Raji: An Ancient Epic Review – A Divine Adventure

When her brother is kidnapped by demons, Raji takes up weapons blessed by the gods and sets out on a journey to rescue him in an action-adventure game set in ancient India.

Raji: An Ancient Epic
Developer: Nodding Heads Games
Price: $25
Platforms: PC (reviewed), Nintendo Switch
MonsterVine was provided with a PC code for review.

In 2017, I backed the unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign for Raji: An Ancient Epic and hoped that the developers would still be able to make their game despite the cancellation of the campaign. As a result, I was thrilled when I found out that not only had development continued for Raji, but that it was coming out this year.

You play as Raji, a girl whose younger brother is captured by demons. She receives a blessed weapon from Durga, the goddess of war, and sets out to rescue her brother and stop the demons’ evil plan. The combat is smooth and fast-paced. You have a couple basic combos that can be combined with parkour moves for additional attacks, a special attack, and other moves that vary based on the weapon you’re using and the elemental powers gained through the favor of the gods. New weapons and enemy types introduced throughout the game keep things feeling fresh even as you fall into a comfortable rhythm with the combat. Overall it finds a nice balance between not being too challenging while not allowing you to button-mash your way through, either.

Combat is the major focus of the gameplay, but there are a few other elements as well. Occasionally you’ll come across a mandala that shows an image from Raji’s past, and you’ll need to rotate the concentric rings to properly align the scene. There are a handful of other simple puzzles as well, although nothing that ever becomes too complex. Aside from one annoying stealth sequence near the end, the gameplay in Raji is always fun.

In between battles, you’ll make use of jumping, climbing, and even a bit of wall-running to traverse each of the game’s beautiful levels. While this adds a light platforming aspect to the gameplay, it’s never a big challenge. The game is fairly linear; while you might deviate from the path slightly to find favor orbs that power up your god-granted abilities, for the most part you’ll go from point A to point B and fight all the enemies along the way. In fact, if there’s something you need to interact with in a given area, you’re usually blocked from moving on until you complete it.

This linear focus makes sense since Raji is a pretty story-driven game. While Raji herself travels alone and therefore only occasionally comments on what’s going on around her, your journey is filled with commentary from Durga and Vishnu as they observe Raji’s progress. This not only provides a sort of narration for the adventure but also sheds more light on the personalities of the respective deities. They know more about what’s going on than Raji, and it’s interesting to hear their perspectives on both the overall story and Raji as you progress. Each level also has a series of beautiful murals you can examine to be treated to narration from Vishnu about various stories from Hindu mythology, such as the birth of Durga or the nature of Shakti. These sections provide a nice break from combat and are especially enjoyable if you’re interested in learning more about the lore and myths that inspired the game.

Meanwhile, major story scenes are shown in a 2D presentation styled to look like shadow puppets. While this is somewhat jarring at first in comparison to the gorgeous 3D environments and character models–especially since Raji has detailed reactions to events in the game world and a few key moments are shown in 3D–it does increase the sense that this is a myth itself, a new epic tale being told to an audience. While on some levels it’s a basic story of good versus evil, the presentation and style make the storytelling quite enjoyable… until the end.

I don’t know if they ran out of time or if it’s meant to be a sequel hook, but the story ends on an abrupt, unsatisfying note that soured what had been a great experience for the entirety of the five hours it took me to reach that point. Aside from the ending, however, Raji is a fun game that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to action-adventure fans.

The Final Word
Despite an unsatisfying conclusion, Raji: An Ancient Epic is a fun action-adventure game well worth looking into for anyone who wants an enjoyable story told alongside fast-paced combat or is interested in learning more about Hindu mythology.

-MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great