Reignbreaker is the latest (and last) game from Studio Fizbin which announced its closure earlier this year before the game had a chance to come out. Styling itself as a “medievalpunk” roguelite, perhaps Reignbreaker had the opportunity to be what Fizbin needed, an isometric action game with roguelite elements? Based on how many I see on Steam these things should print money.

Reignbreaker follows a tried and true formula of an isometric roguelite and takes a big page from Hades with its diverse and eccentric character design. But does it stand out enough from other games in the genre? Or much like the ‘Queen’s Authority’ in this game, is it just noise?

Reignbreaker
Developer: Studio Fizbin
Publisher: Thunderful Publishing
Platforms: PC (Steam)
Release Date: March 18th, 2025
Players: 1
Price: $9.99

Reignbreaker throws you right in the middle of things. You play as Clef, a rebel against the Queen of Keys. While Clef was once set to be the Queen’s strongest soldier, Clef has since joined the resistance, untempted by the Queen’s message or her promises of wealth and power. Clef’s enemies run the gamut of motivations ranging from brainwashing to recognition to good old fashioned money-grubbing greed.

The game dripfeeds lore as you progress through increasingly difficult runs. As you get further, more dialogue unlocks with the Queen’s captains and you learn their motivations and the sources of their animosity towards Clef and their loyalty to the Queen, and just how misguided some of them are.

It’s a very basic tale of punk resistance, but I won’t hold that against them. Sometimes the best stories are the classics that appear straightforward but have their own little twists and permutations. The story has a feeling of being in the middle of things, leaving player inferences to do a lot of the heavy lifting. We know Clef is a rebel. We know the Queen rules with an iron fist. We know this is bad. But there’s next to no worldbuilding beyond this. The Queen seems utterly convinced her rule is what keeps people safe, safe from what? This isn’t necessarily a bad decision on Fizbin’s part, after all the sparse details give the whole story a “Saturday morning cartoon” vibe, just embrace it.

The music and art are on point, I know some of the character designs may not strike everyone’s fancy but the quality of the artwork itself is great. It gives the whole game this dirty feel to it. Not a bad dirty, but the kind of dirty that really makes you feel the bleakness of the situation Clef and the other people in this world find themselves in. It’s a Les Miserables type of dirtiness.

Musically, I like how I can just tell when I’m on a boss floor before I check the map just by the increasing intensity of the music. The title song is also pretty cool with great vocals and helps establish the punk aesthetic Reignbreaker is going for. I’m not big into punk or metal or anything, but there’s a creepy tone to the game’s main theme, kind of like punk screamo (I mostly listen to Vaporwave so this is out of my area of expertise).

Onto the actual gameplay, Reignbreaker is a roguelite, which means you go through a gauntlet and collect currency you use to buy permanent upgrades between runs. It’s an addictive little formula that necessitates some skill, but the more you play the easier things get. It’s that dopamine rush of receiving a tangible reward that compliments skillful play.

Combat and exploration take place on an isometric map, Clef runs around and challenges “Vaults”, which are one of three challenges:

• Defeat all enemies
• Defeat all enemies without getting hit
• Defeat all enemies within a time limit

The tradeoff for the second two is that you don’t fight nearly as many enemies, with only one or two waves as opposed to the 5 or 6 you can get in basic Vaults. Vault rewards come in one of four flavors each representing a different one of the Queen’s captains. The Bloodletter, The Spear Sister, The Master Trapper, and The Vandals’. The difference doesn’t really affect the difficulty of the Vault, instead it affects what reward you get. You’re rewarded with at least one Vault item after each challenge, giving Clef a passive bonus of some kind and each captain offers a different assortment.

• Bloodletter: Health, Bleed, and Survival
• Spear Sister: Spear buffs
• Master Trapper: Mostly crit and a few odds and ends
• Vandals’: Improve punches and combos

After running through the game, there’s some clear winners and losers with rewards. For example one Vault reward turns your javelin Slam into an attack you can charge up. However it completely ruins any ability to spam Slam or amend it to the end of a fist combo, opening you up to getting hit. Meanwhile Remote Surgery from the Bloodletter makes your projectiles apply Bleed which can compensate for low damage, and with the basic type of javelin you can apply it FAST. Go for Bleed and then grab the Trapper’s “Recover Scratch damage on Crit” and you’re off to the races with the right build.

Let’s also discuss upgrades, through each run Clef will collect Resolve which she uses to purchase and upgrade passive abilities. Unfortunately she only has so many slots to equip them, and also unfortunately some of the game’s core combat mechanics are locked behind them. For example on trait increases your javelin damage while also enabling you to perform melee attacks with it, opening up a high damage and convenient option to deal with electrified enemies or just apply your bullet effect. It feels bad to have to give up 2 or 3 slots just to unlock what ought to be core mechanics.

There’s also not a lot of diversity in talent builds once you get to the mid-late game. The Support tree has one talent for each of the four captains, increasing the chance of a Vault being theirs, so you only need one depending on what you prefer. Otherwise you basically stack up the useful stats like javelin damage.

Despite my criticisms of the leveling system, combat is fun and responsive (as long as you don’t get the Slam charge upgrade). There’s not a whole lot of variety in bosses, but you feel like a badass when you get the pattern down and you’re just killing everything with your javelin.

Ultimately, Reignbreaker will scratch your itch if you crave fast-paced combat isometric combat and already beat Hades. However it also doesn’t really offer anything new to the genre, and with its clear winners and losers in terms of power-ups and repetitive enemies, the creativity feels like it stops at its art direction and character design.