It’s that time again, where I dig into the ever-expanding, ever-changing Game Pass catalog and find something that I never would’ve thought twice about and toss it into the spotlight in hopes that others might see it and give it a little bit of that good gaming love.
Again, it’s worth noting that Game Pass is a rotating library of games, so a game that I highlight here may not be available at the time you’re viewing this.
Today we’re gonna take a look at Raji: An Ancient Epic, an independent title from developer Nodding Heads Games that has been out for a little while, but has until now, flown under my particular radar. It was released for PC and consoles in Fall of 2020, and subsequently got swallowed up in the launch hype of the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, as well as all the drama surrounding stuff like Cyberpunk 2077 and of course, that wonderfully shitty virus that’s had everything turned upside down and inside out for over a year now.
Raji: An Ancient Epic follows the story of the title character, Raji, as her circus caravan is attacked and her younger brother Golu is kidnapped by a band of demons led by the evil demon lord Mahabalasura. Raji sets out to rescue him, and her tale is told from the perspective of two Hindu dieties, Vishnu and Durga. These two gods narrate and comment on Raji’s journey and provide the majority of the context and story in which the game takes place.
The gameplay is very reminiscent of the old Prince of Persia games, namely the original and Sands of Time, when it comes to the platforming and combat, while the visuals – for obvious reasons- share some similarities as well. And visually the game is stunning. The camera is fixed and is pulled back, waaaay back, a design choice that, I’ll be honest, took a little while for me to get into. I generally have a hard time getting invested in games where the action is taking place so far away. The benefit of this, though, is that it allows for broad sweeping vistas and panoramic views of majestic temples and giant statues, and the sense of scale compared to the miniscule Raji is effective indeed. The camera pulls in close when it needs to, usually in battle or a character moment, but I’ll be honest, I can’t see myself playing it on a small screen like the Switch. Nor should it be; this game is gorgeous and deserves to be experienced on a big screen.
Nodding Heads Games, being a small developer based in Pune, India, went above and beyond the typical outing for an action game, including fantastic sets of murals that the player can examine, each one telling part of a story from Hindu mythology. It’s a culture that has always kind of fascinated me (although admittedly I know very little about it) and it was great to sit for a moment and listen to the stories they had to tell. It was an educational tool handled expertly by the development team, and the voice actors for Vishnu and Durga did a great job of keeping me interested in these tales. If this kind of stuff is not for you, they’re easily avoided, though I definitely recommend not passing them up, even if just for the easy achievements.
Not everything is sunshine and roses for Raji: An Ancient Epic though. As much as I enjoyed the game, it’s not perfect. There were a few gripes that had me more than a little frustrated during my time with it.
The first, and most noticeable thing, is the combat. It’s not the best. Over the course of her adventure, Raji gains access to a number of weapons that provide her with specific abilities and attributes. These weapons can be swapped on the fly, as there are enemies that one weapon will work better on than others. And that’s fine, but each weapon has a light and heavy attack, and the combat in general requires constant movement. This usually results in spamming the heavy attack button (in the case of the Xbox, the Y button) as Raji leaps and somersaults around the screen, avoiding projectiles that can (and will) kill her quickly should she get out of rhythm. She has a few other attack moves, such as a wall run and a twirl around a pillar that can stun enemies, and I used them occasionally, but mainly just to break up the monotony of the battle. The boss battle were decent but nothing particularly exciting or innovative, and overall were probably the weakest part of the game.
That said, the combat wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t great. The player will probably die a few times due to the array of projectiles flying around the arena at one point or another, but the checkpoints are pretty frequent and the penalty of death is never really that harsh.
My other two criticisms, and these could easily be considered nitpicks, are the signposting and the ending. The first of these nitpicks, the signposting (or lack thereof), was more of a minor nuisance than anything. The game is a linear experience, but every once in a while, Raji will be presented with a forking path. One path is always the right way to go, and the other patch will usually lead to a power-up or a weapon upgrade. My gamer OCD kicks in for things like this, and I always have to explore the other path. And it would annoy me to high heaven when I accidently chose the story path that would drop me down a ledge or initiate a cutscene, effectively cutting me off from going back to explore the other way.
There also sometimes isn’t a clear distinction between where you can go and where you can’t. I missed a lot of the weapon upgrades, but it was likely through no fault of my own, since I absolutely must explore every nook and cranny I possibly can. If I missed something, it’s because it didn’t look like I could go that way (or I took the aforementioned “correct” path and couldn’t go back.) I don’t have a problem with linearity in games. In fact, in this day and age, I appreciate a carefully crafted game world as opposed to a generic open world map. But I’d rather be presented with an optional challenge and rewarded for overcoming it as opposed to missing out on something just because it was vaguely defined. As I said, it’s a nitpick.
My last gripe was the ending. Without spoiling anything, the ending is abrupt. Like, I looked away for a moment and I missed it, kind of abrupt. I had to press the “record that” button and go back to see what happened in that last 30 seconds before the credits rolled. To say it was disappointing would be an understatement. But I get that this was a very small development team, and from what I learned when doing a little research into the game, was on a pretty tight budget. Actually, it’s a wonder the game was completed at all. So maybe it was a result of a limited budget. Maybe they had to cut content to see release. Whatever the reason, it still is a bit of a bummer.
Let’s hope that Game Pass can get Raji the time in the spotlight that she deserves, and I’ll be honest, this time of year was probably the best time for it. Not only has the fervor of the console releases died down, but we’re seeing a bit of that summer lull right now. With games like Death’s Door releasing, now is the time for indie games to get some much-needed attention. Perhaps this attention will get Nodding Head Games the additional funding needed to wrap this story up in a proper sequel.
We can only hope. In the meantime, don’t sleep on Raji: An Ancient Epic. It’s definitely a Goodie.
