Bethesda has confirmed that Starfield will have a silent protagonist. This comes as no surprise following the reception of Fallout 4 — in particular, the community’s criticisms of the voiced protagonists. Although there are still some who would prefer a main character with a voice in Bethesda games, many longtime Bethesda fans are happy with the change.

Mainline Bethesda games were known for their silent protagonists. This began with the release of Fallout 3 and carried over to The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. There was a sudden shift with Fallout 4, which featured an overhaul to the dialogue system as well as voiced lines for the player character. Suffice to say, the community wasn’t happy about it. Now, however, the return of the silent protagonist to Starfield means that Bethesda can double-down on the roleplaying aspects of the upcoming game.

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Fallout 4’s Voiced Protagonist

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Fallout 4 was a very different game from its predecessors, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. Aside from the graphical improvements and changes to the combat mechanics, Fallout 4 featured a completely new dialogue system. While the older games displayed entire dialogue lines in a window with a scroll bar, Fallout 4 took a more minimal approach. It offered a maximum of four dialogue options and often presented them to the player as simple choices — for example, “Yes,” “No,” or “Sarcastic.”

The most notable change to the dialogue mechanics was that Fallout 4 provided voices for both Nate and Nora. Plenty of players saw this as an issue as it took away from the game’s immersion. However, there’s also something to be said about the problems with the new dialogue system as a whole. In other words, it wasn’t just the voiced protagonist that took away from the gaming experience. Other design problems were hindrances as well.

Granted, these problems won’t magically go away with the integration of a silent protagonist in Starfield, but it does allow more room for player freedom and character building. However, if Starfield manages to fix the problems in Fallout 4’s dialogue system, then it would no doubt provide a more immersive roleplaying experience. For now, though, it’s best to stick to what’s already been confirmed — the silent main character.

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What Starfield Gains from a Silent Main Character

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A silent protagonist naturally allows for a more personal roleplaying experience as players can read out the lines with their own voice. Delivery is wholly up to the player’s imagination, thus letting them connect with their player more. This is all the more effective considering that Starfield will have an extensive character creation section.

Though Fallout 4 also had a pretty comprehensive character creation screen, the actual characterization was limited to a pair of middle-aged parents because of how the potential Sole Survivors were voiced. It also didn’t help that their backstories were already established at the beginning of the game. Nate was a war veteran, and Nora was a lawyer. This limited the player’s roleplaying possibilities, which is something Starfield should aim to remedy.

The integration of a silent protagonist also makes it easier to write the main character’s dialogue. Since there’s no need to record voice lines for the protagonist, the developer has a lot more freedom in writing RPG dialogue options. It’s much easier to add or remove dialogue lines from the game. In contrast, voiced protagonists would require the recording of new lines should new dialogue options be added at some point later in development.

Good Roleplaying Doesn’t End with a Silent Protagonist

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All that said, it seems Starfield’s unvoiced protagonist opens plenty of roleplaying possibilities for the players that were barred in Fallout 4. That’s not to say that voiced main characters are bad for roleplaying games. The case with Bethesda games is simply that its “blank slate” characters seem much better suited as voiceless protagonists. In contrast, franchises like The Witcher benefit from having a voiced main character since they already have an established personality.

Though it’s important to mention that the inclusion of a silent main character won’t automatically make Starfield a better roleplaying experience. It merely creates the potential for a good roleplaying experience reminiscent of older Bethesda titles. There are plenty of other requirements in making a good roleplaying game, and fixing Fallout 4’s dialogue system is one of them.

As stated, the dialogue overhaul in Fallout 4 detracted from the roleplaying experience. The more minimal system inevitably decreased roleplaying potential as it limited the number of speech options a player could choose. Worse, the simplistic dialogue options didn’t give players a good idea of what the main character was going to say. For instance, they could pick a simple “No,” and the Sole Survivor would reply with unwarranted hostility. This occurred one too many times in Fallout 4’s dialogue system.

To improve on this, perhaps Starfield should do away with the dialogue wheel-style system and provide the player with more speech options. The developer could even go back to the old interfaces found in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas as these worked well with the extensive dialogue options.

Aside from this, many players have also raised issues about the subpar writing in Fallout 4. In a roleplaying game, good writing is integral. The way the story branches out based on the player’s choices is part of what makes a roleplaying game so fun. However, Fallout 4’s dialogue options were often slightly different responses leading to the same conclusion, which is a waste given that the Fallout franchise was always highly regarded for its roleplaying elements.

For Starfield to be a good roleplaying game, it needs good writing, and a silent protagonist should serve to highlight those roleplaying elements. It will allow players to immerse themselves in Starfield’s story and the rest of its game world in a way that Fallout 4 struggled to deliver.

Starfield is scheduled to release in 2023 on PC and Xbox Series X/S.

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