Riot teases new Valorant melee animations & VFX
Riot GamesA Riot Games dev has revealed that Valorant’s melee skins could be receiving an animation overhaul soon, following backlash from the ‘default’ VFX in the EGO and Smite bundles.
While new Agents and maps are among the most requested additions to Future Earth, new skins have proved incredibly popular too. Ranging from Select Edition all the way up to Exclusive Edition, weapon cosmetics come in all shapes and sizes — and prices, too!
While the Elderflame skin bundle (Ultra Edition) received backlash for its high price point of 9,900 Valorant Points, the latest additions of the EGO and Smite bundles have been under scrutiny for very different reasons.
At their core, both the EGO and Smite melees offer simple reskins of the default melee that is in-game, without any additional animation or video effect (VFX) available — and this has been grinding the gears of some of Valorant’s player base.
Riot GamesNew melee animations coming to Valorant?
After one Redditor expressed their hopes that the upcoming G.U.N skin bundle’s melee had its own unique VFX to better differentiate from the default, Riot surveyed the user on what they’d like to see added in the future.
As part of their thread of responses, a Riot dev explained why some bundles receive custom animations, whereas others don’t necessarily warrant it. “It’s a fine balance of how much of this we are able to modify versus completely restart. The more unique things we do, the longer they take, and the longer players may have to wait for it.”
The dev continued, “We’re definitely evaluating all of this though —just taking a look at where we put the majority of our efforts to see if there’s adjustments we can make.”
After a series of responses, the dev added that they’re “looking into ways” to make the inspect element of melee weapons more unique, since this offers the least potential impact on gameplay.
This comes as both the EGO by OneTap and upcoming G.U.N bundles have been categorized in the same ‘Premium Edition’ tier, yet the latter offers a complete reskin (and potentially an animation or VFX) of the melee.
Therefore, many fans are contesting that the bundle with the custom melee skin and potential VFX/animation offers more bang for your buck. But, it appears Riot have their ear firmly pressed to the ground and are willing to take the community’s feedback onboard nonetheless.