Raji: Kaliyuga by Nodding Head Games revealed at Xbox Partner Preview with dual heroes, Unreal Engine 5 and bold new third person gameplay

Raji: Kaliyuga has been officially unveiled at the Xbox Partner Preview on 20 November 2025, giving Nodding Heads Games a sizeable global stage for the sequel to Raji: An Ancient Epic, the award winning action adventure rooted in Indian mythology.

For many players, the first Raji was a landmark, not just because it was a visually striking game set in ancient India, but because it put an Indian studio squarely in the global spotlight. It has since reached around 2.5 million players worldwide, across consoles, PC and mobile, underscoring the appetite for stories pulled from South Asian culture rather than just borrowing from it.

Kaliyuga is not a simple expansion or epilogue. Nodding Heads is pitching it as a full scale evolution of the original, complete with a new camera perspective, a second playable hero and more ambitious world building.

Raji: Kaliyuga – a sequel six years in the making

Narratively, Raji: Kaliyuga picks up six years after the events of the first game. The original ended on a deliberate cliffhanger, with the implication that the story of Raji and her brother Darsh was only getting started.

The sequel broadens the conflict from a personal rescue mission into a cosmic war. The ancient asura warlord Mahabalasura tears open the doors of heaven, upsetting the balance between realms and plunging gods, asuras and mortals into an endless, multi layered conflict. Raji, now a seasoned warrior chosen by the gods, must travel with Darsh to the Eternal Summit, passing through multiple lokas in a journey that feels closer to an epic pilgrimage than a straight power fantasy.

Crucially, the stakes are framed as more than saving the world. The pair will eventually confront the possibility that preserving the universe might mean reshaping or even destroying parts of it to end the war, which gives Kaliyuga a sharper, more mature tone than the first game.

Dual protagonists and a story built on cosmic balance

The biggest narrative and mechanical shift is the move to two playable characters. Raji remains the central figure, still very much the determined warrior guided by faith, but Darsh finally steps out of the background as a fully controllable protagonist.

Raji: Kaliyuga brings agile melee combat to the forefront, wielding the divine Trishul and leaning into acrobatic martial arts that should feel familiar to fans of the original. Darsh, by contrast, is a dreamwalker, using Siddhis to manipulate gravity, time and energy. In design terms, the duo create an explicit yin and yang: Raji as action, conviction and physicality, Darsh as foresight, illusion and control.

Control switches between the siblings at key story beats, with the inactive character acting as an AI companion. That structure gives Nodding Heads a lot of room to play with pacing. Extended combat sequences with Raji can be followed by slower, more contemplative or puzzle heavy segments driven by Darsh’s abilities, which should help the game avoid the repetition that crept into the first title’s combat arenas.

There is also a layer of emotional housekeeping happening here. The fate of Darsh was left deliberately unresolved in Raji: An Ancient Epic. Being able to directly inhabit his journey offers a sense of closure for returning players, while grounding the sequel around the idea of reunion and shared growth rather than treating him as a simple quest objective.

From isometric spectacle to full third person action

If you remember Raji primarily for its fixed yet dynamic isometric camera, Raji: Kaliyuga will look like a complete reimagining at first glance. The sequel shifts to a fully third person action adventure format, with the camera pulled down behind the player and closer to the combat.

According to Nodding Heads, this was not about chasing trends so much as following where the new mechanics wanted to go. A third person camera makes more sense when you are juggling acrobatic melee, spatially expressive powers such as time and gravity manipulation, and more involved traversal and boss arenas. It should also make the world feel more intimate, an important factor when so much of the storytelling hinges on environmental details and the body language of its protagonists.

Making that jump is a non-trivial technical and design undertaking for a studio of Nodding Heads’ size, but the team is openly leaning on its own history as long time players of third person action games to guide the transition.

Painterly India, reimagined in Unreal Engine 5

One of the reasons Raji: An Ancient Epic stands out in memory is its art direction, which pulled from Pahari paintings and Rajasthani architecture to create a vivid, handcrafted aesthetic. That visual identity carries into Raji: Kaliyuga, but it is now backed by Unreal Engine 5, along with modern lighting, modular environments and more dynamic staging.

The studio is keen to stress that technology is in service of that original artistic soul rather than replacing it. Murals that once acted as static story panels are now described as “breathing” in the world, turning key bits of lore and memory into living tableaux woven into the environment instead of cutaways. That should dovetail nicely with the sequel’s aim of explaining backstory and character history through exploration rather than heavy exposition.

For Indian game development, there is something quietly significant about seeing an Unreal Engine 5 production, rooted firmly in local mythology and aesthetics, presented on a platform stage like Xbox Partner Preview. It signals both how far Nodding Heads has come from its Kickstarter struggle days, and how much more seriously global platforms are starting to treat Indian studios and stories.

A homecoming for veterans, an entry point for newcomers

Raji: Kaliyuga is being built as a self-contained story. New players are meant to understand the stakes quickly, with critical context delivered through environmental storytelling, memory murals and dialogue, rather than needing to have a save file from the earlier game.

That said, returning players will arguably get the most out of the sequel. They already know where Raji started, and they have lived through her fight to rescue Darsh. Seeing her now as a battle hardened warrior, and finally stepping into Darsh’s shoes, should add weight to the big decisions the duo are likely to face by the time they reach the Eternal Summit.

There is no release date yet, and it sounds like Nodding Heads is still deep in the process of building out the universe it always intended Raji to inhabit. For now, the Xbox Partner Preview reveal feels like an important statement: Raji was not a one-off, it was the opening chapter. Raji: Kaliyuga is the studio’s chance to show what that universe really looks like when it has the time, tools and experience to match its ambition.