Valorant devs open about difficulties caused when making the new Forsaken skin line

With the announcement of the Forsaken skin line with Valorant’s Episode 2 Act 3, Riot Games opened up about a lot of the difficulties they faced in bringing the cosmetic design to fruition.

The Forsaken cosmetic set parallels the Sovereign one in the sense that Future Earth is trying to adopt duality in the forms of light and dark.

While the Sovereign stands for all that is good, Forsaken’s are the fallen Sovereigns, those who have been corrupted but still possess their former elegance even in the new form.

Sovereign to Forsaken transformation (Image via Riot Games)

When talking about some of the thematic principles that went behind the making of the new line, Valorant’s Art Lead Sean Marino remarked:

“We really loved Sovereign as a thematic and had built some loose ‘skin lore’ around the theme when designing that original skin. We imagined a world where a bird-like race ruled a kingdom in the clouds, with the royal family’s guard using the Sovereign guns (instead of swords) to protect them.”

“Corruption” has been the primary theme behind the design of Valorant’s Forsaken skin line. When elaborating on the different inspirational aspects, Sean continued:

“We asked ourselves what would happen if one of those guards broke his oath, became corrupted, and was then banished. With that story in our minds, we approached Forsaken to be the dark side of Sovereign, which meant it was still beautiful and delicate like Sovereign, but dark, edgy, and ultimately tragic.”

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Problems Valorant devs faced while designing Valorant’s Forsaken skin line

Valorant devs are always at the top of their game when it comes to cosmetic designing (Image via Riot Games)

Valorant’s cosmetic team goes “plus ultra” when it comes to designing newer and out-of-the-box cosmetic weapon sets for the game.

So when trying to represent the theme of “transformation” and “corruption” in Forsaken, there were more than a few hurdles that the developers faced.

When talking about the issues that cropped up when creating Forsake, Preeti Khanolkar, Valorant’s premium content senior producer, said:

“Forsaken is the mirror image of Sovereign in many ways, so the weapons we chose for the line are as close as we could get to ‘inverses,’ or more aggressive, versions of the Sovereign guns. The thought here was that as a Sovereign soldier transforms into a Forsaken, his weapon would follow his fate, warping its holy light into darkness and becoming a new weapon.”

Sovereigns and Forsakens still share a lot in common (Image via Riot Games)

When talking about the troubles faced in representing the dualities in Valorant’s Sovereign and Forsaken lines, Preeti continued:

“So while the Marshal becomes the Operator, it still retains many similarities to the original weapon, like the swirling gem effects, the magical lines (which are now cracked), and, for audio uses the same instruments in a Minor key to conveying a sorrowful version of Sovereign. We wanted the connection between the two skin lines to be so familiar that the items in the accessory bundle are likewise mirrored images of one another. In the cards specifically, the Sovereign soldier kneels in fealty, and the corrupted Forsaken one rises to fight.”