It seems that Bethesda is determined for Starfield to succeed, especially in light of the studio's disappointments when it comes to recent releases. The developer is going hard on the marketing around the upcoming sci-fi epic – its first brand-new IP in two decades – and it's really starting to ramp up now that Starfield's release date is approaching. Design Director Emil Pagliarulo claimed in a recent interview that Starfield is "something really special" and that "players are going to lose their minds." With so much to live up to, and such lofty aspirations, Bethesda's latest has a lot to prove.
One of the ways that Bethesda is trying to set it apart and elevate Starfield's gameplay is through its character interactions. The studio is committed to creating a complex world where players have a major hand in crafting their own story, and this includes ensuring a level of authenticity and nuance in everything from the stratified nature of Starfield's society to the depth of conversations between characters. The development team has already spoken about using The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion's persuasion mini-game as inspiration for the way Starfield will handle its own dialogue, and this element could be foundational to the game's success in achieving its goals.
Characters, Companions, And Complex Interactions
In episode two of Bethesda's Into the Starfield series, members of the development team discussed everything from the game's story and factions to its companions. A few years after its announcement in 2018, details about Starfield were still fairly sparse and left fans eager for more information. Now that the game's launch date approaches, Bethesda has been much more open about what the world of Starfield will look like, including the many groups that players can align themselves with and even the customized ways they can start their own adventures.
Another key feature of the recent development video was a deeper dive into how companions would work in Starfield, although only one potential traveling partner was unveiled – a polite robot called VASCO. While Bethesda is no stranger to including companions in its previous games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, it seems it's determined to level up this feature in every possible way, from the way the companion characters look to the way they interact with the player. In addition to commenting on the player's actions and providing their own opinions depending on a given situation, companions will also offer more in-depth options for dialogue.
Starfield is aiming to be as authentic and involved as possible when it comes to in-game mechanics and its gameplay experience. By using Oblivion's persuasion mini-game as a basis for character interactions, the game is hoping to elevate them and make sure they're not just a simple feature that doesn't require thought or offer a way to truly personalize the protagonist through their words as well as their actions. By improving conversation mechanics, Starfield is aiming for a level of immersion that might not have been reached in Bethesda's previous titles.
How Oblivion's Influences Will Help
Having interesting dialogue or expansive lore to dive into through conversational storytelling would be one way to realize this, but the focus on creating something like Oblivion's own dialogue mechanics will be a key factor to its success. Many RPGs, like the BioWare franchises Mass Effect and Dragon Age, have many dialogue options to choose from to help add depth to the characterization of a protagonist. However, while they can be numerous, they are deceptively shallow. Mass Effect games tend to have a very obvious 'good' choice and a very apparent 'bad' one when it comes to choosing dialogue, and Dragon Age utilizes a series of symbols to categorically show players what tone they're taking with each choice.
Starfield hopes to emulate Oblivion's system, removing the obvious choice of 'right' and 'wrong' and including much more nuance to each answer, question, and comment. Players will have to navigate a delicate web of options, with each one having a profound impact on a conversation's outcome and potentially a character's opinion of the player. Oblivion's mini-game was a balance between different approaches, but when and how players chose each one was not a straightforward task. Starfield's improvements will add layers of ambiguity and moral gray areas, rather than definitive paths to follow like other RPGs. This could help the game explore more complex characterizations and enhance the depiction of the protagonist, allowing Starfield to reach that level of authenticity it aspires to.
Starfield releases on November 11, 2022, for PC and Xbox Series X|S.