From Fallout 76 and all the way back to The Elder Scrolls: Arena, Bethesda’s games have long prided themselves in the freedom and variety they offered to players when it came to creating and customizing their characters. Even though some have expressed concern that the game would feature humans as the sole playable race, it was still assumed that Starfield would offer sizable customization options. Todd Howard’s confirmation, at least, can finally put some of the speculation to rest.
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In the Reddit AMA, Todd Howard expressed his excitement about the character creation system in Starfield, citing the possibility to choose one’s background, skills, but also their pronouns. Furthermore, he confirmed that the game, being voice acted, would support and properly reflect a player’s choice in any relevant dialogue they would come across through their playthrough.
While not directly mentioned in Todd Howard’s answer, one could make the healthy assumption that not unlike Cyberpunk 2077, the player’s choice of pronouns would be a separate choice from customizing their physical appearance, thus introducing a new level of inclusivity in Bethesda’s RPGs.
The public response towards this reveal has thus far been mostly positive, with fans being excited about the ability to better define their character’s identity, as well as speculating about the possibility of Bethesda forgoing the route of having a voiced protagonist in favor of returning to their roots by giving Starfield a silent player character. This may well end up being case, as Todd Howard himself voiced disappointment in the way Fallout 4 handled its dialogue system in the past.
One other thing that the players have also expressed excitement about was being offered the choice to pick their background and skills prior to starting the game, and thus kick off their journey in the stars better prepared to face the dangers that lie in wait, a contrast to the blank slate approach Bethesda previously employed with The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, where building one’s character was a spontaenous affair.
Starfield releases on November 11, 2022 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
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