Valorant: Riot Games Releases Original Song ‘Raja’ to Celebrate Launch of Harbor; New Agent Inspired by Indian Legends and More

Harbor is Valorant’s newest and 21^st Agent. His name is Varun Batra and he is the first Indian Agent in the game. Riot Games has already revealed all there is to know about him through the official reveal and gameplay trailers.

Players can get their hands on the character on October 18, 2022, which is when Episode 5 Act 4 will also begin. Riot Games had to look everywhere in Indian stories past and present to be able to understand the culture and diversity of India for the Water-Based Controller.

Narrative writer Joel Killeen said the following about how they designed Harbor:

“The team works towards authentic representation from a bunch of simultaneous angles. We contracted with multiple external consultants from India to aggregate for us a ton of research on the country’s: regions, cities, languages, traditions, values, pastimes, food and drink, media, and on and on – for the internal team to immerse themselves in – and be inspired by – and incorporate into their work. Then the iterative feedback cycle would begin, passing our work-in-progress back and forth with them to ensure our interpretations hit the mark. Our writers worked hand in hand with Indian Rioters both in Riot’s MENA office and the Los Angeles office to help shape Harbor’s voice and demeanour and use of Hindi language.“

Speaking to Indian Express, John Goscicki, senior game producer at Riot Games, said, “We watched tons of movies from Bollywood and different film industries within India, read books, talked to a bunch of writers to try and get the inspiration behind the new agent.”

“When you load up the game, and you see the swath of characters, you see someone who can represent your culture and your lived experiences in some way. We wanted to expand that into India and the wealth of human experiences, culture, food, and entertainment,” the Valorant senior character producer added.

“A huge focus of ours has been to make sure we are remaining as sensitive as we can to our players, but also showing them in the light that they would ideally like to be portrayed,” said Alasdair Gray, head of marketing – APAC, Riot Games.

Original song ‘Raja’ out now

The song that was used in Raja’s trailers generated buzz online as many players wanted to know more about it. The track, called Raja, incorporates traditional Indian style into a rap song that features Hindi verses as well.

ARB4 produced the song as well as provided the music, with Johnny Altepeter and Riot Games Music serving as executive producers and supervisors. Tienas lent their vocals and lyrics for Raja. Mangal Subarnan provided additional vocals as well as played the bansuri, with Paulson KJ on the sitar.

Raja means king in Hindi, and the song makes references to the ancient king Porus, lotus (the national flower of India), and the Hindu god of the oceans, Varuna. Comments on the YouTube video show that many Indian players are happy with the representation and the song is well-received.