K-Raj Saga: Gravikinetic Warrior

K-Raj Saga: Gravikinetic Warrior is an action RPG with platformer and shoot-em-up elements (and graphics inspired by Super Paper Mario), which came out for the Switch, PS4, PS5 and Xbox One.
This game stars characters from species existing in the Mario universe, but places them in an "edgier" setting with a unique space opera-based worldbuilding, crafting a story mostly independent from the Mario franchise. It takes a dark tone at times reminiscent of Zelda and Metroid, despite the presence of a Mario character in this game. 
K-Raj Saga is an in-universe video game existing in the Paper Mario universe, to the point that K-Raj becomes a partner in Paper Mario: The Prism of Dreams when Bowser from the Mario universe ends up being sent to the K-Raj world: K-Raj Saga's lore about the abomination Zen'Ei also connects to Rosalina's backstory from Mario Galaxy and the Shadow Queen from Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door. No mention of Mario is made, though. 
From K-Raj's story, Rosalina creates a video game that she shows to Mario in Paper Mario: The Prism of Dreams: the virtual K-Raj from that video game is the one that manifests in Mario's world as a party member, not the real K-Raj. 
Special credits to HumbledJoyeux-PrinceCast. 
== Worldbuilding ==
K-Raj Saga is set in space, in the universe around the Mushroom World.
The most important location is the Overmind System (also known as Watermind Galaxy in the Mushroom Kingdom), an empire of planets ruled by the Overmind of the Hassoghian Jam-O'-War race. 
The center of the Overmind System is Hass-Og, a giant blue planet split into three layers: a huge layer of gas on the outside, then a water-and-ice layer inside, and a core composed of water and ice. This planet is inhabited by Jam-O'-Wars who have formed a hi-tech society underwater and in space. Hass-Og's capital is called Dubez Pao and is where the futuristic Overmind Palace lies. 
An important planet is Nokonia, inhabited by Koopa Troopa. On Nokonia is Tanasi, a city that was "Zeroed" (to Zero means to entirely destroy a city and erase the incident from history) under the previous Overmind's orders. 
== Gameplay ==
The game covers a variety of genres. It's an action RPG with platformer and shoot-em-up elements, plus hacking into enemies turns their battles into turn-based RPG battles, and other genre shifts happen frequently. Its main inspiration are Super Paper Mario and the Mega Man X games. It's got both 2D and 3D levels: the hub world is 3D, as are most on-land sections (especially in cities) but piloting the Notte Azzurra is a 2D shooter, and cyberspaces are 2D sidescrolling missions. Occasionally, there are "All-Party Assaults" where the genre shifts to tactical RPG as you control all of the Notte Azzurra's crew. 
In on-land missions, K-Raj and the other playable characters ride mech suits for platforming: the player can equip those mechs with different weapons 
== Characters ==
=== Playable: ===
* K-Raj Nyx: The protagonist. K-Raj is a female Jam-O'-War and a Galaxian Knight in the Overmind System Guardian Force. She's the captain manning the ship Notte Azzurra. As the last descendant of the Nyx Family, she's a very powerful Gravikinetic, a Hassoghian Jam-O'-War born with the special ability to manipulate gravity to flip objects, drag them to herself, lift and toss objects, and even shield herself from bullets. Unlike Mario and most Nintendo protagonists, K-Raj does have choices of different courses of action in a few cutscenes, but is non-silent. When on land, she wears a helmet containing a bubble of water, through which she uses her gravity-manipulating abilities. K-Raj's power set is based on Mass Effect's Biotic class, being entirely based on gravity manipulation.
** Attacks
*** Gravity Bubble: K-Raj's main light attack. Allows her to attract an enemy to herself to hold in a bubble and throw against other enemies.
*** Gravity Shoot: K-Raj's main light attack when holding an enemy. She throws the bubble containing the enemy, allowing the enemy to be used as a living bullet against other enemies. 
*** Bubble Grenade: K-Raj's main heavy attack. She shoots a bubble of gravity that quickly blows up, allowing her to pierce enemy resistances. 
**Special Skills
*** Bubble Barrier: Allows K-Raj to shield herself with a barrier, giving her "Shield HP" that are consumed instead of normal HP when she takes damage. The amount of damage she's immune to increases when upgrading the skill. 
*** Warp Blast: K-Raj warps in melee range of an enemy onscreen and attacks the enemy with a powerful gravity blast.
*** Stasis Bubble: K-Raj puts an enemy into stasis with a compressing gravity field, preventing them from moving or attacking for a certain period of time, but also making them more resistant to physical attacks (but K-Raj's attacks are all magic-based).
*** Black Bubble: Sucks most enemies onscreen toward a single point 
*** Blackhole Banish: K-Raj's final skill: inflicts instant death by banishing an enemy into a black hole. On bosses, it inflicts standard damage. 
** Field Skills
*** Gravikinesis: allows her to lift, rotate and flip objects.
*** Moonjump: allows her to propel herself upward with a single gravity blast. 
* U-Vish: K-Raj's second-in-command, almost girlfriend, and another Gravikinetic, though much less powerful as she's not from an important clan. Despite her much less power, U-Vish is quite good with machines too, as such she's got mechanical chips on her tentacles to hack machines and heal her teammates. Her power set is based on the Sentinel class of Mass Effect.
** Attacks
*** Laser Needles 
*** Pulse Shield 
* Otto Ponte: A Lakitu from planet Bubon. Unlike many Lakitus, Otto does not use a cloud, instead he uses a spider-like mecha with eight legs (this is because "cloud" and "spider" are homophones in Japanese), from whose cockpit he shoots with his sniper rifle. Otto's mecha is equipped with a heavy gun. Otto is the Notte Azzurra's weapon expert and sniper.
=== Non-Playable ===
==== Allies ====
* Rosalina, the Keeper of Cosmos: A woman of a humanoid race known as the Seraphim who resides in the Comet Observatory, along with a black Luma called Polari and an apricot Luma. She knows about Zen'Ei and its Black Code. Rosalina's mother Isolde had left her a thousand years ago because she was the previous Keeper of Cosmos and had to fight Zen'Ei to seal it. Rosalina is welcomed as a guest by the Overmind, but takes a neutral stance in the galaxy's politics and wars (which causes her Comet Observatory to be attacked by Ptolemy ln the grounds that her neutral stance caused her to overlook a Zeroing). In the ending, K-Raj is asked by Rosalina to tell her story, wanting to spread it as a legend across the galaxy: she then tells K-Raj about a legendary hero in a red cap, and promises to tell said legendary hero her story in the form of a video game disk, as the credits roll.
* Lucio Domizio: A fellow OSGF Galaxian Knight, a Lakitu from Bubon. Lucio mans a ship to help K-Raj on planet Bubon to foil the attempt on the life of governor T-Gor Kolm at the hands of the Tonitrus Lakitu terrorists. 
==== Villains ====
* Zen'Ei, the Eternal Darkness: The Greater Scope Villain of this game. A lovecraftian abomination roaming the universe, which the Seraphim race fights to keep at bay. It controls people through its "Black Code": the Shadow Queen is actually Zen'Ei's Mother Code (technically the Zen'Ei's true soul), having infected Rosalina's mother Isolde as it infects all the Keeper of Cosmos. Due to the Shadow Queen having been defeated by Mario in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and then redeemed herself in Paper Mario: The Prism of Dreams, Zen'Ei is missing its Mother Code forever, and as such cannot fully manifest.
* Ptolemy Konrad: The game's main antagonist. Ptolemy Konrad "the Walking Arsenal" is a cyborg Koopatrol, the former highest Galaxian Knight serving the Overmind. Ptolemy went rogue after having been sent to Zero the city of Tanasi in order to cover up a failed experiment which caused Black Code from Zen'Ei to start infecting people in the city. Ptolemy's sense of guilt toward having been forced to genocide many innocents and leave many people homeless because of the Code caused him to turn Tanasi into his base and choose to absorb the Black Code inside himself.
* The Masked Child: The other main antagonist and final boss. A highly intelligent humanoid baby wearing a steel mask. She looks similar to a baby version of Rosalina but with darker skin, gold eyes with black scleras, and white hair. She's an artificial being with the blood of Rosalina that was created in the laboratory in Tanasi. Meant to bust the Black Codes, she controls light, can create it and can turn into it, like all Seraphim. She isn't brainwashed by the Black Code which has controlled Ptolemy, but has formed her personality around Ptolemy's desire for a Rosalina that condemns the Overmind, as such she wants the Overmind dead and sees Ptolemy as an adoptive father. The Masked Child always follows Ptolemy, often holding hands with him. After Ptolemy dies to protect her, she doesn't stop, but wants to carry on Ptolemy's war and finally decides to spread Black Codes as her childlike adoration toward her "father" makes her want to continue Ptolemy's agenda. 
* Dan Pisone "Tonitrus Magnus": Leader of the Tonitrus, a feared group of Lakitu terrorists. Dan believes no empire must rule over the Lakitu of planet Bubon, and abhors the customs of the Hassoghians such as the cult of the Ocean Gods. Dan is a well-meaning antagonist and has a lot of followers, called Tonitrus Milites or Pisonians, though his group does have black market and underworld connections. He's enlisted the help of Ptolemy Konrad and Shadayan Shy Guy mercenary company White Mask, to attempt to kill the imperial governor of Bubon, T-Gor Kolm. 
* Vulak Su: Leader of the White Mask, a Green Glove Shy Guy wielding a mechanical glove with a flamethrower and claws. He's in cahoots with Dan Pisone, being enlisted by him for an attack on governor T-Gor Kolm. Vulak is later hired by the Overmind to help against Ptolemy. 
== Trivia ==
* K-Raj Saga is not part of the Mario franchise (and is a much less children-oriented space opera story), but since it involves Mario races as protagonists (and is a spin-off of Mario involving Rosalina and a villain connected to the Shadow Queen), it's technically the first time a Mario character appears on a Playstation system. 
Category:Video Games
Category:Games
Category:K-Raj Saga
Category:Paper Mario: The Prism of Dreams
Category:Mario Spin-offs