Reignbreaker is a narrative-driven roguelike with a seriously cool medievalpunk aesthetic, and my Hades 2-loving heart already can't get enough
Aug. 26, 2024Preview | It’s time to break some locks (and some bones to boot)
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My goal in Reignbreaker is simple: infiltrate the Queen’s Bastion, take back the power for the people, and defeat the fearsome ruler herself. It doesn’t sound a simple task by any measure, but that’s where our badass heroine Clef comes in.
Anarchy to a T
This hack and slasher mixes Hades and an Assassin’s Creed Odyssey-like story with its own unique twist
It’s a no-brainer: Studio Fizbin clearly made this game for me. This is something I know the moment I sit down to watch the action-packed trailer, all isometric angles and lurid neon colors splashed against the dungeon’s rusted metal locks and chipped brickwork.
Playing as Clef, it’s my sworn anarchic duty to take my trusty lance and have at thee, o villainous fiends (aka, padlocks) that would keep me from my quarry. Said quarry is the queen herself, whose twisted bastion I now find myself trapped in. Formed of interlocked dungeons that can only be opened by seeking out guardians, trading witty barbs, and defeating them to retrieve all-important keys, the Queen’s Bastion covers a lot of ground. Its twists and turns are marked with helpful spray painted arrows, helping guide me through stony caverns to defeat small waves of enemies before coming face to face with one of many big bosses.
I discover environmental traps are also great ways to keep things fresh and lively as a member of Studio Fizbin points out the “stomp” interaction when I pass over a metal grate in the floor. Electricity starts shooting up from the smashed panel, and as soon as I head to the key lock to trigger the next attack wave, I’m sure to use the electrical trap to its full advantage against my metallic – and therefore highly conductive – enemies.
By the time I reach the boss battle, newly tooled up with epic power-ups and lance upgrades akin to the Hades boons system, I’m feeling more confident than ever. A new dash upgrade drops a can of explosive paint in Clef’s wake, though I barely register whether it does anything because I’m having far too much fun aiming and firing lances at the hulking church bell-shaped enemy in my path. It doesn’t take long to whittle its health down considerably, and before I know it, my Reignbreaker demo has come to an unfortunate end.
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Clef feels like a one-woman power house already, and I adored experiencing a slice of her world. The stunning art style is the cherry on top of it all; the studio has teased “relationships” of varying kinds that Clef might have with the Queen’s guardians, ranging from romantic to friendly to rivalry, meaning that there’s plenty more to this dynamic action roguelike than stabbing steampunk enemies with lances. This is one upcoming PC game I’ll be keeping on my radar – I mean, where else can I shoot bullets out of a medieval weapon as a punk rock muscle mommy?
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