Game heroes don't have to just represent generic white guys anymore, but that doesn't mean you can just toss a token representative into a shallow game and expect to do well. Early returns on Raji: An Ancient Epic seems to get the point. As you can see by the trailer below, this is a game that is lovingly crafted around its hero, a young girl from India chosen by the gods to stand agains the demonic invasion. The game is seeped in Hindu and Bali imagery and mythology. While itactually started as a kickstarter and a dream from its India based studio, Nodding Head Games. unfortunately it didn't reach its funding goal, only making it halfway to the £120,000 target. Thankfully that was not the end of this tale, as Super.com picked up the publishing tab to push this one to release.
Raji has yet to release but has already won multiple awards in the indie scene including Best of MIX Live and Best Game of Show at Devplay. The game will eventually release on Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and while there was a demo of the game from 3 years ago, that one was just a brief, buggy 40 minutes worth of gameplay. This time around the Xbox Store has it and we should be much more ready for primetime with the release coming "later this year." You can get the demo here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/raji-an-ancient-epic-demo/9p55k8p0znv6
