Pune-based studio Nodding Heads Games just dropped the gameplay trailer for their new upcoming game Raji: Kaliyuga. This is the sequel to their previous title Raji: An Ancient Epic, set six years after the original game, following the story of the warrior Raji and her younger brother Darsh.
This time Nodding Heads Games went with a new visual change to the gameplay mechanics after multiple issues and complaints with the previous titles birds-eye POV for the game.
How Nodding Heads Games Aims to Fixes Platforming With Raji: Kaliyuga
With the previous game Raji: An Ancient Epic released back in 2020 from Nodding Heads Games, a lot of players felt that the fixed bird’s eye camera detached them from the action and severely obscured gameplay. Fans also felt that the game was unresponsive during combat as the camera angle made spatial awareness tough, making dodging and aiming feel clunky during fights.
Players also felt that not being able to manually control the camera to look around restricted them to appreciate the environment or even enemy designs. Another major issue adding onto that was of the perspective that made it difficult to judge distances resulting in players missing jumps across gaps and struggling to land on or grab specific ledges.
But with the upcoming Raji: Kaliyuga, Nodding Heads Games has decided to address these camera shortcomings by entirely abandoning the top-down POV, and adopting a more conventional, over the shoulder third-person perspective built on Unreal Engine 5.
Finally players would get to experience a full 360 degree look at the surrounding environment and more dynamic combat. Fans would now judge distance, height, and depth with ease, and making the game’s signature acrobatic wall runs and platforming more easier and fun to experience.
New Elements Showcased in Raji : Kalyuga’s Trailer
Apart from new abilities seen in the trailer, players will get to experience a more dynamic combat and gameplay experience by getting to play as both Raji and her younger brother Darsh (or Golu) from the previous title Raji: An Ancient Epic. For this, the game would swap between the characters time to time based on the narrative events in the game.
Players would get use a mix of both Raji’s martial art spear combat and combo chain attacks, and Darsh’s arcane style combat, using his magic/cosmic powers called Siddhis. Interestingly, this is a direct reference to the Hindu mythology Mahabharata, in which the ancient supernatural yogic powers are achieved through deep meditation. Players who have previously played God Of War (& Ragnarök) may find this style of character swapping style much more familiar to how it worked with Kratos and his son Atreus.
This time the game is set far from the previous earthly forts and green nature like in Raji: An Ancient Epic. Instead Raji: Kaliyuga would explore more into a celestial/astral plane with floating architecture like massive stone pillars, ruins, and floating islands. Interestingly, navigating around in these settings with the fluid parkour mechanics, can remind fans of the old Prince Of Persia or Uncharted series titles. The world setting is a mix of astral looks and elements of ancient Indian mythology with references to gods and goddesses from the same, and a touch of cosmic environment somewhat close to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s world and environment.
The game can be wishlisted and is set to release on Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, but no official release date has been announced for the game at the time of writing this article.
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