Raji: An Ancient Epic Review (Nintendo Switch)
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.
Pros:
- Decent graphics.
- 5.9gb download size.
- 3D adventure gameplay.
- Tutorial sections pop up as you play and show a ghost of yourself doing the action.
- Beautiful cutscenes/art.
- Stunning backdrops and locations.
- Combat-deep varied attacks including Wall jump attacks, area of effect swipes.
- On-screen button prompts.
- Puzzle elements sprinkled around the levels.
- Favor orbs-find/earn these to put into the skill tree to unlock new attacks.
- Health-do slow-mo execution-style kills to earn a percentage of your health back.
- Health is shown around the base of your enemies and yourself.
- Combat gets gated off and opens up afterward.
- Pick up new weapons and use the d-pad to hotswap between them.
- A beautiful story full of action.
- Boss and elite enemy encounters.
- Find hidden collectibles.
- Constant checkpoints.
- Fast respawn timer.
Cons:
- Really small text and especially in the favor of the Gods menu.
- Combat whilst deep does get very button mashy.
- On handheld mode, the graphics can look a bit washed out and undefined in places.
- Takes a while to get going. No camera control.
- The screen flashes black when taking damage.
- Simplistic traversal.
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Graphics - 7/107/10
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Sound - 7/107/10
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Accessibility - 8/108/10
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Length - 7/107/10
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Fun Factor - 8/108/10
Summary
Raj An Ancient Epic is a game that is one of those experiences where playing it is better than any video or written word could describe. It goes all-in on the Indian and Hindu culture along with Jaw-dropping vistas and wondrous locations. Traversing the land is a case of rolling, jumping, and sliding down banners around the place, combat is not an afterthought either, it is vast and Depp with so many ways to fight. You can easily pull off spectacular attacks like jumping off a wall and slamming the floor or equipping your bow and bouncing off the wall shooting a rain of arrows, all of course with dodge which is not only a Godsend but does allow you to string moves together. Combat is a case of getting locked into an area and for that, it breaks the immersion somewhat as it is always obvious when a combat scenario is about to start but also it’s generally a small area and doesn’t take in any of the scenery. Traversal is cool at first but over time it feels kinda bland. I enjoyed the way in which puzzles were implemented but the game needed either more of that or other scenarios as it got very predictable towards the end. Overall its a strong story adventure game with decent combat but it does play it quite safe and never pushes outside of the safety zone.
