The Ramayana

An edutainment storygame by shivreddy

Player Rating4.01/8

"#495 overall, #21 for 2001"

Based on 154 ratings since 12/14/2004
Played 3,801 times (finished 215)

Story Difficulty4/8

"March in the swamp"

Play Length2/8

"So short yo' momma thought it was a recipe"

Maturity Level1/8

"Appropriate for all ages"

Stories with this maturity level will not, by design, have any potentially objectionable content. An example of a type story with this rating would be a quiz on mathematics.

Tags

Serious

Socially Important

This game is based on the famous Hindu epic - The Ramayana. Ram and Lakshman are in exile for fourteen years.

The Background:
Retiring King Dasaratha of Ayodhya chooses his son Rama as his heir. His second wife Kaikeyi asks that he appoint another son Bharata, instead. Kaikeyi pleads that he owes her two favors, and she feels misfortune will come upon her if he doesn't crown her own son, Bharata king and banish Rama to the forest for fourteen years. The king reluctantly agrees, so Rama goes with his beautiful wife, Sita, and his brother Lakshman, leaving their riches to live a simple life.

The Ramayana (The Journey of Rama) is perhaps the world's oldest literature. Cherished throughout India and Asia for millennia, it has been faithfully preserved and passed on in varied forms of popular expression—epic poems, folk tales, music, dance, drama, puppet shows, sculpture, painting, even films and comic books. Its story and characters have captured the hearts and minds of countless generations.

Despite its huge popularity in Eastern cultures, and even though it is recognized by many Western scholars as a literary masterpiece, most people in the West have never heard of Ramayana.

The story of Lord Rama is both a spellbinding adventure and a work of profound philosophy, offering answers to life's deepest questions. It tells of another time when gods and heroes walked among us, facing supernatural forces of evil and guided by powerful mystics and sages.

Revered throughout the ages for it's moral and spiritual wisdom, it is a beautiful and uplifting tale of romance and high adventure, recounting the odyssey of Rama, a great king of Ancient India. Rama, along with his beautiful wife, Sita, and faithful brother Lakshmana, is exiled to the forest for fourteen years, where Sita is kidnapped by the powerful demon Ravana. Along with his brother Lakshmana and a fantastic army of supernatural creatures, Rama embarks on a perilous quest to find his beloved Sita.

The Lord Himself says in Ramayana, "If one surrenders unto Me sincerely, saying, `My Lord, from this day I am fully surrendered unto You,' I always give him protection. That is My vow.” Since the ultimate benefit of hearing the Ramayana is increased faith in Lord Rama, everyone will want to read this important book.

For more information visit http://www.ramayana.com

The Game:
Ravana is out to take Sita away from Rama and he succeeds. Your job is to help Ram stop him and win back Sita.

Are you upto it?

A word of caution:
The Ramayana epic is revered in India and other Hindu Kingdoms. During the course of the game please do not attempt to denigrate any of the characters involved in this famous epic.

A word in Conclusion:
This is said of those who tell the story of Rama!

"They will be free of sins and will have many sons. Women who listen to the Ramayana will be blessed with children like Rama and his brothers. All those who listen please Rama. Such is the glory of this story. May all who recite it or listen to it regularly find increased love, wisdom, and strength..."

God Speed and Good luck on your mission!

Shiv Reddy

Player Comments

Not bad, and definitely educational--I was mostly unfamiliar with Indian legend--but not very engaging as a game, really. I see it as not a bad primer on the basics of a story, but at the same time it also seems to expect the reader to know the story. Although I did not find my lack of knowledge on the topic a handicap in completing it, it did mean that I wasn't always 100% sure what was going. All in all, not bad, but certainly not amazing.

— Trzcina on 12/23/2009 5:21:20 PM with a score of 0

Nice work! Very informative, descriptive, and colorful. I've read the actual Ramanyana and this was a faithful rendition.

— madglee on 9/3/2006 7:09:58 PM with a score of 0

I understand the story a little bit more now but I most likely will have to read the whole story and maybe learn some other things to truly appreciate it- a good learner and well made I'm glad this game exists. My grasp on understanding it (as far as the life lessons) has a lot to do with ignorance on the subject.

— chocobot on 6/14/2006 4:59:24 PM with a score of 0

it was fun

— Kshitij Rana on 2/22/2025 11:30:42 AM with a score of 0

I liked the game. I had fun. There are some spelling errors here or there. I would like to see more. I thought you did a good job with the branching, but each page was really short. Nevertheless, there were multiple paths to choose from, so I'm fine with the branching.One thing to note, in this story, there's a tendency to have a good choice and a bad one. If you choose the bad one the story tries to redirect you, and if that fails, just ends.

I thought it was clever how you switched from a formal tone in the background(using thou and very archaic language) to a more modern tone once we start the story. I also enjoyed how the narrator interacts with the reader, addressing us directly. The narrator's voice was engaging and interactive. At no point was it passive, if we made a good choice, the narrator rejoices with us, if we make a selfish choice, the narrator gets angry at us. That was a nice choice on your part.

I enjoyed your use of the technique in media res, since by doing so, you establish a clear scope for the story. You want to focus on the Ramayana from the point when Sita gets kidnapped to the point when Rama rescues her.

I feel like the background really dragged though, and there were probably more effective ways you could have communicated that information. I was getting tired of clicking and clicking until I finally got back to the first page, but the background is important for readers not familiar with the Ramayana to understand the story.

I definetly think this story could have been proofread a bit more and expanded upon. There was a lot more going on in this story, that you could have added. Also, given that the story is so short, characters that are 3-dimensional and very interesting end up getting really shallow treatments here. This story definetly needs more work, but it was fun and enjoyable to play through.

— RKrallonor on 11/18/2024 3:25:33 PM with a score of 0

It was fun but I found the myth to be confusing and hard to keep track of who was who to be honest with all the complicated names

— LorisLamarisDiamondEyeees on 5/5/2024 9:28:23 PM with a score of 0

That was pretty bad

— Goran on 11/30/2023 12:49:06 PM with a score of 0

For what it was this wasn't all that bad. Definitely could've been better but I have most definitely read worse.