It’s always nice to meet a tree, but so often with games it’s the same tree – or one of a small handful of favoured trees. Sometimes it’s the Great Deku Tree, slumbering in some Hyrulian wood. Always a pleasure, Deku Tree! Often it’s Yggdrasil, the great tree from Norse mythology. Yggdrasil, so wizened and melancholy. Don’t get me wrong. I love these trees. Who doesn’t love Yggdrasil? Who doesn’t love the Deku Tree. But in Raji: An Ancient Epic, I met a new tree. First time, I’m certain of it.
At least, I think it’s a tree. There are faces in it – they definitely look like faces – and there are sections to rotate and fit together. Its roots! Its roots, as they say, must hold the sky. Turn the sections, make the tree whole again. A lovely thing to toy with in between action and exploration.
Raji is one of those rare, special games that takes things and makes them new again. I’m not just talking about new trees, although that’s certainly a part of it. I’m talking about action and exploration. This is a game clearly made from a love of other games. The combat invokes everything from Devil May Cry to the strikes and retreats of a Supergiant joint, and the exploration is as gymnastic and intricate as anything in Tomb Raider. Familiar things, wonderful things, but Raji delivers them in a fresh way. This is the work of a small studio in India, and it’s a game built on Hindu and Balinese myths and artistic traditions. Vishnu and Durga’s roving conversation shapes the narrative, cut-scenes are handled by shadow puppets or replaced entirely by the discovery of huge, vivid murals within the game world itself. And that world! Temples and grottoes and fortresses carved into mountains. One of Raji’s developers recently explained that in part this game was an attempt to show people that there was more to India than the Taj Mahal. Mission accomplished.
