An interesting look at Indian culture through the lens of an action game.
Console: Nintendo Switch |
While I wanted to start the Demo Watch series, a series all about the demo's that are floating around the Nintendo Eshop with a look at the Balan Wonderworld Demo I think the time for that has passed. Everybody knows the game blows. Everybody has been hammering on its flaws and it's pretty clear that the game is not worth a purchase. The demo isn’t even downloadable anymore so you can’t even play that anymore. Then I saw that a game that has been on my watchlist is currently 50% off due to a sale. Raji: an Ancient Epic. The perfect candidate to start this series out with.
So without further ado, let’s dive in!
One of the ways Raji tells you its story if through the use of these paintings incorporated in the world itself. A very neat way of going about it. |
The Demo of
Raji is one of those ‘it’s the first chapter types of deals’. The impression it
gave me is that the contents of the Demo is the tutorial section of the full
game. The upside to this is that you don’t feel lost. You’re introduced to the
story as well as the gameplay more organically this way and if you decide to
buy the game, you can continue where you left off. The entire demo is short,
not even an hour-long but gives you just enough to get a taste of the entire
experience. Which, from what I’ve played, is promising.
The story
seems pretty basic. It’s the player, like Raji, going up against a bunch of
Demons that have razed a festival and taken many people captive including your
little brother. With the help of two Indian gods and the weapon, they give you,
Raji sets of the free her brother. In terms of gameplay, the demo is pretty
interesting. The way Raji moves about the word is, essentially, parkour. You
jump from one large pillar to the next and run across walls to get across gaps.
That sort of thing. It’s fun and not something I personally experience before,
though a bit clunky. You almost have to be hugging a wall to start climbing on
it. Otherwise, you’ll do the standard roll that’s assigned to the B-button
which killed Raji on more than one occasion.
The combat
is also something I’m a bit iffy at. The basic principle is simple, you have
both light and heavy attacks as well as a ranged attack. The game gives you
plenty of options for cool combat moves by incorporating parkour into the
combat. It nonetheless feels shallow. I spend most of my time in combat doing a
combination of dodging and button-mashing, which worked out just fine. More
finesse wasn’t required. Not a bad combat system, but again, one that does feel
shallow.
A look at the game's perspective as well as the game's beautiful architecture. |
Verdict
Would I buy
this game based on this demo? Yes, yes I think I would. I do want to run
through the demo a second time to get a better feel for the controls but what I
played here is promising. I can see where some of the criticism that the full
game received came from, like the combat, but those don’t appear to be really
significant. It puts a lot of focus on Indian culture and if that sounds
interesting to you, I would definitely recommend you download the demo and
experience it for yourself.
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