RAJI: AN ANCIENT EPIC

Congrats for GOTY nomination in best debut indie game i hope raji wins.
भारतीय डेवलपर्स द्वारा बनाया गया पहला अच्छा वीडियो गेम |
Great game made by a small team the environment is so beautiful and the combat is also fluid.
The soundtrack and artwork are also so good.
There are some bugs but those are not game breaking and will get good in upcoming patches

Raji: An Ancient Epic is an aesthetically pleasing action-platformer that's very well worth playing.
Read the full review here:
+Pleasing art direction and aesthetics
+Unique setting and lore
+Likable characters
+Non-intrusive storytelling
+Fully voice acted
-Uninspired combat
-Short length (Around 4-5 hours)
-Abrupt, anti climactic ending
-Overuse of the same two puzzles over and over again
It's not without flaws and definitely won't blow your mind but the great art direction and unique setting definitely gives it a charming touch. Hopefully, a new beginning for video game development in India.

I've put about 3 hours into Raji so far, and for even this experience alone, the price of admission was more than worthwhile.
I don't write up many reviews, but I play countless games. There's been a state of ennui recently with no experience standing out from any other over the last few years. Even the inarguably biggest, best titles of the last few years have built upon tried and true formulas and story telling ethos.
I stumbled across Raji's demo during Steam's recent Festival, and by the second combat encounter I was hooked. By the end of the demo (and opening chapter) I was absolutely enamored and while eager, was resigned to another 9-12 month wait for the final product, much as my experience has been with discoveries such as Haven or Exo One. I can't express my utter joy to see this would be releasing only a few days later on 10/15.
Based on the Demo alone, I knew I was going to get this game one way or the other. My first two hours of the game have deepened my curiosity and with no idea of what is coming from the story (due to my purely American/Western culture), I am legitimately excited to play this again as soon as possible after the usual "adulting" required.
From the stunning art style of the cutscenes (giving me a similar sensation that I experience with Okami and it's representation of Japanese heritage), to the music, completely (literally) foreign story, and the refreshing acrobatic take on combat, even if the experience ended at the 5 hour mark, the quality, passion, and experience are more than worth the asking price. With that said, even a cursory reading into the iconography and imagery presented from the outset, not to mention to mention the upgrade menu that doesn't actually become available until an hour or so in, seems to indicate there is a weighty and varied experience awaiting me.
There is no reason to not try the demo. If that piques your interest to any extent, get this. Raji demonstrates the utter beauty and unique experiences that comes from a diversity of background and perspectives from our storytellers.
If I HAD to make a comparison, to me, Raji is the love child of newcomer Hades (gratefully minus the rogue-lite elements) and Okami in a pre-Sands of Time Prince of Persia suit.

हमारे भारतीय डेवेलपर्स ने यह गेम बहुत तराश के बनाया है। बहुत सुन्दर, मेहनत एवं लगन के साथ इस गेम को बनाया है। मुझे यह गेम खेलके बहुत आनंद आया। डेवेलपर्स ने दिल जीत लिया एवं किला फतह कर लिया। मैं आशा करता हु की यह गेम पूरे विश्व में जाना जाये एवं हमारे देश का नाम रोशन करे, धन्यवाद।
Our Indian developers have made this game very fine and beautiful with hardwork and dedication. I enjoyed playing this game very much. The developers won hearts and conquered the fort. I hope that this game is known all over the world and brightens the name of our country, thank you.

You can clearly feel that almost all of the platforming elements is inspired from Prince Of Persia and the final level gave Journey vibe. But the devs are open about taking the inspiration from those games. On a very objective level graphics are good and charming, combat is passable, enemy does have a good variety but the AI doesn't force you to be creative in dealing with them so you just hack and slash your way the same way for all the enemies. Boss fights still to some extent are creative and force you to change your tactics and timing but they are not quite challenging(may be they are not meant to be, as its not targeted towards just souls fandom). And I have played some games that uses same gameplay style of fixed camera with birds eye view such as castlevania(3d) games and their level design is far more detailed and complex as opposed to simple and linear levels of Raji and obviously the length of the game is short(5+ hours)
But on the other hand we need to take several factors into account, unlike Castlevania's Konami, Nodding Heads is not a billion dollar company either. They had a very limited budget and financial struggle of devs is well documented already. This combined with the fact that homegrown Indian games and industry is practically non-existent and so Nodding Head didnt really have a focal point or anything to iterate over in regards of how to do an Indian game. And on that regard I am quite pleased with how they dealt with it. As an Indian, I haven't quite played a game that depicted and explored the hindu lore and mythologies at this level(I guess Far Cry 4's Shangri-La sequence comes closest). The cut-scenes and narrations were done pretty decently and each location did have a different theme and variety to it. It might not be a ground breaking indie game but its not bad by any means. You can breeze through this relaxing game in a few hours. But what I am really hopeful about is that if enough people support it and they start building and iterating over this game with sequels and dlcs, soon we can have some pretty unique and exciting product to play that can match the top indie games of this genre, because they have built a pretty solid base game with their first release. After all CDPR, the most loved gaming company today didnt blow everyone away just with their first game, it did take them years of experience and several releases to become the best gaming company in the world.

The game is worth it....
This game is a beauty. Nothing bad could be said on my side. The movements and fight system feel good. The music, the ingame movies are great. You can see the makers of this game have put a lot of effort in it.
Finally a Indian Game which can make it at some level........

Keep it up Indians