familiar to anyone who’s fought their way out of the underworld with Zagreus.
Reignbreaker is an over-the-top brawler more than a little inspired by Hades.
While its inspiration is clear, Reignbreaker does a lot to differentiate itself from Supergiant’s beloved roguelike. Rather than the series of single-room battles in Hades, Reignbreaker is a journey through the sprawl of Bastion, where you’re given a lot more freedom to explore. Hidden throughout Bastion’s nooks and crannies are health-restoring shrines, merchants skulking in the shadows, and of course combat encounters, and it’s up to you to decide how to tackle it all.
Progressing deeper into Bastion requires you to collect a certain number of keys at key junctures, which you earn from fighting waves of enemies. These are triggered by activating vaults belonging to one of the queen’s lackeys, and you’ll get to choose a reward from the vault at the end of combat as well. There are often more vaults than you need keys from on a given level, meaning you have the choice to push your luck and potentially earn more upgrades even after you have enough keys to progress.
As you might imagine, it’s the battles along the way that really make Reignbreaker shine. It’s fast and frantic, giving you plenty of tools in every fight and some mechanics that seem inspired by arcade brawlers. Clef’s basic attack is to simply punch enemies in the face (assuming they have faces), but even her punches can be upgraded with abilities like a timed multi-hit combo that pulls enemies in and repeatedly pummels them.
Temporary and permanent upgrades make every run different.
For more damage, Clef relies on her javelin, a combination of close combat and ranged weapon with an extremely flexible upgrade system. By default, the javelin can be thrown, where it will embed in an enemy for a damaging initial hit followed by spraying bullets in a small area. The javelin can also be slammed into the ground for heavy area damage, and an early upgrade offers an additional javelin strike, which starts as a sweeping combo with more range than Clef’s fists. Every javelin ability generates heat, and letting it hit the maximum means you need to wait for it to cool down to use the weapon again. With all that in her arsenal, Clef is a versatile, capable character, and learning the best time to use each ability makes combat captivating right from the start.
And that’s before you take javelin customization into account. In addition to the default javelin, which essentially acts like a single-shot rifle, you can unlock attacks including a short-range shotgun blast or a large explosive charge that can even hurt Clef. On top of that, you can attach a mod to any javelin that adds effects like attaching a sticky bomb to anyone it hits. These upgrades come fast and furious at the beginning of the game, and within a few hours you’ll have a massive set of weapons to choose from, two of which you can take with you at any time.
Reignbreaker’s story might be thin, but its combat is extremely satisfying.
There’s a lot going on in Reignbreaker’s combat, and it all adds up to a fun, fast-paced brawler I keep going back to. Reignbreaker’s narrative doesn’t hold up quite as well, focusing on a pretty simplistic view of Clef’s struggle against the totalitarian queen. Developer Studio Fizbin says Reignbreaker was created “in response to the rise of right wing politics, authoritarianism and fascism around the world.” As much as I appreciate a developer wearing its political motivations on its sleeve instead of pretending that games exist in a vacuum, Reignbreaker’s expression of that impulse is still ultimately limited by it being a game where an individual can solve the world’s problems by way of punching rather than the considerably less sexy work of community organizing. Like the mix of medieval castle, high-tech dystopia, and modern, spray paint-coated punk aesthetics that make up the game’s visuals, Reignbreaker’s anti-fascist message is messy and muddled, however admirable it may be.
Despite its narrative flaws, Reignbreaker is an incredibly satisfying brawler with upgrade and customization systems that reward experimentation as much as mastery. Studio Fizbin sadly announced that it’s closing later this year, making Reignbreaker not just a satisfying action game, but an excellent finale for its creator.
