RAJI: AN ANCIENT EPIC
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.
Game Discussion
Steam User 18
The lore and narration pulled me in right away, and I loved all the little details where you casually learn about Indian mythology while exploring. It feels respectful and proud of its roots, which is rare to see. Combat is fast and fun, and the skill trees give you enough variety to keep things interesting without overcomplicating it. On top of that, the world just looks gorgeous. Raji is a great mix of culture, storytelling, and solid gameplay. Played it on a handheld and had a blast playing it.
Steam User 9
Raji is a good game, but not the best. I really like that Indian developers are making PC games and not jumping straight into creating AAA titles. They started with a passionate project and did really well in many areas.
However, when it comes to controls and combat, things fall apart. I struggled with the controls the entire time. The i-frames were very inconsistent, and the combat felt clunky. The game launched in 2020, so the developers have had around 5 years to improve the controls and combat but they still haven’t. I think they are more focused on their new upcoming game, Raji: Kalyuga.
On the positive side, the story and narration are superb. I personally loved the Hindi voice acting and dialogue as an Indian, that part made me really happy and proud.
Overall, I would give this game a 6/10. It’s a combat-heavy game, and unfortunately the combat and controls are the weakest part. I truly hope they fix these issues in their next title.
Steam User 12
I wish there was a Raji sequel where she kills Mahabalasura and brings Bhoomi Devi back to life or at least avenges her. It's really good given the depiction of Hindu culture. My only complaint is that we needed more types of common enemies and at least 2 or 3 more bosses
Steam User 7
Great story, stunning graphics, and I’m really excited for Raji Part 2
Steam User 6
This is a must-play game. The Indian cultural elements and the portrayal of Hindu gods are done really well. The visuals look great, and even though the story is linear, it’s still strong. Raji’s journey to find her brother is handled beautifully. Hats off to the developers. We need more made-in-India games like this. I’m waiting for the sequel.
Steam User 6
I think the game is visually stunning, reasonably well animated, conceptually sound and with lots of charm and personality.
As a european with next to no knowledge of Hinduism, the game presents its lore and story very well, and I was actually surprised how they give you achievements for actually activating lore prompts.
HOWEVER.
The mechanics around gameplay are very poorly optimized.
It screams to me that this game did not have sufficient playtesting because it just throws everything at you without rhyme or reason and your main strategy in combat have to spam dodges, rolling attacks and not much else.
It's just that I (and most others) can barely tell when the enemies are about to do attacks, and when you have so many of them on screen with so little time to react, the game just becomes a spamfest of your best moves, which usually is using the bow's "wallrun attack" witch shoots 3 powerful AoEs mid air, and deletes most enemies in 2 full bursts.
(If you go check the steam trailer on the store page here you'll see that most of the time Raji is attacking only 1 or 2 enemies with combos, and with groups of more than 2 enemies the trailer shows Raji during mid-air attacks or invibility attacks. This is because during said group fights those types of attacks are the only ones you can be doing without getting shredded by enemies.)
And then the final boss... Oof...
Attacks comes out earlier than they should hit, WAY too many things on screen, and a weapon that you have never used before. It is absolutely an unfair boss fight with terrible optimization.
You will be spamming dodge and attack so much, that your fingers will ache from it.
Hell the worst part is that Durga and Vishnu will both tell you how "You will have to use everything you learned to defeat this threat." but actually no. Like I said, you have a completely different weapon and you are fighting in a completely different way.
Finally you have the platforming, which is fidgety and will lead to your demise because most of the time you can't tell if you are aiming correctly at the other side, but actually you aimed sideways, causing you to miss your jump.
Or not being able to properly measure distances.
Being unable to identify the correct areas to platform.
It's also just not very challenging.
It's sad really, you have a very well-polished environment and charming story, but the gameplay itself?
Even if it looks good on paper, iy just fails the players.
If this game was a person, it would be a Hindu ascetic: it's only skin and bones, with no meat on it.
5/10 - Buy it on sale, or play it on "Story mode" difficulty where you can just breeze through gameplay and check out the story.
Steam User 7
its a great game with an interesting storyline. I personally bought it because the part 2 is coming up. And yes I loved it. The story and visuals are good, Pacing is excellent aswell.