Raji: Kaliyuga shows off its new third-person combat

Nodding Heads Games just released a new gameplay trailer for Raji: Kaliyuga to coincide with the game's wishlist launch on GOG. The sequel introduces the haunted realm of Vetala and shifts the series to a full third-person perspective.

The original game, Raji: An Ancient Epic, came out in 2020 and used a pulled-back isometric camera. It was a gorgeous game that stood out by pulling heavily from Hindu and Balinese mythology, a setting rarely explored in mainstream action games. But sometimes you want to actually see the giant mythological demons up close before they crush you. The sequel moves the camera down behind the character. It puts the action right in your face.

Two ways to fight

Vetala is a dark, shadowy location filled with glowing ruins and hostile creatures. Characters in the game describe it as a place containing everything the world tried to forget. Raji returns as the primary protagonist. She uses acrobatic martial arts and a lightning-charged spear to carve through groups of enemies. The combat looks fast and fluid. Raji chains together dodges, polearm strikes, and area-of-effect elemental attacks.

She is not fighting alone this time. Her younger brother Darsh is now a playable character. The first game centered entirely on Raji trying to rescue him. Now, he is a dreamwalker who uses magic-like abilities called Siddhis to manipulate gravity and time. Players switch between the two siblings depending on the story beats. This gives the combat system two distinct styles. You can swap from aggressive melee strikes to ranged magical crowd control as the situation demands.

Riddles and giant wolves

The story picks up six years after the first game. The asura warlord Mahabalasura has completely unsealed the heavens and plunged the realms into chaos. Mahabalasura appears early on as a massive, multi-armed silhouette looming behind a temple gate.

That sense of scale carries over to the environments. Raji climbs a giant stone face carved directly into a cliffside during one platforming segment. It looks like the kind of ancient, crumbling architecture that practically begs a video game protagonist to jump on it. The camera angle highlights the dizzying height of the cliff as she makes her way up.

Boss fights also look appropriately huge. One major encounter pits Raji against a massive, white-maned wolf creature that lunges across a circular arena. During the fight, characters named Yog and Yogita taunt the player with a riddle about reflections. "I give me brown and still water clear," they say. The boss mimics the player's movements during the dialogue. It is a nice atmospheric touch that makes the world feel like it is actively testing you, rather than just waiting to be hit with a spear.

Multiplatform launch

Nodding Heads Games originally announced the sequel late last year. GOG hosted this new video to promote their DRM-free storefront, but the game will be available in plenty of other places.

It is currently in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC via Steam, Epic, and GOG. Microsoft previously confirmed it will be a day-one Game Pass release. The developers have not set an official release date yet, though they have stated it is still a little ways off. You have plenty of time to catch up on the 2020 original if you missed it.