Welcome to our review of Raji: An Ancient Epic, a beautiful game out now on Nintendo Switch!
Raji: An Ancient Epic is an action-adventure game set in ancient India. A young girl named Raji has been chosen by the gods to stand against the demonic invasion of the human realm.
The story of Raji: An Ancient Epic begins with the start of a new war between the demons and the gods. Seeking to avenge their defeat in the last great war from a thousand years ago, the demons have challenged the gods who humiliated them and have invaded the human realm, threatening them with extinction.
Thinking that their enemies had been utterly defeated in the last great war, a thousand years ago, the humans had fallen into a false sense of security, forgetting the ways of alchemy, while enjoying the peace. Unable to defend themselves, cities and fortresses fell, leaving the humans at the mercy of the demons.
Amidst the chaos, as cities and fortresses fell, and as young children were abducted from their homes, a young girl named Raji is chosen by the gods to be the sole defender of the human race.
Experience a story of siblings. Raji and Golu are sister and brother who have been separated by the attacking demonic hordes and now find themselves in the middle of the great war.
Raji has taken it upon herself o find her brother and put an end to this reckless war. However, this can only happen if she manages to break down the might and stratagem devised by the great lord of demons, Mahabalasura.
Aside from the unusual setting for a game, I honest to god can not remember an ancient Indian culture-inspired game that went so deep into the story and even played so darn well. It felt incredibly novel from the start and aside from the complicated names (for me at least) I have no real bad things to say about this game.
Raji is a game where you get to enjoy a lot of the culture on top of platforming, fighting, and even the occasional puzzle. Needless to say, there is a lot of content and well, I enjoyed the game more than the backstory, but that might be due to the desire to keep playing and to keep advancing in the game. The first half of the game is more or less your tutorial. From learning how to attack the demons to how to do basic running and prancing around the place. This may go from leaping down ledges to running up walls and more.
What is really unusual about this part is when you get to learn how to fight enemies, they are often easier to defeat than the part of the tutorial teaching you how to. I was more often than once or twice stuck in the process of figuring out exactly how that combo attack worked to take down all three targets on the battlefield but when fighting real enemies, things got easier.
What really got me enjoying Raji is the flow of things. It just played so fluently, I was never without a dull moment and despite taking a wrong turn now and then, it always paid off somehow. Either getting more powers or just more experience, all was fun to play. Things did not even get complicated when I added more mystical weapons to my arsenal. I just enjoyed myself figuring out what tool is the most effective against certain enemies.
In conclusion, Raji is a great game with tons of backgrounds/influences taken from ancient Indian culture. The fighting is really well designed and a ton of jaw-dropping designs will get you hooked before you know it. I have read in other reviews that it was one of the most special games they had played in a while and I wholeheartedly agree. Raji is one epic game!
