A recent dev diary has the all-powerful Todd Howard saying Starfield will channel older hardcore RPGs, among other teases for the sci-fi RPG.
While we still don’t have much gameplay or concrete details on the game, Howard teasing Starfield will channel older hardcore RPGs comes in the game’s latest dev diary, which concludes with Howard literally pondering the meaning of existence.
The team at Bethesda isn’t keen on sharing anything new, yet, but the discussion hints that they’re going way more in-depth with how deep players can get with creating their characters overall playstyles, as well as their backstory.
“It’s nice with Starfield to go back to some things we didn’t do – the backgrounds, the traits, defining your character, all of those stats,” Howard said.
He added, “There’s so many games now that do those things that people are ready for something that does a lot of the things that older hardcore RPGs, something we used to do, doing those again in a new way.”
Further discussions in the dev diary have other key staff on Starfield talking up playable factions in the game and how alliances or feuds can happen.
“In this one we’ve got the United Colonies, that represents the future space republic, idealized,” said Will Shen, Starfield lead quest designer. “You also have the Freestar Collective which is the space western fantasy, people that are out there on the frontier. We’ve got Ryujin Industries which represents corporate life, I think it has one of the best starts of any of the factions.”
“Yeah it’s a megacorp and you get hired right?” asks design director Emil Pagliarulo, to which Shen answered: “Yeah you apply for a job and we’ll see if you cut the mustard.”
The staff also talk up how you can join factions, or work on fighting them in some way.
“What we’re doing with the pirates, the Crimson Fleet as well, they’re not just this foe,” Howard said. “Let the player join them, what does that mean?”
“The cool thing about the Crimson Fleet is what if you’re a good person, you want to be a good player, and you don’t want to play as the bad guy,” Pagliarulo teased. “You can side with the pirates or you can report back to your superiors and be like basically a space cop type of thing, so let you be a good person but still play with the bad guys.”
The video ends with Howard literally questioning existence: “We’re asking the big questions. Why are we all here. Where is it leading? And what’s next for humanity?”
In case you missed it, you can find previous trailers for the wanderers here, the creative process behind the game here, the settled systems here and the first three world locations here.
As we covered in our previous report, Starfield will be exclusive to Windows PC and Xbox Series X|S, the first console exclusive game for Bethesda after the company was wholly acquired by Microsoft.
Starfield launches November 11, 2022 for Windows PC and Xbox Series X|S.
