Since its announcement back in 2018, Bethesda’s Starfield has been subject to a fair amount of hype and intrigue from fans, with many hoping it will be the next great RPG from the developers of Skyrim and Fallout 4.
While these expectations cooled slightly following the May reveal that the game’s release was being delayed until 2023, the in-depth look at the game which closed out this year’s Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase did help to reignite the fire somewhat, despite some of what was shown drawing mixed reactions.
However, a recent Q and A video from Bethesda, which sees Todd Howard discuss, among other things, the sheer amount of dialogue that’ll feature in Starfield, seemingly has some fans wondering whether the game is still going to arrive as forecasted in early 2023.
How do you currently feel about Starfield?
This is the subject of a recent thread on ResetEra, which began with user Biosnake posting a link to the video, which you can watch in full below, plus some screenshots of the footage from the game contained within it.
While it also sees Howard touch upon some of Starfield’s inspirations, which include the 1984 Apple 2 game Sundog and the 1977 pen-and-paper RPG Traveller, and discuss whether it’ll be hard sci-fi, the video climaxes with a look at some of the game’s conversation mechanics.
“We just passed 250k lines, and so that’s a lot of dialogue, but we’ve gone through it and the impact is really there, and that includes my favourite speech persuasion system.”, says Howard as a graphic demonstrates how the amount of dialogue in Starfield will dwarf both Fallout 4 and Skyrim, adding: “It feels like it’s part of the dialogue, but you’re spending points to persuade them.”
Howard also touches on the traits system the game will have, which, as spotted by PCGamesN’s Ken Allsop, looks to include a trait that’ll ensure you’re followed around the cosmos by an interstellar version of Oblivion’s infamous adoring fan.
However, the primary conversation the video seems to have sparked in the aforementioned ResetEra thread concerns when the game will release, with Biosnake having set up a poll asking players when they think the game will arrive.
Surprisingly, said poll is currently led by the option of Fall/Autumn 2023, which has amassed 144 out of the 470 total votes, giving it the edge over Spring 2023 (103 votes) and Summer 2023 (83 votes).
Despite trailing behind these choices, the poll’s other two options, Winter 2023 and 2024, also received a decent amount of votes (68 and 72 respectively), despite being further down the line.
These results could be seen as evidence that the trust between some players and Bethesda has been eroded in recent years, with comments like user Crax saying: “Todd can tell me all the lies he wants. I'm always down for it.” somewhat symbolising this potential disconnect.
Regardless of how this latest chat with Todd made you feel, make sure to follow us for more updates on Starfield and other Bethesda titles.