Valorant's upcoming agent Harbor is inspired by bollywood movies, says Riot Games

Harbor is making his way to Valorant tomorrow, making him the first Indian character to arrive to the live-service FPS game. Hailing from India, Harbor is a pure water-bender in his own right and has the Indian Valorant community excited for all the right reasons. We’ve already seen a glimpse of his backstory and what led him to join the Valorant protocol. India Today Gaming spoke with those at Riot Games, to understand more about what inspired the creation of an Indian Valorant agent. 

Harbor's creation was inspired by Bollywood movies

As per Harbor’s lore, he had stumbled upon powers to control and bend water. Harbor got hold of a relic that bestowed upon him the ability to manipulate water. Since Harbor is from India, we talked to Riot Games about how they went about creating an agent from India, where Valorant is a hugely popular PC game. 

Ashish Gupta, Marketing Lead India & South Asia, Riot Games, told India Today Gaming, “Agent Harbor is not based on any one [sic] person. He was created as a hero that depicts the beauty of Indian culture and entertainment. By paying close attention to the lived experiences of our players in India, we hoped to create an agent that is nuanced and unique.”

He added, “For Harbor, we were looking for a personality and a character that's warmer, more positive and confident and ready to get into a fight.”

Harbor was also inspired by Bollywood movies among other forms of inspiration that developers of Valorant looked for.

“To build the character, we watched tons of movies from Bollywood and different film industries within India, read books, talked to a bunch of Rioters to try and get the inspiration behind the new agent”, revealed Ashish Gupta to India Today Gaming.

Harbor gameplay reveal

Harbor will be released on Valorant on October 18th. Check out the fresh gameplay reveal from India Today Gaming below which features Harbor and his abilities. The gameplay showcases Harbor's abilities and how they can be utilized to dominate in Valorant. 

Harbor represents the heritage of Indian entertainment and culture 

When we see the representation of India in games or other forms of media, there can sometimes be the creation of a stock character that gets labelled as a character from a particular region or community without having a personality, and background that compliments them. Apparently, that’s not been the case with Harbor who has proper lore and inspiration to back his entry into Valorant’s roster. 

Ashish Gupta also said that Riot Games feels they’ve “created an agent that players not just in India but across the world will love. Yes, it brings about the heritage and beauty of Indian entertainment and culture, but it’s been created for [sic] a bad-ass character that will appeal to all players.”

Valorant Ep 5 Act 3 battlepass inspired by Harbor

Riot Games has also revealed the inspiration behind the upcoming battle pass for Ep 5 Act 3 and how it compliments the arrival of Harbor. “For this Battlepass, we were inspired by the adventurous nature of our newest Agent, Harbor,” said Laura Baltzer, Producer at Riot Games.

She also told India Today Gaming that the battle pass items were created so as to give “a feeling of mystery and beauty.” Baltzer gave the example of the Iridian Thorn skinline which was created to feel “like a fusion between ancient technology and the natural mystery of a rare flower.”