Last updated on November 28th, 2025 at 08:43 pm
Rule with an Iron Fish – Roleplaying Game Review
Rule with an Iron Fish is a Roleplaying/Adventure game from Kestrel Games Limited, first launched in 2nd June 2016.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 531+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Rule with an Iron Fish Stand Out
Best Mobile Games of 2016 – cnet
Games of the Year 2016 – Snappzilla
4.5 Stars – Touch Arcade
Become the greatest pirate captain that ever fished! Add more pirates to your burgeoning island town! Listen to all their nonsensical complaints! Fish in ludicrous locations like swamps, active volcanoes and the sky!
"Does just about everything right." — Touch Arcade
Features:
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Relaxing, addictive fishing gameplay
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7 gorgeous, otherworldly fishing environments
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Catch 150 hand-painted, scientifically-inaccurate fish
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Throw rotten fish at your rivals!
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Unlock town features like an aquarium, farm, restaurant and hacker cave!
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Decorate your house with unsettling trophies!
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Collect pirate pets, most of which have eyepatches or other classy dysfunctions.
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Pay once, no IAP, no ads.
This Roleplaying game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Rule with an Iron Fish is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 16th January 2021
Recent improvements include:
Updated for iOS 14
Download & Availability
Rule with an Iron Fish is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Rule with an Iron Fish on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Only had this game two hours and Im hooked. Heheh. Its fun, humorous, attractive, engaging. Oh, and no annoying in game purchases.
We love this game. The only thing that would make it better would be a second part.
Love the game. Definitely worth the pay. Unfortunately we beat it in under a day, lol. However, the only thing that gets us is the fact that we cant seem to find anything on the internet on how to acquire the Pylon hat (cone). Ive already beat everything, done all the quests, bought all the items, gotten all the trophies, and still nothing. Any help would be nice.
This is our favorite mobile game Ive ever played. Its just so cute and fun and filled with love :).
First, the game is enjoyable. We like the campy story, tasks and mini games. It all plays well. But the best thing is you pay once and there are no ads no have to watch videos to get to the next level or any of that. More apps need to be like this one.
This is a great game to play when you have a few minutes here and there, though you always want to keep playing because its so addictive. Everything about it is enjoyable. We also appreciate that there are no ads or unfair IAP, and that the developer keeps it updated. We need more developers like this. Thank you for a fair, fun, incremental collection game.
Its a nice slow fishing game. But its got a great story line.
We have been playing for years, never stops being fun! The grinding is fun, trying to make new ships is fun, discovering new fish and zones is a lot of fun.
We bought this game a bit ago and we love it! The characters and dialogue are really funny and the design is lovely. Definitely worth the money, and its nice to play when youre feeling down. Thank you for your hard work, devs! :).
Not a bad game by all means! Im very picky when it comes to games and hardly ever review….this games nice in the aspect one handed play in portrait mode as well as starting off where you left no problem.
Could really use sort and filter functions in the fish encyclopedia.
Enjoyed the game. The fishing can be a bit frustrating, but it has a neat little narrative that keeps you moving along.
Ok sorry for the bad pun lol. But this is fun little game. If you like games where you level things up and unlock stuff this is it. There are so many places where they could have gone iap but thankfully they didn't. We actually enjoy a lot the styles of iap games (like farming, harvesting etc) but the time/money gates make it frustrating. This game is fun. Wish there was more like it.
Relaxing game to play. The graphics are nice and smooth. Sometimes the screen feels a bit crowded, but thats what you get on a phone screen, probably. Us not being cultured, a lot of text Im quite sure references other media, but we have no clue where from. This simultaneously disappoints us and adds to the comedic effect. Sometimes, the quest chronology/dialogue can be confusing when a lot of events happen at once and you can end up going through dialogue with little context due to (we think) not talking to different characters in the right order, or not checking your mail/reading all your quests. Not extremely replayable; but its good to come back to after a few months. TLDR: fun and relaxing, the story gets a little confusing, replay after a few months.
We had high hopes for this game, we mean we did pay the $5 or w/e for it. We read good things, and we like fishing and pirates, who doesnt? However the game was unfortunately just not fun for us. The fishing is not fun or interesting, and neither is the story. We feel bad cause we tried to enjoy the game but its just not fun. We gave it one last shot today and it just does nothing for us. We will unfortunately be deleting it after only playing for about an hour. In reality Id probably give it 2 or 3 stars but we gotta give it a 1 to try to prevent others from spending the money they are asking for this game.
A little basic but having no in app buys is really refreshing.
This is the first and only game Ive ever given A review to, we love this game so much but please add more to do.
Its nice to pay for a game up front and have that be it. Well worth it.
Actually more fun than other fishing games. The role playing adds a lot more than other fishing games do. There is actually a story to complete and quests and pirates lol. Talking lamas and Vikings! No adds or pay to plays at all, and mermaids. Actually read the story can be fun! Fish are very original and creative lol! Wish they add more items to unlock, but there still a lot to do.
We had fun, the story is cute, mini games are enjoyable, and theres no ridiculous micro transactions.
Fun, funny, and so satisfying to play a game that doesnt require spending a fortune to advance or catch rare fish. Loving it.
Really enjoying this little gem, the quest text is funny, the characters are interesting and varied, and the fishing mechanics are simple but fun.
Fantastic game and worth every penny! The closest thing to a proper video game you will see on the App Store.
What a great way to pass time during no nut November.
You wouldnt think a frustrating game could be fun. Those two words seem to disagree with one another strongly. But fishing will always be frustrating, sitting there waiting for a bite and then when you finally get one the fish gets away! Wasting your bait and your time spent. But then the next time you cast your line you pull out a frickin mermaid! The next time its paperclip fish, a clownfish, an alligator or just a trout. The characters are intriguing and their quests are cute and just difficult enough to keep you interested. Over all its a game we would highly recommend trying.
Everything about this game is great. We absolutely love it. These developers are amazing. Great job.
We rarely leave reviews but this game is fun. Kinda repetitive but enjoyable. We find ourselves mildly addicted.
Perfect to play anytime you want a little adventure break. Easy to step away from when necessary, but entertaining enough to play for hours if you feel like it.
We got this on a whim, and its very fun! Its well designed, has a lot of things to do, and funny. Its definitely kid friendly too. Great find.
A well polished game about pirates, fishing, sarcasm, and fishing.
This revived our love for phone games. We would love to see more content for this game because as of now, we are flying through it and dont want the experience to end… Amazing job developers.
Fun to play and no in app. Purchases.
We had this game on App Wish forever before we finally decided to download it. Im glad we did. Theres so much to do and the graphics are fun! Definitely takes fishing games to a whole new level. Our only complaint is that sometimes the items floating in the water take several taps to pick up. Otherwise, great job devs. Found a new favorite.
The game is fun, but way overpriced.
Great gameno hidden charges, and it really is kinda fun.
30 year old dude gives this game an A+ NO in-app purchases = AWESOME Captivating and enjoyable gameplay No crashes/freezes during 6+ hours of play Easy for children to understand Please make a sequel.
This game saved our life and we wouldnt be alive without it. We have gone through many tough times in our life and this game pushed us through all of them. Thank you so much for creating such a creative game and it has changed our life. Rule with an Iron Fish is not just a game, but a lifestyle. We know that got deep but overall it is just a eye-catcher. Available in all countries!! :).
Real relaxing and charming art and writing! We feel that Ive gotten our moneys worth for an extremely relaxing little project. Makes us feel good 5/5.
Cute game with a non-annoying play mechanic.
We bought this game a while back and was surprised by how much we liked it! The writing is as sharp as a knife and the gameplay is simple, but extremely fun! However, with the most recent update, the pets we unlocked and bought (save for the one we had equipped already) are currently locked. If you could fix this, that would be greatly appreciate it.
Thank goodness for devs that still make pay once to play instead of ad marathons. This is such a fun creative game. Seems long (so far, Im a couple days in). Funny, lots to do and discover. You do have to like the fishing part as that can feel repetitive but the game quickly is adding items that make that faster (farming recipes etc).
We have played this game nearly nonstop since we downloaded it yesterday! We love all the clever dialogue and fish designs and funny descriptions, and we love that we got to play as a female character and that she was the default we also love that its pay-once and play, soooo much better than freemium. We really hope this studio makes a sequel or more games, because we think Ill 100% this one soon, Im having so much fun.
But we are, and it was worth every penny.
Best. Fishing. Game. EVER. Hands down, the funniest fishing game on the App Store. The gameplay is great and the graphics are beautiful. Looking forward to a sequel hint, hint.
Well-designed and interesting. Fun without being frantic. Lots of character and quests.
Its nice to get away from micro transaction based games and find that nice gem that promises you exactly what its selling. $3.99 is a gallon of gas to some, yet this game lasts a lot more than a mile. Great idle play, we love the collecting aspect and the wit of the names. The plot is a little dry, but its engaging in a lot of other ways. Perfect game for boredom.
Definitely a must buy. This game is the best, and there are no ads, no IAP, and its probably the only RPG Ive actually liked playing on mobile. If you like RPG games, youll love this one. At only 3 bucks, its a steal, and we hope the developers continue to make great games like this one. Apple, this game needs Editors Choice. Thanks for reading our review.
This is a humorous game with an addictive gameplay loop. There are no micro transactions and we can see ourselves playing this for a while. Im glad we bought it.
Very entertaining and worth every penny.
Arrrrrrrrsome! Great mini fishing game and no pesky ads or in app restrictions.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.63
- Size: 166.44 MB
- iOS: 8.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Kestrel Games Limited
Last updated: 16th January 2021 | Genre: Roleplaying, Adventure | Developer: Kestrel Games Limited